It’s extremely popular in certain circles to make public declarations of one’s devotion to fitness and conditioning. Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) enthusiasts in particular tend to engage in these histrionics (as do those scrawny or otherwise out-of-shape Ultimate Fighting Championship groupies who revere and aspire to become MMA exponents). This is by no means a condmenation of all athletes or of all MMA exponents, however, for people vary and their personalities are not monolothic. It is also no condemnation of those who do devote themselves to fitness and conditioning, for these are laudable goals. It is entirely common, however, for those who have achieved such fitness to look down on or dismiss those who have not. It is equally common (if not more so) for those who haven’t achieved this, but who ardently wish they could, to do the same.
Too often in the martial arts and self-defense field, loudly proclaiming one’s advocacy of physical fitness becomes an unrealistic and frequently hypocritical attempt to marginalize those who fail to meet one’s idealized standards of physical health. Those who’ve committed the time, energy, and effort to build their bodies to above-average or top physical condition should certainly be applauded (and, whenever possible, emulated). The better your level of health and fitness, the better off you are generally and the greater the odds that you’ll succeed physically if you engage in a self-defense encounter (all other factors remaining equal). Given the choice between ill-health and good health without additional effort, there is no rational person who would choose to be in poor shape.
When we are done wishing for sculpted bodies and winged horses, reality reasserts itself. Reality is ruthless. Reality is implacable. Reality has no compassion. Reality feels nothing in fact; it simply is, unavoidable, inexorable, and unquestionable.
The fact is that self-defense — and the pursuit of self-defnese — is an inalienable individual right. To take the attitude, as some do, that those not in perfect physical health simply cannot defend themselves is not just morally reprehensible; it is unrealistic. The disdain of those who venerate the athlete’s approach to martial sports and self-defense may be directed at those who are overweight. It may also target those who are old or otherwise infirm. It might be the type of chauvinism that, in holding up No Holds Barred (NHB), MMA-type training as the ideal (or as the pinnacle of “realistic” and “pressure tested” self-defense training), sneeringly dismisses women who cannot compete in the ring against 200-pound men as “unable” to achieve success in pragmatic, real-world self-defense. Regardless of the precise flavor of contempt brought to bear on the less-than perfect (by those who frequently fail to achieve the ideal they themselves tout as the necessary baseline for “winning” a physical altercation), the outcome remains ill-conceived.
Humanity comprises any number of different personality types and phenotypes. Every last one of us should try to be as physically fit and healthy as we can be — but we don’t. Some of us are lazy; some of us have other priorities; some of us have physical ailments that hinder our efforts; some of us do our best in the time and circumstances available to us but could do better if we had easier lives; some of us do, and do quite well, providing examples that others strive to emulate. What we all have in common regardless of how lazy, out-of-shape, physically infirm, or otherwise unwell we might be (comparatively or absolutely) is the fact that we all need to be able to defend ourselves and we all need to be able to do it right now, not years from now (if ever).
In every society there is a population of gifted athletes. There is also a population of people who have the potential to be accomplished athletes. Remove these people from the mix and what you have left is the overwhelming majority of mere mortals who comprise the citizenry of your nation. If we tell that majority of human beings, “You cannot defend yourself until you meet this specific ideal of health, fitness, and conditioning,” some of them — out of fear, out of determination, or out of some other motivation — will improve their physical health in order to acquire self-defense skill. What you’ll have left over after you remove them is still the majority of citizens of within any given population.
Will you tell the majority they cannot defend themselves? Is self-defense the exclusive purview and sole dominion of a select athletic elite within society? Of course not. This is not simply unacceptabel from a standpoint of pure realism; it is fundamentally flawed reasoning. Practical, pragmatic self-defense does not require one to be in peak physical condition. Ordinary people can learn to defend themselves and they can learn to do so quite effectively. They can learn to do so despite whatever physical limitations they might have — and despite the fact that they are not the biggest, the strongest, the fastest, the fittest, the baddest, or the mostest.
