Why do you think, there is so much running away advice, in the self-defense aspect of martial arts?

The correct term is avoidance which includes running away. Self-defense begins long before the situation becomes a fight. If you waited until fists are flying, then you either deliberately were looking for a fight or allowed yourself to be in placed in that situation by not paying attention.

We get questions all the time from kids who mouth off ending up having to fight someone, and come begging for advice on Yahoo on what do it. Avoidance is not about what to do after you insult someone and he challenges you to a fight. It is about seeing the potential for trouble and void it and in this case by keeping your mouth shut.

Learning a martial art does not make you invincible and there are no-win situations where the ONLY way to survive is to avoid getting into one. But children being as naïve as they are, think everything is about how they feel which is usually the result of what others think of them and that bad things only happens to others. They watch movies and think that is how the real world operates.

Learning a martial art means being able to understand and recognize the potential for danger and how to deal with it effectively which means avoiding it whenever possible. You may be faced with a situation where you cannot avoid or run from it, but that does not mean you deliberately go looking for it.

I agree with avoiding a fight. I have given the advice to 'run'. While I have not exactly run I do back off when someone gets aggressive or if a situation gets heated, I will leave before anything serious starts. That way I do not have the burden to have to appear in court as a witness because I can not pay my bills or put food on the table if I do not work and work will not pay for time lost in a court of law. I will also not get paid if I am injured and can not work. My responsibility is to my family first, then I will help out others. Never mind my ego or perceived honor I feel I might have to defend.

However, if you are really attacked then you need to stay alive so you can go back and take care of your family and then you fight. If you can run, you run. I would do anything I would think that would keep me alive. The reality of this is that most people will not find themselves in this kind of situation ever.

If you are thinking of all the advice people give kids on Y/A to stay out of a school yard brawl because someone looked funny at them or said something stupid, I would have to say in most cases you do not have to fight. Fighting in school will get you into more trouble than your ego is worth it and in the end it resolves nothing. Kids like to fight because they want to establish a pecking order, not because their life is in danger and that is the wrong reason to fight.

I haven't really gotten into a fight since I was a kid, so that's all I have to go on.

The incident involved a kid trying to punch and kick me from anger in the school hallway and I blocked everything with my blinder.(mainly due to distance and the kid being bad puncher and kicker, than a skill of any kind.) The kid ran out of steam(physically and emotionally) and we were drawing attention so he stopped and I walked away. So technically applying correct amount of defense and escaping worked. (We both got called in later, but that's another story)

I think running away works in two ways.

1. Removing yourself from danger is obviously safer than staying in danger. It's kind of 'by definition' type of a thing.

But it does require good judgement. For example if the defender is a horrible runner, then running away will only tire them out and they will have to fight a round two. But given that everyone has been putting in the proper amount of road work with their training it shouldn't be an issue. (For those who are bad at running the solution isn't 'then how do I end the fight without running' but 'how do I fit running into my training schedule'.)

2. If things went into legal court having defended just enough to run away illustrates the point that you didn't want any part of the fight better than having won the fight. Also will probably protect you from the attacker claiming that you used more force than necessary to defend yourself.

Lastly, I think running was isn't something you just do at the end, but a goal to be acheived. You don't fight until there is a lull or an opening and then run. You fight to create that lull or opening using your martial arts. It happens by skill not by chance. My skillsets are aligned and combined usually to create that running chance. If you are trying to run while the other person is still an immidiate threat then that is a tactical error.

Dont think ive been in a situation where ive had a chance to run away, i always teach as soon as you can get out of a situation run if you have to, run before it gets to the point of having to use self defense, self defence is the last straw to be acted on immediately, conflict isnt a nice thing to be on the receiving end of and self defense is to be carried through to required result is achieved, if their is any running be it before or after the situation not during the act of self defense.

Martial artist want to avoid combat at all times even if it means running away. I was taught a great formula in Tang Soo Do.

1. Try to resolve and make peace

2. If a fail....walk away from the situation.

3. If the attacker persist, pick up the pace.

4. If the attacker still persist, throw down like Motown and pay half the hospital bill.

Running away is a philosophy. It is said that he who fights and runs away lives to fight another day. This also goes along with a coward dies a thousands deaths, But a brave man only dies once. In other words it is better to avoid fighting if possible than to fight a risk losing your life or limbs. I don't want my tombstone to read he faced every fight.He was a brave man,now he is a dead man.

Running away is more than just running after being attacked. This can include avoiding a fight before it happens. It can be running away too. It can not going to place where there is the expectation that there will be a problem.

I can't say how many times I have ran. But I can say that I have ran on more than one occasion when there was a gun involved. I ran on one occasion when a gang ran out of a home to attack the group of people that was walking with me. Some of those guys were gang members and others weren't. I wasn't part of a gang. We had just left a party/concert that was at a local park in LA. I went back I thought I was going to have to fight. I noticed that my little brother was not with us as we ran. The gang members didn't go back with me. They new I was going back. but they weren't going to fight that rival gang. Some of them had weapons on them at the time. Only 2 other people went back with me. I didn't know them well as I wasn't from the area. But they became more friends of mines after that. The others I would only call them associates. Gratefully my brother was fine and we didn't have to fight. He hid under a car and they ran passed him. They gave up the chase and returned to that home.

As I look back on those days I believe I did the right thing and would do it again. If I did anything differently it might have been not let my little brother go with me that day. Had he gone I would have gone back again. I was prepared to face the fact that I might not make it out. I wasn't prepared to fight that many people. Bu there was no way I could leave him to face them. I would have hope to get him out and hopefully he could run home to safety. I would have sacrificed myself. On the gun situation I ran because of the distance. My best chance to survive was to leave. I have faced a gun when I didn't run. The gun was touching the back of my head. I had no thought on what to do. I didn't even know it was real. But before I knew it I had my hands on the gun and three guys all ran. They were trying to rib me. I foolishly thought I was in a safe environment because this was at a concert. I let my guard down and wasn't aware of my surroundings. Looking back I would be more aware of my surrounding and not have let them sneak up behind me. I've only faced one knife. I saw a person that was going to stab another person. I step between them to stop it. but the person tried to go through me to get the other person. I secured the weapon and asked nicely to drop the weapon. On the 3rd time I applied enough pressure that cause the knife to fall. Police came and too them away. Later the police came back and asked me where was the knife. Then they told me how they asked them about the knife. The attacker was holding a limp wrist still in pain and said I took it. Then the police began to laugh. I took them to where the knife was. even though I'm glad I did it because no one lost their life and there was no serious injuries. I don't know if I would do it again. I might. But I'm unsure. It was the right thing to do by protecting others. I'm older now and I have looked back and thought I could have been killed or injured. My children could have grown up without their father because I did this. Then I would not be their to protect them.

I think we need to be reminded that running away is always an option to be considered. It may not be the best option in each case, but we need to evaluate each case independently.

do Kajukenbo.