It goes without question that, within the realms of martial arts and self-defense, there are literally hundreds of things that you can do to debilitate an attacker. From the various methods of striking different body targets with punches and kicks, to throwing, locking, pressure point attacks, and joint-manipulation techniques, each is effective in its own right.

But, when you ask the average person what they think is the most effective thing to do in a self-defense situation, the almost overwhelming answer is, “a kick to the groin.” In fact, in response to just about any “what-if” scenario involving being attacked, the majority of women default to this answer.

Here’s a short list of reasons why the groin is not the “perfect” target, nor is it the end-all-to-beat-all martial arts or self-defense technique:

1) Small Target - No pun is intended here. What I mean is that, when compared to other targets of the body, the groin is a relatively small target. Unless you are directly in front of a person with there legs open and feet at-least shoulder-width apart, hitting this target gets more and more difficult with every variable. And, “almost” getting your target, especially this one, is a sure way to make your attacker more angry and dangerous!

A much better target would be the inside of the legs. The femoral nerve runs the length of the leg and, coupled with the weaker bone-structures of the knees and ankles, making the inside of the thighs, knees, and calves really great targets. Here, you’re attacking a target that’s much larger and therefor requiring less precision on your part - something that will be very difficult under pressure - and you get the secondary benefit of making it practically impossible for him to chase after you.

2) Your Attacker’s Childhood Training - Every time I conduct a rape prevention seminar and this topic comes up, I ask one of the men present, “how old were you when you realized that this was not a good place to get hit?” Invariably, the response is somewhere between two and six years old. Now, we men know this. That’s probably why men don’t think of kicking an attacker in the groin first…or at all.

However, ignorance of this fact cause women to believe that it will be a surprise when they attack this target. When the truth is that, unless you set your assailant up to be “surprised”, chances are he’ll be looking for this. But, even if you are able to get in a good strike, you have to be concerned with…

3) Automatic Defensive Response - This is connected with your autonomic nervous system and causes a natural body response to protect and cover a target that is being attacked. Again, ask any guy to duplicate his reaction to a shot to the groin. Chances are that you won’t see the typical comedy response from the movies. Instead, what you’ll see is him bending over forward as his body instinctively pulls the groin away from danger and simultaneously drops the torso to cover it.

What does this mean in a self-defense situation? After all, don’t you want him folded in half with his face at knee level?

Of course. But…

…you don’t want your face in the path of his head when it flies forward!

Can you imagine what it would feel like being smashed in the face with an incidental head butt that you caused?!

4) Positioning - While this is related to the first area of discussion, what I mean here is that, the groin may be nowhere to be found. Again, in my programs designed especially for women, I cover the most common street attack in rape scenarios. This is where the woman is grabbed from behind and literally pulled off her feet behind her into an alleyway or waiting vehicle. In this scenario, it will be difficult enough to stand, let alone kick something behind you that’s moving. Add to this scenarios involving lying down or while seated and the problem starts to become more clear.

Remember, your assailant has been wary of being hit in this area since early childhood. He knows that his victim, especially if it’s a woman, will probably go for this target. So, he is very likely to position himself in a way that removes the groin as a target altogether.

While the groin is a viable target, and a good way to damage any attacker, it should not be seen as the best or “only” target to go after in a dangerous situation. Learning just this one technique for protecting yourself is akin to relying solely on a gun for defense and then being attacked when you’re not armed.

Of course, you are free to do whatever you want. That’s the great thing about being “all-grown-up.” You are free to choose. Remember though, if you make the wrong decision in a self-defense situation, it could be the last choice you ever make.

Jeffrey M. Miller is the founder and director of Warrior Concepts International. He regularly conducts seminars and training programs for individuals, corporations and groups on both principle-based self-protection and unleashing human potential. He is the author of the books “The Karate-Myth” and “Controlling the Fight,” as well as the videos “Danger Prevention Tactics” and “The Cutting-Edge: Surviving a Knife Attack.” He can be reached through his web site at http://www.warrior-concepts-online.com

Tags: Wing Chun, Kung Fu, Las Vegas Kung Fu School, Las Vegas Wing Chun School, Lo Man Kam, Lo Man Kam Wing Chun, Martial Arts Self Defense

The most surprising statistic that most karate and martial arts teachers discover is the one that tells them “why most of their adult students quit shortly after enrolling.” In fact, the greatest percentage of adult dropouts from martial arts classes occurs within the first 100 days!

