The Difference Between Self Defense and Sports Martial Arts
Training in martial arts absolutely helps prepare you for real world violence and self-defense scenarios. Wrestlers, Judokas, JiuJiteiros, Muay Thai Fighters, etc can and do give the average attacker/robber a tough time in making a victim out of them. (Some examples at the bottom of this post.) Martial arts are codified systems and traditions of fighting, afterall. They also increase fitness, develop grit, and are wildly fun.
AND:
No matter where you train martial arts and which one you practice (or ones, don’t make us pick just one!), consider and prepare for the differences between sport and self defense. Below are eight distinctions between participating in and training for sport and training for a real world violent encounter, as well as how they should guide self-defense training.
Weight class, age, and fitness
If you train at a martial arts gym, you have probably heard that weight class matters. You probably avoid or seek out the training partner with exceptional strength and flexibility depending on what experience you’re looking for that day. You may hear people say that they’re “too old” for XYZ or you may even be that person.
There are currently 12 weight classes in the UFC (Understanding UFC Weight Classes | UFC). A professional 140 pound fighter competes with people who are between 135 and 145 pounds. Both fighters are typically around the same age, though there are some outliers, and both fighters have exceptional physical fitness.
In a self defense scenario, there is absolutely no guarantee that the person fighting to survive is anywhere near the same weight, age, or fitness level of the attacker. In fact, with intimate partner violence, bullying, and other common forms of violence, the attacker often has physical advantages and uses them against the person they are hurting.
This reality must inform how one trains for a self defense situation. Your “go-to” concepts, techniques, and strategies for self defense must have a high probability of being effective against someone bigger, younger, and fitter than you.
No squishy mat, no padded gloves…
…no mouthguards, no shin guards, no groin protection, no knee pads, etc.
When assessing a concept or technique for self defense applicability, some questions I ask myself are, “Would I do this on gravel? At night? In the rain? Could I do this in a parking lot between vehicles? In a bed, under covers? In my living room? In a bar?”
The strikes, kicks, and ground techniques that work in the gym and in the are not necessarily the ones to use in a self defense situation. The round kick to the head that you have been nailing in sparring, may lay YOU out on the ground if you attempt it on a slippery surface such as gravel. Your guard game may be the best in the dojo, but do you really want to keep someone with a knife that close to your carotid and femoral arteries, to your heart and lungs? These tactical decisions are your choice. You know your body and talents best and only you can make these decisions to keep yourself safe in real world violence. There is no ONE answer to these questions.
It is worth considering and assessing the tools in your arsenal (the skills and techniques you have) for which are appropriate for sport and which are appropriate for self defense. Ideally your self defense “go to”s take into account the lack of squishy mats and protective gear in real world violence as well as the possibility that you may have to fight on gravel, concrete, carpet, in a bed, in the dark, in the freezing cold, or with blood in your eyes and on your hands.
No Rules
In boxing, kicks and grappling are against the rules. In muay thai, headbutts and groin kicks are against the rules. In BJJ, Judo, and wrestling, striking is against the rules. In the UFC, kicks, knees, stomps, and any type of strike to the head of a grounded opponent are against the rules, as are eye gouges and downward strikes with the elbow to the head.
These rules were instituted to ensure the safety of the athletes and to further develop the skills within each particular art/sport. When training for self-defense, it is important to plan for any and all of the above actions that are capable of causing serious bodily injury and even death.
The absence of rules is not to be viewed as only a negative. In fact, the absence of rules provides more freedom in choosing an appropriate tool or technique in a self-defense scenario. In order to protect yourself from an assault, you may choose a downward elbow strike to the head, an Osoto Gari throw, a kimura submission, or all three.
And now to contradict myself and undo everything I just described: there are, in fact, a set of rules to follow in self-defense, and breaking them can have life-long and expensive consequences. Those rules are the laws in your state’s Penal Code regarding self-defense and use of force/use of lethal force, briefly discussed later in this post.
The Presence of Weapons and Weapons of Opportunity
It is difficult to get accurate statistics on assaults, robberies, burglaries, sexual assaults, domestic violence and crime in general for many reasons that are outside the scope of this post. However, the numbers we do have clearly point to the presence of weapons in violent encounters.
From the FBI: “Of the aggravated assault offenses for which law enforcement provided expanded data in 2019, 27.6 percent were committed with firearms. Personal weapons, such as hands, fists, or feet, were used in 25.2 percent of aggravated assaults, and knives or cutting instruments were used in 17.5 percent. Other weapons were used in 29.8 percent of aggravated assaults.” (FBI — Aggravated Assault) In simpler terms, of all of the aggravated assaults in 2019 in this FBI report, almost 3 out of 4 were committed with a weapon.
“Other weapons” is a catchall term for anything other than a firearm or blade. In this same study, nearly 30% of the aggravated assaults were committed with something other than a firearm or blade. Some examples of “other weapons” are clubs and bats, but also weapons of opportunity such as tools, flashlights, weights, bricks, and bottles.
Training for self-defense must include preparing for the possibility that a violent encounter could involve the presence of a weapon. Or a few.
