Probably because it’s been posted across several communities back to back

To answer in parts:

What’s your opinion on a lay person carrying a knife? What if they have basic training?

That circles back to two of my original points:

1. A technique is only realistically useful to you if you’ve drilled it over, and over, and over
2. The only way to win a knife fight is to run away from a knife fight

"Basic training" for blade combat is "dont"

What would you recommend to people who want to know self defense for purely practical reasons? Follow some kind of workshop or take classes for a few weeks?

Find a local martial arts gym that specializes in Jiu Jitsu and Krav Maga. Go for at least six months, and accept that if you stop going your skillset and abilities will begin to fade almost immediately.

Remember: A technique is only realistically useful to you if you’ve drilled it over, and over, and over

what do you think of self defense spray paint that doesn’t wash off, and or a personal alarm? At least over here real weapons are illegal.

Pepper spray and other irritants are the closest youre going to get to a catch all self defense tool that can be practically, consistently applied without training. Thing to note about that, youre not using an irritant spray to fight, youre using it to buy yourself time to run away. It also has to distinct disadvantage of affected you just as much as your opponent in the event it gets you.**

Hmmm possibly. I will check it out, thank you

I mean it can take decades to learn any given martial art completely, but sure some more broad stroke stuff

Don’t under estimate anyone or over estimate yourself

A technique is only realistically useful to you if you’ve drilled it over, and over, and over. You have to be able to act on muscle memory alone.

Counterintuitively, the most talented and dangerous fighters will almost always use the simplest, day one kind of moves- but perfectly, every time because of the above.

If you haven’t trained to kick don’t kick, you’re just giving up your balance

The only way to win a knife fight is to run away from a knife fight

With grappling in particular, most techniques will revolve around position yourself so that your larger muscles-thing legs, core, shoulders-are working against your opponents smaller muscles- arms, calves/ankles, hands, neck, etc. that’s why technique can make all the difference if you’re at a size disadvantage

But size is still an advantage. If someone has got 150lbs on you, be faster

And that water wars are looming…

I wonder if that has to do with them demographically having a ton of kids on average? I can see how taking a big group to the movies would be better than trying to wrangle everyone in the living room

Bluffing as in saying you’ve had training? That’s a bad idea.

A huge portion of martial arts is learning how not to use martial arts. De-escalating, removing yourself from the situation, choosing your battles. If you feel the need to bluff you’re almost always better off just walking away.

One of the big lessons in Krav is that every confrontation is deadly. Not could be. Not might be. Is. In the real world it can only take one lucky punch to kill someone, even if the person throwing that punch is completely untrained. Every opponent on the street is armed, dangerous, and actively trying to kill you if you’re being attacked- that’s the mentality

You avoid fighting in every capacity possible, it’s an absolute worst case scenario. But if you have to fight? You be incredibly violent, dirty, and lethal. You aim to maim your opponent and get to safety- because assholes that start fights tend to run in packs. From that perspective them thinking that you’re untrained in an advantage because they won’t expect it.

Tl;Dr, I would rather bluff that I can’t fight than let them know I can

To answer your second question, yes it’s worth it for everyone to learn some degree of self defense skills, if only for the physical benefits

I did Krav, Jiu-Jitsu and Muy Thai for a while. The biggest take away for me was the confidence boost, knowing with 100% certainty what I and my body can do.

I looked great too, but that was secondary

Buuuuut on the downside, I broke my collarbone and tore a muscle in my shoulder and it’s never been quite right since. Take Krav seriously

This is fine 😃

Try realllly hard. Bidens heart stops, right now. What, precisely, do you think will change in Gaza?

Think through that thought process for like, ten seconds maybe? Then come back

Hello, I am a third random user wondering what the original comment was, because the .ml admin in the thread deleted all the other comments