How Self Defense Should Actually Be Trained • Ft Burton Richardson and Matt Thornton 

Exactly. Getting more specific, like mounted with knife is foolish. MA should be performance based as Matt has said many times not 'technique-based' as this individual is claiming in the video. He just wants to sell his book and courses.

@@badgejohnson5596 I believe is trying to point out that you should be training for the first case scenario. So if self defense is your goal....then make sure you're always aware of where their hands are so they cannot access a weapon.

Agreed, where I trained it was called Pre-Fight Tactics. In several years of training in Boxing, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and Muay Thai I never once heard the terms situational awareness, de-escalation or avoidance, but the place that taught Pre-Fight Tactics covered Situational Awareness Threat Identification Threat Assessment Avoidance Distance Control De-escalation Pre-Fight Interview Pre-Attack Indicators (body language and verbal cues) Pre-Emptive Tactics Distraction Tools Understanding a Violent Situation Use of Improvised Weapons Disengagement Escape The Psychology and Physiology of a Fight and Adrenal Stress Response. In this style a new student begins as ungraded and has to grade to get their white belt (rank) and the grading was based on a month of classes in Pre-Fight Tactics, which was always the first thing every new student was taught, and on grading day for white the students had to do a mixture of practical and theory, including watching and analysing about a dozen clips of CCTV footage of street violence, looking at state legislation regarding self-defence and the difference between self-defence and assault under the law. I’ve used the Pre-Fight training at least a dozen times since 2014, including working in crowd control event security. It’s been incredibly valuable. No combat sports art I’ve trained in even mentioned these concepts once, but as my old chief instructor in Krav Maga used to say, “Pre-Fight is everything”.

@@wattlebough Good reply. Far too many systems just teach techniques without any real context. And then somehow you're supposed to just put it all together at the WORST possible time (when under attack, when under high stress, etc.), some people might be able to pull it off but essentially the student is being set up for failure.

@@wattlebough great comment! will look up pre-fight tactics - I'm, so glad someone is focusing on the rest of the 99% of self defence! ty

That's a fair point. There are still thousands of victims of aggravated assault but compared to the hundred of thousands of rapes with no weapon this is a relatively small percentage. The size , strength and surprise of the attack is the main weapon in sexual assault. www.statista.com/statistics/251931/usa--reported-forcible-rape-cases-by-weapon-presence/

Self defense is different from learning to fight... Mostly just kids wanna learn to fight

" It's not much different than learning how to avoid a shark attack." Lol that's a good way to put it. You wouldn't train dozens of anti-shark techniques to be prepared for the attack.

I have seen and been in classes that teach how to evade things thrown at you. I will admit that it is rare though.

Even the great apes use tools for some things. Weapons are the true equalizer or the first solution for anyone who cares about their health. Obviously there are scenarios where weapons are unavailable but I think it's really backwards that there is such a huge emphasis on unarmed self-defense when the fact is that our hands evolved for tool use, not unarmed fighting like animals.

I guess it depends how near they are to you. I mean, it's pretty hard not to 'telegraph' throwing a chair?

@@m.s.g1890 Sure, but when you go out for a meal or whatever, do you sit there thinking 'What would I do if people started throwing chairs at one another ?'. There are videos on YT of brawls breaking out at weddings ffs - presumably a time when people can let their hair down and have a good time (at least pre-COVID), If a few carafes of cheap wine sets the idiot brigade off, what hope is there for people who go out simply to enjoy themselves .... I'm all for self-awareness as a major self defense tactic, but demanding a seat near the door so that I can get out at the first sign of trouble puts me dangerously close to living in a shack as far from civilisation as I can get ;)

Gotta take up pro wrestling. They fire chairs at each other all the time.