Am I arguing against health and fitness? Of course not. That’s absurd and anyone who claims I’ve said that obviously isn’t listening to what I am saying. I’m arguing for realism. Yes, you should be as fit as you can be — but most of us simply aren’t and wishing for it (or excoriating us over it) won’t change it. To underestimate or dismiss the martial skills of someone who doesn’t meet your ideals of health and fitness is also extremely stupid tactically. Some of the strongest men I’ve ever known were clinically “obese” — and no, they weren’t particularly fast, but they had arms like trees and hands like hams and they’d pound you into the dirt if you made them angry enough. Sure, they’d then go have a seat while huffing and puffing, red-faced and sweating. They were still powerful, however, and to claim this isn’t so is simply to deny reality.
Does a 100-pound woman have less right to self-defense than a 200-pound man? Does a 65-year-old man with arthritist and a double knee replacement have less right than someone half his age who can perform a jumping, spinning kick? Does a single physically fit man have less right to self-defense than the gang of three men looking to kick his ass? Obviously not — but for the infirm to have a chance of success against the physically (or numerically) superior, we must embrace the reality of tools as equalizers, as force multipliers. Armed citizens are armed specifically because they are not arrogant enough to believe, no matter what their relative levels of fitness, that they can defeat with their bear hands every person they encounter. To be armed is simply to be prudently prepared, carrying tools that equalize (hopefully in your favor) the disparity between your own strength, speed, and physical condition and those of your attacker(s). You are already at a disadvantage because your assailant(s) choose the time, place, and circumstances of the encounter; you must prepare accordingly before the fact.
One can easily argue that part of your preparation before the fact should be achieving a level of health and fitness that is as great as you can manage. This is true — but most of us will not achieve this. This is not defeatism; it is simply a realistic acknowledgment of that fact that our hedonistic and convenient society does not lend itself to great levels of physical fitness without extraordinary effort on the part of the practitioner. Some of us will pursue this goal to varying degrees; most of us simply won’t. I don’t care how lazy you are, however; I don’t care if you drive a desk or a truck all day; I don’t care if demands on your time are such that you simply don’t make time to exercise regularly. You have just as much right to self-defense as anyone else, be they trailer-bound whales watching daytime television or former cast members from American Gladiators.
If you are physically fit, great. If you are not, this will come in time (or it won’t, depending on what you do during that time). Regardless, you must learn to defend yourself and you must do so as expediently as possible. You cannot afford to wait; you cannot bide your time; you must learn realistic, pragmatic self-defense immediately. To that end, you must learn to use legal weapons and to prepare before the fact as an armed citizen. You must learn what physical techniques you can apply — and how to apply them using the delivery platform available to you. That platform is your body, regardless of the state in which you find yourself. Reality-based self-defense programs are plentiful and will give you many of the skills you need. Books like Shorthand Empty Hand, Flashlight Fighting, and other no-nonsense, “dirty fighting,” pragmatic and expedient guides are also available to you. ‘Zines like The Martialist are built on the notion of self-defense by and for average people. A multitude of great information on practical self-defense — for everyone — is more available than ever before in print, on video, and across the Internet.
As you pursue success in self-defense, it is a given that you should be as healthy as you can manage to be. As you pursue success in self-defense, it is a fact that you must do so regardless of your physical condition. To dismiss or underestimate someone — or to be dismissed or underestimated yourself — because you or the object of your disdain do or does not meet ideal standards of physical fitness is foolish and short-sighted. An out-of-shape office worker can still kick your ass. An obese man can still punch out your teeth. An old woman with a cane can still beat you soundly with that cane. An old man with a handgun can stand against and defeat multiple attackers and even mobs. A petite woman with a knife can cut and kill a much bigger, much stronger would-be rapist. Any of these men and women, using pragmatic self-defense techniques, fighting unfairly for his or her life, can achieve success in self-defense through prudent preparation, pragmatic planning, and proper perspective.
Fitness in self-defense is a wonderful thing. Few of us meet the physical standards set by competitive athletes. Some of those advocating these standards do not themselves meet them. Regardless, a high level of fitness is not essential to self-defense. Being “out of shape” does not preclude success in self-defense. All other factors being equal, physical health will indeed make a difference. In real-world self-defense, however, few if any factors are equal.
The prepared martialist works before the fact to make them as unequal as possible.