{"id":4908,"date":"2017-09-13T07:00:22","date_gmt":"2017-09-13T14:00:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/fightfast.com\/blog\/?p=4908"},"modified":"2021-03-31T15:41:32","modified_gmt":"2021-03-31T15:41:32","slug":"being-smart-or-being-tough-which-will-save-your-life-by-derek-smith","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fightfastvideos.com\/blog\/2017\/09\/13\/being-smart-or-being-tough-which-will-save-your-life-by-derek-smith\/","title":{"rendered":"Being Smart Versus Being Tough"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Which Will Save Your Life?<\/h4>\nWhen contemplating how to prepare for real life survival and combat there is often a debate on whether you need to be smart to survive an encounter or if you should be the toughest mother around. Well I plan to explore this for you in this article and give you my opinion on this matter.\n

Two Approaches<\/h2>\nThere are two broad categories of self-defense that is often discussed or taught in self-defense courses: mental preparedness and physical preparedness.<\/em><\/strong>\n\n[dfads params='groups=292&limit=1&orderby=random']\n

Physical preparedness<\/h4>\nPhysical Preparedness is based on developing physical skills as a solution for self-defense encounters. This means you will spend time learning various, and hopefully good, ways to punch, kick, and grapple with an attacker.\n\nInstructors sometimes mention avoiding physical confrontation if possible, but mainly teaches ways to deal with physical attacks if you are confronted. Whether you start taking full blown martial arts classes or sign up for a self-defense course the focus is on teaching you physical techniques you can use in a self-defense situation.\n\nThe main thought here is that you are training your BODY to be your weapon and the more you learn and train the better you become with your self-defense techniques, making you and your loved ones safer because you can defend them<\/a> and yourself.\n
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Mental Preparedness<\/h4>\nMental preparedness on the other hand is focused on learning theories, concepts and strategies for personal protection. Let's face it, there are some people who don't want to, or are incapable (due to physical limitation), of learning self-defense moves. So this theory-based approach involves your learning about and understanding attack situations; how they happen, how you can anticipate and recognize them, how you can avoid these encounters all together and how to respond if you encounter one.\n\nWith mental preparedness your BRAIN becomes your most powerful self-defense weapon, and your training supposedly makes you \"SMARTER\" and more capable of making the right decisions during a chaotic self-defense situation.\n\nPhysical preparedness involves efficiently learning and practicing physical techniques. The more proficient you become at executing your techniques faster, with more coordination, more power, the more confident you become about being able to handle yourself in a real life attack situation.\n\nMany self-defense courses deal entirely with learning techniques as a TOTAL solution for all your self-defense needs. There is nothing entirely wrong with this approach. I teach many physical skills in my classes and DVDs and learning physical skills can dramatically improve your chances of surviving an attack situation.\n\nIf the techniques you learn are truly effective and you practice them regularly, you will become more effective at protecting yourself. BUT is this approach alone an effective \"self-defense solution?\"<\/em>\n\n[dfads params='groups=292&limit=1&orderby=random']\n

Let\u2019s take a closer look!<\/h4>\nPhysical skills training, if properly conducted, is a GREAT, and often fun way to get you into fighting shape and preparing you for self-defense scenario. You will build self-confidence and self-esteem, especially knowing that you are now less of a victim than before you started your training. And if you carry yourself in a more confident manner, you are probably less likely to be attacked.\n\nPeople often tell me that I look like a soldier or a cop, and I think this is one reason why potential attackers are less likely to choose me as their pray. This was not always the case before I learned how to thoroughly protect myself. And I believe that by understanding how to protect myself, and knowing I can defend myself in most situations, I come off as someone you should not mess with and I have no fear of the punks I see on the streets.\n\nHopefully you will NEVER have to defend yourself, but with regular martial arts or self-defense training you know you will be able to if the need arises.\n
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Now here is the problem:<\/h4>\nIf you limit your self-defense training only to developing physical skills, you severely limit your response options in an attack scenario. What I mean here is that you are essentially limited to a fight or flight mode. You either do battle or you run. However, there are other ways to resolve an attack scenario than these two.\n\nMaking the wrong choice, like fighting when you don't have to, can get you killed, hurt, arrested and possibly sued. You don't want any of these outcomes. While your training makes you THINK you can handle just about any situation, don't make the mistake of over estimating your potential and end up getting your ass kicked by someone who is tougher, meaner and more malicious than you are.\n\n[dfads params='groups=292&limit=1&orderby=random']\n

