MJC Self Defense

MPE-C 164

Goals of the class:

Increase awareness

Build assertiveness and confidence

Self Defense:

Usually when people decide to train in a martial art, they understand that there is a training process that builds from basic to expert and that this process takes a great deal of time and commitment.  We have limited time (approximately thirty hours, which is not even a full work week).  Therefore, we do not expect you to fully master any of the techniques we teach.  We do, however, hope that through training in this class, you will become more aware and gain a sense of confidence and assertiveness that will prevent you from needing to use any physical techniques.  We hope that, should you be involved in a physical confrontation, a defensive, hands-up reaction will come naturally.

Awareness:

Our goal is to make each and every person aware of their own self and their position in relation to others; become aware of their surroundings; be actively aware of their safety; and become aware of others’ intentions (trusting intuition).

Victims:

Usually bullies pick on victims.  Why?  Because they are easy targets.  What makes a victim?  Victims are people who are unable to defend themselves.  Often, they give off a helpless aura that just screams, “Please, don’t pick on me because I just can’t take it!”  People can be abused physically, mentally, verbally, emotionally, or sexually; but really, you have to let yourself be that victim.  Even if people don’t realize it, they usually let themselves be victimized simply by not asserting themselves.

Assertiveness and Confidence:

Being assertive is not the same as being aggressive (though it may feel that way at first to people who are not used to being assertive).  Aggressiveness leads to conflict.  Our goal is to diffuse conflict through confidence and assertiveness.  Assertiveness comes from a sense of confidence.  We want to give each person here a sense of confidence that they can handle themselves under stressful situations.  Of course, we must create stressful situations for you to experience in order to build that confidence. 

In this class, we ask you to step outside of your comfort zone.  You will meet and train with people you don’t know.  We will ask that you train with experienced students, who have taken this class before and know how each technique progresses, and what their role in training is.  Many people are intimidated by this; they feel that their skill will be inadequate and that the experienced student may judge them or make fun of them.  We have all been beginners at this.  No one will judge or make fun of you.  The people who are returning to this class come back because they have fun in here and they want to share that fun with as many people as possible.  We also insist that you train with as many different people as possible during each class.  Should you ever be attacked and need to use your experience in this class, that attacker will more than likely not be the friend you brought with you or that you met in class.  It is much more effective to your learning curve to practice each technique with a variety of body sizes, personalities, and temperaments. 

Most people have a left or right dominant side that they do things better with.  We cannot guarantee that an attacker will attack you on your dominant side!  Therefore, we train on each side equally, regardless of which is your dominant side.

We are going to teach you new things in here that most people haven’t done before.  Again, we realize that this makes many people uncomfortable, but it is all part and parcel of that journey toward confidence.

Ukemi:

Each student depends on every other student to help them to learn the exercises to the best of their abilities.  We want everybody to feel that they could defend themselves from an attacker, but for that to be true, each person must give his best effort to give honest energy during training.  (We call this ukemi, and you will hear us refer to it often.)  This does not mean that we want people flying at each other at full speed, or fighting with their partner to “make” them do the technique.  When we train here, we do it in slow motion, like tai chi practitioners in the park.  When you see people doing tai chi in the park, it looks very smooth, graceful, and slow.  What you may not realize is that tai chi is one of the most effective martial arts in the world.  But people don’t learn it by going full speed.  We do the same thing here.  We train our bodies to move in a choreographed manner, with our bodies in certain positions relative to that of our partners, over and over.  This way, should we need to use these techniques, our bodies are conditioned to move in a proscribed manner without our having to think about it.

If a person is ever attacked, the last thing that person will be doing is thinking rationally.  This is why we use repetition to train.  Some people will think that they understand a technique and want to move on to something else, but our goal goes beyond mere understanding of the technique; we want the technique to become reflexive.  We understand, however, that the time we have available in one class is not enough to make all of the techniques we will teach you to become reflex.  Our main goal in this class is for your hands and feet to move automatically into a position from which you can defend yourself.  If all else fails, we want this habit to become automatic.

Limited time:

We try to keep “what-ifs” to a minimum because we only have thirty hours of training.  There are thousands of possible attacks, with thousands of responses to these attacks.  We only have time to train for a certain number of attacks and techniques.  We have chosen the ones we think best suited for this class that we can get through in the proscribed amount of time.  If you have questions about variations or alternate methods, we ask that you speak with Sensei after class.

Safety:

Safety is paramount in this class.  We train with each other and need to learn to keep ourselves, as well as our partners, safe.  There are several things we insist on in this class for everyone’s safety.  First and foremost, we teach you to get to the ground safely.  To practice the techniques we use, we have to take turns being the attacker.  As uke (also known as receiver or attacker), we need to learn how to reach the ground safely when training in a technique (we use the term falling, though it’s more like sitting).

Also, as uke, we have to give the most honest attack possible, even though we’re doing it in slow motion.  Again, we call this ukemi and it is the most important part of learning a technique correctly.  If you give poor ukemi to your partner, they will struggle to learn the technique.  By giving good ukemi, you feel how the technique works and gain a sense of what you need to do, and in what way, when it is your turn to practice the technique.  When you practice a technique with your partner, you need to be completely in the moment with them.  If you are participating half-heatedly during a technique, you increase the likelihood that you may be injured.

During this class, we build daily from one technique, or aspect of a technique, to another.  If you miss a day, it is imperative that you train with an experienced student when you return to catch up on what you missed, as what you missed may have been a safety issue regarding the technique.

A large part of safety is awareness.  You need to be aware of what your body is doing, where it is in relation to your partner’s body, and where other couples or groups are working around you.  We hate to hear that special knocking sound of two heads coming together, so each person needs to have an awareness for where they are working.  Often, when there are a lot of people training on the mat, we will ask that you “throw to the outside of the mat.”  This simply means that the attacker needs to move from the center of the mat toward their partner.

Another safety issue is jewelry.  We ask that you don’t wear any jewelry that could injure your partner such as large rings, watches and bracelets.  For your own safety, you should not wear large hoop earrings or necklaces.  For the protection of the mat, we ask that you do not wear clothing with zippers or metal buttons.  The preferred uniform is sweats and a t-shirt.  If you have gi pants, you are more than welcome to wear those.  Kneepads are optional.  Socks are mandatory on this mat.  We ask that you do not wear shorts or tank tops.  Do not keep wallets or loose change, or anything else in your pockets.

Fun:

While our main goals are to teach awareness and to build assertiveness and confidence; we want to make this process an enjoyable one.  Be sure to introduce yourself to each person you train with and give them your full attention while working with them.  This class is a blast!  We meet loads of new people, have a lot of fun, and even learn new things.  You will reap the benefits of the energy you put into this class.  The more you put into it, the more you will get out of it.