Matt Stait from Modern Samurai discusses martial arts and self defence

  “It’s better to be judged by twelve than carried by six”. This is the mantra of many a combatives guy. It is the macho answer to give when surrounded by your peers in a bar discussing the twenty different types of pre-emptive strike that will either explode a knee, pop out an eyeball or collapse a larynx. All valid techniques in their own right and each could be as deadly as described.   But do you really want them to? I am not suggesting you roll over and play dead, or allow yourself to become the victim of violence, but I do not want you to become a victim of your own violence either.   Is fifteen years for manslaughter or a six stretch in prison for GBH while your family are left alone with little income, possibly losing the family home, and having to get by on benefits and the charity of others good self-defence? When the day of reckoning comes maybe a year after the event where sleepless nights are the norm and the constant stress has led to regular anger...

When we talk about knives we often lean heavily on emotion and kneejerk reaction. Headline news tell us of a feral generation of lost youth that are murdering each other in numbers that are shocking. It is no wonder we are afraid and seeking answers. For martial artists, occupations that deal with aggression, and the self-protection world this could be training knife defence or learning weapons, or some hand-to-hand system that promises ways to survive any confrontation. Unfortunately, the truth is no-one system or organisation holds all the answers and the problem of knife crime and why people carry is a complex one.   I have trained and taught in many different martial arts systems for many years, working in security as a bouncer and bodyguard for many of those. I am a trainer and speaker on violence management for security, corporate and schools. In my working years in front-line roles, I have been attacked with bottles, knives, beer glasses, scaffold poles, baseball bats and ...