A Very Dangerous World: Why You Need to Train
Introduction
You need to start training.
Increasingly Dangerous Society
Crime continues to rise across the world. Once relatively peaceful countries around the world have started down a slippery slope of uncivilized behavior. This is a very sensitive subject, but a very important one that needs to be addressed.
Just because you may not have experienced it doesn’t mean that it’s not happening. Like a fire, this threat will spread. So that awful news headline you read? Well, that incident that happened thousands of miles away has a chance of eventually making its way toward where you are. For some, the threat has already arrived at their home.
What’s the downside of being prepared?
“It is better to be a warrior in a garden, than a gardener in a war.” In other words: it is better to be prepared and not need it, than to be unprepared and need it. When you have experience doing something consistently, it does not just go away randomly, especially if you have a high quality and quantity of it.
Let’s look at a swimmer as an example. He starts at age 5, swimming 2-3x per week. When he reaches the age of 10, he decides that he wants to do something else in place of swimming and chooses running instead. For whatever reason, he doesn’t swim again until he is 20 years old, but he’s not swimming here by choice.
He’s 10 miles into a run, when he crosses over a very narrow bridge, which is located over a river. He slips, falling off of the bridge and into the water. Despite being fatigued from running, his body takes over. Muscle memory kicks in and he safely swims a half mile to shore.
He didn’t just suddenly forget his freestyle or backstroke. He had practiced his swimming technique and developed the muscle memory of these swimming motions for 5 years. Despite the young age he did it at, he will remember how to swim for a very, very long time.
While the swimmer did not need to use his swimming abilities for 10 years, he was always prepared to (whether he knew it or not). The skill of swimming was a good tool for him. He can use it when he needs it, but otherwise, he’ll just keep it in his inventory for later use.
Apply this to self defense and martial arts.
Martial Arts Training
You can’t exactly predict where or when you may need to fight. To have the highest chances of successfully protecting yourself, your loved ones, innocent victims, or anyone, you need to learn and train.
Protection is a natural instinct. If you see someone kicking a dog, your instinct is to protect the dog. If you hear a baby crying, your instinct is to go see what’s wrong (identifying a potential threat to protect the baby from). This is a great thing but in order to do this properly, you have to be prepared.
If you’re trying to have success on a school exam, you would prepare by studying the material.
If you want to be a successful goal-scorer in hockey, you would practice skating and shooting pucks.
If you want to be successful in your duty as a protector, you should prepare by training in an effective form of martial arts.
Benefits of Martial Arts Training
Training in martial arts has many, many benefits that countless people all over the world have experienced as practitioners. Here’s just five of the many benefits you can get from martial arts training:
(1) Having the capabilities to protect yourself, your loved ones, and others
(2) Building + maintaining mental strength AND physical fitness
(3) Improving discipline, self-control, and confidence – applicable to all areas of life
(4) Improved ability to manage difficult situations and overcome obstacles
(5) Finding a deeper sense of community with training partners in the gym
We all want to be better. A better person, better family member, better friend – whatever you want to be better at, improvement in something is the goal because it shows that we are growing and evolving. Martial arts can give you the skills, lessons, and experiences that you won’t find doing other things. If (more of a “when”) you apply them to different situations and areas of your life, there is a very high likelihood that you will see an positive change
Check out the following article (also linked at the end) for more a more in-depth look at the benefits of martial arts training.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EtjKKhEqkXs
Lessons from training apply to real-life and real-world scenarios
Your training experiences will come in handy more often than you think.
Someone cut you off on the road? Things don’t always go your way, as you’ve seen during training, but you kept your composure and adapted there. You do the same in your vehicle and instead of road raging, you opt to just let it go.
You’ve failed in training before, but kept at it, practicing a technique until you eventually got it. You do the same at work and eventually achieve the success you were looking for because your training instilled enough discipline in you to not quit when things get difficult, but endure until you get the job done.
Current Society
So many ways to apply your training to life outside the gym… which brings us back to the increasingly dangerous society we live in.
