Can sparring actually do more harm to your self defence capabilities than good?

Essex based Self Defence coach Kyle Hargreaves argues that some traditional techniques and sparring can actually make trained martial artists more vulnerable in a violent street attack.

A friend of mine forwarded this video to me today of two guys beating the living snot out of each other in the middle of an ice hockey match, and man do they really tear in to each other!

Anyway, it’s really got me thinking about just how effective most combat systems are (or aren’t) when it comes to a real, no holds barred; smash the hell out of each other kind of fight. If you watch the video, both guys take some pretty severe punishment (I counted the guy in the red jersey taking at least 34 shots in the head!), which brings up two important questions:

1. Just how effective are your striking techniques, especially with a size and strength disadvantage

2. How effective is your defence against an attacker serious about pounding your head in?

Now everyone that knows me will also know that I have a background in traditional arts as well as self defence and combative arts. I love the training, but I understand and accept that in reality traditional training can mean squat.

So then, what if you are a woman being attacked by a much larger, stronger man? Are the head strikes that you have been taught really going to be that effective against an adrenalin fuelled aggressor?

Even if you have been trained in martial arts you can still find yourself at a serious disadvantage, especially if your attacker knows how to handle himself a bit.

Let’s be realistic here, if you have ever taken a hit in a fight you know what it feels like. For most of you it won’t be enough to stop you, you’ll take it and keep fighting. Hell I know plenty of people who have never had any formal training take repeated blows to the head and still come out on top.

I think this is where a lot of martial arts go wrong- especially competitive and traditional arts. Many martial artists are under the belief that sparring aids your fighting ability. For me personally I think it does the complete opposite, I think that too much emphasis on sparring will actually make you a WORSE fighter, and more importantly less capable of being able to effectively defend yourself.

Fighting and sparring are two different things. In a fight you are more likely to get hurt. There are no rules and countless other dangers, like your opponent’s friends, hidden weapons, and environmental hazards just to name a few. Sparring puts you in a mindset of wanting to try and out ‘score’ your opponent and as a result you end up playing this back and forth game until someone lands a hit. It puts you in to the mindset of fighting instead of finishing and escaping, and that’s dangerous.

How about MMA or full contact fighters as opposed to more traditional martial artists? I don’t deny that you guys are physically capable of dishing and taking punishment, but street fighting is nothing like the ring or the octagon.

What happens when they throw that unorthodox punch or an ‘illegal’ blow that you’ve never seen before that catches you off guard, or kick you in the crown jewels, or gauge your eyes and bite you in a clinch? What if you get blind-sided by his friend because you weren’t trained to watch your surroundings? What happens when you’ve spent so much time bouncing around psyching him out and sussing his weaknesses that he pulls a knife?

I’m not saying that you won’t be able to deliver a punch or be able to handle yourself at all, what I am saying is that you will be completely taken out of your comfortable environment and it’s a whole new game, one that’s a hell of a lot more dangerous and chances are you are unprepared for.

It’s not like a competition, a real life attacker wants to HURT you!

So then surely the answer is to adopt different tactics to shut an attack down quickly, relying on striking points and techniques that will stop any attacker in his tracks, such as the throat or groin for example… targets that you can’t aim for in competition because they do damage!

Then there’s this idea of ‘defensive’ techniques and blocks in traditional styles. Watch that video again and tell me that an inside forearm block from a front stance will stop that kind of attack, or you can execute a perfect hip throw while your face is being pummelled to bits…

Maybe for the elite, but for the average practitioner chances are they are going to get their face caved in. Traditional defences may look pretty against a compliant attacker, but when they really mean it, technical and fancy usually results in an ambulance ride to the emergency room.

Trying to adopt a traditional defence against a violent attack is very unlikely to work, especially when your body’s natural defence system kicks in and your ability to ‘think’ goes out the window, leaving you with nothing but a duck and cover.

If we ever really want to be truly capable of defending ourselves in a ‘fight’, we seriously need to re-evaluate the way we train for it and the methods that we train with. A lot of traditional techniques are out of date and many schools don’t teach you how to deal with violence.

We need to be teaching our students how to cope with aggression and violence and adapt our defences to suit our natural, instinctive pre-programmed patterns so that they can end an attack and escape quickly with minimal damage.

