Definining Martial Arts, Self Defense, Personal Safety, and Profesional use of Force

Again let me start off by saying that I think that Marc "Animal" MacYoung has probably explained this better than I have in his "Four focuses of Martial Arts" ...now "Five focuses", and I would highly recommend you read it for further insight into the subject.

And now for my two cents worth:

MARTIAL ARTS- (From Marriam-Webster Online) Function: noun: any of several arts of combat and self defense (as karate and judo) that are widely practiced as sport.

(From my head) Historically, methods of collecting, organizing, and disseminating tactics and strategies of combat learned in times of warfare and personal combat. Through time they have attracted other attributes such as spiritual, intellectual, and, physical development. Because many of these traditions are hundreds, if not thousands, of years old, they have, almost universally, collected over time a wealth of wisdom and knowledge that are invaluable to the modern understanding of "interpersonal physical conflict".

The strengths of Martial Arts are almost too innumerable to list. They include, as listed above, spiritual, intellectual, and physical development, which together can help instill in a person self discipline, self confidence, focus, historical and cultural understanding, and a sense of serenity, wonder, and awe. Although many of these attributes can be universally understood, much of what you get from studying Martial Arts will be deeply personal and different from person to person. Practicing a Martial Art can enrich and deepen your understanding of life and introduce you to concepts and ways of thinking that could never be understood in a single lifetime.

The weaknesses of traditional Martial Arts stem partially from the source of it's strengths; the length of time that they have been around and developing. Over time many traditional Martial Arts have, understandably, developed techniques, strategies, and training methodologies that have become very complicated and would take an inordinate amount of time to learn and apply in a self defense situation.

SELF DEFENSE- (From Marriam-Webster Online) Function: noun1 : a plea of justification for the use of force or for homicide2 : the act of defending oneself, one's property, or a close relative.

(From my head) The practice and training of practical, common sense and no nonsense, techniques and strategies of avoidance, de-escalation, and physical skills that can be readily taught, learned and applied in a short period of time, and are directly applicable to contemporary threats and environments. The physical techniques taught tend to be simple, straightforward, gross motor skill in nature, and often rely on the bodies natural flinch mechanism, and so are devoid of complicated and flashy movements. The techniques taught in Self Defense will also very between men and women. Men often need to learn techniques more oriented toward the stand up fight, while Women can benefit from more ground fighting oriented skills.

The training methodologies used tend towards those that can help accomplish the above, such as adrenal stress conditioning and reality based scenario training (also referred to as "conflict rehearsal", or more commonly "role playing").

Self Defense programs very often also cover topics that you would not traditionally find in Martial Arts such as tactical awareness (including how bad guys think, and how to identify and avoid conflict and threats), application of the use of force continuum, the legal ramifications of acting in self defense, how to navigate through the legal system if you do have to defend yourself, reading body language, and verbal de-escalation skills.

PERSONAL SAFETY (I could not find a dictionary definition of the term)- those things that you do on a daily basis to keep yourself safe from harm, such as parking under street lamps, locking your doors and windows at night, and being and staying aware of your environment and people around you. It is not so much an avoidance of danger, but rather the application of common sense and learned safety strategies. Harm reduction can also be considered to fall under the definition of personal safety. As an example, engaging in survival sex (which is surprisingly common, and yes, even sex workers have the right to self defense) can be a dangerous activity, but taking active steps to keep yourself as safe as possible, such as knowing your HIV status, lowering your number of sexual partners, increasing your condom use, and keeping your medical appointments can minimize and mitigate your general risks.

PROFESSIONAL USE OF FORCE (again, I could not find a dictionary definition of the term)- the application of force by people employed in occupations that require them to go into harms way. Although Self Defense and Personal Safety play a large role in Professional use of Force, the techniques and strategies used are more often geared towards battlefield fighting (as in the case of military combatives) and arresting techniques (as in the case of police defensive tactics), and are designed to allow their users to, as safely as possible, engage in, rather than avoid, conflict.

Common catagories of Professional use of Force are combatives (hand to hand and contact weapon fighting) and defensive tactics (officer survival, arresting techniques). Although the use of combatives is fairly limited to military personnel (and now, more and more often, "civilian contractors"), defensive tactics are used not only by police officers, but also by those working in many civilian security professions such as loss prevention officers, bouncers, body guards, and bail enforcement officers (bounty hunters). Some people not in security specific occupations such as those working in hospitals and mental health facilities may also train in and use some form of Professional use of Force.

Please let me know if this post was helpful to you or not.