“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 survivability. 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 if 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 combat technique (it is now COMBAT), but as you progress you wince a little less.
Be it hand to hand or knives or guns. you have to ask yourself, in REAL LIFE, “Do you have what it takes”? And if you are not 100% sure you can answer yes, then congratulations! You made it out of the cave! Now go out a learn your way back. Not for always, but for when needed. You never know when the question will arise, “Do you have what it takes”? And in that moment in time your answer needs to be a resounding YES!
One reply on “Do you have what it takes?”
My answer would be, “I think so.” I would start the training, then I would find out for sure. Most likely, I would turn out to have what it takes. I’m damn serious about protecting me & mine.