The Benefits of Self-Defense

What if your husband phones you and tells you he got caught up in traffic and he can’t make it on time to get you? You decide to walk home with your bag full of cash because you just got your week’s worth of salary. While you were walking you notice three shady men wearing hooded shirts following you. What are you going to do if one of them attempts to reach for your bag? Are you going to shout? Would someone help you? Is there enough time to reach for your phone to call your husband? When your safety is in danger and you can’t ask for anyone else’s help, what you learned in Self Defense class will come in handy.

Is learning self-defense important? Let’s find out why.

Self-Defense Will Empower You

Self-defense is for everyone, both young and old. No one is too young or too old to learn about self-defense. However, it would be great if you teach your children the art of self-defense during their early years as it helps empower them. Contrary to popular belief, self-defense doesn’t promote violence. Your teachers will teach you discipline and will tell you when and where to apply the skills and knowledge that you learned in class.

Self-Defense Minimizes Bullies

Do you know what scares parents the most? It’s when their child comes home and tells them they have been relentlessly bullied in school. Being bullied can have detrimental effects on a child’s mental health. They could end up depressed and scared all the time and this can affect their grades and their ability to interact socially with their peers. Bullying also occurs in adults especially in the workplace. Putting an end to bullying doesn’t mean you’re going to beat the bully. Here’s what’s going to happen. When you join self-defense classes, they will teach you how to defend yourself (of course) but the class will also teach you to develop self-discipline, self-confidence and it will also teach you about respect. When you develop these traits you can stand up for yourself boldly and end the bullying.

Self-Defense Classes Teach Valuable Principles

It’s not all punches and kicks, self-defense teaches you valuable principles that you can apply in your life and in your day-to-day interactions with people. Every time you overcome a particular challenge or struggle it will allow you to reflect in your own capacities. Believe it or not but self-defense classes will teach you more about life than any other class in school. It will teach you to be humble, to be courageous, to have discipline, respect for yourself and for other people, honesty and integrity.

An important lesson self-defense class will teach you is about embracing failure. Everyone is going to fail at something at some point and when that happens you have to have the right mindset. If you don’t have the right mindset you’ll end up angry and frustrated at yourself, depressed and you may entertain the idea of quitting whereas if you are trained in the discipline of self-defense you will understand that failure is a part of life and you should use that as an opportunity for you to make improvements and to better yourself.

Self-Defense Teaches You To Be Responsible and To Be Disciplined

It’s the responsibility of the parents to instill discipline to their kids to make them aware that they have a sense of responsibility to themselves, to their family, to their peers and to society but do you know that your teachers in self-defense class also teaches your kids about these things? These two important lessons aren’t taught in school.

Self-defense classes like jiu jitsu teach you to defend yourself and to fight but at the right time and for the right reasons.

JD Lopez is head instructor and operator of Fabin Rosa Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. With almost 20 years of martial arts experience, including 10 in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, JD has developed a passion for the art of self defense.