Does anyone of you have any serious reasons to practice martial arts for self-defense?

Question

Many are saying self-defense, in different type of senses of course, but how many of you actually live in places where serious attacks are common? The ones of you that actually live in those places, to you still practice martial arts for self-defense, in the same way and sense that you were practicing when you had started?

Did you start practicing while secure enough, but for a bit of polishing and an advancement on those skills or did you start quite a bit insecure? The ones that started quite a bit insecure, do you feel secure enough now, and if you do so, are you practicing now for a bit of polishing and an advancement on those skills or for the same reasons as before...?

The ones that you were feeling very confident from the start, did you start practicing martial arts for self-defense as to polish your self-defense skills or consciously or subconsciously for an advancement in mental and physical ability.?

Just curious for the differences in this. Feel free to give any type of analysis. I think is an interesting question. Thanks in advance for all the answers:)

Answer 1

Hey Georgie, firstly good question, different than most of the usual ones.



I grew up in a high income household and lived my entire life about 200 metres from the beach in an Estate. So crime was not really a big thing here. However in saying that there are chances of violence anywhere so it still did happen occassionally.



I grew up learning self defense because my father was an instructor and owned academies and his brothers were the same. They grew up in a violent part of Brasil and lived there well into adulthood before some of them moved to Australia and Hawaii. Since they grew up learning how to protect themselves and doing martial arts it was instilled on all of us children, brothers, sisters and cousins alike and now it has been pushed onto the grand children as well with EVERY single one of them 4 years and older beginning training.



During my teens it was much different because i had to move away for a sports scholarship and was living in Sydney away from my family so this was a rough time and training was very much for self defense despite the fact that once again i was in the wealthier beach side suburbs.



I have in my late teens and earlier 20's been involved in violent situations that i have had to use martial arts and was thankful for the knowledge and training i had. These violent situations all involved night clubs, drinking and security work when i was at University but overall i avoid most scenarios like that as i have got a little wiser to the world.



Now we have moved into a place on the gold coast where i have yet to see any crime but still continue to train for myself because you never know when you will need the skills, plus it is something i want to teach to others especially my children so that i know they are going to be aware of situations and how to protect themselves.

Answer 2

I grew up in Belleville NJ. That's right next to Newark and crime there often overflowed onto where I lived. I've had to toss a few people in self-defense before so I developed the theory that MA is better to have and not need than to need and not have.



The reason why I continue to do so is because I'm a few months from commissioning as an LT. My branch is Armor, a combat branch, Cav in particular, and while hand to hand combat is not the norm from what I'm told, dismounted patrols for Armor units is common and there's always the chance in an urban environment that something like that can occur. Or so I'm told by my MSG.



@Jas Key- World's a small place, mate. If you don't know already, there are actually a number of East Coasters on here that are within a 150 mile radius of each other, which, for us at least, is not that big a distance.

Answer 3

I grew up in a ridiculously safe neighborhood. We left bikes out in the front lawn and only worried that it might rain on the bikes. Never been really bullied and never really seen a serious fight. Only fights I heard of were ones where two guys were acting tough and agreed to brawl it out. And my martial interest was purely based on child experience of TKD and what I seen on the media, and it was just an casual interest that any boy would have.



I really started to take interest when I was in college and out of boredom took on a very friendly sparring against two guys in martial arts club. This one guy threw a muay thai style low round house(PS actually I ate a few of these) and just really bruised up my leg, and I didn't get to really put up a fight. I thought until that point I was pretty strong, and that like the movies I would rise to the challenge if there was a fight. I think this spar was a cold water to the face. So I started looking into martial arts more seriously from there, so that I can actually be what I thought I was.



But even then no serious danger drove me to practice and it was always for a mix of achievement, fun, and fitness. Once I got out of college I have lived in a neighborhood that was shady(Bedford stuyvesant AKA Bed-Stuy Brooklyn), and I was glad that I knew some martial arts. Even then I don't think I practiced any more for the feeling of safety. Today, I feel like I could take on a average joe without too big of a trouble, but I can see that path to complete mastery and guarenteed safety is far away and possibly not even achievable. And I'm completely okay with that because that just means more to learn, which will be a lot of fun.



Edit: @Sev Hey! I grew up in Paramus! Crazy how we have all 50 states and I run into someone that grew up about 30 minutes away from me.

Answer 4

As far as I can tell everyone starts for one of two reason. Self defense or fitness. However, no one continues for those reasons. You got to find another reason to keep yourself motivated to go and train. Most of us have never been in an aggressive situation.



Personally I don't believe half the stories about how martial arts saved peoples lives. And the other half I take with a huge grain of salt. Most of these stories just don't match reality. It seems to me that most people have a story on how martial arts saved their life but no one has a story on how they got their @ss kicked. Which is just statistically impossible.



Whenever I have been in one of those situation or seen one it's never 1 vs 1. It's either a free for all or 1 vs 3. I've never seen someone go up to some guy and say: "Why don't you and I step outside and handle this like men?". Usually they just start, other people join in and everyone is fighting everyone. Or someone is being a smart@ss, the people follow him and beat him up.