With the current combination of today’s judicial system, policy makers, and crime laws, it seems like there is absolutely zero care or concern for the safety of citizens. Criminals commit crimes, then are let off the hook with slap-on-the-wrist punishments (relative to their actions). This is a vicious cycle which ultimately causes more harm to “everyday” people who just want to live their lives, but now have to deal with the threats + aftermath of these terrible things (assaults, robberies, harassment, and in some cases even worse).
Oh and by the way, your tax dollars go toward the facilities they live in and care/meals they receive after (and if) they are detained. Many police departments have had their budgets severely cut and combine this with laws that prevent them from doing their jobs effectively (or face being fired)… again, dangerous society nowadays.
It would almost seem as if crime is indirectly being encouraged…
Just a conspiracy theory… everything is fine and great and there is absolutely definitely totally 100% nothing to worry about
It seems that almost daily, we read and hear about absolutely horrific crimes being committed. “Oh, that’s just a conspiracy theory.” “There’s no way that happened.” “Even if that did happen, what can you do about it?” Some people can’t or don’t or won’t believe that horrendous deeds are done, because how can humans be capable of such cruelty against our neighbors? If you are one of these people or know someone who thinks this way, it’s not your fault – you just may not have seen these things happen, which is why they are hard to believe. We must learn from others and their experiences, otherwise we may be vulnerable in the areas that they were.
Below are five of MANY, MANY examples of disgusting, sickening acts that have occurred within the last 2-3 MONTHS. This is proof that these terrible atrocities are happening. Brief summaries are provided, if you do not have the stomach or temperament to read about these infuriating stories.
(May 6, 2024) “Undocumented migrant accused of sexually assaulting 11-year-old girl in Lake Worth Beach”
After being pulled into a van, the 11 year old escaped for a short moment, before being pulled back in. Unfortunately, the headline explains the rest.
(June 11, 2024) 10-year-old boy, younger sister robbed by man in Crown Heights, Brooklyn
At 11am, a 10 year old boy and his 7 year old sister were robbed of $8. Yes, you read that correctly.
(June 18th, 2024) “Migrant charged in rape of girl, 13, in Queens park: NYPD”
“A migrant from Ecuador is accused of threatening two teens with a knife and raping one of them in a Queens park last week… Christian Inga, 25, was charged with rape, sex abuse, robbery, kidnapping, criminal possession of a weapon, menacing, and unlawful imprisonment”. Those are just the first two sentences of this article… This scumbag threatened them with a large “machete like knife”, tied their hands together with shoelaces, before doing what he did to one of the young girls – at 3pm (aka in broad daylight) in a public park.
(July 8th, 2024)
Haitian Migrant Charged with Rape of Massachusetts Girl Released on $500 Bail
Haitian migrant accused of raping teen girl in Boston freed on $500 bail
A 15 year old girl, who is also disabled, experiences something that NOBODY should ever have to and must deal with this traumatic assault for the rest of her life.. all while “the judge released the defendant on $500 cash bail”. Change “defendant” (and “judge” for that matter) to absolute piece of sh1t.
(July 22, 2024) Ride-share employee arrested for aggravated sexual assault of a child
12 year old girl, by the way.
Prior Arrests
Let’s not forget about those with prior arrests being let back out, time and time and time again, to continue doing what they were initially “punished” for in the first place. After someone commits 3-5 heinous crimes (and even that is too tolerant), you would think the judges and policy makers would take a stand to try and prevent it from happening again. To allow incidents to reach double digits is actually despicable and all parties who are at fault should be ASHAMED for their lack of morals, responsibilities, compassion, failures without learning, and so, so much more.
Here are three abhorrent examples of repeat offenders being set loose to continue wreaking havoc on society.
(August 8, 2022) “Suspect who assaulted ‘hero’ NYC subway worker previously arrested 41 times”
Within these 41 arrests, includes the time where he punches a 55 year old Asian woman in the face and then plays the victim, like the coward rat he is.
(March 26, 2024) Criminal with 21 prior arrests is back on the street
“Guy Rivera, 34, has a long history of drugs and violence charges, records show.” Not surprisingly, he is back on the street.
Under a photo of the criminal is the following caption: “Darryl Roberts, 57, was arrested for the shooting of Wright last Friday. He faced over 66 criminal charges over his life but has never served a prison sentence”
NOTE
As a brand, Sanabul aims to provide everyone with the necessary information, resources, and equipment to train in preparation for hand-to-hand combat situations. As the writer, however, I must encourage you to notice patterns and do everything you can to keep you and your loved ones safe.