Mental Preparedness for Self-Defense<\/h4>\nSo this brings me to the mental aspect of training. Even the \"best\" fighter will be get his ass whipped if he or she doesn't have the proper awareness and avoidance skills, or is caught off guard. Your best physical techniques won't do jack if you are surprised by an unanticipated attack. This is where your mental preparedness comes into play. Through mental training you learn to recognize the \"big picture\" of attack scenarios.\n\nThink about the type of training I did as an agent. We were all trained to shoot at an expert level so we could make the shot, but we had to also be able to make the \"right\" call before making the shot. We were not shooting at just paper targets in the field. To practice this we used simulators that would also train our minds to react in the proper manner during a shoot, no shoot situation.\n\nThe intent of this mental training was to make us \"smarter\" agents, better capable of avoiding, diffusing or responding appropriately to an attack scenario. So in essence mental training will help you to use the most effective response possible if you are attacked. Fighting back with physical self-defense techniques is only part of self-defense. Making the correct decision is also essential. More on that later, let's explore mental preparedness a bit more.\n
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Mental Preparedness Benefits<\/h4>\nWhen you accurately understand the dynamics of an attack your odds of anticipating, avoiding, recognizing and responding to that attack increases. The \"best\" outcome of a potential attack is not when you fight your way out of it. It's when you are able to avoid it in the first place! Although SEALS, Delta Forces, Air Force Office of Special Investigations, and other operators can fight, our first inclination is to avoid any physical contact when completing a mission (unless the objective is to do otherwise).\n\nWe, as agents, realize that not all volatile situations can be resolved by fighting. We needed to be able to assess the situation to select the most effective response for dealing with it, and you need to be able to do the same. Proper mental training will decrease the stress and fear associated with attack scenarios and provide you the control and self-confidence you need to successfully defend yourself.\n\n[dfads params='groups=292&limit=1&orderby=random']\n

Now here is the drawback though.<\/h4>\nIf your training is only mental and does not develop the physical skills needed should you have to resort to combat, then you may end up getting the shit kicked out of you, no matter how mentally prepared you are. Knowing the best response option in a given situation, be it running away or fighting back, is of little value if you don't know how to fight. I have run across MANY people who THINK they can fight, but really can't.\n\nJust this past 4th of July weekend I had two of my brothers visiting from out of town. One is 35 and the other is 36. I am 53 and they were talking about how they would kick my old ass. I took them to my basement training area, got them on the mats, and was able to finish both of them off in not minutes, but seconds.\n\nI even resorted to letting them get me in certain scenarios to make it easier for them and that did not help either. Now both of these guys are former Chicago gang bangers who THOUGHT they knew a lot about fighting and have done plenty of it. My point here is that if you haven't developed your skills and fitness levels by ongoing martial art or self-defense practice, how likely are you to out-run or out-fight an assailant?<\/em><\/strong>\n
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So What\u2019s My Point?<\/h4>\nNow let's get to the nitty gritty. If you have stuck with me this long you probably realize that choosing ONE OR THE OTHER of these two approaches is an incomplete method for self-defense. I think the BEST STRATEGY is to do what I do and teach, which is to combine your effective self-defense training with your ability to make smart self-defense decisions.\n\nBOTH mental AND physical preparation is essential to optimal self-defense success. There's always someone tougher and meaner than you are! Even highly skilled fighters and martial artists like me need awareness and avoidance skills, that's why they teach them to us. Our physical training is of little value to us if we don\u2019t have the proper mental skills to complement it.\n

\n Click here for more special agent combat training by Derek Smith!<\/a><\/p>\n\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Which Will Save Your Life? When contemplating how to prepare for real life survival and combat there is often a debate on whether you need to be smart to survive an encounter or if you should be the toughest mother around. Well I plan to explore this for you in this article and give you Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9653,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[22,2,4,10,11,13],"tags":[209,211],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fightfastvideos.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4908"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fightfastvideos.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fightfastvideos.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fightfastvideos.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fightfastvideos.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4908"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/fightfastvideos.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4908\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12813,"href":"https:\/\/fightfastvideos.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4908\/revisions\/12813"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fightfastvideos.com\/blog\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fightfastvideos.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4908"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fightfastvideos.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4908"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fightfastvideos.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4908"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}