How Often Should I Train for Self Defence?

Slightly different question today:

“Self defence.

How often should it be practised ?

And .. where if one doesn't do any MMA or the like.”

Sean

I've been sitting on this question from Sean for a bit, I wasn't too sure whether or not to talk about it rather than my usual topics of fitness training and injury management.

But, my background before I was a fitness coach was a martial arts practitioner, martial arts instructor and doorman.

I've also participated in many security industry courses, some run by Steve, an old mate of mine who is a former Royal Marine who after retirement from the Marines and then contractor work founded a security training company.

It was for Steve that I created a detailed self defence course, which I do intend to relaunch on my davehedges.net site as an online course.

So, how often should we practise self defence?

Well, first and foremost, we can take a needs analysis.

Take a moment and think about when you last felt that you or those close to you were in real physical danger?

For most people that I ask this, the answer is never. Or not since school.

The smarter folk probably talk about a near miss or actual incident while cycling/driving

And this informs the need for actual self defence training.

Good self defence, just like good driving, is preventative in nature.

It's about awareness of your environment, your situation.

It's about your presentation, body language, personality, appeared

It's about not going silly places and doing stupid things.

So to that end, self defence is a daily task.

I break self defence into a three part continuum, which I stole from Steve, who took it from the UN close protection handbook.

These categories are Avoid, Evade and Confront.

We mentioned Avoid, that largely comes down to awareness and not being stupid.

Evade can be environmental awareness to reposition yourself, communication skills to deescalate a scenario, or physical fitness to get off side quick sharp

And as this is a newsletter from a coach specialising in fitness training for people interested in fitness, you likely have, or are actively developing the attributes necessary to move quickly if needed.

So that leaves Confront.

The part of the continuum that deals with the actual, real and visceral violence.

Self defence training for the Confront section is minimalistic.

It's also quite brutal.

It largely involves hitting hard and repeatedly, with some escape techniques from the grappling arts and whatever else you use to create space to escape and get back up the continuum to Evade and back to Avoid.

All this can be learned in a weekend.

But dialling it in so it's useful takes time and repetition.

My advice for most folk is to go to a martial arts class for repetition.

Yes, you will learn a lot more than self defence needs, but you'll get the opportunity to work against resistance, to think and act under duress and against resistance.

If you go to a striking based class, be it karate, kickboxing,

Muay Thai, then you'll dial in the striking ability.

If you go to BJJ or Judo, you'll dial in escapes.

Do both, a bit of Boxing and a bit of Judo and you'll have little to worry about.

Get a few weeks or months of dedicated training in a martial art to get the fundamentals.

Then you may drop the frequency if it doesn't really float your boat and you just want self defence skills.

Good self defence is simply violent application of fundamental skills.

You don't need a flying arm bar or a spinning back fist.

But you do need a hip escape and rear cross, both of which you'll learn in the first class and practice every class after that.

Regards

Dave Hedges

www.davehedges.net

Can I Train While in Pain?

Today's newsletter comes out of a conversation I Had recently with a highly experienced therapist looking to use more exercise and training with his clients

Ricardo wanted to pick my brains on how we help people transition from injured to athletic.

Which has been my bread and butter for over a decade.

The thing Ricardo, as a therapist first, kept getting hung up on was that a client should be out of pain before starting training.

I suggested a different viewpoint, as I'm a coach before I'm a therapist.

So I want you training while we get you out of pain.

Training is what you do.

If you read my stuff, you're probably an Athlete, a former Athlete or a person looking to have as much strength, mobility and endurance as possible for as long as possible.

Not being able to train or exercise bothers you.

So when someone reaches out to me for rehab work, the first thing we'll do is figure out what some call “your trainable menu”

In short, if you've a knee issue, you can still train upper body

If you've a shoulder issue, you can do lower body.

And so on.

This does something I think is absolutely critical for people.

It allows them to maintain their self image.

It maintains the image that they are strong

That they can work hard, break a sweat, move.

It will be reduced, by necessity, but its still there.

They aren't confined to resting.

To thinking they are damaged

To sitting around watching Netflix and eating the fridge dry.

The key is finding what you can do.

And do it hard while we rehab the injury.

