Striking First Pre emptive Striking In Martial Arts
In recent years there has been an influx of information in
the martial arts media concerning pre-emptive striking and
whether you should use it as a part of your self-defence
training or not. This media frenzy generated a lot of interest in the subject
(for and against) so this article is going to provide a slightly
different approach to the issue and bring into the equation how
this affects martial art teachers from the perspective of adults
AND children. ==========
ADULTS
========== O.K., first of all, should we teach hitting first at all?
I think, yes, we should. However it is obviously not as
simple as that, even when only taking into account adults. Where adults are concerned, if you choose to teach them
pre-emption, you need to make it clear that it is a last
resort! Also you need to make it clear that they MUST be
in fear for their safety for it to be acceptable. They need to be sure an attack on them is imminent
essentially. Of course, you must have faith in your students to suggest
such a direct course of action - you must trust they won't
abuse such knowledge! If in ANY doubt DO NOT teach it at all! ============
CHILDREN
============ Where children are concerned hitting first, and teaching such
strategies, is in my humble opinion a big NO NO! You cannot
really compare situations a child and an adult might find
themselves in (perhaps many of you will disagree?). Indeed I actually think to teach hitting first to children as
part of a martial arts class is irresponsible and dangerous. It would be highly likely to create situations at school and
home where the child could justify his hitting people first
by saying his or her martial arts instructor said it was
acceptable! Obviously there may be the rare occasion where it would be
in their best interest to do so, BUT I feel this is
outweighed by the potential problems it could cause. While teaching children I think the best course of action
is to focus on building strong character traits through
structured physical training and avoid the 'nastier' side
of the arts until they are older with a little more life
experience. ==============
CONCLUSION
============== It is (obviously) hard to make a concrete conclusion about
such a subject. I feel for those (adult) students you trust totally,
highlighting pre-emptive strikes as a viable option when they
have no other option is acceptable. For children I think, as stated above, it is not necessary and
the time is better spent developing their characters and physical skills. After all, they grow up fast enough, and showing the grittier
aspects of the arts only serves to unnecessarily speed up
this process. (c) Tim Webb 2005
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