Last week I asked on my Facebook Page if there were any topics you wanted me to cover on my blog. To put it mildly, I received a ton of great ideas. So in the following weeks, I will work on writing those posts, starting with this first one on “How to use a preemptive strike for self-defense.”

This is a controversial topic. Over the years, I’ve seen people claiming all sorts of things about preemptive strikes and a lot of it is accurate on a technical level. But that doesn’t make it self-defense. Much of their advice goes along the lines of the old Cobra Kai creed of “Strike first, strike hard, no mercy” which is fine but this attitude (if used in isolation) eventually gets you sent to prison. For those who don’t remember where that comes from, here’s a reminder:

Using a preemptive strike for self-defense is what I talk about in this article. Not using it in a “fight”. Not using it to sucker punch somebody. It’s not about how effectively you can hit somebody first, it’s about doing so while defending yourself.

For that strike to be self-defense, certain criteria need to be present, which I’ll discuss in a bit. Yes, that strike needs to be effective, but just because you can knock a guy out in one move that doesn’t mean you automatically did so in self-defense. If you don’t regard the legal issue, the justice system might view you as the aggressor. So before you start practicing, look up your national laws, state laws, case law, and talk to police officers and self-defense lawyers in your area. They’ll have more accurate and more up-to-date information and also tell you how things happen in the real world as opposed to textbooks.

Let’s say you do your due diligence and are happy to find your legal system allows you to strike first in self-defense. Woot! Awesome! You can start kicking some ass, right?

Wrong [Read more…]