Self Defence – Ashihara Karate International – Kaicho Hoosain Narker Sabaki Fighting Karate
| What Self Protection is all About Street Fighting. Brawls. There are only two kinds of fights – those you start, and those that get pushed onto you. There are only two ways to end a fight – by winning, or by losing. Whichever, the actual fighting itself is all the same – once a fight has started, we fight to WIN. Naturally it’s not right to pick fights, but there are times when you can get involved in a fight whether you like it or not. Suppose you’re alone with your girlfriend, and some slob starts bothering you. What do you do? Run away and leave her, or stand the other man down – or maybe hide behind your girl? It’s up to you to decide. I always tell my students to first try apologizing, no matter what. If the guy accepts this, fine. But if he still persists, bo and say you’re sorry, then go and butt him on the nose with the top of your head. If he still comes on after that, hang on to his arm at the elbow, and while you’re asking him to stop, grab his chin with your free hand and beat his head against a telephone pole or something. At this point most people will give up, so say “Excuse me,” stomp on him hard and walk away. The above should be taken purely as a joke; however, the point is that this may be what it takes to protect yourself – or your girlfriend. If you can get out of a fight, do so. But remember, the decision to fight or not is up to your opponent, and there may come a time when you are FORCED to fight.   All Ashihara controlled technique taught can be used unchanged in self-defense. In particular, there are many techniques learnt in basic training that can be applied just as they are. No doubt this is because karate was originally developed not for attack, but as a form of self defense. Protect yourself. The safest course of action for self protection is to knock your opponent down before he can get hold of you and prevent you from retaliating. To that end, you must judge the instant his attack is coming in and fell him instantly with a counter. As you will have recognized, this is precisely the function of Ashihara Karate control techniques. Just use the techniques you have been taught so far. As your opponent comes to grab you, think of it as a punch and, as you would a punch, kick to his knee joint, or do a stopping technique. For further details, consider in ordering of our instructional video tapes. Practice self defense techniques in the natural stance-you must be able to protect yourself swiftly from the common position. |