Self Defense Email to Ward
Hello everyone,
Women's Services is sponsoring a free men and women self defense class this Wednesday, 6-8 PM, in the Wilk Ballroom. This will be taught by the BYU Brazilian Jiu Jitsu club and Michael Pease who teaches the martial arts class at BYU. He is also a black belt in Japanese Jiu Jitsu. I encourage everyone to come especially the girls. I just want to emphasize the need of how to defend one's self. I know that Provo is relatively safe; however, it can happen any time, any where, and to anybody. The class will contain verbal, standup, and ground defense. All three are very important to know. Verbal might contain of how to yell for help when being attacked. It's better to yell "fire" instead of just "help". We can avoid lots of situations that will put us in danger like running alone at night. Standup might contain how to escape when a person grabs our wrist and tries to drag us towards where they are going. Always yank free towards the thumb because it's much weaker than five fingers. Ground might contain of how to fall properly when you fall on your back. Whenever you fall, don't put your hands out to catch yourself because you can break a wrist that way. I know it's hard not to do because it's a reflex. In ground defense, we might teach you how to choke someone with your legs. A girl can put a big guy to sleep in five seconds only with her legs!!! I think that's pretty cool. If attacked, fight with everything you have. Normally, a guy is looking for a girl that will NOT put up a fight. They are looking for an easy target. Having pepper spray is good too because it can incapacitate a person to 30 minutes to an hour.
Thanks,
Lizzie: The Sword Wielding Roommate Saving Ninja Master :)
5 comments:
What about mindset? What are you going to touch on there?
In survival the mindset is more important than specific technique. Are you going to teach using your environment as a weapon?
It sounds like your heart is in the right place, partially, but it also sounds like BJJ is capitalizing on the tragic event. If I were teaching a group of people self defense I would not count on teaching a stylistic format, I would not worry about technique (I don't right now anyway).
However, on the flip side, showing that it can be done is a good confidence booster, but they should focus on simple things that they can do and don't have to train for years or even months, or even weeks in order to apply.
I don't know if they taught about the survival mindset. I think that's really important too. I really wanted to be there and help; however, had to work on O-chem instead. That's a really good idea to use the environment as a weapon too. I remember Sensei Villa saying a car radio antenna is a good self defense tool. What things would you teach if you aren't teaching any techniques????
Flow is more important than move, and freedom is more important than solid meanining.
The pavement is just as much a weapon as the antenna, so is a car window, the curb, trash cans, whatever happens to be around.
Mindset is more important than anything else, without it, you have nothing, not even the will to live.
You have to get in touch with your animal side, not a pretty place to be and most people will turn away and deny it as they do every single day.
You have your nice crisp Gi in your nice crisp Dojo, with your nice crisp movements, that is fine, but if you don't have a grasp on the other things, these will matter not.
They are secondary. Anyone with a good mindset to survive can take out a well trained fighter, even a grappler, who has no mindset outside the game.
I'm trying to think of how you would express your animal side in everyday life. When I think about an animal, it doesn't care about anyone else except it's self. I'm always try to get away from my baser instincts which is the natural man. I always work on getting virtues that we can get from God.
I've learned not to open my animal side when grappling. Everyone does at first; however, it's a big waste of energy. However, I do use it during a tournament.
Really? You think of an animal as such an unrefined and careless thing that has no idea what it is doing and cares only about itself?
That is very interesting, since the most selfish thing to do is to commit suicide by not allowing oneself to survive when others might depend on them most.
Basest instincts are what you have to work with in this arena - no, I am not making it about religion, religion is one thing, survival is another.
If we were meant to move away from our basest instincts then we would not have been created with them in the first place, that animal side would not exist.
I am not trying to contradict you, however, the views are naive at best, because when all things go down, you won't care about anything else, you will have no choice, your animal will take over and run the show, unless you learn to use it as a tool... See the difference?
I don't see animals as being particularly selfish, they eat, so do we, they sleep, so do we, they live, so do we.
We have a lot in common, we have language, so do they, and it has been shown that, while we might think we are more intelligent, that their intelligence is not lower, only different - faster and more adaptable than ours in the majority of cases.
Some species care for their young, some do not - it is the same with people.
A mother bird will put herself in harm's way just to keep a predator from her eggs.
Mother cats are constantly moving their kittens in order to protect them, keep them safe and warm so they can grow AND will also put herself between a larger animal and her kittens to protect them.
I fail to see the selfishness in such actions, especially since humans are the one's with a full sense of 'self,' animals are outside that scope.
This is an example of human's projecting their own conscious conceptions onto the animal kingdom, that is not understanding it as it is, that is understanding it from the Human standpoint, as if animals were human. ;)
Could an animal play chess? There are animals that HAVE been taught to play chess and have even shown a knack for strategy.
In the animal Kingdom strategy is more natural and raw than ever, and it is this type of 'shift' in thinking and being that enables us to tap into the same - outside the sense of self, which is conscious.
You have failed to grasp this thus far, I hope you do not have to grasp it the hard way.
Such naivety is not so easily forgiven in the arena of life.
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