Just like it is easy to be naive about the universal virtue of unconditional nonviolent pacifism, when your country already has armed soldiers on the borders, and your city already has police.
Kudos! A lot of my friends don’t understand why I practice martial arts, they just don’t understand how priviledged they are in never having needed it.
I’m skeptical of the value of advanced martial arts as a practical self-defense tool. The way that, say, muggers operate, I suspect that even Bruce Lee would find himself compelled to hand over his wallet. (You’re walking along, and suddenly some guy sneaks up behind you and puts you in a chokehold or something, while another guy, in front of you, demands your money.) Three random guys with baseball bats could probably beat up any single martial arts expert that they got the drop on—and if they have knives or guns...
More generally, the risk of getting injured or worse costs too much to attempt violence, even if you can win in 90% of encounters. Only where you can’t avoid confrontation by paying whatever moderate amount of money you have on you, there is a point in being stronger, which further discounts the worth of training, down from the already low probability of being attacked at all.
Perhaps this happens occasionally, but I know several people who’ve been mugged, and all of them have been mugged by a single person. In fact, I know a number of martial artists through my own training who have been subject to mugging attempts, and all of them successfully defended themselves.
It’s likely there’s some selection bias going on, since it’s rather embarrassing to admit to other practitioners that you failed to defend yourself from a mugger, but while there are certainly situations that no human, however skilled, can fight their way out of, martial arts are definitely better than useless at defending oneself and one’s property.
Of course, learning martial arts is rarely the most effective way to defend oneself. It’s usually more practical to stay out of situations where you’d need to use them at all. The way I see it, anyone who practices martial arts solely for self defense is in it for the wrong reason.
At least in terms of practical usefulness, it beats athletic skills like basketball, although you’ll never get paid as much for it even if you’re really good.
A small non-random sample, but I saw a discussion of the usefulness of martial arts where about half the participants said that what they’d actually used is the knowledge of how to fall safely.
When my father was (successfully) mugged, it was by a group of three. (He also remarked that lone muggers tend to fail, unless they have a gun—it’s too easy to simply run away from them.)
Of course, the plural of anecdote is not data, etc.
I’d be interested to know where he got that information. Personally, I’m inclined to be skeptical; I think most people would rather not take the risk of trying to run away. If they have you at knifepoint, or have a grip on you, then you’re at a distinct disadvantage trying to escape. The upside is that most muggers don’t really want to hurt their victims, but that’s a very risky thing to rely on.
I suspect Bruce Lee would’ve handled himself fine. The whole reason he was sent to the US by his family was that he was brawling too much in the streets (and presumably winning, although I can’t immediately find any online sources which say that).
You might find a couple of my blog posts interesting, the more recent is http://williambswift.blogspot.com/2009/04/avoiding-combat.html , and it links to the other. I include this quote in the more recent post:
“Violent crime is feasible only if its victims are cowards. A victim who fights back makes the whole business impractical.” (Jeff Cooper, Principles of Personal Defense).
Kudos! A lot of my friends don’t understand why I practice martial arts, they just don’t understand how priviledged they are in never having needed it.
I’m skeptical of the value of advanced martial arts as a practical self-defense tool. The way that, say, muggers operate, I suspect that even Bruce Lee would find himself compelled to hand over his wallet. (You’re walking along, and suddenly some guy sneaks up behind you and puts you in a chokehold or something, while another guy, in front of you, demands your money.) Three random guys with baseball bats could probably beat up any single martial arts expert that they got the drop on—and if they have knives or guns...
More generally, the risk of getting injured or worse costs too much to attempt violence, even if you can win in 90% of encounters. Only where you can’t avoid confrontation by paying whatever moderate amount of money you have on you, there is a point in being stronger, which further discounts the worth of training, down from the already low probability of being attacked at all.
Perhaps this happens occasionally, but I know several people who’ve been mugged, and all of them have been mugged by a single person. In fact, I know a number of martial artists through my own training who have been subject to mugging attempts, and all of them successfully defended themselves.
It’s likely there’s some selection bias going on, since it’s rather embarrassing to admit to other practitioners that you failed to defend yourself from a mugger, but while there are certainly situations that no human, however skilled, can fight their way out of, martial arts are definitely better than useless at defending oneself and one’s property.
Of course, learning martial arts is rarely the most effective way to defend oneself. It’s usually more practical to stay out of situations where you’d need to use them at all. The way I see it, anyone who practices martial arts solely for self defense is in it for the wrong reason.
At least in terms of practical usefulness, it beats athletic skills like basketball, although you’ll never get paid as much for it even if you’re really good.
A small non-random sample, but I saw a discussion of the usefulness of martial arts where about half the participants said that what they’d actually used is the knowledge of how to fall safely.
I can attest that falling safely is in fact very useful!
There’s actually been a decent bit of research into martial arts falling in non-combat situations. Kojustukan has a pretty good summary.
When my father was (successfully) mugged, it was by a group of three. (He also remarked that lone muggers tend to fail, unless they have a gun—it’s too easy to simply run away from them.)
Of course, the plural of anecdote is not data, etc.
I’d be interested to know where he got that information. Personally, I’m inclined to be skeptical; I think most people would rather not take the risk of trying to run away. If they have you at knifepoint, or have a grip on you, then you’re at a distinct disadvantage trying to escape. The upside is that most muggers don’t really want to hurt their victims, but that’s a very risky thing to rely on.
I suspect Bruce Lee would’ve handled himself fine. The whole reason he was sent to the US by his family was that he was brawling too much in the streets (and presumably winning, although I can’t immediately find any online sources which say that).
You might find a couple of my blog posts interesting, the more recent is http://williambswift.blogspot.com/2009/04/avoiding-combat.html , and it links to the other. I include this quote in the more recent post: “Violent crime is feasible only if its victims are cowards. A victim who fights back makes the whole business impractical.” (Jeff Cooper, Principles of Personal Defense).