The Reality of Self-Defence and Violent Crime Today

There are two brutally honest assessments to be made that are largely ignored because, if they are stated, someone might get offended. If you are offended by reality, then you aren't likely to continue reading this article anyway, so I'll give those assessments and let the chips fall.

1) When a combat involves a fat guy and a guy who's in shape, the guy who's in shape is almost always going to be the winner, no matter the "training" the other guy might have had.

2) When a combat involves a guy who trains daily to defend himself and a guy who took a couple of classes and thinks he's ready ensues: the daily trainer will win.

Both of these truisms are obvious to anyone who thinks inside reality. I apologize to anyone who was offended by either of those statements, but life is full of hurt because nothing in life is "fair." The first step towards realizing your own ability to defend yourself is to realize that what you know about fighting is probably wrong.

Most of us learn the idea of fighting from movies, books, magazines, and other media. Some of us saw the harsh realities of fighting in the school yard, but even then we mostly just saw that "the big guy always wins."

The reality is that the movies and comic books have a formula for a good fight scene and that formula has nothing to do with a real street fight. That formula is made to look good on-screen and to tell a story, not to reproduce the violence of reality.

In the movies, the good guy might get beat up, but he always walks away in one piece while, eventually, the bad guy will die or end up in jail. In reality, the good guy in a street fight usually loses and rarely walks away unscathed, but more often is scarred for life.

Harsh, but true.

In the United Kingdom, more than 20 people per day are taken to hospital as a result of a violent encounter. According to a report in the July 2, 2009 Telegraph, that is more than double the rate of that in the U.S. In fact, the long-standing tradition of British "safety" versus that of Americans has been dashed with new crime statistics showing a 2:100 crime rate by population (yearly) versus America's 0.4:100 rate. The number of hospitalizations due to street crime, by population, in the UK has risen by 50% in five years.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/lawandorder/5712573/UK-is-violent-crime-capital-of-Europe.html

This means that more and more people are finding themselves forced into violent encounters on the street. Most people are not prepared for that. So the reality is that most people lose and become victims.

Knowing the harsh realities is the first step towards dealing with them and being prepared for when they confront you directly.

The two steps in self-defence training are this: face reality and then get in shape mentally and physically so you can deal with that reality.

Self-defence is primarily about understanding your own ability to deal with physical conflict. It is not about the dreaminess of specialized martial arts training. It is about knowing that you are truly mentally and physically prepared to defend yourself at all times.

The rest will come naturally, as your body seeks strength and your mind seeks knowledge.

http://www.beststreetfighting.com

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