This has sparked some groups to investigate the reasons behind this phenomena. Surveys have been conducted both in the United States as well as in Canada. Additional inquiries may also have been conducted in places like Europe and Australia as well.

What the researchers found was, to them, incredible. They found that, by and large, the number one reason for adult students dropping out of their programs was…

…no real-world self-defense training early on in their training!

“How could this be?”, was the question. The researchers were stunned. After all, they were martial arts teachers and they certainly taught self-defense as a part of their classes.

How could these adults say that they weren’t being taught real-world self-defense techniques?

Perhaps, the problem was not that “self-defense techniques” were or were not being taught. Because, even after these studies were conducted and karate programs started to “import” third-party self-defense packages into their product offering, adult dropouts remained high.

Maybe the problem was in perception. Maybe students just couldn’t see how the “stylized” movements of a centuries-old system could be applicable against a street attack against a stiletto or ‘Saturday Night Special’-wielding assailant.

It’s certain that students were not seeing and hearing what they thought they should in order to believe that they were getting what they needed to survive such an attack. Even if these students don’t know what ‘that thing’ really looks like, their gut-level feeling was that, “this stuff isn’t going to work.”

Maybe the problem - what adult students are looking for - is in something even more crucial to learning self-defense against violent attackers. And maybe this “thing” was easier to identify by novices than by trained instructors who had been indoctrinated into sport systems.

Maybe what was lacking in all of these programs was something the real experts like to call…

…Experience!

Regardless of the subject, it’s fairly easy to see when someone has experience with the information they have, isn’t it? I mean, experience in actually applying that information to produce viable, proven results. As the old saying goes, “those who can - do; and those who can’t - teach.”

And, what adult students are looking for is someone who “can” AND “teaches” others how they can as well.

Now, this isn’t to say that most martial arts instructors don’t know their arts and the techniques and skills that come with them. Most certainly do. And these people are very good at what they do.

However; there is a huge difference between knowing how to ‘perform’ a skill - any skill - and being able to apply that skill in a particular context. And self-defense is no exception.

No matter how hard they try, most martial arts and self-defense instructors will not be able to convince most adults that they know what they’re talking about without the experience to back it up. Adult students are not children. They have seen far too much in there lives to let these less-than-able instructors slide.

And with the new threat of terrorism being added to the ever-present concern with crime, most adults have no desire to learn martial arts for purely ascetic reasons. They want - no, they demand - and rightly so, that the person they place their trust in, not to mention their very lives, knows what he or she is doing.

So, what’s an instructor to do if he or she lacks actual real-world experience? Should they rush right out and get into a few fights? Should they go hang out in the seedier side of town and wait to be mugged, raped, or beaten?

No, of course not. But, they can, like their students, go in search of real experts - people who have “been there” and who can help them learn what they need to know in order to help the people who come to them for this type of knowledge.

Of course, this may require that they suck in their pride and get a check on the old ego. But, as everyone knows who has been in an actual violent confrontation with a dangerous attacker, you need to “check your ego at the door” if you’re going to survive.

Teaching self-protection skills to others is a huge responsibility. And one perhaps that’s too great for a lot of people who are teaching for purely personal reasons.

There is another option available, however; just in case the primary one is totally unacceptable. And that option is simply to…

…stop trying to teach self-defense if they’re not qualified.

By all means, an instructor can, and should, continue to teach his particular style of martial art. But he should stop trying to convince intelligent, grown adults, that he knows what he’s talking about with regards to surviving a violent attack if he doesn’t. He should remember that people are placing their lives in his hands every time he open’s his mouth, or demonstrates a technique. I’m not sure whether or not many instructors have thought about this. But they should.

After all, most martial arts instructors teach honesty as one of the major tenets and character traits of a black belt master and leader. Wouldn’t this be the “honest” thing to do?

The moral here is that, if a martial arts or karate teacher wishes to teach self-defense - if he or she wants to get and retain adult students looking for this type of training for the long-term, they really have no choice but to do what they must.

