I was watching “Penn & Teller’s Bullsh*t” series about martial arts and was a little put off, and now I’m going to provide my thoughts about it. I think these guys are funny and clever, but it seems they get carried away or make a poor point sometimes. The stuff they displayed in the episode was silly and made it seem as martial artists are goofy, living in a fantasy world, or are thoughtless, aggressive maniacs. Hurting someone is serious business, but facing it and dealing with it to stop an attacker is something anyone should consider and face. Few things are more important than preservation of your life and those you care about. It doesn’t mean super powers or that you’re some unbeatable bad ass, it’s just about increasing your odds by experience and consideration, so you don’t panic and allow yourself to become a victim.

I’m not in it for discipline, honor, respect, or any self esteem building reasons. These are aspects you either have due to how you were raised or you figure it out as a young adult (possibly later). I know some people think it’s a waste of time, and I’d agree that it’s best not to be in a situation, at a certain place or be around the elements/people/environments that increase your odds of dealing with physical violence, but I do enjoy it and I honestly consider the real life application, as well as the consequences of my actions. I don’t mean personal confidence, other than in your application and experience. The rest is silly to me, and I agree there’s a money making element to most schools with requirements for fees for belt testing, ranking and how to dress (buying uniforms, not being able to wear certain colors, etc.) However, there are real people that can help you improve your odds, not to mention discussion about dealing with the situation, avoiding those situations and putting real consideration into it.

The fact is, good people don’t want to be in bad situations where you risk bodily harm to yourself or the others (including the attacker). By gaining experience with realistic systems, you allow yourself to remain more calm and relaxed in high stress situations and reduce battle fog that can help to increase your odds, once again. You can think more clearly when defending yourself more intelligently, and you also reduce the legal and moral consequences if you were to otherwise panic and go too far while defending yourself. It’s all about training, and anything is better than nothing, even if just to get used to fighting and help remove that intimidation factor and better deal with the adrenaline. Remove all the mystical nonsense and don’t just look at it as brute force and find what works for you. Don’t regret ignoring it and thinking it’ll never happen to you, even if it probably won’t. You don’t have to spend years getting injured in training to avoid one altercation that you could probably have avoided anyway. It’s just common sense stuff.

Based on what they said, some prime examples being: If you’re being held up/mugged, to just hand over your wallet. That is good advice, but perhaps it doesn’t end there? Perhaps that is not their intent? Maybe they’re angry or desperate? Assuming the person or people will ask or allow you time to comply is maybe not so realistic. After all, they don’t want to risk being caught or having you fight back and cause them harm or even detainment. There’s a good chance you may find someone rush up and tackle you, stick a sharp object into your body or hit you over the head from behind, because that’s a more effective way to avoid being identified, apprehended or having you cause them harm. They are in it for a variety of reasons and they have self preservation in mind, too. Some crime is violent if that’s the attacker’s intent and you may not be able to give them what they want. Wouldn’t this be the appropriate time to have some options? It’s a last resort scenario anyway, so why not have it? The benefits of being healthy and active and it may be something you enjoy. The other benefit is just “that much more” you can do if someone’s intent on harming you, or even on putting your child in a car. You have no time to call the police or wait for help, if anyone else is willing to help.

Serious matters that are possible dictate and behoove us to take responsibility for ourselves and our loved ones, even if it’s not a likely scenario to happen to you if you’re considerate about many things, what type of parent you are, who you associate with and so on. Moreover, it may even be someone you don’t know, if you witness a child or elderly person being attacked or otherwise victimized, so you have more options and power to do something to stop it, instead of yelling and hoping for help. Of course, like anything, tools are useful to increase your odds as well. Stun guns, pepper spray, bladed and impact weapons, and firearms, and they shouldn’t be ignored. Not to even say that you should make use of any or carry them around, but if you’re on the other end of that scenario, to once again increase your odds of reducing injury to yourself. False confidence comes with the above list of weapons, just like it does for people that feel they are strong or big enough to handle situations, or people with training that are foolish about it. Over self confidence is common with some people by the simple fact that they lift weights and have large muscles. That is often their strategy of protecting themselves, which is ridiculous, because a simple screw driver (tens of billions in the world) or a razor sharp blade in the hands of their attacker completely voids their entire strategy.

An example of false sense of security can greatly vary. I’ve seen women claim they carry pepper spray, a hand gun or a taser and while these are great tools, most of them have these items buried deep in their purse and they’d never get it out into a useful manner in time, and then you’ve possibly given your attacker that tool to use against yourself and others. Assuming you don’t shoot yourself or pepper spray yourself in the panic, you likely still won’t be as successful as you’d maybe think. If you’re far away enough to have a great chance of success, you can probably just get away. Of course, this all comes with training to use the tools you have, which is important to consider. For example, guns are a great tool, but getting to it and getting a clean shot isn’t so easy when someone’s on you too fast. Studies show that trained people (police, S.W.A.T., security guards, armed forces, etc.) can have someone run at them from 20 to 30 feet away and by the time they get the gun out of their holster, off safety and fire a clean shot to center body mass, that maybe 1 in 50 can do it and they can’t typically repeat it before the attacker closes the distance. Again, resolving that problem comes with training, but it goes to show that a cavalier attitude about the confidence it can provide, is often enough proven to be ineffective. This isn’t to say you shouldn’t have the option of defending yourself with these tools or believe they don’t work well, but it’s an important aspect to consider.

Again, it’s all about increasing your odds (be it with consideration, environmental awareness, and knowing your options and having experience with handling situations in high stress times, or a number of other aspects), so just being active and training in anything is better than nothing; though I don’t recommend money driven schools that want to charge you for belt tests, make you wait between tests for a set number of weeks, months or years, or really any place that measures your preparedness in any way that involved money or ego-driven accomplishments that won’t matter on the street if something were to ever go down. Also, remember that some systems are more realistic than others, and what’s better can sometimes depend on the person, but some work better for anyone by default.

A lot of people that train for years and are high ranking are unable to get over the fear to apply it, and a lot of silly pre-thought-out routines will fail. Also, running is great, but only if you can outrun the attacker, and most people aren’t in good shape (or as in shape as the criminals: Sorry, but it’s true), and then they are caught by the time they’re winded, and it’s less likely they can defend themselves as much as they maybe could have if they had training and experience to appropriately deal with the situation. That doesn’t mean physical defense even, but the confidence in knowing and experience that allows you to defuse the situation and maybe preventing others from becoming victims if you were to run–not to mention if you’re with your children or on a date and you don’t have the option of running when it’s not just your well being at stake.

These are just a few of many aspects to consider, it doesn’t mean you ever have to worry about finding yourself in a serious situation, but sometimes it’s not your choice and, sometimes, it’s about you having enough skills and experience to prevent a situation from escalating, and being able to discern the actual threat level isn’t so high due to what you can do in simple terms to better control the situation, including to the benefit of a would d-be attacker. It’s not all so serious, it’s just conflict resolution and providing yourself with an advantage should you ever need that edge, which comes with experience and increases your odds as a byproduct.