Back to Top

7 No BS Self Defense Tips That May Really Save Your Life

Most self defense tips videos claim to teach effective techniques that will save your life, while in reality they only teach flashy techniques which have little practical value. The truth about self defense is that it’s mostly about knowing how to avoid an attack altogether or in the worst case – use various strategies to create an advantage in your favor. For more Martial Arts Explored episodes check out these videos: • Why you will get cut defending against a knife: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hNOaAZk4nDI&t=185s • Why Martial Arts don’t work: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_nPsiUNhl0 — Welcome to the Martial Arts Journey YouTube channel! My name is Rokas. I’m a Lithuanian guy who trained Aikido for 14 years, 7 of them running a professional Aikido Dojo until eventually I realized that Aikido does not live up to what it promises. Lead by this realization I decided to make a daring step to close my Aikido Dojo and move to Portland, Oregon for six months to start training MMA at the famous Straight Blast Gym Headquarters under head coach Matt Thornton. After six months intensive training I had my first amateur MMA fight after which I moved back to Lithuania. During all of this time I am documenting my experience through my YouTube channel called “Martial Arts Journey”. Now I am slowly setting up plans to continue training MMA under quality guidance and getting ready for my next MMA fight as I further document and share my journey and discoveries. — If you want to support my journey, you can make a donation to my PayPal at [email protected] SUBSCRIBE to see when the next videos will come out: ► http://bit.ly/1KPZpv0 Check the video “Aikido vs MMA” which started this whole Martial Arts Journey: ► https://youtu.be/0KUXTC8g_pk If you want to support me and this channel on a regular basis check my Patreon page: ► https://www.patreon.com/rokasleo #SelfDefense #MartialArts #MartialArtsJourney

Comments

Martial Arts Journey says:

If you agree with the presented points and found them valuable – share this video with others.
What other points would you have included as essential no BS self defense tips?

Allan Cap says:

Aside what Rokas said, Learn boxing, condition your knuckle, learn eye pocking. 🙂

Vahagn Mkrtchyan says:

Being in a BJJ class for a while now, I believe that even the most primitive, easy-to-apply and useful technique won't work against an actively resisting opponent if you don't have substantial experience of trying it in a sparring. It's really like learning to swim without water.

PRAHAARE- SOCH says:

https://youtu.be/RGsRhnfP5u8
"𝗥𝗮𝗽𝗲 𝗩𝗶𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗺 𝗡𝗵𝗶 𝗬𝗼𝗱𝗵𝗮 𝗕𝗻𝗮𝗻𝗮 𝗛𝗮𝗶" haiwano ko unki aukaat dikhani hai .
इस वीडियो को अंत तक देखें,
और यदि आप इसे योग्य, और भरोसेमंद आत्मरक्षा शिक्षण वीडियो समझते हो , तो कम से कम किन्हीं 5 महिला मित्रों और प्रियजनों को यह संदेश भेजे कोपी पेस्ट करके ।
शेयर इफ यू केयर ✌🏻🙏🏻

और अगर यह वीडियो पसंद आई , तो LIKE ,SUBSCRIBE AUR COMMENT करना न भूलें, और किसी भी तरीके का सुझाव या सवाल आप कॉमेंट में लिख सकते।

जय भारत 🇮🇳🇮🇳

मिशन – बलात्कार मुक्त भारत

#MISSIONPRAHAR
ab बस बोहोत सेहलिया

Rudy Cuyno says:

Gud also Look its not the m.a its the paratcioner. Its how u train not wat u train. Also bjj is just rebranded judo. And tbh most self defence is Grose moter skills&muscle memeory.

Kuka Ku says:

Yesterday I saw two guys beating up an old lady and I thought I should jump in using my experience from this video. The old lady had no chance against the 3 of us.

Steven Watson says:

Your striking and grappling would be so much better if you studied and read jkd concepts/tactics/techniques, ontop of any martial art

SP - 12 627584 Judith Nyman SS says:

Rokas nice video. But what's your opinion on wushu and judo being useful for a road fight.

entereloaded says:

Did you ever consider making react videos on your own old videos? As someone who did Aikido once a week for about a year till Corona, I did have these conversations about use of Aikido with three Hakama wearers and many other participants and I appreciate their different perspectives.
Let alone by reading one of the more 'provocative' titles "Aikido That Works – Self Defense Aikido" it seems to me as if you might judge stuff from that video differently today. I would at least find it entertaining to watch you revalue some of your old videos.
I watched or zapped through a few of your critical videos over the last two years and I just want to give my own very amateur point of view on the general topic:

