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(I jumped down to write this before reading all the replies - I don't know how I missed this topic so loong but it is very meaningful to me.)For me to train for what will probably happen to me I need to spend a good deal of time training on a couch, in a bed, or in my own house since that's where I'm most likely to be attacked. And I should spend that time preparing to fight like hell against people I know, love, and have prior relationships with since they are the ones most likely to hurt me.
Some ten years ago I decided exactly the same for myself. As this was about the same time that I started to teach for myself, my wife and I decided not to call an of our classes "self defense" - classical Shorin-ji karate was no more useful to self defense than field hockey.
But, being the kind of guy I a, I started a lengthy research on thetopic that followed the following route, more or less:
Marc Animal MacYoung
Peyton Quinn
Don Pentecost
Styers, Cassidy and Sanchez, (military rather than MA knife work)
Fairbairn, Applegate and Sykes (FAS) and their type of close quarter combat (cqc) sometimes colled WWII hand to hand (h2h)
h2h has stripped down the 'art' to a dirty dozen techniues and has brought into focus the fighting mind set rather than the sparring (dojo) mind set. After joining a h2h club and getting some immersion in its attitudes, I felt ready to offer a realistic women's self defense course for fighting off male strangers.
The most interest thing was that I found every thing that is in cqc in my Shorin-ji except the fighting attitude and the aggressive training needed for self defense. The lack is not in the classical techniques but in what and how it is taught...IF strict self defense is what you want. Classical karate is just too complicated and unwieldly and too 'nice' for self defense.
To further my research for my students and myself, I took two of my students down to Colorado and had them take the BulletMan training and work thru the FAST methodology with Bill Kipp, a move following Peyton Quinn again. As you have found for yourself, this adds a new dimension to self defense that is unattainable in an ordinary ma class. We use a lot of scenario based sd training even in classical class, now.
BUT last week I was asked to develope some date rape scenarios for the girls.
Arghh! The problems of dealing with the dilema in your quote are found in us as people, not with the system you train.
How do I set up a date scene that goes wrong without things getting 'too close'? We all know that lists of Do's and Dont's go out the window when the emotions rise. Realistic practice allows for more predictable success in the face reality but 'realistic' in this case discomforts me...should it be a ladies only night?
I guess I'm looking for scenarios and a way of presenting the bad guy so as to get the most reaction without actually crossing into physical assault stuff ourself - wow, the stranger woof is so much easier!!
Since you are also wrestling with these ideas, I hoped maybe you had found a direction here...?
Ted
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The Fighting Old Man