Self Defense Classes: Training for Skill Application

Rob Pincus addresses a question he is often asked: why don’t self defense classes have a test at the end? The primary answer is because students come to these courses for life-and-death defensive skills, not to meet an objective standard. They are trained to survive an event that will be unknown, unpredictable, and unchoreographed. If students are trained in self defense classes to perform well at a choreographed drill, the risk is it will embed behavior that may or may not help the students in the unknown events they may face.