Introduction to Self Defense and Martial Arts

The arts of self-defense and martial arts are a study in human nature. If you look at why martial arts were created, you can begin to understand the base of primal human nature. Throughout time human beings had specific needs – whether it be to eat, sleep, shelter or defense. In our industrialized age these needs have not changed. We find ourselves protecting ourselves against local predators as well as global predators.

Self-defense developed out of a need for defense; these methods included studying not only physical but also psychological defense. There had to be a way to pass on thousands of years of personal and group defense in an orderly way. This became known as martial or war arts. These were generally passed on orally from tribe to tribe or family to family and in recent history (the last five or six hundred years) they were found documented in various kinds of media. This shows the serious nature of the study of personal protection over time. Without the passing on of information, these tribes or families were destined to repeat the same errors that occurred with their ancestors – loss of resources, life and in some cases whole generations. Whole civilizations were changed through the use and misuse of these arts.

What I’d like to talk about today is the base of self-defense that has not changed since time itself. Self-defense included things like awareness of the weather, political climate, resources, motivations and ambitions of the tribes or families. Today these have not changed. If one studies weather patterns, rain and snow tend to reduce, but not eliminate, crime on the street. The desire for money, narcotics, personal power are also all things that motivate the ambitions of a predator.

What we have to do as practitioners is create situations where the predator will have limited access or control to these things. If we go back, study and look at martial arts as they were passed on through history we can review the lessons of the ancestors or families of these systems and extract necessary information to keep us safe in today’s society. If we look at an ancient document of the Tenmonchimon as an example, it speaks of weather patterns, timing, movement and flow. So by extracting and studying this information from these old documents we can gain a perspective of personal protection that can only be acquired through the study of martial arts.

For instance timing: there are good times and bad times of the day to travel. Personal crimes like robberies, muggings, hold ups etc. tend to be less during rush hour when its very busy but a few hours before or an hour and a half after rush hour are times when the streets are vacant – everyone is at their destinations. These are times when the predators start to practice their crafts. Knowing about this timing can help us understand when good travel times are and when times tend to be riskier. We come home from work and find a robber has ransacked our house. If one just looks at the statistics put out by the justice department or by asking local law enforcements you will see that a majority of robberies occur during times when we are safely at work.

As you can see, we have only taken one element of traditional martial history (and just in this one example) we can notice how vast the application is to our daily activities. Remember that the first and most important point about self-defense or martial arts is reducing our vulnerabilities. By studying risk assessment we can get a true picture of how vulnerable we are and how safe we are. This has nothing to do with paranoia but only increasing our awareness. If we deny our vulnerabilities we open ourselves up for more danger. By assessing potential risk and addressing it we can live in more comfort because we can avoid the risk or danger. Martial arts address these risks.

Self-Defense and Crime Prevention

A word about Self-Defense and Crime Prevention:

It is important to note that crime prevention should occur long before self-defense happens. In other words the best possible situation is never to become a victim of a crime. Although there are no fail safe ways to achieve this, at the Boston Martial Arts Center we believe in doing everything possible to keep you from ever becoming a victim.

This page will be dedicated to providing safety tips as well as resources, not only for people who have decided to study martial arts but also for members of the community or those of you who have taken a moment to visit our website.

Our goal at the Boston Martial Arts Center is not only to provide excellence in martial arts training but also to work towards making communities and neighborhoods safer. We have offered self-defense seminars for the community free of charge. For information on upcoming events please visit here.

Staying safe tips:

• Be especially aware of times during the day which involve travel or commuting.
• Often we are tired, distracted or preoccupied with thoughts involving work and are therefore less sensitive to the environment.
• Do not be misled into believing that crowds are safe. The more noise and confusion which surrounds you the more opportunity a predator will have to steal from you or follow you unnoticed.
• Always be aware of your surroundings and make sure you maintain a good safe personal space around yourself.

Victim Services and Police Resources:

Many victims are not aware that there are victim services available at the state and government level. We have provided some links below that may be of use to people that have been the victims of crime. It is important to know that victims have rights and are entitled to support and help.

http://www.try-nova.org/ National Organization for Victim Assistance

http://www.cityofboston.gov/police/ Boston Police Department

http://www.usdoj.gov/ United States Department of Justice

http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/ovc/ Office for Victims of Crime

http://www.state.ma.us/sorb/victim_links.htm Commonwealth of Massachusetts – Victim Information

http://www.ago.state.ma.us/txt/videfault.htm Office of the Massachusetts Attorney General – victim financial compensation information