I go because it's fun. I move around a lot, from city to city and I find that it's the best way to meet really cool people. And most martial arts people I know are my type of people. I'm 24 years old. I don't like clubs anymore. I kind of like that all of us can go and train, if you stay humble there is never any hard feelings, you go out for a beer, have some fun, meet some new friends. I don't train for self defense. People these days who are looking for a fight are almost always with 4 other friends or carrying some sort of weapon. I don't have any delusions about martial arts and MMA and things like that. I know what I can and can't do.

Answer 5

I started martial art because I never accepted the notion that crime and violence only occur in bad neighborhoods and to bad people. The reality is that there is no place in the world where you are completely secured from violence. While some places have lower rates of crime than others, all it takes is one incident where you are the victim to make statistics academic. Even from a very young age, it never made sense to me that people can feel secure just because they believe they can call the police and this was back in the days before cell phones.



I certainty did not see this belief in the authorities protecting the good from the bad demonstrated in school when nice kids were beaten up by bullies. And no policeman pop out of the thin air when my uncle, a very talented musician just graduated from music school, was beaten to death at a bus stop and no one to this day knows who killed him or why.



Civilization and all its trappings are nothing but a façade because the human condition has not really changed from thousands of years ago. Over 1500 years ago, the Roman author Vegetius wrote:



Si vis pacem, para bellum



Which translates to "If you desire peace, prepare for war." Look at the world around you today and you will see it still applies; nothing has changed. In the end, the only person you can depend on for your life is you.

Answer 6

I am the 1st generation born in the US from imigrants from Latin America and started with those strip mall classes back when I was a child but even then found that it was missing something. When I high school, I did some MT but got in a fight and found that it helped one on one but when I was hit in the back by the guy's friend that fight was over. I tried various styles until I graduated college. Then in Grad school I trained with a fellow student who had learned Okinawan Karate when he had grown up in Hawaii (big Okinawan population there). With him, I learned that what I had been was never self-defense but children playing fighting so I was lucky. His self-defense was different and could be taught in about a month it was effective and brutal.

Eventually I went to Okinawa to train and found that what they teach there looks nothing like the "Karate" taught in the US.

Today, by choice, I live in what some say is the roughest area of San Diego and in 7 years have only used what I learned once, it was in a up-scale beach town against a little punk who was trying to play the knockout game. (I did not realize it until a while later) what came out was not what I expected but a move from a kata. After than, I train more to teach what I have learned in the neighborhood I live and work in.

Answer 7

I live near and travel sometimes through one of the nations worst cities in the US that had the highest murder rate per 100,000 population for the past several years, which is East Louis, IL. Some traffic from that also routinely travels back and forth from that city and not all of it is for shopping or good reasons but instead for the purpose of stealing and preying on others. I had one encounter with a young man a few summers ago while outside doing yard work who stopped riding his bike to ask me about paying him to help me. After I turned that offer down he kind of acted a little strange and it seemed as if he was weighing his options on doing something stupid. Finally he left after I told him that one of the local restaurants up the road a ways had a sign up inside looking to hire part-time help. He ended up going there, working for them for two hours at which time he then robbed them and took off on his bike. The police caught him and charged him and he went to jail but it demonstrates I think that some of us do at times encounter people and situations that are not positive in nature and may sometimes go down a bad road or maybe not.



That's not to mention my work in the military where I was at times charged with the protection of others and carried a concealed weapon for that purpose when working. So yes I did have reasons to practice and learn things like martial arts for reasons to do with my job in the military. In SERE school for instance the Air Force did not originally teach any kind of self-defense or combative tactics but do so now. I attended that school when none of that was taught unlike now and where they do include a portion of that training to people now.



In a addition to all this my extensive martial arts training and background was one of the reasons why I was selected for a number of schools the Air Force sent me to as well as a number of special duty assignments where I was embedded with other military organizations like 10th Mountain Division, elements of the 82nd Airborne, or with the State Department overseas and their embassies. Being mentally disciplined and physically tough was needed for those special duty assignments and martial arts gave me that.



While I don't actively practice to the extent that I used to when I was younger I am still physically pretty capable of defending myself if there is a need. Some things stay with you if you were at one time well trained and have a long, extensive background is what I have found. Today I retain enough skill and ability as well as mental and physical toughness to hold my own a lot better than most senior citizens and I have no doubt that I could have taken that young man on his bike that day if he had instead decided to rob me.

Answer 8

I started because there was a Ninjitsu school nearby and honestly, who doesn't want to be a ninja? I got properly serious when I discovered I'd wasted two, nearly three years and didn't even have the fighting ability to trade punches with Karate 4th kyus.

Answer 9

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Answer 10

Not really I like Tai Chi Chen cause they said I have no control to be in restriciton .

Answer 11

Oh crap i done a pretty indepth answer but lost it when i hit the submit button???? lol il answer again later.

Answer 12

you just answered your own question... FOR SELF DEFENSE!!! I'M FREAKING A MEXICAN WHO DOESN'T WANNA GET STABBED.