09/09/2026
The ‘reality’ of ‘reality-based’ self defence.
Read this - pull the trigger - come on in Tuesday or Thursday at 5:45pm and step into something extraordinary …. be part of the REDCAT Way.
THE REDCAT THESIS ON REALITY-BASED SELF DEFENCE
The ‘reality’ of ‘reality-based’ self defence.
There is nothing wrong with scenario-based training, practising eye-gouging and stress innoculation, etc - some of it is very useful (for self defence) - but it is only the floundering amateur who makes the illogical leap to the keyboard and exclaims that the various combative sports are not useful in real-life altercations. I have heard such utterances on occasions, and they usually spew from the mouths of the totally inexperienced.
A few examples of ignorance:
‘Sport Jiu Jitsu doesn’t allow strikes - so it can’t be good for the street’ … ‘Boxing doesn’t allow head-buts, elbows and knees - so it can’t be good for the street’ … ‘Kickboxing doesn’t allow for weapons attacks or multiple attackers - so it can’t be good for the street’. These are some of the most illogical and ignorant conclusions I have ever heard.
Yes - Wrestling, Jiu Jitsu, Boxing, Kickboxing, Judo, and Shooting all have a sporting face; but this is where the real technical development actually takes place. It is also where people acquire ‘actual’ skills; skills they can bring to bear in ‘live’ encounters.
At the end of the day, we acquire skill via ‘training’; actual training, against non-compliant opponents. The best athletes, operators and professionals train; they train hard and they train regularly.
Imagine taking the view that regular swimming competitions weren’t the right approach for ‘real world swimming’ because in the real world, the water is dirty, there are waves and there are creatures living in that water, etc. So here’s the question? How much training are we likely to do in dirty water with the odd shark and a tidal rip dragging us out to sea? Not much. We build our skills in the pool. We use them in the sea. One day, a day that may never come, we might use them to survive a 'rip tide' or 'boating accident'. Maybe. Get in that pool.
The ‘reality’ part of training should be attended to (for professional warfare, law enforcement, operator, OST, door-work, self defence, etc) - of course. But even if we add ‘specific scenario training’ and tailor those scenarios to our specific environmentally-driven needs, we still need to put the lions share (90% as a guess) of our training into actual skill acquisition.
One of the statements I used to get from the so-called ‘reality based self defence’ crew, was: ‘grappling is useless against multiple opponents’. But when we ran the scenario - the non-grapplers fared horribly; the grapplers on the other hand were harder to take down, and had skills on the ground that allowed them to disengage and recover to ‘standing’ if they did find themselves on the ground. And that is just one of the many myths that was shattered, time and again.
The trick is to acquire skills, through consistent training; ideally, training that is also enjoyable. If it is enjoyable, then you’ll tend to stay long enough to acquire some actual skills.
If you have the need, then overlay this with some tailored ‘orientation training’ that might include some stress inoculation, pre-emptive training, multiple opponent strategies, etc. But … come to the table with skills. Good skills.
