Man does battle and engages in war – on the national or individual level – primarily with his mind. It is from the confidence and assurance that one’s equipment and weaponry is the best and with the inner certainty one knows how to employ it and one will employ it effectively when needed, from which the warrior’s self-confidence comes.
Right now, YOU are the warrior about whom I am speaking. I assure you that self-confidence is one of the greatest rewards and gifts training in preparedness and readiness-to-do-battle if necessary provides. But for you to enjoy true, solid, reliable it-will-be-there-when-I-need-it-most self-confidence, you must:
- Train in skills and with tools that have been war and street
- Establish the mental certainty that you indeed will use those skills should you ever be called upon to do so.
Remember, self-defense is no sport. Thus, training in and perfecting competition and sporting type techniques, tactics, mindset, and strategies can – at best – provide only a partially adaptable capacity and repertoire for actual combat.
Also, remember, in this regard, that hard-fought competition is a young man’s game. Its doctrine has a shelf life. When it comes to self-defense, there is no telling when, where, at what age, and in what physical/health condition you will be in when you need it. Competitors retire from competition. No one can retire from the status of being a possible target for criminal attack.
Classical martial arts and real world, practical, modern self-defense are worlds apart. Yes, classical martial arts experts often are well able to defend themselves. But these are generally upper-level practitioners with decades of serious training, who are not yet in their late 60s or older.
Statistically, very, very few who train in a classical art ever reach such a reliable level of proficiency – or are able to retain whatever proficiency they have achieved unless they keep training hard and for many hours every week.
You must not look to television and movies for reliable instruction or for depictions of what is possible and practical. Don’t confuse choreographed fantasy with practical reality.
The skills you need, and which I have been certain to build my program, American Combato, around, are war-proven and also street-proven. Nothing I teach and advocate is untested, unproven, “merely theoretical,” demanding of youthful age or peak physical condition, or acrobatic flexibility and agility.
Real world self-defense techniques and tools (i.e. weapons), including tactics, strategies, and attitudinal changes all must be readily understandable, adaptable, reliable, usable, and effective for persons in normal (or sometimes poor) physical condition, of all ages, and of either gender. Naturally, it is desirable to be in good shape, strong, and agile; but my point is quality skills and tools must not depend entirely upon these things for effective use. I mention this for anyone looking for worthwhile instruction.
Simplicity is the hallmark of quality, proven combat methods. If you need to be an acrobat, contortionist, be on a mat or polished wooden floor, cleared area, etc., for the skills to work, or you require loose clothing and 45 minutes of warming up before you can perform, forget it!
When you train in simple, functional skills which, for real world self-defense, must be dangerous, damaging, and harmful (not merely “painful”), automatically, you come to see their great merit and applicational possibilities. You gain confidence in what you are learning and practicing – and that is halfway to your full and total acquisition of solid self-confidence.
Never criticize or think poorly of techniques that are easily mastered, are simple, and that inflict serious injury immediately. To fault such skills for their simplicity is like criticizing a knife because its blade is sharp!
After the acquisition of quality techniques and tools, next in line is mindset.
Knowing and feeling that no doubt exists about your commitment to employ that which you have acquired, and to do so with every ounce of determination, speed, force, will power, and relentless drive, when the balloon goes up.
Only you know when and if that mindset has been established. You must work on it. You must remember how desperately your loved ones depend upon you; you must remember that you have a right to be left alone and not to be set upon; you must reinforce – every day – your contempt and hatred for troublemakers, bullies, and related scum. Read the papers. Watch the news. Follow crime reports of incidents in your city. Let the hatred grow and simmer! Nevermind the soft souls and morons who live in a fantasy world. They will never be able to cope with that which you are determined to cope with. Get angry. Keep that rage in the back of your mind, and let it encourage you to act at once and with total commitment should the need arise.
If you follow this advice and adhere to the mandates I provide, you will be three laps ahead of those who refuse to face reality and who believe that soft words will suffice to reform subhuman swine.
But, most important… the likelihood is that you will be ahead of the predatory lowlifes who infect our once-great cities, and you’ll likely not become one of the statistics in a report of their activities.
by Bradley J. Steiner