Please Make it Stop

Wading Through Mountains of Misinformation

As a practitioner and teacher in self-defense and fitness, I do a lot of research. I mean, a ton of research! One of the things that strikes me is the sheer number of self-proclaimed experts that spew information like Apollo from Mount Olympus. But then, there are an equal number of experts that say the other experts are full of crap. It turns out that most all of them are full of crap in some way. Make it Stop!!

So where does this leave the average person when they want to simply get in better shape, eat better, or learn to defend themselves? Well, in a word, confused. Take simple fitness for example. You can search YouTube or other platforms for workout routines and get literally hundreds of different people giving you the "only" seven minute per day workout you need. First, seven minutes doesn't even meet the minimum threshold for elevating your heart rate according to most medical associations. Second, every person and body type are different. One of the key things in any true fitness coach certification requires is to understand the needs of the client. Designing a workout plan for a 50-year-old with diabetes is completely different from a plan for a 20-something training for a volleyball competition. For this simple reason I don't believe in the one size fits all mentality.

The same is true in self-defense. I recently watched a few videos from Detroit Urban Survival Training (D.U.S.T.). At first, I thought it was complete parody. Then I got really scared when I found out he was serious about the techniques and he had a large number of followers. It got more interesting when I looked at a few videos of people saying how terrible the D.U.S.T. techniques were, but then theirs were pretty bad too. Taking a specific example, we turn to knife defense. Everyone has a different take on this. I even heard one of the leaders of a prominent American Krav Maga association say they had ten knife defenses in the curriculum, and he didn't really like any of them. I have said publicly that I would much rather be attacked by someone with a gun than a knife and I stand by that. It is such a dynamic attack and so very close and personal. Again, one size does not fit all! One self-defense instructor I like and admire was also a bouncer at a club. He trained in Krav Maga a long time. The one time he had a knife pulled on him, it looked nothing like the class techniques. He groin kicked the guy then kneed him. He never actually gained control of the knife hand like we teach. However, the knife flew in one direction and the bad guy flew in a different direction. The instructor was "bummed" that he didn't get to use his cool Krav technique. At the end of the day, he was upright and unharmed - so it worked.

So, what does a person do about all the wildly varied information available and the equally varied critique of said information. That is, as they say, the $64,000 question. Here are some thoughts:

• Find what works for you - whether fitness, or self-defense, or quadratic equations we all have different capabilities. Personally, I am large and strong and gravitate to things that allow me to use power not finesse in self-defense. Ask me to do spinning jumping Bruce Lee stuff and I will likely fall on my big ass while the assembled mob begins to curb stomp me. No thank you! Finding what works for you will take some trial and error, and some practice. Which brings us to ...

• Test what works for you - how will you know if a particular technique or process works for you? You have to test it in as real conditions as you can get. This means in situations that are "off-nominal" (i.e. not Michael Myers with only overhand knife strokes). The best way to do this is get into a gym and train and look at results. This is true for fitness or self-defense. Don't be afraid to push your instructor for answers if you aren't satisfied. They will likely take you offline and talk after sessions so no one else is disturbed. But get comfortable that what you know and do works for you.

• Find a consensus - One thing I do when there are so many opinions on ways to attack a problem (no pun intended) is to find the common ground among various solutions. If six out of seven people tell me I must do a thing a certain way, well maybe that element has merit and should be included. But ... back to point #2, test it.

The best way to say all of this is to research and test your methods and tailor them to you. If you can find a coach that can and will do that, hang on to them and work with them. In all cases test the methods and ensure you are comfortable with the results you are getting. Take all the advice you get from experts with a grain of salt - including mine!