To be honest I could go on for ages and in to a lot more detail here about fighting states, combat experience and specific techniques, but I’m more interested in hearing your thoughts and ideas; so feel free to share!

Stay safe,

Kyle

Street Safe

Defending your home and your family

Essex based self defence expert Kyle Hargreaves asks “how far should we be able to go in order to protect our property and our loved ones?”

Uk law is a little bit ‘sketchy’ at best when it comes to being able to defend our homes from intruders, and in many aspects it seems to many of us that the laws in place are protecting the rights of the criminals instead of the victims, even though they are supposedly in place for the safety of the victims. But how can this be the case when criminals who break into people’s homes injure themselves and end up sueing the home owner for damages? It’s ludicrous!

If someone does break in to your home and you confront them, technically you wouldn’t be acting within the law unless they were a direct threat to you or your family. I would argue the second he broke in to my house he was a threat, but in the eyes of the law, stealing isn’t threatening behaviour and it’s all a bit of a grey area. IF you are being “threatened”, then you can use what reasonable force is necassary to defend yourself.

Again it comes back down to this idea of being reasonable, but how do you define reasonable force if you feel that your family’s safety is in danger? That’s a hell of a judgement call under that kind of stress, because let’s face it, if you were to find yourself in that situation, instinct will take over and all rational thought will go out the window. Chances are, if this happens and you are in a postiion where you have to use force, the likelyhood of it being resonable is pretty slim and I’d put money on it turning excessive if the attacker doesn’t get out as quickly as they could.

So, where should the line be drawn?

You may well be familiar with the Tony Martin case way back in 1999, when Mr. Martin confronted two burglars with a shotgun. On opening fire, he seriously injured one of the men and the other died as a result. Mr. Martin was originally convicted of murder (which was later downgraded to manslaughter) and over the next few years a long legal battle ensued, causing a lot of controversy.

The original murder charge came about because it was discovere that the shots were fired as the two burglars were trying to escape, meaning they were no longer a threat.

Personally (now I’m not saying this is the right way to go about it and it’s what you should do) if someone breaks in to my home they will be treated as a threat and dealt with as such. If they choose to fight back then whatever happens happens, I’ll do what I have to but if they try to get away, I won’t stop them, that’s the job for the police.

The reality of it is that we have to work out what our priorities are, and if you have a family who are in danger, worrying about the legal rammifications won’t be your highest priority at the time. The key thing is that you can justify every single action you take as a necassary action to protect your family. If you get a sudden blood lust and end up chasing them down with a kitchen knife, you’ll never be able to justify that, and if anything you’ll only be exposing yourself to more danger.

To do things ‘by the book’, here are a few steps you should take:

1. If you think are being burgled, don’t confront your intruder, you should never instigate or provoke an attack. If you have kids, their safety is obviously your prime concern. If possible, try and get all of your family together in one room and close the door. Call the police and be prepared to defend that room if you have to. If they enter that room, then it’s fair game.

2. If the intruder is between you and your family then they are considered a threat. If they don’t leave immediately, then you will do whatever you need to in order to protect your family.

3. If you need to hold or defend your position, you can use whatever objects that come to hand as a weapon to defend yourself, but remember, that means to defend yourself, not attack the intruder.

4. If the intruder tries to leave, let them go! Be thankful that they have escaped if everyone is unharmed. Let the police deal with it from here. Stay with your family because they will be scared and they will need you.

Your prime concern should be that of your family and of yourself. Forget about your property and possessions, they can be replaced. Fighting an intruder off should always be a last resort. Property can be replaced. Lives can’t.

Let me know what your thoughts are on this.

Stay Safe!

Kyle

Street Safe

Are your kids safe from knife crime?

Leading Essex self defence expert Kyle Hargreaves discusses modern youth gang culture, why knife related crime has become such a problem and how it affects young people.

We seem to hear about it a lot these days, the tragic story of the teenager that has been knifed to death by other teenagers. Over the last couple of years there have been several high profile fatalities as a result of knife crime, including the tragic death of 18 year old Harry Potter star, Robert Knox.

The truth is, the problem is very real and for many families, it’s on their doorsteps. Many parents feel powerless to protect their kids from the dangers that are out their on the streets from knife carrying gangs. They want to wrap them in cotton wall and keep them safe, but they know they can’t and it tears families apart, and in the worst cases it destroys lives.

