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DanRotnem
DanRotnem's picture
A Self-Defense Sparring Method

Hi All:

I wanted to take moment to share a brief video I took of a drill we use to train self-defense. You can find it on YouTube @ https://youtu.be/FdYM4oGcDEs 

The drill is designed to simulate a failure of self-protection and the mental stress preceeding a potential conflict. 

The rules are as follows:

1) Persons A and B stand across from each other within arms distance. (Easier: take up "the fence", harder: remain completely neutral).

2) Person A selects a number between 1 and 10. 

3) Person B has 3 chances to guess the number. Not guessing the number results in a successful de-escalation and Person A steps away from the conflict. 

4) Should Person B select the number Person A launches an attack. This can simulate "the switch" of pre-emption for Person A or spontaneous violence that Person B must defend against. Fortunately, both Person A and B can develop their corresponding parts simultaneously. (harder version: the attack can come at any moment after the number is initially guessed, including during the "backing up" process.)

5) Contact levels and rules for winning to be decided by the persons involved. For advanced practice we generally use full-contact and no maiming techniques. Victory is escape or a fully dominant position. 

I hope you all find this provocative, perhaps useful, and would value your feedback. 

Best,

Dan

Ian H
Ian H's picture

Cool, thanks for sharing!

Next level ... 2-on-1?  Two 'attackers' each with a different number, so you don't know which (if any) of them will attack first.

DanRotnem
DanRotnem's picture

You're welcome! Glad you like it. 

That would definitely be next level and will happen!

Also have plans to incorporate weapons (or not) as students progress with the option to improvise as the defender. Always looking to make sure that the boundaries get expanded and we stay uncomfortable.

Barry O'Sullivan
Barry O'Sullivan's picture

That's brilliant, I like that a lot. Thanks for sharing.