“Can you do it? Do you have what it takes”? Those are the first things I say at the very first self defense class that you attend that I teach. Those two questions. Sounds simple. You say “YES”! You all say yes. Every class I have ever taught says yes. You tell me what you think I want to hear. But in reality you have no idea. Not yet. You begin to understand as I explain how easy fingers can slip into eyes. How easy a wrist can be broken. How a strike thrown correctly into the solar plexus can push the xiphoid into the spleen causing it to rupture, and what that means to your attackers survival. Now you begin to understand the question. “Can you do it? Do you have what it takes”? And I will repeat the question. Only each time the response sounds less and less assured. And it should. In the centuries it took for us to climb out of caves we have become domesticated. No longer do we hunt and kill for sustenance. No longer do we have to fight our fellow man tooth and nail over food, possessions, or mates. Often to the death. The very thought should be repulsive to a civilized person. But that is why you are here. You have come to the realization that there are people out there who are much less civilized than you. People that will take what other people have by means of force. People that may decide that YOU or a loved one will be the victim of their rage. And YOU have sought me out in order to acquire the necessary skills to defend yourself. It”s at this point in your training (notice I no longer use the term “class”) you begin to think that maybe you’ve gotten in over your head. Now is when I begin to really make you uncomfortable. In each combat scenario (gone is the term self defense) I explain in graphic detail what your attacker will do to you. You wince as you perform your response. Again. Again. Each time wincing less and less. We are conditioning your response. Good work! The class is over, but the training never ends. “Can you do it? Do you have what it takes”? Only you know the answer.
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“Can you do it? Do you have what it takes”?
2 replies on ““Can you do it? Do you have what it takes”?”
Yes, I can. Not answered flippantly, or as a reflexive response to the challenge.
I can answer this question because I have been in the situation of having to consider the act of damaging or killing another human being. I have had my life threatened, had to struggle to keep from dying.
When I was in the military, it was an abstract concept. “we may have to shoot down an attacking aircraft.” Impersonal and bloodless. Until.
Someone tried to force his way onto our ship, in port. I was a Petty-Officer of the Quarterdeck at the time, though I wasn’t the one on duty that day. Faced with a possible imminent threat to us all, my shipmate acted decisively, drew and cocked his weapon, and prepared to shoot the intruder dead. He didn’t have to complete the act, fortunately. The intruder lay down and was apprehended by other watch-standers.
Afterwards, our commanding officer (XO) took all the QD Petty Officers aside and asked us if we could have made the same decision in that situation.
I was 24, and it was the first time I had been faced with that question: could I end another Human? I struggled to say. XO had us look at it this way. “You are responsible for the lives of every other sailor on this ship when you guard that Quarterdeck. If you fail, and let an intruder onboard, he might kill or injure many of all of us. He could cripple the ship. He might kill you. Guarding that entrance is first and foremost, and act of duty. To your ship, your shipmates, and ultimately, your country.” That made up my mind.
I took that attitude with me when I left the service, worked for a time as a personal protection agent (body guard), and then as an armed courier. The situations changed, but the lesson remained: there are bad people who will try to harm you, or those you are tasked with protecting. It is a righteous act to stop them, up to and including ending a life.
In order to protect my wife, my family, my community, I will do what ever it takes.
Amen friend!