If we are ever going to be able to protect our youngsters, we really do need to start to understand the problem, because I honestly believe that the answers lie in education. Kids need to be educated about the atrocities and devastation knife crime causes.

So, let’s look at why these kids are carrying knives in the first place.

The good old media band-wagon over the last decade or so, has been pointing the finger at violent videogames, violent, even glamorised violent imagery on TV and in movies, and of course offensive lyrics and graphic content in music. Our kids today our bombarded with violence, sex and drugs from the media and its true, they do become de-sensitized to it. However, I don’t believe that seeing someone in a movie wielding a blade is going to encourage them to do the same, kids are usually pretty smart and can differentiate fantasy form reality most of the time. I don’t think the media particularly helps the problem, but at the end of the day, most ‘adult’ content has a rating advising parents of mature content, and modern games consoles have parental locks on them.

Anyway, that’s not the point I’m trying to make.

If you ever actually speak to any of these kids that are members of gangs, you will find that most of them aren’t there because they think that gang culture is cool, or they want to be a gangster. Most kids in gangs are because they are afraid. They get involved with gangs for protection, because they don’t feel safe. They carry knives for protection.

Many of these kids live in deprived areas, where crime rates are much higher and their parents have little or no money. Some kids feel forced in to crime because they are deprived (that could be of money, or because they come from an unsupportive or abusive home, there are many reasons as to why) and with little support or guidance, they get sucked in to this underworld of violent behaviour. Those that become violent instil fear in to others, causing other young people to want to be on their ‘side’ in order not to be a victim.

It’s a sad spiral, starting with a few individuals that are genuinely dangerous for whatever reason, drawing in others who just don’t feel safe being out and about.

I remember talking to a thirteen year old boy in a school when I was teaching some personal safety classes and he was telling me about how he would beat someone repeatedly with a stick or blunt object to stop them from being able to come after him, because he wanted to protect himself. Others in the group were talking about stabbing people in the leg so they could stop the person coming after them, and how they could take a hit in a fight (even though they’d never been hit)…

These boys had no concept of consequence and behind all the bravado they were scared. It seemed like they had little guidance and of course at that age they have no perspective. If that’s how they are thinking now, unless someone can actually teach them otherwise about consequence and the devastation knives can cause, then of course they are going to carry them and use them.

I don’t think the solution is as simple as saying ‘knives are bad’ because kids don’t respond to that. They need to be made aware of just how much damage a knife can do- not just physically to the victim, but to their families and friends. They need to be made aware that spending life in prison will mean that they will be forced to live in fear every single day and their futures will be gone for good.

I think it’s our responsibility as parents, as teachers and as coaches to really reach out to these kids and show them the reality behind what they are doing, how by the very act of carrying a knife they are indivertibly putting themselves in greater danger.

Safety doesn’t come from carrying a weapon, safety comes from making a choice, and we need to be there to help them make the right choice.

What do you think?

Kyle
Street Safe coach
Street Safe, Essex’s leading Self Defence specialists

Fearing for your life

Essex based self defence coach Kyle Hargreaves discusses some of the psychological and physiological affects of fear, and how it can affect your ability to make decisions and protect yourself.

Have you ever experienced true, mind numbingly crippling fear? Have you ever been so scared that you can’t actually move?

Have you ever been in a confrontational situation where you were genuinely afraid that the other person was going to do you harm?

Some of you may have, others may not, but for a lot of martial artists and even members of the general public, they haven’t felt the terror that overwhelms you when you are threatened with physical violence… real brown trousers time.

If you’ve never truly experienced it, then how can you deal with it?

Well, the truth is it is difficult, but it does help if you know what to expect when fear takes over and you start to rely on instinct- the stuff that most martial artists tend to forget to teach you about…

When we are really afraid, both our physiological and psychological states are changed dramatically. Your brain reverts back to ‘caveman’ mode, which means your ability to make good decisions is generally flushed down the toilet, and all that you are left with is primal instinct. This isn’t good because while you are in this ‘bad state’, your ability to use your intelligence is severely diminished until you have calmed down you are left with tunnel vision and basic instinct. This means that your awareness will disappear and all you will be aware of is what threat is directly in front of you… not good in a group fight!

You’ll end up in “Hulk smash!” mode and just lashing out at what’s in front of you, so any intricate and pretty techniques you may have learned will go out of the window, as your ability to perform fine motor skills will be gone, leaving you with only the ability to perform big, wild and primal movements.

