Barbelith Underground > Temple > The NEW "Magical arts... Martial arts. Two great tastes that taste great together"

I agree with you mate, Lothar ruled (or still rules, wherever he is). I regret never getting to interact with him online.

As to your question, I think it’s harder to answer than you realise. I’ve read LOADS about this over the last year or so, so you get an info dump. Forgive me (or thank me on the off chance you find any of it useful).

I think that the two – spirituality and realism - very rarely meet in Martial Arts simple reason that realism is actually absent to a large degree. I don’t think most of what people train in is applicable to real world fighting to be honest – two reasons there, people like the “mysterious oriental” flash and glamour and, as the majority of people are sensible and don’t go around getting into fights, so their arts never get tested.. The exceptions to this rule are people who deal with violence day in, day out – policeman, bouncers, soldiers and the like. Over the past ten years or so, there’s been an increase on the info available relevant to real world confrontation - “reality based” stuff. Probably the most famous author in this field is ex-bouncer from Coventry Geoff Thompson. All this information shows an awareness of the issues surrounding confrontation which most martial arts don’t teach. I’ll list a few of these below. This isn’t so much practical advice on what art to choose, but what to look for if you want to learn some real self protection stuff. (and I’d add I’m writing it as much for my own benefit as yours, and anyone else who’s interested in selecting an art).

1) Situational awareness and avoidance –cultivating an attitude of awareness so you can slip away from attackers and confrontations before they start, are aware of situations escalating, reading people’s body language so you can tell if they preparing to fight etc. It’s amazing how blind most people are to this stuff.
2) Verbal confrontation – being aware pre-fight “interview” stage and having strategies to deal with this ie. de-escalation, “loopholing” (offering the person giving you grief an “honourable” and face saving way out – “verbal judo”) etc. If a class is focusing on “proper” self protection stuff, it will have an element of this. Ties in with assertiveness issue etc. I think if you’ve got these two things down, you can avoid 99% of confrontation anyway – which is what you want.
3) An awareness of the adrenalin dump – a lot of martial arts falls apart in the real world because it’s practitoners haven’t tested it for real. If someone is actually shouting at you, squaring up to etc. you’ll get the shakes, dry mouth, weak at the knees etc. The more realistic stuff will train with this in mind and put you in “high pressure” situations to induce an adrenalin rush, and see if you can still execute the techniques. Real SP stuff will teach really simple, gross motor, techniques that are easy to execute. The adrenalin response why arts with an element of full contact sparring such as western boxing come highly recommended in SP circles.
4) Pre-emptive striking – Geoff Thompson has stated that the only thing that worked consistently in his 300 plus fights on the door was pre-emption. Most martial arts blocks etc just WONT WORK in a real fight. Best solution is to hit them before they hit you, going for a knock out if you have the skills. Not very nice, but it’s true. Incidentally, this is legal if you feel under genuine imminent threat and you are acting clearly in self defence. It’s not bloody legal if you hit the first person who stares at you funny, but if you’ve “read” someone, and you sincerely believe they are about to launch an attack, striking first is legal.

To a degree, I feel a bit uncomfortable writing all this stuff here, as I’m concerned it might make me seem like a macho nobhead. There’s definitely a side of me that is like this, and likes reading the “my favourite strangle” threads on martial arts message boards. But I sincerely believe that stuff like the above can come in very useful in dealing with, and above all, avoiding confrontation. I’m actually not that worried about myself as I’m a big, reasonable strong guy, and I’ll fucking run a mile rather than have a scrap, but I’m am concerned about the people I care about and would like it if they took an interest in their own safety. Also – big point – a huge amount of what is taught as self defence is fucking crap, to put it frankly and about as much use as a chocolate fireguard. At it’s worst, I think it can give you an false sense of security and actively endanger yourself.

At this juncture, I think I should point out I don’t train this stuff myself, it’s just an active interest (and I will get some training in when money allows). I train in traditional martial arts and I absolutely love it, and am benefiting in so many ways, but I don’t think it’s making me into a hard man who’s completely prepared for a 2am confrontation outside a chip shop. I see my reading in self-protection/reality based stuff as supplementing my training. There’s not wrong with training in most martial arts – they’re f***ing brilliant on so, so many levels – health, fitness, discipline, relating to the body, socialising and yup, spiritual and meditative benefits. I would recommend anyone to train in almost any art – martial arts training is just great full stop – but just be aware that not all of what is out there is relevant or transferable to a real situation.

Anyway, I seem to have run out of steam so I’d better make a practical recommendation. This club is based in St Mary’s in Southampton – and it is a proper self-protection club, that comes highly recommended. It sure ain’t spiritual but, dude, if you can face the fear, three months here and you’ll be able to leather me and everybody else that you know. Possibly I'm trying to live vicariously through you here because I'd love to train there, but lemme know what you think, drop me a PM. Either way, train in something dude, it's so much fun...