The Reality Of Children’s Self Defense

The Reality Of Children’s Self Defense

        So many Taekwondo schools teach self defense to children and advertise things like “bully prevention” and “stranger danger.” They make money off of claiming that the children who train there will learn valuable self defense techniques. Most techniques taught to children are unrealistic and silly and done half assed in order to allow the kid to pass to the next rank or get a stripe on their belt. Basically, a child just has to learn a movement then he or she ranks up. Most of these techniques are incredibly ridiculous and stupid. Some of them range from flashy super power ranger style moves where the adults pretend they are hurt and fly back, or they range from the teachers who think they are teaching something really innovative and true for a child to use for self defense. The following are some examples of very stupid and unrealistic techniques taught to kids by various martial arts teachers that will get a child killed or kidnapped anyway because the moves will not work.

The instructor who thinks he is teaching innovating and important serious techniques:

This is just fluff. Memorizing words to use is pointless. The girl even had a problem remembering what words to use. This is just stuff used to puff up a set of curriculum. It makes kids memorize pointless things to pass tests for belt stripes or their next belt level. This is just to make it seem like what the child is learning is really deep or complex. realistically, all a kid needs to be told is to scream and tell the guy to stop, and tell anyone near them that the guy is trying to kidnap them or they don’t know him. What a child needs to remember to say are the basic ideas of what bad thing is happening to them, and to express what is going on to any bystanders. That is all a kid needs to know. Not special phrases. The instructor goes on about words and weapons we use blah blah…he is being an egghead over the simplest concept any child can understand. The technique itself is also very ineffective. The girl in the video footage they used was not even trained in martial arts. She just used common sense and got out of the pedophile’s hold. The instructor demonstrated a hold where a pedophile, rapist pervert would hold a kid with one hand over the mouth and the other around her waist. He tells the girl to kick backwards, duck her head down and headbutt backwards and to then drive her hips out and the bad guy would just drop her. That is unrealistic and would never play out that easy. The girl in the video got loose simply by struggling like crazy and the bad guy dropped her out of fear other people at Walmart might hear her and see him more than her struggling. If someone was abducted anywhere that is not Walmart or not around many people simply driving a foot back is not going to work. Notice the instructor himself has very long legs which means he has a very high crotch. She could not hit his testicles that hard from such a backward ankle kick. Yes, it could hurt but in previous articles on this blog it has already been proven a “nut shot” is not a guaranteed fight ender. Yes it does help, and is good to know, but more needs to be done. The girl should actually immediately grab the attacker’s hand over her mouth and work on it at the same time as kicking back. Don’t just leave the arms limp! Work the fingers to try and break and pull joints, bite them etc. Loosen her mouth to be able to scream and yell for help. Also, a headbutt might actually hurt the child more than the adult if she hits a hard part of his face and not the nose. The back of the head has sensitive nerves that can short circuit the brain and cause a shake up, or possibly a knockout. A child does not have a big enough head or a powerful enough strike because they are not strong enough and are too small. The hip out thing was okay but there are various ways to lower the center of gravity. She should have been twisting and turning, and using downward backfists or knifehands to the balls. The worst part of this child anti-abduction technique was the fact after the bad guy lets her loose she then turns toward him and begins to attack him. HOW STUPID! Such weak kicks, short elbows not long enough to reach a vital target and “Stranger! Stranger! This person’s trying to take me! No! No! No!” was a memorized line. And the way she said it was nonchalant. No child would remember to say that in such stress. It’s why it’s best to tell them to just communicate the idea of the negative action that is occurring towards them to people around them. They can come up with their own words. The punches would not hurt a grown adult either and would allow the attacker to easily grab her wrists and pick her up again. The pedophile would then proceed to just punch her in the face and take her anyway.

