In the ‘80s when I was a student and training full time, I was a defensive fighter. I would play off of your offensive mistakes and extended positions to launch my counterattacks. I got pretty good at this but, there was a big hole in my training. I was defensive but I wasn’t necessarily evasive. In other words, I would retreat and counter attack, but I would not evade or shoot to the lateral or 45° angles. My teacher would exploit this and make me pay for my mistakes.
To break me of this habit, he took me to the local rock quarry, specifically to a 20’ x 14’ ledge. As we begin “the lesson” and he pressed me backwards, I retreated to the edge of the cliff. There was nowhere to go but down. Long story short, I had to quickly learn how to evade to the sides and to the forward 45° angles and counterattack. Lesson learned. New skills acquired.
Why do I share this story? In this day and age of DIY, I run across a lot of people who love internet learning - myself included. And there is a ton of content out there. But no matter what the content is, your learning can only go so far without a teacher to guide you and take you to the edge. To push you to your limit. You don’t know what you don’t know until you do. And then… it is too late.
TIP: if you want to learn self-defense, find yourself a teacher/school. You should be able to watch a class or take a free class or two before making a decision to join. Ask the students there why do the come to class? What do they like about the school? How is the teacher? If there is any pushback to any of this, then that probably is not a place you want to join.
Speaking of free classes…