Just wanted to put a new spin on the idea of self defense and share a recent experience with readers.

As most people know, I'm a secondary school teacher during the day and am often called upon to break up the numerous fights that break out between students. However, when recently writing a discipline note in a year 10 boy's planner I was subject to a physical assault by that student.

Not a moment in my life I particulary want to dwell upon, but the aspect I want to point out is that as much as we train physically in our respective martial arts for self defense, we cannot control at that moment in time for the mental and nervous reaction being assulted has upon yourself. My situation was a bit odd as by law, being a teacher, I'M NOT ALLOWED TO DEFEND MYSELF! However, the feeling is very, very different to even the most tricky sparring match you will encounter in a competition. Your stomach flips, you panic, your limbs feel like lead and you are faced by someone who really, really hates you.

I've rattled on enough but my point is, no matter how hard you train, when it comes to the crunch it is still frightening.

Thats nothing to be ashamed of Lesley, its perfectly natural to feel that way. Ive been in a few situations, (in my students days - and not at my choosing I might add) where its been fight or walk away. Ive chose the latter every time and the first couple of occasions I used to think I should of done something there...... But I soon realised its not about that..... Taking your situation you could of lashed out very easily and where would that of got you? In shit loads of trouble as you quite rightly put!

May we ask what the outcome was? (i.e. is the little bugger facing expulsion?)

No, he wasn't excluded. He spent a couple of days in isolation and had to come to me to apologise. He only did this when he was forced to by the Head of Year Now I've had to take him back into my class. We try our best to ignore each other but he got excluded the other day because he threw a chair at another teacher.

I used to work as an undercover security guard for one of my local town centers. Ever hear of Staines/Ali G - that sums up the type of persons I dealt with most of the time.
Then there are the times you get the knifes and the 'gangsters' and then you have a hard time trying to control your bladder as well as the situation.

Unfortunatly the only thing that will prepare you for the real thing is the real thing. And to be honest if I don't have my wife or any friends around I'm running away as fast as possible!

Lesley, fear is good in my opinion. It keeps you on your toes.

It all boils down to the "Fight or Flight" rule. You either fight or you run. Like you guys, the latter is the best way, if its an option.

Its like being in a road rage situation. You exchange a few words and maybe the odd hand gesture. THe guy in the other car jumps out of his car and comes towards you. Its at the p[recise byt VERY short moment you have to decide whether hes just gonna stiuck his face in yours and shout or if hes going to hitesley, fear is good in my opinion. It keeps you on your toes.

It all boils down to the "Fight or Flight" rule. You either fight or you run. Like you guys, the latter is the best way, if its an option.

Its like being in a road rage situation. You exchange a few words and maybe the odd hand gesture. THe guy in the other car jumps out of his car and comes towards you. Its at the p[recise byt VERY short moment you have to decide whether hes just gonna stiuck his face in yours and shout or if hes going to hit you.

The way I work is this, I imagine that I am sorrounded by sphere or circle, which is my reach area. If anyone gets into that area then I know that they are within my reach distance, and are invading my personal space.

I would always talk my way out of a situation or just walk away, the only time I would EVER use my martial arts knowledge and experience is if I new I could not walk away.

Fear is a natural reaction and everyone gets it, well, unless you're a sociapath.

Your body is set up for fight or flight, so subconsciously your body starts to shut down some non-essential activities such as your digestive system. This is why your stomach turns and your mouth goes dry causing your voice to go funny.

At the same time your body is pumping blood to your limbs so you can fight or run, hence the shaking sensation.

The problem is this can be a shock to the system and instead of fight or flight response it can cause you to freeze.

It's not the easiest thing to train in a martial arts class environment. Stress drills and pressure testing are the closest that you are going to get, but even there it is still a safe environment.

Still can't believe that you aren't allowed to protect yourself at school. It was different when I was at school, there was also the threat of physical violence from the teachers. God, I sound like an old man - "when i were a lad..."

take care
Steve

Hi,

I work in a pupil referal unit in the south of England. Our pupils are the ones who are permanently excluded from mainstream schools for the type of incident you describe.

Most have serious behavioural/emotiional problems and troubles with home life. I am not writing this to excuse these guys just setting the scene.

Many are carrying their own 'baggage' and respond to situations based upon learned behaviour. In almost all the cases these children feel the fear you mention (panic, stomach flipping over etc)in any situation with which they are not familiar.

It is this fear that drives them to act. To re state the old cliche 'flight or fight'. Their response will be one that they have used previously and has worked for them before. e.g. anger leading to verbal or physical assault or running away.

It is possible to give yourself an edge in these circumstances by simply remaining outwardly calm. If the pupil has 'lost it' Do not block their escape and do not try to deal with the issue then. Rather re visit it later, when they are calm and you have someone else with you. Alternatively let someone else deal with the issue later.

There are lots of techniques available which I use everyday and they work. None involve any kind of physical intervention and I will happily share them.

As to martial arts and self defence. In our system the martial aspect is just about self defence. We train hard and as real as we can legally. The feelings you describe are the bodies natural coping mechanism and if you become used to them you can still operate effectively. It does however take time and a fair degree of effort.

All the best

Lesley Jackson wrote:
being a teacher, I'M NOT ALLOWED TO DEFEND MYSELF!
My sypathies.
How times have changed.
I'm the black sheep in a family full of secondary school teachers.
You could tell my dad's classroom from all of the others because of the vaccum of silence emanating from it.
He'd sometimes come home and tell us about kids he'd had 'words' with.
Thing is, people still come up to me in the street and tell me how much they learned from him, even though they hated him when they were pupils.
It's unfortunate that teachers have to bear the brunt of kids who perhaps have not had proper values instilled into them by their parents.

Get the kid into your Martial Arts class, where you can legitimately kick the shit out of him.
See how HE likes the Adrenal dump.

Hi Lesley/all

Here are points again (but shorter) as I just lost my blog:

1) Your statement that you can't do anything is wrong. You can under the law use resonable force and this is echoed in the DSCF guidance which change reasonable to minimal force which all school will have been informed of.

2) In the wider context of martial arts, training must include dealing with spontaneous and abiguous situations. Sparring (one-on-one) and competition do not help with this if based on a sporting system.

3) The fear factor comes from steping outside your own emotional comfort zone. Very few school challenge or discuss this, often people hide this through ego, but frustration, anger and fear all impact on our ability. Also no one seems to use martial arts as an act of compassion, knowing how to avoid and restrain without going for the most killer moves (the art of not fighting?) which is a display of a higher level of humanity and martial discipline.

The whole thing of panic when we are faced with a situation in which we do not know the outcome or cannot control is a throw back of human nature. A caveman or woman met with snarling sabre tooth or similar would have the same reaction. But we also emulate these expressions when on the attack. So anyone on either side of the situation will react these ways.
As for not being able to defend yourself, i know it sucks but is another refelection on our nanny state and why certain kids think they can roam the streets hunting in packs until they pick onsomeone who will stand up to them and give them a slap.