Martial Arts - Self Defence

With the unfortunate realisation that incidents of physical assault are ever more prevalent in today's society, self-defence, the act of defending oneself, one's property or the well-being of another from harm from a physical threat, and the very fundamantal how-to's, do's and dont's of such self-defence, should be a necessary prerequisite and essential part of eveybody's skill-set.

Many styles of martial arts are practiced for self-defence or include self-defence techniques. Some styles train primarily for self-defence, while other martial/combat sports can be effectively applied for self-defence. For practical self-defence, a combination of martial arts styles and techniques can be employed to tailor the self-defence training to suit an individual's lifestyle, occupation, age and gender.

Beyond the physical hand-to-hand aspects of personal self-defence, other techniques such as de-escalation through the use of voice, tone, agreement, redirection of focus and body language can be a useful tool to calm a potentially violent situation before violence actually ensues. Of course, since in such scenarios, it is often the case, especially in women's self-defence, that the assailant is larger and stronger than the prespective victim, the best form of self-defence is avoidance; being aware of your surroundings and avoiding potentially dangerous situations or doing everything possible to avoid fighting someone who threatens or attacks you. Physical aggression should always be the last line-of-defence, when every other alternative has been exhausted.

Self-defence classes can be extremely good for improving fitness, coordination, confidence, stress relief and can be a great social activity.