Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site houxu.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxl!houxm!houxu!welsch From: welsch@houxu.UUCP (Larry Welsch) Newsgroups: net.women Subject: Self Defense Message-ID: <311@houxu.UUCP> Date: Wed, 15-Feb-84 08:34:23 EST Article-I.D.: houxu.311 Posted: Wed Feb 15 08:34:23 1984 Date-Received: Fri, 17-Feb-84 04:35:41 EST Organization: Bell Labs, Holmdel NJ Lines: 41 eater of fist lines Self Defense for the Lay Person So you want to learn how to defend yourself. The best defense is don't get into a dangerous situation. So you ask what do you do if you cannot avoid a dangerous situation. First, learn to be alert. Pick out whose around you. See what your environment is. Always have a plan ready in the event that you are attacked. Second, learn to look alert and confident. Look like you know what your doing and that you are not afraid. You ask what do you do if you are attacked. RUN! RUN like hell! Also YELL! YELL like a goddam banshee! Finally you ask what do you do if you cannot run and yell. Go limp and let the attacker have whatever the attacker wants. Whatever you do, don't struggle and don't hurt the attacker. Why is this good advice. I contend it is good advice because there is no way in hell a few courses in some martial art is going to protect anybody in a fight against a mugger. Oh yes the instructor might be able to protect him/herself. But, anybody else, like hell. Remember that is how the instructor makes her/his living. Also remember that a mugger makes his/her living by mugging. Even an instructor who is mugged is at a big disadvantage. Muggers don't walk up an say now lets prepare for a mugging. They have the advantage of surprise and the first blow. Muggers don't go through a ritual, they just do it. I have never been mugged. Of course the fact that I am built like Rosie Greer doesn't hurt. On the other hand nothing pisses me off so much as the assumption many people, including martial arts instructors, make that they can throw me around at will. Yes there are holds that are effective against someone like me, but the average lay person and most so called martial arts instructors don't know how to apply them properly. Last time I was volunteered at a martial arts demo for women, the demonstrator, a "woman student" executed some funny kind of karate kick. I just grabbed her heel and picked up right up off the ground by her feet and then gently set her down. Now what would I do if I was mugged, why I would follow my own advice. RUN - RUN like hell. Larry Welsch houxu!welsch