How to make self defense training effective

First of all,let's talk about the law of Self Defense.

The New York self defense law is typical of American justification statutes. It says that a person may use force when and to the extent he reasonably believes such to be necessary to defend himself from what he reasonably believes to be the use or imminent use of unlawful physical force by another person. N.Y. Penal Law 35.15(1). The defense usually does not apply when the person using force was the aggressor. As in the Goetz case, deadly physical force is prohibited unless the person reasonably believes that the other is using or is about to use deadly force, or that the other is committing or about to commit a burglary, kidnapping, forcible sexual intercourse, or robbery.

The phrase reasonably believes was a source of controversy in Goetz. The appellate court determined that a determination of reasonableness must be based on the circumstances facing a defendant or his situation. Goetz, 497 N.E.2d at 52. These circumstances may include knowledge the defendant had about the other, the physical attributes of all people involved, and any prior experiences. Because the defense successfully depicted the situation as a group of young men threatening one smaller individual who had previously been injured in a mugging, the jury acquitted.

Condition stimulus training is about making your training as real as possible so when your instincts take over in a high adrenaline stressed situation you are ready to use your environment to your advantage and not be hindered by it. Your mind will also be familiar with the stimulus and you will not freeze. Many martial artists and practitioners of self defense programs become overwhelmed when their environment changes from a dojo setting to a small confined area. Being in a room filled with furniture gives a martial artist the feeling of being closed in on and makes them feel that they can not move, so they stiffen. Being in this type of environment changes the way you are going to move or perform a tactic. It is completely different from movement in a dojo where you a vast amount of space.

When you are threatened and your adrenaline kicks in you now unknowingly give 100% faith and trust to your self defense system that it will get you out of harms way. Remember you fight like how you trained if you have trained in traditional systems you will most likely not use your environment to your advantage to defend yourself instead you will be hindered. You will focus on how you can not move and get tied up with objects in a room such as furniture because your training hasn’t prepared you for that type of stimulus. What you wear while training is also a big factor when it comes to be prepared to move in the streets. Many self defense training systems get practitioners to wear loose fitting clothing when they practice tactics for the obvious reason of being able to move freely. The downside of this is that when you move on the street wearing boots, jeans and form fitting clothing your range of motion is restricted. You will move much slower and if you are a female wearing heels will be off balance performing tactics because you have not trained yourself to move with heels on


Finally,recommend you to read this article: Some tips to improve your self defense training