Why Mma Is Not Street Self Defense! Part 1 By Richard Clear At Isnare.com Ezine Articles

The rise in popularity of MMA and Jiu-Jitsu has increased public awareness of martial arts and created a current wave of martial arts enthusiasts. However, an unfortunate side effect of this popular martial arts movement is that the average person sees tournaments such as the UFC and thinks that self defense works like the fights that occur in the ring or octagon. Nothing could be further from the truth.

By street self defense I am not referring to a school yard fist fight whereby the loser gets a black eye and the winner gets to be the school champion or bully for a few days. By real street self defense I am referring to situations where there is no ring, no referees, no friends around to help you and to stop the situation before it gets to far out of control and no one to stop the attacker from beating you to death after you have been knocked down half unconscious. In fact in real street self defense the attacker may be armed with a knife or gun and the friends who are around may be his accomplices who are helping him to beat you to death. Also, in real street situations attacks happen without warning or provocation. Just being in the wrong place at the wrong time and having something that a criminal wants is enough to draw a vicious and unrelenting attack from someone who is experienced and who is larger, stronger, younger, faster, better armed and more ready for a conflict at this moment than you. As a teacher I always imagine one of my students who is female about 5’2 and weighs about 105 pounds and is over 45 years old (but looks 10 years younger than she is) being attacked by a 19 -23 year old, 250 lb male who is muscle bound and freshly out of prison with rape and killing on his mind. His legs are nearly as big as her whole body. Is she going to out box him? When he begins attacking her is she going to be able to grapple with him in a realistic way that will allow her any advantage before he pounds her into submission? If he has a weapon or friends will boxing, MMA or Jiu-jitsu give her any skills that will really help her deal with this attack? The sports mentality is one of “Get in there and fight!”. Does this sound like her smartest strategy in this situation? A ring/cage/octagon fighter may train some awareness skills but not the kind that is designed to help you recognize potential attackers in real life because in the ring it is very obvious who you are fighting, where they are before the fight begins and that they are there to fight you. The nice benefit for you in a ring fight is that at almost anytime you want you can simply yell, “I quit” and leave and the fight is over. Obviously this is quite different from a real street attack.
Please see our article “Attacks Vs Fist Fights and Posturing.”

To Be continued in “Why MMA is NOT Street Self Defense! Part 2”

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