During my martial arts training in the dojo, my sensei would always use to say that martial arts advocate the philosophy of never delivering the first strike. Infact, he would reiterate that if we get into a street fight, we should never let the first punch go from our quiver of strikes, rather wait for the same from the assilant & then respond accordingly.
When I retrospect now,having graduated in various combat & strike arts & reality based fighting systems – I try and analyse the statement – ‘Never First’! It could have never meant what we thought it meant and if it did ,then it is devastating!
In a real life crisis situation, when a visibly drunk guy comes out of the car in a dark alley with a broken bottle in his hand we can’t possibly hold on & ask him what he wants or wait for him to hit us first & then respond………it would be fatal, or near fatal or shall I say STUPID ! A logical proactive stance to this situation would either be to move rapidly to a safer place or if that is not possible then hit the lights out of this guys by going in for the FIRST STRIKE and immediately moving on to a safe area, where help can come.
The feeling of guilt by striking first which has been ingrained into us since the time we were born needs to be analysed for what it actually conveys when crisis strikes – getting crippled , losing honor or even life by letting an assailant have his way is stupid ! In the real world who gets the first punch, gets the second & the third and …………. Never the First Punch is a concept that pertain to intentions & lifestyles and not ‘tactics’ which is what actually saves us.
So, my dear friends Combat or Martial Arts for Self Defence are good concepts, but to make them work, we as combat instructors & students need to go in strong and tough without a tinge of remorse if forced into situations such as these.
In my next post Im gonna be talking about ‘Positive Aggression’ – an important concept to build Proactive Self Defence!
Till then – Train Tough & Fight Tougher