It’s important to remember that people in a bad psychological state, often make bad decisions, so it’s a really important part of training that you can learn to control your state and remain in control.

That’s just the psychological impact, but what about the affects on the rest of your body?

When we are faced with fear and danger, the sympathetic division of the autonomic nervous system starts to take over (this is the part of the nervous system that we have no control over as such, it is responsible for our involuntary bodily functions etc), and we experience various physiological changes due to the increased chemical and hormonal responses.

Adrenaline is released through the body, which causes several reactions within the body, including:
• Acceleration of heart rate and breathing
• Auditory Exclusion (loss of hearing)
• Tunnel Vision (loss of peripheral vision)
• Acceleration of instantaneous reflexes

These are the main responses that will affect your ability to fight or escape in a violent situation, so it’s important to understand how this can affect you so that if you ever do experience it, you know what to expect.

Acceleration of heart rate: Because of the dilation of blood vessels breathing and heart rate increases in order to get oxygen to the muscles quickly. This means that chances are you will become very short of breath and tired very quickly, so you don’t want to drag the situation out any longer than you have to.

Auditory exclusion: This doesn’t necessarily mean you will go completely deaf, but you will find that all of a sudden your hearing can become very limited, which is important to bare in mind, because many people rely on their ability to hear to sense what is going on around them. It will affect your awareness, especially in a group situation, so be careful!
Tunnel vision: Is pretty much exactly what it sounds like. You will loose a lot of your peripheral vision and you will only be able to see what is going on right in front of you. Again this will have a major impact on your awareness, as you now can’t hear or see other people around you.

Acceleration of instantaneous reflexes: Adrenaline acts like a stimulant, so you will find yourself feeling jumpy and you will react much more quickly to movement. It’s a bit of a strange sensation, as your perception of time will completely change and everything will feel like it’s happening much slower than usual.

On top of all that, it’s only fair to mention that there are several other affects you should note…
• General effect on the sphincters of the body
• Constriction of blood vessels in many parts of the body
• Paling or flushing of the skin, or alternating between both
• Liberation of nutrients for muscular action
• Dilation of blood vessels for muscles
• Inhibition of stomach and upper-intestinal action (digestion slows down or stops)
• Inhibition of Lacrimal gland (responsible for tear production) and salivation
• Dilation of the pupils
• Relaxation of bladder
• Evacuation of colon

Your body goes into a complete state of self protection. Your blood vessels dilate to slow the blood flow down incase you are wounded and start bleeding. Digestion stops so that blood and nutrients are re-distributed to the muscles so they can perform at an accelerated rate. All of the physiological affects can last for anything up to 45 minutes after the end of a confrontation (although reversal tends to kick in very quickly) as adrenaline is still present.

This also means that you can still be quite jumpy for up to 45 minutes after the resolution, so be aware that if you are dealing with someone after a conflict, they can still be in fight mode after.
So, to summarize, when we are totally gripped with fear, we become dumb aggressive animals with limited senses that potentially wet themselves…

So now ask yourself, have you ever felt like that? How do you think it would affect your ability in a real violence situation? How would you cope?

Stay safe!

Kyle
Street Safe

Self Defence for Beginners

Essex Self Defence expert Kyle Hargreaves explains what beginners should be looking for from their self defence programme in order to get the most from it.

Whenever we think of Self Defence these days, most people think of Martial Arts and for the un-initiated they think karate and Judo schools. If you have no real idea when it comes to Martial arts, then let’s be honest the first thing that springs to mind is Karate, so, you would most likely look for a Karate school, right?

Now let’s look at what Self Defence or Self protection actually is- I would define Self Defence as the ability to keep yourself safe from harm that could result from an external force. In other words, protecting yourself from danger.

What I predominantly teach is obviously self protection against violent attackers, but I also make sure people are aware enough to keep themselves safe from the world around them.

It’s this key idea of awareness really, and it seperates what we teach from that of most martial arts schools. We teach you to do your best to stay out of harm’s way, but also how to protect yourself if you do find yourself in a bind. I believe that it is key for people to understand what Self Defence is really about, and that’s first and foremost keeping themselves safe!

What most martial arts (but not all of them) teach these days is purely focused on a series of movements or techniques that you practice to give you ‘self defence’ skills, but from my experience 99% of the time people are just going through the motions.

