Hafiz responds to Ian

 

Hi there,

 

I just wanted to belatedly respond to Ian Durie's letter dated March 2004 called Self Defence and the Law. (I have just read it - having never been on the site before). In his own words he stated that those people teaching pre-emptive striking in self defence were wrong and irresponsible. I teach this myself and strongly disagree for several reasons. Firstly, most people advocating this response should be strongly emphasising that you take this action once all other options have been exhausted, ie after you have tried to talk down the situation, postured your way into frightening the person so he goes away etc. And then, this option is only taken if the attacker is showing you signs of imminent attack ie he's walking forward, he is utterly aggressive etc. So this option of pre-emptive strike is not taken at the point someone says 'what you looking at?' (and so you knock his head off) but after scientifically based judgements regarding aggression and psychology. If you wait to be attacked, Ian, then while you are in hospital I suggest you learn such things as the amount of pressure taken to knock someone out, or how slowly to can REACT to an attack as opposed to ACT to it in the first place etc etc.

Anyone teaching pre-empts but not covering these factors deserves whatever they deserve but please understand that the rest of us try to teach and create humane responses to situations that threaten us and may lead to our death. 

The rest of your articles are very informative Ian. And if you want to come to one of my courses then I'll do it for you at a discount!

 

Yours in budo too,

Hafiz