Stu

When talking about self-defence, we spend a large portion of the time talking about offensive techniques. If someone attacks you, then you punch him, kick him, throw him, choke him, or whatever. Invariably, the focus is on what you are doing to him to stop him, and rightly so. You need to end the confrontation, and most of your best ways to do that involve attacking hard as soon as possible.

We mustn’t neglect defence though. If your opponent throws a punch, or swings a weapon, then merely knowing that if you should happen to survive you are going to do something truly horrible to him is not enough. Nor is it enough to say that people somehow naturally know how to defend against strikes, it is true on a very basic level, and those natural reactions can be extended, but if it were true in any comprehensive sense, no one would ever get hit.

You need to spend time training your defensive movements along with your offensive ones, and you need to understand the different options available to you, because not every one is equally effective in every circumstance. So what are those options?

Firstly, we have positioning. Where you stand affects the attacks an opponent can throw. If you stand directly in front of someone, then they have the maximum opportunity to bring force to bear. If you move off to one side, or even slip behind them, then you can limit their options considerably. If you can move out of the way of the whole flow of an attack, you will be much safer than if you don’t.

Evasion is slightly separate. It involves moving out of the way of specific attacks, rather than just limiting options. It is hard to do in self defence situations, simply because the range is usually so short. At longer ranges though, effective slipping, stepping, or body movement can be very helpful.

Trapping, jamming and grabbing are next. The idea here is not to try to intercept a moving arm, but to grab or trap that arm before it can move, stopping its use. Trying to grab a knife when it is being used rapidly is very difficult indeed, yet the majority of people who successfully deal with knife attacks unarmed do grab the knife arm at some point. How do we reconcile those points? Because we do not wait for the attack with this sort of technique. We move forward to grab at a point where the arm is stationary or slow moving.

Blocking and parrying come after that. The main difference between the two terms is the amount of force involved, and consequently the size of the movements. Large blocking motions, such as those found in many traditional Japanese martial arts, may not work well at close range against a determined opponent. Those currently practising those arts who are offended by that should remember that many of those researching potential applications for those kata movements tend to suggest these days that the traditional ‘blocks’ are actually other things instead, and they are almost always preceded by smaller parrying movements. Focus on those smaller parrying motions for better success.

Covering up is another slightly separate category. You aren’t trying to stop a specific attack. Instead, you are trying to get your hands in front of your head so that they take the worst of any onslaught. It’s a fairly instinctive reaction, and shouldn’t be neglected, but it probably isn’t the first choice because it limits your offensive options.

Rolling with the punch is your last resort. You should practise it. You should get as good as possible at it. You shouldn’t rely on it as your primary defence though. Too many people have thought that they would just ‘take’ one or two shots to finish a fight, only to find that they were either being attacked by someone with a massive size advantage, or someone holding an edged weapon.

Each of these defensive options needs to be trained, and each needs to be used in conjunction with appropriate offensive moves. Try for simultaneous attack and defence wherever possible, so that the attacker doesn’t get to throw attack after attack. Above all, remember that having all the attacking moves in the world achieves nothing if you are incapacitated in the first seconds of the fight.