There's an added benefit, when you train your body releases hormones onto the blood stream. This is to kick-start the recovery process and its what makes you stronger and the tissues get repaired to higher tolerance levels.

And because hormones travel in the blood, which goes right around the body. Then there's a solid chance some of those lovely anabolic hormones will end up at the injury site and may just help speed up the healing

I think back over all times I've been hurt. My own self image never allowed me sit still or feel sorry for myself.

I found a way to move.

To work out what I could do while figuring out what needed to be done about the injury.

I'd still go to training, even if I couldn't participate, I wanted to be part of the crew

And that was before I was educated in injury management.

I wish I knew back then what I know now, while my behaviour was on point, my rehab could have been smoother, faster, if I'd have known better.

Between the client maintaining a positive self image, combining real training with the injury rehab, and still getting to the gym with the supportive atmosphere and peer support, how can a client not improve?

Don’t wait until you’re out of pain to get back training.

But do be sensible about how you train while injured.

It’s simple

Not easy

Regards

Dave Hedges

www.Wg-Fit.com

www.DaveHedges.net

Should a Turkish Get up be Fast or Slow?

We've a great question in for today's newsletter

Kevin writes in asking:

“What’s your opinion on Turkish Get Ups?

In that should they be strict and methodical or sped up and rushed?”

From the wording of that question, it seems Kevin has his own thought

on this topic, which is why he says “rushed”

I’m guessing he’s on the slower, more methodical side of the equation.

Now, before I talk about performance of the exercise, we first need to

start by asking what our intention with the exercise might be.

Every exercise we choose to do, and the manner in which we do the

exercise has to support our training goals. Even if that goal is simply

to sling some iron about and have fun. Not all training is about

becoming a world champion….

So why do we do Get Ups?

Could we be wanting to improve our shoulder health in some way?

Are we looking for core strength?

Is it a warm up drill or a primary movement?

Are we building movement proficiency and proprioception?

Is it being used to help prepare for another movement?

Or are we doing them simply because they’re fun?

If it’s for Shoulder health, we absolutely should be going methodical.

Same for movement proficiency and proprioception.

In these cases we treat the get up not as a single movement, but more

like a series of movements, almost a complex.

Each individual movement has it’s own value and this should be actively

sought out.

Doing “Bottoms Up” Get Ups will do wonders for you here, it will

absolutely slow you down and ensure you are aligning your body under

that bell, unless of course you simply crush grip a light weight so it

becomes irrelevant.

If we’re using the Get Up to prep for another movement, as I encourage

Kettlebell Sport athletes to do, then the methodical approach still applies.

Now we can focus on the part of the get up that carries over to the

other skill might be.

It maybe scapula control for an overhead athlete (Kettlebell sport), it

could be the hip actions for a BJJ athlete, or it maybe the rolling and

vestibular requirements for a cyclist or concussion rehab.

Now, if we’re doing them as a warm up or simply for the fun of doing

them, then play with the movement.

While I would never advocate rushing, I do like a fast get up when

appropriate.

How long should a single rep take?

That depends on the skill of the individual and the intensity of the lift.

I’ve maxed out my get up just to see what I could get, both in standard

get ups and in bottoms up, and it’s taken nearly 45 seconds just to

stand up, never mind how long it took to get back down.

But, I can also do a full rep, up and down, in a around 30 seconds if

I’m using a relatively light weight.

30 seconds is fast, but it’s still not rushing for a person with my

experience level.

Where Get Ups go wrong, is usually when people rush them.

Yes load can be a factor, as in any lift.

Rushing though is a rep killer, in almost any lift.

Watch clips online of serious lifters, Hook Grip is a great site ( on

all social media) showing olympic lifters. Now, Oly lifts are fast,

there’s no two ways about it. But when you see good lifters, you see how

they take their time.

They, in the words of my old Kenpo instructor, “make haste slowly”

Or to put it another way, “slow is smooth, smooth is fast”

Never, ever rush.

Especially if your goal is speed.

Now, if, like Kevin, you have a question you want answered, hit reply

and send it in.

And if you know someone who may benefit from the information in this

newsletter, feel free to pass it on. Sharing is caring!

--

Regards

Dave Hedges

www.DaveHedges.net

www.WG-Fit.com