Statement of Purpose

This project is an investigation of 5 Martial Arts styles. Self-defense is a major theme in martial arts today and to better understand how different martial arts schools and styles treat self-defense I am going to learn all I can (given time restraints) about each of the five styles. These schools will be chosen from a list of local martial arts studios, and the style will be the one that is taught at that studio. Many studios teach multiple styles, so in this case on of the styles taught there will be analyzed. At the end of the project all the schools I visited will be rated and scored to show in which areas they excel or by contrast, fall short.

Thursday, February 23, 2012

Common Sense Self-Defense

The library is a wonderful thing. Books on almost every topic, including self-defense and martial arts. I occurred to me that to rate self-defense of a style that I would have to compare the reactions of that style to a basic response, one without any stylistic influence. For that I turned to self-defense handbooks and seminars. Places that teach self-defense, but not martial arts are easy to find, they don't bother with the spiritual or mental sides of the martial arts, and instead they focus solely on combat and defense.
Also, handbooks that discuss self-defense are easy to find, and that brings me back to the library. I found a book there called, Common Sense Self-Defense, 7 Rules That Can Save Your Life. This book outlines 7 self-defense "rules" that can help you become safer and be more confident in self-defense situations. One of the things that really surprised me in this book was two things the book stressed, "Hostile situations are a fact of life," and "do what you must to survive." These two points really stuck out to me, because if you can take to heart these two points you are well ahead of the average person.
The book was written by two men, one Dave Garcia, Police Officer and Former Marine, and two Stewart Smith, Security Consultant and Former Navy Seal. They combine their experience to best convey the self-defense attitude to their readers. The best thing about this book is that it doesn’t have any influence from a specific martial arts style. It is mostly military in its origin. This book should prove to be useful in analyzing different forms of self-defense.
Thanks for reading,
Mr. Waaler

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