self defence - what is that really?
Self Defence - What is that really?
“We do not rise to the level of our expectations, we fall to the level of our training” Archilochus (680-645BC) .. a quote from a Greek warrior poet so long ago, and yet, in my opinion, to this day still so accurate when it comes to this subject …. which hopefully, by the end of this blog, will explain something to you too!
At Gracie Barra Gloucester, “Self Defence” isn’t something we talk about much really, primarily because we are focussed on BJJ from the sporting perspective, either preparing players for competition or recreational sport. Whilst there are indeed some Self Defence techniques listed on the GB beginners curriculum, I see them more as a foundational component, a reminder of the roots of the Gracie family Jiu Jitsu if you like, but not the primary focus of Gracie Barra or Gracie Barra Gloucester . Yes, there are some drills, perhaps unique to BJJ practice that are part of our training process which might, just might, come in useful in such a Self defence context (see final line of this blog). But, after many years pursuing self defence knowledge, practicing, teaching/coaching it, the fact that I never even mention it at Gracie Barra Gloucester I hope speaks volumes!
I spent many, many years delving deeply into this subject including various physical response, conflict management, security psychology, close protection and Security Industry Authority approaches. My personal guidance is don’t spend time on any martial arts style or system that claims to teach self defence techniques; if you are serious about self protection and it’s your specific objective for training, you are looking in the wrong place!
Put simply, I’ve learned that if you seriously want to be prepared for a violent encounter, (the reality of “self defence” situation, not a Hollywood or “self defence” industry fantasy fight) you must be immersed in training/practice that by design is “unscripted, task engaged, effect oriented and aversively or appetitively driven” (Steve Morris) and as close to the true nature of a violent encounter as it can be. The term “Self Defence” is a huge misnomer that has lulled millions into a false sense of security and made millions of $$ for the snake oil sellers and charlatans or, to be a little more generous, the often well intentioned but ill informed instructors that promote their particular approach to it (me in my past life included)!
At the end of the day, if your conflict management or de escalation strategies don’t work (or, as is more often than not the case, you never had time to employ them because of the archetypal disguised ambush attack strategy of your assailant) - it’s going to go or has already gone physical and so it’s actually about being able to fight or fight back, either pre-emptively or re-actively, by harnessing the evolutionarily bequeathed survival response mechanisms of our species. These responses operate at your subconscious level, YOU per se aren’t in control of them, you simply become cognitively aware of them after they have been initiated! From a survival perspective, your subconscious is given the primacy to detect and react to a potential threat before you are even fully aware of what’s happening, which means being in this “state” must be an integral part of any preparing/training.
You could say, once your subconscious has fired up your threat response(s) you are now inside a subconsciously perceived bubble and everything you now do must be done from inside the bubble. These responses have been bequeathed for a purpose and every human has them. It’s the part of you that interprets when something is a threat or danger to you and because speed matters more than accuracy in such a moment, when activated, like it or not, you have been physically prepped for action. Prepped before you have even had the time to work out if the perceived threat is in-fact dangerous or not! The good news is, it is actually possible to teach your body to move skilfully after the threat bubble of adrenaline and sense of panic has engulfed you …. and the more you are familiar with those sensations the better you will get at working with them - they will never go away, but you can repurpose/reframe them as something constructive like excitement, motivation, focus etc so that you just get better, with practice, at working in the bubble!
Put another way, because you can’t prevent your subconscious from perceiving and responding to a threat/danger, you will always have to fight when defending yourself from inside the bubble, and so it makes logical sense that you have to train within the bubble in order to practice fighting or fighting back to defend yourself!
Put yet another way, if your training does not immerse you into the world of the subconscious Thalamus-Amygdala response pathway (vis a vis the fight flight (or freeze) response) before you start exploring how you might execute a physical response then you are nothing more than a wannabe swimmer practicing swim strokes on dry land. The form, style or technique, which you can work on until they look perfect in the dojo (according to someone’s idealization at least! but a serious “Caveat emptor” warning flag here!) is to practice from a fundamentally flawed starting point … because of the absence of the critical ingredient ! You can practice the theory all you like on dry land but you a will have a very rude awakening when you fall off the back of a North Sea ferry and need to actually swim to survive! You categorically have to be in the water in your practice sessions to explore by trial and error, good enough ways of getting to shore by any means rather than be fixated, in training, on how perfect your swim stroke techniques look on dry land!
I first seriously clocked the amygdala effect many years ago in my “karate” instructor days, when I would stand a student in the corner of a room and throw tennis balls at their head, the lesson was to avoid being hit by the balls thrown one by one with increasing intensity, through footwork and body movements. Once the student could successfully get through several baskets worth without being hit I would drop a single cricket ball into the basket and shake it up!…. the look on their face, the questioning of the decision and the resulting poor performance with the tennis balls were highlighting something, I just didn’t know what!
I noticed the same a few years later when using plastic knives to work on defence skills. The drills would get intense and guys got really good at not getting stabbed or slashed (as often) as when they first did the drills. But when I dared to suggest and brandished live blades for the next drill the same happened , the guys went to pieces! We never did train live like that of course, the lesson was in their reaction!
I didn’t really join the dots at the time but in the approx 12 years, up until the covid pandemic I was engaged regularly with the fighting genius Steve Morris and I delved ever deeper into the subject. To be honest, he unravelled that particular conundrum within the first 15 minutes of my first class with him, yet at the same time opened up a whole new world of insight, logic, science and rationality too! Eventually, but particularly during the reflective time that covid lockdown provided us all, I came to realise that my studies in fighting and fighting back (for self protection) had reached the point where regular more rigorous testing outside of the training environment was needed. “On the job” or regular “hands on” experience if you like i.e MMA matches, door work, security, police, armed forces etc was what was missing from my regime and at the then 60 years of age and coming from my background, that wasn’t something I wanted to invest in. I have to this day, I believe, a better personal grasp, albeit academically, than most of what is required in a self protection context, more so by far than I would have ever have had without his input, and for which I am grateful, but I am also reconciled that delving ever deeper into preparing for a Self Protection incident is not the direction of my future energies!
So credit where credit is due to my old “violence mentor” Steve Morris of Steve Morris NHB for helping me reach my understanding of the reality of “self defence” and the futility of the traditional, yet erroneously prevalent solutions to the subject. Additionally, I must admit that his influence on my understanding is so intertwined I am uncertain of the source of any of the analogies I have used to explain the above and so acknowledge they are more than likely all of his origin and recommend without hesitation that you study his methods if Self Protection is your specific purpose for your training!
As he used to say about BJJ and self defence whenever the subject came up - “you don’t really want to rolling around in the dog shit trying to survive a street fight do you?”.
Murray