The Reality Gap.

[cross]

To prepare for self defence, its important to recreate training scenarios that resemble common situations your likely to face in your daily life. These situations will vary based on a number of variables. Your occupation, country and area you live in, gender, community status etc. Its important to look at the most likely ways you would be attacked in real life, and train for it if your goal is learning effective self defence.

Alot of martial arts schools have the "self defence" tag on all of their advertising, but how many really address the realities of a violent confrontation? Most schools have a heavily technique based curriculum where progression is based on your ability to remember techniques. The so called self defence aspects are often covered only briefly: "its important to be aware, now lets do kata" or not at all. When is the last time you discussed and actually trained de-escalating a situation ortrained situational awareness WHILE de-escalating a situation? In my opinion, training to talk your way out of a situation and calm an aggressor is much more important than spending hours on any physical technique, in terms of learning self defence.

I titled this post "the reality gap" for the following reason. Its impossible for your training to mirror reality completely while maintaining safety. But its possible to train alot more closely to reality than most schools do. There will always be that gap you need to bridge between training and reality, and the closer your training reflects reality to begin with, the less of a gap you will need to make up for in an actual situation. This is important because the less new information you have to deal with in a self defence situation, the better.

Even little things hold significance. Clothing, footwear, surroundings, training surface. Look at a comparision:

average martial arts training:

Everyone wearing gi's, barefooted, on a clean obstacle free wooden floor, or even better a soft training mat covered floor.

the alternative:

Everyone wearing t-shirt and shorts(or jeans), shoes and socks on, uneven training surface with real obstancles in the way.

Sure its easy to say "i can adapt from not wearing shoes to wearing them, its no big deal". And that may be true, but how many people have actually tried? For the ladies, put on some high heals and add some water or obstancles to the training surface. Your techniques that relied on solid grounding and that feeling of the floor under your feet suddenly have lost alot of effectivness. Even the little things like clothing close the gap between training and reality.

Now look at the self defence techniques you learn, how often do you train against a partner giving you real energy and reacting to each part of your technique combination(an attacker wont just stand still after throwing one punch and let you do a 15 move combo on them. Everyone reacts). How often do you work to defend against realistic attacks you are likely to face? Wrist grabs may be common in your area, but where im from there are much more common ways people are attacked, yet the schools dont address these things, instead they all teach the: "he grabs your wrist, you do a lock them punch here, kick here, knee there."

Again a comparision, defence against a 2 arm lapel grab:

average martial arts training:

Partner grabs your gi in a 2 arm lapel grab and while he is holding on tight, he stands still in a stance waiting for you to perform your technique and lets you do every part of the combination, even moving at times to make it easier for you.

the alternative:

Partner grabs your t-shirt in a 2 arm lapel grab with enough force that you are forced slightly off balance. He continues to push forward and gets right in your face. You can smell his breath, feel his knuckles digging into your chest and he is yelling that he is going to beat you up(with more colourful language). He doesnt freeze the moment you start fighting back, instead he reacts to each movement you make.

Which one is closer to reality? Give it a try, look at all the techniques you have been taught to use when defending against common attacks. Find a partner and get them to do the attack with REAL energy, like someone would actually attack you. Add dialogue and attacker reaction. If the technique wont work against this training partner, what chance will it have for real?

There are lots more things schools can do to bridge the gap between training and reality, these are just some ideas. Im interested in hearing opinions and ideas related to this post, and also from anyone who feels that their current training fits into the "average martial arts" category.

If you choose not to reply, just ask yourself the question: If your school claims to teach effective self defence, how closely does the training mirror reality?

[DancingSteve]

I believe that has its place.

But how many people would 'enjoy' a self defense class like that and be relaxed enough to learn anything in that sort of environment.

I agree the scenarios that are put forth in self dfense classes are 90% trite. BUT..I also believe in incremental learning. You bring someone in for a Super Duper Reality Check self defense class and most of what they are taking away from it is...Wow..Reality is really scary...and Im probably not prepared for it.

But bring them in...teach them some basic body movements... next level move up to some physicality...advance again to some real-deal scary situations. Its a process. I think your idea is great..for someone who has learned the basics. But not for a newbie.

[cross]

I believe that has its place.

But how many people would 'enjoy' a self defense class like that and be relaxed enough to learn anything in that sort of environment.