Trend in crime negatively influences the youth
These articles show that society is becoming way more dangerous and how the judges/judicial systems do not work in the interest of the safety/wellbeing of the people. One of the worst parts about this is that the younger generation sees the actions. In certain areas, more and more see little to no punishment for such horrible actions and even start their own crime careers at young ages. The influence of these criminals on the youth starts them on a dark path, until it becomes so normal to them that they don’t even think anything is wrong.
Notice Patterns
Many people have noticed these patterns and have taken their self defense into their own hands, deciding to start training in a martial art like Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and Muay Thai.
Combine the trajectory of crime, its parasitic relationship to society, and the lack of effective action from judges/policy makers… what does this all mean?
Your safety is your responsibility
We are on our own. Train as if nobody is coming to save you. You cannot rely on anyone but yourself for self-defense and the protection of your loved ones. In the time it takes you (or someone else) to call the police/emergency services, it may be too late. Make sure you are prepared to handle any and all threats to your wellbeing.
What should you do? How can you start?
Where do you start? Which martial art should you do? There’s a lot of different martial arts disciplines out there, but we will briefly summarize the most effective types, as they relate to self-defense. For a more detailed look into these arts, we attached a separate article that explains them at the end
Striking Arts
Striking is the term used to describe the action(s) of using your own body to hit a target. This involves inflicting blunt force (ex. punching) upon a target with your own limbs. For self defense, hitting your attacker can deter them – if you know how and where to hit them. Consistently training in the striking arts below will help you develop correct technique and properly get your body conditioned to these movements, which will help you effectively protect everyone and everything you need to:
Muay Thai
“The Art of 8 Limbs” (uses both hands/punches, shins/kicks, elbows, knees) has produced some of the most feared strikers of all time and has a grappling aspect in the clinch where dumbs, trips, sweeps are allowed). Often considered the most complete striking discipline
Kickboxing
Another discipline producing great strikers, this combat sport relies on striking at distance and at close range with punches, kicks, and knees, overwhelming opponents with power, pressure, and volume
Boxing
One of the most recognizable combat sports, creating great boxers known for one -- and often more -- of the following: devastating power, overwhelming volume, incredible technical abilities (footwork, head movement), deadly precision, tank-like durability, insane pressure
Grappling Arts
Grappling is generally referred to when people try to exert dominance over one another, not through blunt force strikes, but through throws, trips, sweeps, takedowns, and submissions (chokes, joint locks, etc). Techniques focus on different grips, positional battles, and weight distribution maintenance/off-balancing methods.
In every grappling art, there is a heavy emphasis on controlling another person who is actively resisting (while giving you the option to strike them if the situation calls for it, due to your dominant position and superior technique). As stated before, consistently training in the grappling arts below will help you develop correct technique and properly get your body conditioned to these movements, which will help you effectively protect everyone and everything you need to:
Brazilian Jiu Jitsu (aka BJJ, aka Jiu Jitsu)
Combat sport where techniques from all grappling arts meet, combining everything stated above (throws, trips, sweeps, takedowns, submissions, positional battles, weight distribution maintenance/off-balancing methods)
Many people choose BJJ because after they secure control of their training partners, they have the option of subduing them even further with a submission. While other sports are exceptional in the control aspect, like wrestling, submissions aren’t always allowed after. Submissions are an entire art of their own outside of gaining control, which adds to the intricacy of Jiu Jitsu. In other words, BJJ involves pretty much everything from other grappling sports, but not all grappling sports allow what BJJ does (ex. submissions)
Judo
Olympic sport where throws, trips, and sweeps are heavily prioritized, as well as practicing how to safely break your falls to remain uninjured if you ever find yourself being thrown (look up “breakfalls”)
Wrestling
One of the oldest, purest, most effective sports since its inception, allowing its practitioners to gain reputations for their strength, conditioning, agility, pressure, and technique in their takedowns, trips, sweeps, control, and pins
NOTE
In any martial art discipline you train, you will be training with other people who have knowledge and experience with the art and its respective techniques. This will make dealing with untrained people much, much easier in a real world situation (if you ever need to). If you can successfully execute techniques on those who know/employ the proper defenses/counters, doing so on attackers who very likely don’t know them will seem like a piece of cake.