They don’t teach you about violence, they don’t teach you what it is to feel fear and they don’t teach you how your body and mind will react to danger and what panic really is. You don’t get to experience the ferocity of a real attacker, you don’t sense the hate and the intent to kill you. You don’t get taught to keep your eyes open…

If your primary goal is self defence, then don’t be fooled by what club marketing tells you, nearly all martial artists claim to teach you self defence, but really they are teaching you techniques and movements. They aren’t giving you the bigger picture.

Before you give away your cash and dedicate to a ‘self defence’ programme that claims to keep you safe, find out exactly what it is they are going to teach you first. Go along and watch some classes (join in if they will let you) and decide for yourself whether or not what you are learning is going to keep you safe or not.

Here’s a tip, if you leave a class not being able to remember anything the next day, then chances are it’s not going to help you in a fight!

Make sure that if you are aiming to learn Self Defence, you find somewhere that is going to give you the whole picture and teach you to keep yourself safe, not just show you moves.

Stay Safe!

Kyle

http://www.essexselfdefence.com

Martial Arts for Self defence?

Essex Self Defence and Martial Arts expert Kyle Hargreaves talks about the advantages and disadvantages of Martial Arts training for Self Defence.

My step dad once told me the story of an old friend of his. This guy was a 4th dan black belt in Aikido, he was a well established and respected instructor that had trained with the masters in Japan and he taught self protection skills to the British police. One day he got in to a fight which resulted in him ending up in hospital with serious injuries.

The story got me thinking. I had already been training in the Japanese art of JuJitsu for some time when he told me this story, it came about when we were talking about martial arts for self defence. It got me wondering about how such a senior instructor, someone with his level of skill and experience, could end up getting beaten up in a fight.

After all, we’re led to believe that Martial Artists are trained to handle themselves aren’t we?

For a long time I began to start questioning the validity of all the ‘techniques’ I was learning and wondered if they really would work in a REAL fight situation. I was a real pain in the butt, I questioned everything, until one day it suddenly hit me.

The techniques really do work- the problem lies in the person trying to apply it!

If any of you out there practice any Martial Art, then you’ll know that it takes years of training to become proficient, to adapt and understand how the techniques work. So here’s where the problem is for people who want to learn Self defence because they don’t feel safe.

It takes years!

If we are being honest, unless you are a true master of your chosen art, the likelyhood of you being able to apply an intricate or complicated technique on an angry, drunk and violent opponent under extreme distress is highly unlikely for most people. It’s not impossible, some people will be able to do it, but those people are the exceptional few.

Fights are usually scrappy, and acts of real violence happen so quickly that there is no fight. So how do you prepare people to deal with a real attack with limited training?

I think the key thing you have to ask yourself is “What am I truely trying to achieve through my art?” I think for many ‘purists’ out there (which believe it or not I am, I eat, breathe and ….. it) we are in it for the internal benifits alongside the physical. After all ironically the Arts were never really about fighting, they are about discovering yourself, self discipline and respect for life, but that doesn’t mean having the skill to fight shouldn’t be an important benefit.

I think that what we as Martial Artists need to understand is that not everyone who walks through our doors wants to walk our path. Many people who do it, do so because they don’t feel safe.

For these people I think it is dangerous to start them down our road without first making them aware of the true dangers of violence, and then teaching the basic skills of self protection, awareness and conflict management first, so they at least have an understanding of what’s really out there.

One thing I believe in is giving people confidence, I really believe that no one should have to live in fear. But at the same time I think it’s extremely dangerous to give people false confidence that can’t really back it up, because they could just be setting themselves up for more harm.

So to sum up the point I’m trying to make in a round about way, is that applying Martial Art techniques in a real fight requires a distinct level of proficiency from the person applying it. The techniques work, but doing it in practice and doing it in reality are two completely different things. I think that if we are marleting ourselves as Self Defence instructors or systems, then that’s what we should be providing. We should be giving our students the truth about violence and fighting, teach them the basic skills- not just the techniques and encourage them to stay aware and stay away. I think that if we don’t, too many people will fall in to the trap of becomming overly confident and getting themselves into deeper trouble than they would have in the first place.

I’d love to know what you guys think.

Stay safe!

http://www.essexselfdefence.com

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