04 takeaways from this interview:
00:00:48 First and foremost, the truest form of self-defense as a means of protecting yourself and your loved ones from evil gun or knife-carrying, psychotic humans that you do not have control over is your ability to own, conceal-carry, and be correctly trained in gun defense. This form of self-defense trumps everything else.
[EDITOR’S NOTE: Recall in the training video Self-Defense: HaganaH Knife And Gun Defenses And Disarms that knife attacks should be considered more dangerous to face than gun attacks because:
- With a gun you have a chance of predicting and avoiding the line of fire – the trajectory of the bullet. As long as you stay out of the line of fire, you have a reasonable chance of surviving.
- Knives are considered ‘alive’ and dangerous during the entire altercation. You can avoid, jam, unload or neutralize a gun, but you cannot neutralize the blade of a knife, you must neutralize the person holding the knife.
- Knife fights are very quick and deadly. So quick, in fact, that you will probably not realize the attacker has a knife until it’s too late.
Secondly, recall that whether you like it or not, guns and weapons are a part of modern society. A lot of people fear what they do not know. Until they actually hold a gun or a knife in their hands, and learn how to use it, they fear it.
(Photo from here)
Lastly, recall that being the good guy doesn’t mean always being the underdog in a fight. If you are going to disarm an attacker with a weapon, you also need to know how to use that weapon.]
00:01:33 Absent a gun or a knife as self-defense, now we’re talking about martial arts as self-defense. In my (Jock Willink) opinion, become proficient in (in order of usefulness):
- Brazilian jiu-jitsu because you learn relevant grappling scenarios for when you find yourself on the ground, in a defensive position, and you need to defend and/or escape.
- Then Western boxing because you effectively learn ‘how to punch people in the face’ whilst maintaining a safe distance from them.
- Then Muay Thai because this system teaches you striking and clinching techniques.
- Then wrestling where you learn moreso than in Brazilian jui-jitsu and Muay Thai how to take people down, grapple with them, and fight and defend at a close range.
- Krav Maga teaches you how to most efficiently deal with multiple attackers, and should be learned as a supplement to the top four mentioned above.
There is no one ‘magic’ self-defense system or instructor.
00:03:20 Secondly, don’t think that you’re learning these skills and techniques within a limited time; as quickly as possible. You’ve got your entire life to master them.
True, it is possible that you may be attacked tomorrow, or next week, or six months from now, but your priority is building your knowledge, foundation and reflex base starting right now so that if/when the situation occurs where you must defend yourself or your loved ones, you’ll be prepared.
00:05:13 Some self-defense methods are better suited for self-defense than others, but nearly all self-defense and martial arts systems are designed to teach you discipline and humility, to very important traits to survive and succeed in life.
