Effective self -defense training helps one develop options. More options allow more versatility in self-defense situations, and more versatility means a greater chance of staying safe.

Without options people tend to fall back on their particular evolutionary reaction, with its four basic paths; flight, fight, freeze, or faint. Though your body’s innate reaction may work to keep you safe, chances are it may not, and it is always best to have a trained option when it is time to respond to a threat to your personal safety.

Training creates ‘space and time’ to evaluate the situation before deciding on a response. Where does the space and time come from? It comes from practice, from having already found yourself in a ‘pretend’ threatening situation, where it is possible to try out techniques and responses, to gauge their effectiveness.

In this way you can eliminate the responses that won’t work for you based on body type and physical strength, (i.e.. A 60 kilo woman cannot hit like a 90 kilo man), and you can practice adjusting your outward behavior in order to stop potential threatening situations from escalating into physical confrontation. (see post: Nice, or Not?)

Preparation for things that may never happen isn’t a waste of time. If a self-defense situation does occur your preparation may make the difference between just another day in your life, and the day your life changed irrevocably.