Different End Goals
The goal of a martial arts competition is to win. Each sport has a different way to win: submission, knock out, and points are some examples. Winning is accomplished by staying in the ring or on the mat until the submission, knock out, or time is up and you have accrued more points than your opponent.
The end goal of a self defense scenario is to stop the threat and/or get away safely. Self-defense training utilizes the techniques of martial arts to do damage, restrain, and defend during real world violence, however the strategy and end goal are different. Though many of the same techniques can be applied in both situations, strategies for winning a martial arts competition and a self-defense scenario are different due to the different end goals.
Practicing your ending and exit strategies for self-defense is essential so that they, too, can become instinctive and reflexive. (More on technique versus strategy here.)
Non consensual: you don’t want this, you didn’t sign up for it
Craig Douglas of Shivworks (fantastic instructor, fantastic coursework. Consider checking him out after you read this post Who is Southnarc? – ShivWorks) describes this characteristic as “unequal initiatives” in his training. “Unequal initiatives” describes that in many self-defense situations, someone strikes first or initiates the violence without you even being ready, let alone consenting to the struggle. There is no opportunity for you to warm-up, stretch, eat well and hydrate for the week leading up to the fight for your life. You may be exhausted, sore from leg day, and nursing a sprained elbow.
Another implication of unequal initiatives is that you will be forced into the unenviable position of having to react to someone imposing their will upon you until you can flip the script and regain control of the situation. Because of this, self-defense training should include initiative deficits, starting from bad/dangerous positions, and especially good daily habits that give you more time and space to react (such as situational awareness and actively managing how close people get to you).
Legal Considerations
Training for self-defense frees us from the rules of training for sport, but it binds us to the laws of our respective cities, states, and countries. It is important to understand what the laws state we can and cannot do in self-defense, defense of another, and in protection of property. In legal terms, “self-defense” is a defense to prosecution, which means it can be up to the court to decide if your actions rise to the level of self-defense. It could also mean that you yourself get charged with a criminal offense for inflicting bodily injury or serious bodily injury (the assault becomes a felony in this case) if you are not deemed to have acted in self-defense.
In the case that your self-defense situation eventually moves into the court system, the police will be involved much earlier in the process. It is important to understand when, how, and why to involve the police during self-defense and to practice doing so. It is important to understand, realistically, what the police can and cannot do for you, when and how long it might take for them to arrive, and what Officers must do upon arrival to a violent and chaotic scene to make it safe for an investigation.
While training for self-defense, it is important to understand which techniques lead to bodily injury, serious bodily injury, and even death. It is important to consider which scenarios justify which techniques in a civilian use of force continuum and which is prosecuted as a felony.
The Texas Penal code defines "bodily injury" as physical pain, illness, or any impairment of physical condition, whereas “serious bodily injury” is bodily injury that creates a substantial risk of death or that causes death, serious permanent disfigurement, or protracted loss or impairment of the function of any bodily member or organ. An example of “bodily injury” is a push or punch resulting in pain. An example of “serious bodily injury” is a punch resulting in a fractured orbital bone or a kimura resulting in a broken arm. PENAL CODE CHAPTER 1. GENERAL PROVISIONS (texas.gov)
Not knowing that something is against the law is rarely an acceptable defense. It is up to you to understand if your actions are illegal. Please familiarize yourself with local laws, starting with Chapter 9 of the Texas Penal Code. Reading and understanding the legal jargon of the Penal Code is difficult and keeping up with current case law on self-defense is perhaps more daunting. I believe both are better suited to the experts- lawyers. I am not a lawyer. Consider speaking to a lawyer about your questions regarding self-defense and/or hiring on-call legal representation for self-defense situations like US Law Shield.
Other People
In sports and competition, the goal is to defeat one opponent. In the room with you are friends, teammates, coaches, a referee, other teams, family members, and fans.
During a real world violent encounter, it could be just you versus your attacker. Or it could be multiple attackers. Or it could be you and a friend versus one attacker. Or multiple attackers. It could be you and your children versus one or more attackers. There could be onlookers who decide to help, walk away, yell and scream, or join in the attack. There could be onlookers filming and your encounter might make it to Worldstar Fights.
Other fun characters to add to the chaos are: drunk people, high people, naked people, jealous people, people with communicable diseases, untrained people you need to defend, bouncers, security guards, protesters, counter protesters, and well-trained, competent fighters.
Each one of these variables introduces unpredictability, added decision making, and mayhem. It is not possible to train for every possible scenario given that there are an infinite amount. However, training for self-defense should include working through some of the problems caused by other people present in a violent encounter.
To Put It All Together
The reality of real world violence must inform how one trains for a self defense situation. The concepts, techniques, and strategies practiced at ATX Tactics come from a variety of martial arts, and they are all assessed through the lens of the factors described above before they are incorporated into our curriculum. Come in for a class and see for yourself.
As promised, some martial arts practitioners shutting down attacks and robberies:
Female boxing champion fights off robbers in Chicago, repeatedly hits one in the groin | Fox News
MMA fighters takes down alleged NYC attacker using 'jujitsu instincts' | Fox News Video
Female MMA Fighter -- Stops Alleged Attacker ... With Insane Leg Lock (Video) (tmz.com)
Female UFC fighter beats the hell out of mugger with cardboard gun (nypost.com)