The basic idea in self defense is that it’s you against another person, keeping your body safe should someone come up and try to attack you on the street. In reality, when we’re training for self defense, the vast majority of the time is spent with us in a room with fellow martial artists practicing movements. We repeat them over and over again until they are automatic, until they live in our bodies and we do them without thinking. Our instructors give us changes to make, show us new ways of thinking about potential situations, and guide us in becoming more confident in the way that our bodies move. The hope is that we’re training for an event that we’re not going to ever face in real life. Why train for something that is so unlikely to happen? The reason is that you’re not training for some stranger that attacks you with a baseball bat in a parking lot, you’re training for yourself. The techniques we teach at Academy of Self Defence are effective in a real fight, and that is critically important. However, where we find the most value is in the whole person development we experience through martial arts training.