I agree the scenarios that are put forth in self dfense classes are 90% trite. BUT..I also believe in incremental learning. You bring someone in for a Super Duper Reality Check self defense class and most of what they are taking away from it is...Wow..Reality is really scary...and Im probably not prepared for it.

But bring them in...teach them some basic body movements... next level move up to some physicality...advance again to some real-deal scary situations. Its a process. I think your idea is great..for someone who has learned the basics. But not for a newbie.

Thanks for the reply, you raise an important point and i completely agree with what your saying.

Im not suggesting that a persons first lesson should the "super duper reality check" you mention. And i agree that its a gradual process that you need to build upto. However, most schools start to build up, but only to a certain point and then they stop. Once they reach a point where its a little scary they dont push any futher. Which is fine if a person wants to train for fun and fitness, but if you want to train to prepare for a real violent situation, and you dont experience the chaos and scaryness in a class room environment, thats a huge gap you need to bridge when it comes to the crunch.

[The BB of C]

This is my oppinion: AMEN, BROTHER!

That is precicely what my school is like! Hammer to the nail's head all the way!

But there's a problem. There are reasons the school is like that. Stupid reasons I probably should add. Know what they are? Legal issues! Lawyers, insurance, everyone's afraid to get hurt and the ones that aren't afraid to get hurt are the ones that will probably abuse the powers the good training gives them by attacking someone who really needed it.

I think the only thing to do is find ways around the insurance, legal systems, lawyers, everything and make a program that brings truely effective self-defense training and only gives it to those who really need it.

[cross]

Out of interest The BB of C, do you think you would feel comfortable addressing these issues with your instructor?

[The BB of C]

Done. Nothing came of it.

[cross]

Done. Nothing came of it.

Really? How did the conversation go, if you dont mind me asking?

[bushido_man96]

This is my oppinion: AMEN, BROTHER!

That is precicely what my school is like! Hammer to the nail's head all the way!

But there's a problem. There are reasons the school is like that. Stupid reasons I probably should add. Know what they are? Legal issues! Lawyers, insurance, everyone's afraid to get hurt and the ones that aren't afraid to get hurt are the ones that will probably abuse the powers the good training gives them by attacking someone who really needed it.

I think the only thing to do is find ways around the insurance, legal systems, lawyers, everything and make a program that brings truely effective self-defense training and only gives it to those who really need it.

I think that the insurance excuse may be just that...an excuse. Boxers train hard, with contact, as do Thai fighters, MMA fighters, etc. Hard contact really isn't even mentioned by cross.

In the end, I think it can be done. Many just don't know it, and therefore, save face by not doing it.

I think this is a great thread, cross, and you have hit on many points that are important. As I have mentioned before, although many people sign up for the martial arts for various reasons (sport, fitness, self-defense, etc.), I think that confident self-defense abilities should be a direct by-product of any MA program.

[cross]

I think that the insurance excuse may be just that...an excuse. Boxers train hard, with contact, as do Thai fighters, MMA fighters, etc. Hard contact really isn't even mentioned by cross.

In the end, I think it can be done. Many just don't know it, and therefore, save face by not doing it.

I think this is a great thread, cross, and you have hit on many points that are important. As I have mentioned before, although many people sign up for the martial arts for various reasons (sport, fitness, self-defense, etc.), I think that confident self-defense abilities should be a direct by-product of any MA program.

Nice post Bushido_man, and i agree about the insurance excuse. Its pretty simple to have new students sign a form outlining the risks associated with training and put you in a legaly strong position if someone is injured while training at your school. The seminar i attended recently involved training exactly like i was talking about, it was very close to reality, and whilst their were "injuries", they were not major and were ones that are has likely to occur in any martial arts school, or any contact sport for that matter.

[The BB of C]

Done. Nothing came of it.

Really? How did the conversation go, if you dont mind me asking?

Actually (you'll probably laugh at this) exactly as your example above.

The BB of C: "How do we know we'll be able to use these techniques in a street defense situation the way you're training us. Our opponent isn't going to just let us do that 15 pressure point hit on them the whole time."

Instructor: "Be aware. Oops, time for class to start. We're doing forms tonight."

In addition; If I make too strong a point, they'll tell me I'm being dissrespectful and make me do push-ups.