They, like every other information-based professional, are in business to provide a service. They must decide what that service is and whether or not it includes real-world self-protection against violent attackers who don’t follow the rules of fairness and respect found in martial arts schools and karate tournaments.

They should also know this…

…no company, whether it’s a furniture store or a martial art school, stays in-business very long if it can’t give its customers what they want and need. Their clients and students may never tell them that they don’t believe or trust them. But, rest assured that if they’re not getting what they’ve paid for, they’re gone.

As a final thought, and one that I live by. What if, some day, “I” must depend on one of my students to protect me from a dangerous assailant for whatever reason. Wouldn’t I want to make sure that what he or she learned was really going to work?

I know I would!

Jeffrey M. Miller is the founder of Warrior Concepts International, a Pennsylvania-based company specializing in helping private, law enforcement, and corporate clients to develop time-tested and proven self-protection and personal development skills that work in the real-world. He is the author of the highly acclaimed, educational video, Danger Prevention Tactics. His latest book, “The Karate-Myth” shows the reader why most martial arts and self-defense programs don’t work and how to insure your safety in today’s violent world. For additonal information about having this internationally-recognized expert as a guest or keynote speaker for your organization’s next meeting, or to sponsor a seminar with Mr. Miller, you may contact him through his web site or by calling WCI in the U.S. and Canada, at (570) 988-2228.

Tags: Wing Chun, Kung Fu, Las Vegas Kung Fu School, Las Vegas Wing Chun School, Lo Man Kam, Lo Man Kam Wing Chun, Martial Arts Self Defense

Several factors make learning Chinese a considerably more formidable task than learning another Germanic or Romance languages. Studying a foreign language is an excellent way for English and other language teachers to improve their own teaching. It also forces you into the role of a student so you can experience first hand the problems, difficulties and challenges your EFL learners face in your classes. Don’t believe me? Then look at what happened to me

continued from part 1

A couple of students confuse a pronunciation with the name of a Kung Fu TV series actor. The teacher doesn t get it. They talk about Jackie Chan as the mood of the class lightens. We try a few numbers that are simple to write in Chinese. One, two, three, four, ten, one thousand. Not bad at all, but I ll definitely need those flash cards and a pronunciation tape. Then comes five, six, seven, eight, nine. We continue with eleven, twelve and twenty. Twenty one and creating multiples of numbers follow. Actually, it s not difficult at all. Some of the higher numbers are childishly simple to create in both speaking and writing. The class continues creating more numbers by combining characters in Chinese. I glance at my watch. My fist Mandarin class will end in twenty five more minutes. The final number is one thousand three hundred million the population of China.

The class is interesting, with its musical language, and fun at times, but impractical. Where will we practice? Who is there to talk to? Is anyone, besides me, even thinking of going to China? Where in China is Mandarin spoken? What are the other principal forms of Chinese? These are only some of the questions that pop into my head during the class.

If I intend to have any success with this Mandarin class I realize that some learning and study aids are going to be needed such as:

Recordings of pronunciations

Drilling practice flash cards

Reference sheets of class work

Background information on China s culture, history, people and geography

Focused practice with functional language (that I could use during a trip to China)

Graphics applied to the materials as a memory aid

Extra tutorials to help me over the rough spots in learning the language

Photos and realia for an extra added touch

Study projects on the people, culture, geography, and history of China

An idea of what motivates the other students might be interesting and helpful too. So I ll try to chat with a couple of them before and after class. Several factors make learning Chinese a considerably more formidable task than learning another Germanic or Romance languages. It should be an interesting experience over all though. I ll keep you posted of interesting developments.

Wish me luck.

Prof. Larry M. Lynch is an expert author and photographer offering Web Content Writing Services for top-quality articles on: Education, Language learning, Salt and Fresh water fishing, exotic foods, South American travel and culture, Ethnic issues Blacks, Latinos, Indian native tribes, Health, Internet business resources and more His work has appeared in Transitions Abroad, South American Explorer, Escape From America, Mexico News, Brazil magazine and hundreds of sites online. For fr*e*e sample articles and available web content e-mail: lynchlarrym@gmail.com

Tags: Wing Chun, Kung Fu, Las Vegas Kung Fu School, Las Vegas Wing Chun School, Lo Man Kam, Lo Man Kam Wing Chun, Martial Arts Self Defense