back in January to make kids aware of the affects of bullying. The program centered around the story of a young girl that was driven to suicide after of years of bullying.
The sad part is that studies indicate that 1 out of 3 children will be bullied before graduating high school. The program made kids aware of the often untold cost of bullying and that different kids will respond differently.
As a solution to defend against a bully the presenter recommended that kids seek out a
local martial art school for lessons. Specifically recommended was a self-defense program and it was mentioned that this would most likely require private lessons as most martial art schools don't teach just self-defense. He recommended that children learn how to "get an attacker in a submission hold on the ground in 5 moves."
While I would whole heartily agree with the presenter on the recommendation to participate in a self-defense curriculum,
it was the specific recommendation of learning submission holds that concerns me.
Submission holds are very technical moves and are a lot harder to master than blocking and striking techniques. The issue is that moves that are mastered in a controlled setting (such as in a martial arts school) involve a willing participant. This participant often "goes easy" on the defender to minimize the risk of injury but also to provide the pace so that the student can learn the skill.
The problem is that when it comes to a submission, real attackers fight back.
It's very difficult for anyone, even a black belt, to execute a submission hold
without creating an injury first. Real events never play out as they do in the classroom. Real bullying situations are random and chaotic. Bully's tend to be bigger and often stronger making it all the more difficult to execute a technical move much less a series of moves to gain a submission.
There is one other critical aspect of relying on just a submission to defend against a bully that was left out of the New Albany middle school presentation:
Bullies come in packs.
Bullies rarely act alone. There is often a second or third orbiting participant around them. Assuming that a child is able to execute a submission on one bully what happens with the others as they see their buddy locked up on the ground? The same moves that lock the bully in submission also leave the defender tied up and open to more violent attacks by secondary attackers. In fact
they now see the defending child as an easy target on the ground or with his or her hands busy doing other things.
At
Dynamic Self-Defense we teach children that violence is rarely the answer. Violence can often be avoided. Bully's can be recognized and there are many non-violent options available to deal with them before a confrontation.
However, in a violent confrontation, violence becomes the only answer. And a submission hold alone won't do much more than give your child a false sense of security.
I would invite you to
schedule a time to visit our school right here in New Albany to meet our instructors and observe a class. Our entire training program is centered around self-defense. Children learn techniques that work in the random real world while gaining balance, respect and confidence at the same time. We train children in real world scenarios, make them come up with and solve real situations and they have a lot of fun doing it.