Who is the Real Self Defense Expert?

Well, it's because everyone thinks he or she is an expert in self defense. And it's for this very reason that I am loathe to tell anyone what I do as a profession. The second that someone finds out that I do "some sort of martial arts thing" they start telling me about his or her years of study in Tae Kwon Do, Karate or what have you. And when they find out that I'm a professional fighter they start telling me about their fights or their third cousin's fights. Next they will invariably ask me if I know so and so (some local guy). I reply that it's more likely he knows who I am than the other way around. As I have been international since the mid 1990s. In reality, I find this question akin to asking Wayne Gretzky or Lance Armstrong if they know learn more some beginning player or rider. Yeah, I am sure Lance and Wayne have an index of every start up and wannabe around the globe.

Some of the more probing questioners will advance on to asking me about CQB and "military fighting." When I admit that yes I have trained several groups in various countries, I get assaulted with so what you do is Karate? Since they have a loose frame of reference this sort of question is going nowhere. I tell them the differences between what I do (mortal unarmed combat training) and Karate or normal martial arts are so great that it can't be explained. "Why not?" they ask. And my answer is now pretty standard: "How would you explain the color green to a blind man?" They, of course, have no answer. And that's the rub (as they used to say) isn't it? It cannot be explained; it has to be experienced.

"Well I would just do whatever it takes to survive," they say. Really? How about spending the time to build the necessary skills to allow you to do that? After all, you might want to fly a jet, but you sure aren't going to do it without a lot of time put in and experience in small gradients leading up to solo flying. In comparison to the street fighting, self defense set, it's funny that neither surgeons nor fighter pilots have people coming up to them in social settings (a bar has got to be the number one spot to find the think tank of self defense and fighting experts) and stating, "Yeah, just the other day I was flying an F 15 myself" or "I had this problematic internal fixation of the radius surgery last Tuesday." Yeah, only in the wonderful world of self defense, fighting and martial arts can you find so many experts.

The cold hard reality is that there are few real self defense experts. Oh, I know since the advent of web 2.0 there is a proliferation of would be experts. This is kind of strange as I can remember the time when the number of real self defense experts (those who were actively teaching) numbered less than 20. Seemingly the qualifications must've changed dramatically. I guess all of the years learning (which means traveling to various high level instructors around the globe, not in your small village or subdivision) and the years of real world application with the following injuries and healing time have been eliminated. I guess that happened sometime after 2002 or so, huh?

Now, I am not talking about a person who practices self defense or who works out. No, I am talking about all of those that claim to be self defense, street fighting experts. How suddenly were they all birthed? Where did they get their experience?

You know, it's easy for a real pro to call the wannabes to terms. Here's an example of just one of those ways: There are dramatic differences in how people fight around the world. If someone cannot tell me what's the common attack in Scotland vs USA or Thailand vs Guatemala then I know they aren't someone who is a true pro. That's part of your job as a pro to learn these things and to actually survived through them. After all, if you don't know how can you teach someone else? Sort of like a virgin giving out sex advice, isn't it?

I can't do an exhaustive article on this subject because it's really too deep to cover in one article. What I can call your attention to is who's the real self defense expert? That question should be in your mind anytime you discuss or ponder this subject of street fighting and self defense. Because just like surgery your life is in the hands of self defense trainer.