| I remember years ago I had stepped into a Tae | | | | never played in a real football game? Would you |
| Kwon Do martial arts school to learn self defense | | | | learn from a chess player who has never won a |
| and self protection. Being the naturally persuasive | | | | chess match? Would you learn truck driving from |
| and talkative type, I managed to engage the chief | | | | a truck driving instructor who has never driven a |
| instructor of the school who was a fifth degree | | | | truck? Then why would you want to learn self |
| black belt, a young man in his early forties in a | | | | defense from a teacher who has never had to |
| conversation. As I began to talk to him, he | | | | defend himself? |
| answered to me a question that, today when I | | | | Why Should You Learn From Someone Who Has |
| think about it, I still find amazing. I had asked him | | | | Fought? |
| if he had ever had to use his fighting skills in a real | | | | For obvious reasons, someone who has fought is |
| street fight, and he said: | | | | someone who knows how to fight from |
| "Well, I have actually never been in a real street | | | | experience. He will be able to teach that which he |
| fight in my life." | | | | knows to work. |
| "Not even as a kid?" I asked, my mouth opened | | | | What Does It Mean If You Are Learning From |
| wide in disbelief. "How is that possible? What kind | | | | Someone Who Has Never Fought? |
| of neighborhood did you grow up in?" | | | | No matter how you look at it, if a fighting |
| "I have always been a peace loving person," was | | | | technique has never been proven or tested in any |
| his reply. | | | | way by the instructor, you are only learning |
| I walked away with his answer still resounding in | | | | theory and hoping that the technique will work in |
| my head. Incredible, I thought. Look, either he | | | | a real life or death situation. This is why I believe |
| was unnaturally passive and submissive, or so | | | | sometimes that so many techniques are taught, |
| lucky as to belong in the Guinness Book of World | | | | as sort of a compensation for not being really |
| Records. To have been on this earth for over | | | | sure of what works best! If you knew only a few |
| forty years without ever having had to defend | | | | simple and effective techniques that would work |
| himself is about as believable as a person who has | | | | almost every time, why would there be the need |
| been driving an automobile for over 40 years and | | | | to know so many variations of moves and |
| has never gotten a traffic or parking ticket. Just | | | | techniques requiring a person to study and learn |
| out of the probability of living, moving, breathing | | | | over years and years of time? |
| and being--stuff just happens! | | | | Who Are The Best Street Fighting Instructors? |
| What struck me about the case of this black belt | | | | Black belts for sure are high indicators of skill, but |
| instructor is that as for teaching me street | | | | is not the sole predictor of the highest qualification |
| fighting techniques, everything he could teach, | | | | to teach real combat. In addition to or in the |
| when you think about it was only theory. Since he | | | | absence of any black belt, the best close combat |
| had never put anything to the test, everything he | | | | reality based fighting instructors are ex-body |
| taught was only a hope that it would work in real | | | | guards, ex-bouncers and ex-special forces military |
| life. I don't care how many trophies he had or | | | | combatants. Even self defense instructors who |
| tournaments he had won, trophies and | | | | are ex-convicts who have had and survived many |
| tournaments have nothing to do with real street | | | | life and death fighting situations make better and |
| altercations! Why? Because in sports tournaments | | | | more realistic instructors that the strip mall black |
| there are rules--in the real world of self defense, | | | | belt martial arts teachers that you find in many of |
| there are none. | | | | the McDojos around the world. |
| Would you be trained by a football coach who has | | | | |