Article Summary: The difference between self defence and self protection may appear to be subtle and may seem to some to say the same thing but they could not be more wrong. Self defence deals with active participation in a confrontational situation whereas self protection is about threat awareness and threat avoidance.
If you think that the only real difference between the two is semantics then you can be forgiven that, as at first glance that is all it appears to be.
One of the founding members of the British Combat Association, Geoff Thompson, describes in one paragraph just how the two are more than just similar meaning nouns.
Here he uses the example given by one of his female students to beautifully highlight the difference between the two.
I baby sit for a friend twice a week. In the evening I take the short cut home and walk through the local park. It always scares me but now that I have done a self defence course I feel so much safer when I take the short cut through the park. If she had been taught properly she would no longer be taking the short cut through the park.
What we have here is essentially the difference between self defence and self protection put into a nutshell, one encourages the student to continue to take risks whilst the other utilises threat awareness coupled with threat avoidance.
When a student looks to choose self protection over self defence they will realise that it is not easy to be continually aware of their circumstances but possibly one of the hardest things for them to do is to walk away from a situation.
Now it is not above the laws of improbability that I have just stated what you believe to be the glaringly obvious but it is so much harder than you may think and for very good reason and that reason is your very own ego.
This is a simple example taken from a scenario that I know I have faced and I am pretty sure everyone else who is reading this article has an unpleasant experience of from somewhere in their past.
You are sitting in a club or pub talking with some friends when you look up and you make eye contact with someone who is openly staring at you in a hostile way that you know to be an unprovoked challenge.
Would you or more importantly could you leave your drink behind and get up and go to another pub or club?
I would suggest that the majority of you reading this will be saying that in no way would you leave and asking why should I when it is not me that is looking for a fight?
That question has many possible answers but when it comes to self protection you say to yourself that no normal person actively looks to go out at night and start a fight, so what exactly am I facing when it comes to a stranger who is glaring at you?. Well you do not know but you could be looking at someone who has issues that are related to their mental disposition or even their social or domestic circumstances at that specific time and let us not forget about plain old aggressive nature.
Let us put the potential background problems that this person may have to one side and concentrate on the facts, which are; you are dealing with a stranger who is only too happy to issue an openly aggressive challenge to you in an environment that will ensure that at the very least they have been indulging in the drinking of alcohol and it is not beyond the realms of possibility, drugs. What this means to you is that you are facing someone who is looking to provoke a physical response from yourself and has had their inhibitions lowered by alcohol consumption.
Even after reading all of this and that you still feel that staying in that situation is the right thing to do, then I am afraid to say that you have failed to grasp the concept of good self protection and it is entirely possible that your ego is making your decisions and not the commonsense part of your brain.
I did mention earlier that walking away from a potentially dangerous situation was the way to go but you suddenly realise that it is so much more difficult than it first appears. As a matter of fact it is quite possibly one of the hardest things for you to do.
Unfortunately some of you may still not be convinced but be assured that the world is full of people who are carrying the physical and mental scars from situations that wish they had the courage to walk away from.
And let us not forget those who may be in court facing a serious assault charge, even though it was their honest belief that they acted in self defence and that these action were justified given the circumstances that they found themselves in at that time.
I am pretty sure that there are indeed many who have entered an alibi of self defence and have been acquitted but are you really wanting to go through the whole court process with so much uncertainty as regards the outcome weighing heavily on not only your shoulders but those of your nearest and dearest? Not only will your health suffer but also that of your family and friends.
The true art of self protection is to make yourself feel good about threat avoidance and not about obsessing over what you could have done to your would be assailant because you now have ninja skills gained from your self defence class.
This article is intended for all but it is relevant and applicable to those who work as a private investigator, an industry that benefits greatly from having the ability to read a given situation early and giving the operative every chance to avoid an embarrassing confrontation with someone that they may have under surveillance.
One of the founding members of the British Combat Association, Geoff Thompson, describes in one paragraph just how the two are more than just similar meaning nouns.
Here he uses the example given by one of his female students to beautifully highlight the difference between the two.
I baby sit for a friend twice a week. In the evening I take the short cut home and walk through the local park. It always scares me but now that I have done a self defence course I feel so much safer when I take the short cut through the park. If she had been taught properly she would no longer be taking the short cut through the park.
What we have here is essentially the difference between self defence and self protection put into a nutshell, one encourages the student to continue to take risks whilst the other utilises threat awareness coupled with threat avoidance.
When a student looks to choose self protection over self defence they will realise that it is not easy to be continually aware of their circumstances but possibly one of the hardest things for them to do is to walk away from a situation.
Now it is not above the laws of improbability that I have just stated what you believe to be the glaringly obvious but it is so much harder than you may think and for very good reason and that reason is your very own ego.
This is a simple example taken from a scenario that I know I have faced and I am pretty sure everyone else who is reading this article has an unpleasant experience of from somewhere in their past.
You are sitting in a club or pub talking with some friends when you look up and you make eye contact with someone who is openly staring at you in a hostile way that you know to be an unprovoked challenge.
Would you or more importantly could you leave your drink behind and get up and go to another pub or club?
I would suggest that the majority of you reading this will be saying that in no way would you leave and asking why should I when it is not me that is looking for a fight?
That question has many possible answers but when it comes to self protection you say to yourself that no normal person actively looks to go out at night and start a fight, so what exactly am I facing when it comes to a stranger who is glaring at you?. Well you do not know but you could be looking at someone who has issues that are related to their mental disposition or even their social or domestic circumstances at that specific time and let us not forget about plain old aggressive nature.
Let us put the potential background problems that this person may have to one side and concentrate on the facts, which are; you are dealing with a stranger who is only too happy to issue an openly aggressive challenge to you in an environment that will ensure that at the very least they have been indulging in the drinking of alcohol and it is not beyond the realms of possibility, drugs. What this means to you is that you are facing someone who is looking to provoke a physical response from yourself and has had their inhibitions lowered by alcohol consumption.
Even after reading all of this and that you still feel that staying in that situation is the right thing to do, then I am afraid to say that you have failed to grasp the concept of good self protection and it is entirely possible that your ego is making your decisions and not the commonsense part of your brain.
I did mention earlier that walking away from a potentially dangerous situation was the way to go but you suddenly realise that it is so much more difficult than it first appears. As a matter of fact it is quite possibly one of the hardest things for you to do.
Unfortunately some of you may still not be convinced but be assured that the world is full of people who are carrying the physical and mental scars from situations that wish they had the courage to walk away from.
And let us not forget those who may be in court facing a serious assault charge, even though it was their honest belief that they acted in self defence and that these action were justified given the circumstances that they found themselves in at that time.
I am pretty sure that there are indeed many who have entered an alibi of self defence and have been acquitted but are you really wanting to go through the whole court process with so much uncertainty as regards the outcome weighing heavily on not only your shoulders but those of your nearest and dearest? Not only will your health suffer but also that of your family and friends.
The true art of self protection is to make yourself feel good about threat avoidance and not about obsessing over what you could have done to your would be assailant because you now have ninja skills gained from your self defence class.
This article is intended for all but it is relevant and applicable to those who work as a private investigator, an industry that benefits greatly from having the ability to read a given situation early and giving the operative every chance to avoid an embarrassing confrontation with someone that they may have under surveillance.
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