Wow.....hmmm......I think we have a few people on this forum that definately have no idea of what self defense is. I have been working in this field for the last 8 years and have trained for twenty one. Hey buidler....why don't you go to work everyday and take a pay cut so you can just fill your belly. Do you know how much I charge? Do you know that I travel everyday to teach kids in daycares that have no concept of safety and some no concept of family. Your an idiot. With that said I have a ton of certificates, in a bunch of different martial arts not to mention belts and such. I am also a certified instructor. Now, when you go into a fight or flight situation you have options. Respond to stimulus with training or with out. Most people that train in Martial Arts will freeze. Why? Well most take the attack as an emotional assualt. (they try and over analyze and are the last to realize a fight is about to happen). They are right, (they are attacked emotionally first) but at the second an attack happens you need to know legally, morally, ethically, what you can and can't do. We start with descalation, threat assesment, enivromental and mulitple attacker concerns. We scan and evaluate. We listen, are they a hunter or howler and look for escape routes. We begin witness preparation, I don't want to fight, your right I am an asshole, etc.....whatever it takes to walk. We look for precontact cues....shifitng, reaching, positioning, mono syllabic language, options of enviorment and clothing and begin ghosting. If and when it goes physical we use simple tools. Elbows, headbutts, knees, eye gouge, spitting, bitting, palm heels, eye rakes, throat strikes. We also use improvised weapons, footwork, tactics and strategies of what the area offers, OC Spray, knives and we teach gun training. Along with that we also have in our tool box ground fighting (not wrestling or silly submission work, and before you say anything I am a silver medalist winner in the Junior Olympics for Judo and have trained in Carlson Gracie BJJ). We keep it simple. Why because adrenaline rules out fine motor skills like the ones from karate and hapkido, BJJ and such. You are left with gross motor skills. Look at what I use...hmmm gross motor skills. I am just like Shaq. I use my tools in a realistic enviroment. I train on concrete, in snow in rain or whatever the world offers, stairs, in my car and god you name it. The difference is boys I do it for real. I train full contact with out consent. Which means they go as hard as they can until I can escape. I do this to get better at protecting myself and my family. I am not sure how many rounds it takes to be good at somebody pushing you and wanting to fight as you hold your childs hand as you both are trying to go back to your car. So next time you judge someone put your ass out their and test what you know. You will find that some of what you know looks and like shit and doesn't work. You will resort to what I do. Don't believe me. Put on head gear and lay on concrete and have your friend hold you down between cars as you try and get up. As he is pounding you have another friend enter in 10 seconds and now it is a multipel attacker situation. Hmmm what martial art are you gonna use. Your not. Your gonna fight and no matter how ugly it is if you value your life you will do what it takes to live. I just wonder how much that is worth to you......You guys are the typical drones that have no room to talk as you work on your next belt and jump from school to school not getting good at anything. Or my instructor can beat up your instructor crap. You read Black Belt Magazine and Grappling Magazine and believe everything. You know what I will never die at the hands of some one in a street fight due to not training for real. My children will never have to watch me die because I was ignorant and beileived grandmaster so and so.
Grow up.......I judged you the way you judged me. And what the hell does sparring have to do with realism? It is a codified match with time limits with consent? It has nothing to do with a fight, It does have to with a match. If doesn't bite them next time and then blast them in the groin. If you don't train it in the ring I gurantee you won't do it in the street. So........judge me again.........I don't care. My students from ages 5 on up know the truth. My students that didn't do fancy disarms against compliant attackers and lived in life or death situation would have something to say to you. Do it for real or take up another sport. You are wasting brain cells if you think of most martial arts in any other terms besides a good workout.
Apparently you missed the first lesson in any martial arts....Respect.
Brent Tibbetts
Chief of Instruction
Reality Marital Arts
www.realitymartialarts.com