The reason that attackers most likely won’t know any martial arts technique is because of the respect and self-control that it teaches. If you train, you understand the damage that you can do to someone and the hurting capabilities that you possess. Practitioners wouldn’t attack you for no reason and you wouldn’t be in that self-defense situation, unless you just happen to come across a bad apple (they do exist). Even if they do train or know some things, you will be prepared to fully negate anything they attempt.
To cover all areas that a fight may go, we recommend having some experience in both a striking art and a grappling art. You will likely favor one type over the other, but having some basic knowledge along with a bit of quality experience in the area you don’t train as much can go a very long way.
Real Life example - having experience with striking and grappling
One of the best examples of this is when Brian Kemsley saved a baby from being kidnapped. Brian is a Muay Thai fighter and instructor, aka a striker. His preferred martial arts discipline involves hitting things very, very hard. However, he has basic knowledge of Jiu Jitsu and has had some training experience with grappling. This allowed him to control an aggressive man (who was actively resisting against him) until police arrived to detain him, after the man tried to kidnap a woman’s baby. More on Brian can be found here
Martial Arts - Effective against bigger people
Martial arts teaches very simple and effective techniques that can be used in self defense. Helio Gracie once said,
“Always assume that your opponent is going to be bigger, stronger and faster than you; so that you learn to rely on technique, timing and leverage rather than brute strength.”
“Jiu Jitsu is for the protection of the individual, the older man, the weak, the child, the lady, the young woman – anyone who lacks the physical attributes to defend themselves.”
These quotes really capture the beauty of his preferred discipline, Jiu Jitsu, but it applies to all martial arts as well. Anyone can do it and use what they have to their advantage. Smaller and don’t have as much strength as someone else? You can use their strength and power against them through misdirection and leverage principles. Throw their weight distribution off balance and capitalize on the openings you create, with the skill you have honed and the experience you have accumulated.
“But that wouldn’t work. Especially against bigger people.” Yes, when you get to a certain level of training or a certain size/strength differential, technique alone may not be enough. However, with adequate knowledge and experience, sometimes it can be. In situations between trained vs untrained, the one who has (more) training will win 99% of the time.
See the videos below, that show how technique can prevail against pure strength and size.
Muay Thai
Saenchai vs Opponent (40lb heavier)
Jiu Jitsu
Bradley Martyn (bodybuilder) vs smaller Jiu Jitsu practitioners
Hope for the best, but PREPARE for the Worst
Take responsibility for the safety of yourself and your loved ones. Calling the police may not always be an option (ex. forget your phone, bad reception, not enough time to dial) and even when it is, officers may not always get there in time.
Learn self defense and get in great mental/physical shape through martial arts training.
The hardest part is getting started
If you’re nervous or hesitant to start, you’re not alone. Many people experience this. Just remember: everyone who was ever great in anything, was once a beginner.
The hardest part is taking the step into the unknown and trying something new. After you hurdle this challenge, you will be so occupied with completing the tasks you’re given (aka learning and practicing techniques), that these nervous feelings and anxious energy won’t even cross your mind.
Everyone knows what it’s like to be the new person on their first day, which is why so many practitioners will help you in any way they can. They know what it’s like to be in your shoes. In many cases, the more experienced practitioners will often help you out and make you feel more welcome on their own, because they had the same thing happen to them when they were just starting out (aka “paying it forward”)
Plus, what’s the downside of trying martial arts/combat sports training? If you find that it is not for you (which we highly doubt, because you will really enjoy it!), you can just go back to what you were doing before. But at least you can say you gave it a shot!
"The best time to start was yesterday. The next best time is now."
Other links
Great reasoning to start martial arts: Joe Rogan - Jiu Jitsu for Self-Defense
Joe Rogan - Best martial art for self defense (grappling)
Different martial arts great for self-defense (convenient, accessible)
How Joe Rogan got into martial arts
Thank you for reading - we hope this article was a helpful starting place to do everything that you do everything you can to protect you and your loved ones, in the increasingly dangerous time we live in!
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