Idiotic children’s self defense techniques taught by none other than the American Taekwondo Association (ATA):

Sorry that “warrior face” is not going to stop an adult trying to kidnap a child. This is some ridiculous, hyper nonsense from typical mcdojangs like the ATA. Having kids spazz out and overreact to bullies and other nonsense. If you literally went to look for a job with a “warrior face” and acted that stupid and spazzed out, you would never get hired. Also, such attitudes instill false security in kids who are conditioned to think bullies act a certain way and adult kidnappers act the way they demonstrated as well. In the real world when the kids find out their spazztic “warrior faces” do not scare anyone, but makes them just look incredibly idiotic to other kids they will be utterly defeated and bullies will be more encouraged the bully them for being dorks. All the pop psychology teaching of being assertive, and self esteem does not mean crap when a pedophile rapist is trying to kidnap a child. Saying “Yes I can!” Won’t save a child from a full grown adult. The technique they teach for getting out of a hold just looks like kids waving their hands around grasping at nothing. Then of course to keep their self esteem up the adult “black belts” just casually drop the kid softly onto the floor so they can walk off. IT WILL NOT HAPPEN THAT WAY! The instructor even admits that the chances of escape are very slim. He then ironically states that kids screaming may look to others just like a bratty kid, and not one who is in danger, yet they teach the kids to scream and act bratty with crazy “warrior faces” and yelling. Then the instructor teaches the kids to grab the attacker’s leg and hang on it and calls it a “ball and chain.” So stupid! Why would you tell a child to do that! Once a child escapes he should run and get away as fast as he can. Not grab the leg and hang on the attacker. Sorry, but the idea that the child will slow the attacker down so he cannot get away is absolutely false. I can have a child attached onto my leg and walk as fast as I can and even run, I could even run into a car and take him away. The attacker would not find the child easy to throw off his leg either with any shaking of the leg and strikes. He would then pick the kid back up and take off. The point for children and self defense against adults is to ESCAPE AND STAY GONE! Not go back and hit or grab the leg for a ride. So stupid!

Then there is the typical “kid beats up adult” demo that so many mcdojangs use which are basically cheesy fight scenes:

This kind of demo is the silly “kid beats up an adult” demo. What mcdojangs do and have for decades is use their “superstar,” enthusiastic, acrobatic kid to do cool flips and spin kicks on some adult who just flops around and pretends to be beat up with the most fantastic and crazy moves. This kind of show is pointless and has nothing of value to teach children for self defense and tells the outsider that “your kid can learn to fight adults like this!” to ignorant people.

NOW HOW IT WILL REALLY GO DOWN:

The following video is more likely how a real child self defense scenario against an adult will go down for the typical child student.

This is a good video that shows the truth. Notice the young student could not get out of the hold under pressure. But doing the move itself is fine, but when there is real resistance he could not do it. That is the reality. The technique is more plausible and realistic as well, the student just needs to practice at it more and he will get it down better.

        An instructor of martial arts has a duty to teach realistic self defense for people including children! Do not claim something is going to work or give the assumption it is flaw free or a smart technique unless it really is! Train the children! Train! Train! Over and over with resistance and pressure. Over time the student will learn. Make sure it is done with a serious mindset and not mindless yelling and spazzy behavior, and make sure when the kid gets free he gets away! Not re-engage the adult attacker. Instructors are partly responsible for a child either escaping an attacker and getting free by teaching them an effective martial art, or being kidnapped when using faulty martial arts techniques their instructor taught them. Taekwondo instructors need to teach with realism and not make anything simply easy for a child to pass a test to get some stripe of tape on his belt, or get a new belt color rank! If money is all you care about and you are eager to charge partents belt fees, pre-testing tape on the belt fees and other nonsense then you are a dangerous instructor that parents should avoid! It is the martial arts instructor’s responsibility to teach effective techniques to help kids save their own lives and I personally will not allow bad ideas in my curriculum.

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White Dragon is a 3rd dan Taekwondo Black Belt with over 19 years experience in the Martial Arts and head instructor of the White Dragon Dojang Martial Arts Training Program.