Chapter 91: Karate as Self-Protection

First and foremost, karate, empty-hand protection, is very limited. For instance:

•    Karate is inappropriate for protection against a gun.

•    Karate is inappropriate for protection against a knife.

•    Karate is inappropriate for protection against multiple attackers.

•    Karate is inappropriate for protection against other weapons.

•    Karate is inappropriate for protection against mass violence.

•    Karate is inappropriate for protection against group attacks.

•    etc.

Karate, if trained properly is good for only protection against another, single, person who is going to monkey dance with you where there is no probability of others jumping in the get their licks in to either party. Karate, if trained properly will provide you the tools to get the job done using other methods except empty hands alone, to stop an attack - principled based multiple methodologies. 

Karate is a great sport; karate is a great club like social collective; karate is a great way to develop a life philosophy; karate is a great self-heath, fitness and improvement model to enhance other self- health, fitness and improvement tools. 

The full Monty of self-protection, incorrectly labeled self-defense, is way to complex and complicated to believe one single model, as taught today, to achieve the before, during and after of an attack with aggression and violence. Karate, as other martial disciplines, is a wonderful tool to use as a prerequisite toward more robust and reality-based methods and models for self-protection. 

Karate, and other martial arts, is wonderful in teaching the very basic fundamental principles one needs to defend and protect against violence. A good example is facing a mass violence such as mass shooting situations, because karate is not meant to be used in this way and is totally inadequate as it does not provide a comprehensive plan and skill-set to remain safe and secure from the violence. 

Karate is a good prerequisite to qualify toward those robust and appropriate self-protection programs and models that actually have teeth and can bite back against aggression and violence to keep you safe, relatively secure and most importantly - ALIVE!

You, the individual, must have a toolbox that is filled with the many myriad models and systems necessary to remain safe and protected where karate and other martial arts are but one small aspect of the whole that is violence. 

Karate does not teach:

•    How to avoid environments where violence happens;

•    How to escape and evade situations where violence is happening or about to break out and happen;

•    How to deescalate a situation to avoid violence.

•    How to determine force disparity and levels to remain within the social and legal standards of self-defense;

•    How to articulate to authorities the reasoning for applying a self-defense standard.

•    How to manage and survive the ramifications of using skills for self-protection when applying the self-defense legal standard. 

•    etc.

It is rare, yet growing and evolving to a better place, that karate is taught with all these, and more, aspects of the legal defense of self-defense while teaching the necessary skill set and planning strategies to survive aggression and violence. It is incumbent on the individual to realize what is required, if this is their objective, and make sure they acquire all the tools necessary to get-r-done while surviving societies moral and legal systems. 

There IS no OTHER WAY!