How would you attack in a self defence situation?

simonkyo · White Belt

Hi everyone,

I have just started to learn kyokushin, at a great dojo in my hometown. The trainings are very tough I think, comparing to those I practiced before: wing tsun, wado-ryu, krav maga, etc. The trainings are 3 times a week. We do a lot of strength exercises, interval fights against bags, we practice kicks and punches on each other, but we haven't done any serious sparrings just yet. I'm sure we will, but it's still a beginner group, with not much experience, so I think it's just right.
Apart from that I run on a daily basis, and am in a good shape.

My question is: what do you think about kyokushin' effectiveness in a street fight situation? I know it does depend on the dojo you go to, that's why I wrote about mine. I don't want to be a champion, I just want some good skills to be able to defend myself on the street if I'll have to. I don't like katas, I like the fighting part of karate, that's why I ended up at the kyokushin dojo.

So tell me what you think guys, you are much more experienced than me, I would happily read your opinions and advices. Thanks

tallgeese · Black Belt

First up, welcome aboard. As to your specific question, I think you'll find that you've got a great base art in regards to focus on self defense. It's a heavy contact focus with heavy sparring and excellent movement.

There are a couple of things to keep in mind. First up, you'll have to deal with a lack of focus on striking to the head as a primary sparring method. This can develop some bad habits if one isn't careful. This will depend, of course, on the individual school.

Next up, at some point you'll probably want to look at supplementing your stand up with some ground work. It's almost mandatory these days if we're talking about a well-rounded self defense pattern. It does not need to be a primary thing for you, but you'll want it in the tool box.

Lastly, you might want to do some work outside your system with weapons if that's a concern. And in today's world, it probably is. Adding some knife defense and gun work might not be a bad idea. Even if it's seminar based, it's better than nothing.

These last two are just things that don't get dealt with a lot in your system if the examples I've seen hold. However, again I'd say that it's a pretty good jump off point for self defense. I'm with you in the area of kata. Don't worry, there is no mandatory requirement to use it to gain combative ability. I'll no longer say that it flat out won't teach you things, but I will make arguments that there are more efficient ways to prep for street level combat, but that's another issue with several threads devoted to it already.

Bottom line, training hard in your style will certainly increase your chances of doing well should you need to. Just look at a couple of areas that it might not cover well (depending on the school) and look to fill those in down the road.

Good luck and keep us posted.
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JusticeZero · Black Belt

The other thing is that fights are by their nature not very easy to prepare for specifically, but not generally all that difficult on the whole. IIRC it is Miller that comments on how he had trained martial arts some time, then actually got into a fight 'on the street' and the moment he actually got his hands on the attacker, realized that he needed to dial it way down because the attacker was not able to fight - a strung out guy with no training and the physique of overcooked linguini. It is not so much that you have to face a super tough, ruthless vicious ninja pirate as it is that you have to be able to deal well with a wide variety of possible scenarios, most of which start out with you losing before you can start to act. As such, overtraining and ability to do well when you're exhausted, overheated, bruised and sick are important.
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"Anything worth doing is worth doing badly." - Baleia

Dobbersky · Black Belt

tallgeese · Black Belt

Kodakmint · Orange Belt

Groin always the groin

JusticeZero · Black Belt

'go for the groin' is a horrible response.

First, it might do nothing useful. I've been hit there. It did nothing to me at the time. About a minute after I sat back down, THEN it knocked me on my backside. An attack that ensures that an attacker will be incapacitated shortly after they finish committing the crime and getting away is one that is not really advisable to use as a primary technique.

Second, it's obvious. Everyone says 'go for the family jewels'. They will be defended, and the defense might have planned followthrough.

Third, it is unpracticed. How often do you hit your training partner there in the training hall? Do you do live groin-hitting drills with a resisting opponent? No? Then you are not going to have a very effective delivery system to get the technique to land.

So you are advising that in case of attack, students use techniques that are completely unexpected, that they have never trained, to hit their attacker in a way that has a good chance of doing absolutely nothing whatsoever during the window of time in which they need their attacker disabled. That sounds like horrible advice to me.
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"Anything worth doing is worth doing badly." - Baleia

Kuma · Black Belt

MasterPain · Black Belt

FangPwnsAll7 · Green Belt

I would basically just use my awesome karate techniques on them. I'd kick them... um, somewhere.

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Tang Soo Do - Red Belt (2nd GUP)

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