I am studying at TUM and got introduced to Aikido by randomly reading through the list of the huge range of sports courses all Munich students can take for free (or few bucks). So I checked it out and always loved 1) The part where it teaches you to work with your enemies power instead of against it… and I also see your MMA perspective on that. Hence I think it might have changed my intuition a little bit regarding (the highly unlikely case of) confrontation on our safe streets. I learned stuff about using my hip effectively and how to fall smoothly (didn't do any other martial arts yet), one guy always tells how once he fell from his skateboard and barely got hurt due to his Aikido role and the other one always smiles when opening doors with dampers saying ever since he learned Aikido it's so much easier. Also one of our group is an old, small lady and obviously the only chance she has in a fight is to use here enemys power, right? So Aikido's philosophy does apply to the weak and to the superior, the only question is, does it deliver the correct answer? Probably there is no working answer as you said weight classes have their reason, but to me it still sounds like Aikido is one of the boldest attempts. 2) Even tho in the Break Down of Lenny Sly's video it is once more explained that trained fighters who are prepared to attack won't ever be long enough in 'trapping range' I still hope to believe that there is a percentage of self defense scenarios where Aikido might help intuition. For example I always like to train Nikyo. To me it seems like this isn't per se deescalating, it's rather showing an initial 'more dominant than expected' reaction to harassment. – I do think/hope it teaches a realistic answer to a realistic scenario of a harasser who doesn't expect that reaction and isn't aware of the danger of wrist locks. However I also see that I should move one from that point of view, as even Nikyo doesn't work against strong resistance and I think I will visit some self defense course to see what they do there. 3) Also it's one of the more simple techniques and less of a choreography however that's actually another thing I love and hate, learning these kind of more or less meditative procedures really seems like it increases confidence in other things like dancing a little bit lol. In that sense Aikido class in general is way more recreational than expected, btw. I miss that phrase in German, eg. 'Erholung' really sounds more like relaxing to me. In the end our Aikidoka does tell us aswell that running away is (if possible) always the way of least harm to both, in that sense the optimal outcome of any fight.. 😉

Oh and something more controversial: I did once get hurt by a wrist lock done by a complete newby and my wrist hurt in some everyday situations but especially wrist locks for months, it healed by itself eventually. So in some sense Aikido is a good lesson to wrist locks with a meditative and choreographic charm to it. In the end a self reflective pupil in some sense also only learns how not to fight someone with certain TMA skills by learning some of that TMA. Oh and one last point: Considering justifications: I still wonder to what extend some police learn Aikido, as a blend of recreation and self defence? And also one justification my Aikidoka once brought up was: Aikido techniques in some parts come from techniques which are useful against heavily armored knights and such, where clearly punches don't really work and some locks are needed. This actually goes hand in hand with the meditational aspect of training with stick and sword. We'll see if I'll visit Aikido again, still don't quite know how to think about the description 'Japenese art of self-defense' our organization uses, ..in the streets I barely encounter knights who lost their swords xD 😛

But in the end (according to my Aikidoka lol) the most effective way to not get into a street fight is to walk erect/ have body tension and just as Aikido trains aspects of that, any kind of sport will make you seem more buffed lol.

rod van-zeller says:

combat sports are athletic contests in an artificial environment.
use it in a bar fight and you will go to jail and lose your assets in civil court.
use it against a violent criminal and you will go to the hospital or cemetery .
what is your experience dealing with violent criminals ?
what is your experience dealing with the legal system ?
what is your experience dealing with adrenal stress b.p.m. reaction affect on fine,complex and
gross motor movements?
what do you think of the gracies in torrance california teaching girls to lay on their backs and
wrap their legs as self defense against potential rapists?
imagine a 120 pound girl doing that against a 300 pound violent process predator.

Luke Schwarz says:

One I noticed from experience is that in certain crisis situations, the fear is literally trying to force you to run. However, false belief in what the situation is will drive a person to try to stand and fight anyway. In doing so, they are actually fighting against their own bodies and lose significant strength, speed, coordination, and balance. When two square off, a lot of times it actually happens to both, which tends to devolve quickly. I like to think of the animal kingdom in this situation. A lot of guys will posture and sort of hype themselves, showing off aspects of their physique and possibly some techniques. Do you know who does that in the animal kingdom? Prey, trying to scare off predators. They actually do not want to fight, they are trying to avoid it by scaring off a threat. Do predators do this? No. Why would they? They want their food. They try to sneak up on it or just straight run it down. No posturing or pageantry needed. They do not want to scare off their next meal.

Desel says:

needs a million views not just 3k

Desel says:

needs a million views not just 3k

Desel says:

needs a million views not just 3k

Desel says:

needs a million views not just 3k

Desel says:

needs a million views not just 3k

Desel says:

needs a million views not just 3k

Desel says:

needs a million views not just 3k

Desel says:

needs a million views not just 3k

Desel says:

needs a million views not just 3k

Desel says:

needs a million views not just 3k, i'll copypaste this comment a few times for the allmighty algorithm

Sensei Richard Smith says:

One tip when it comes to improvised weapons, BE CAREFUL when you choose this option! If the attackers are not armed or overwhelming in numbers or you grab an axe to almost anything, now you can legally have that held against you for using a weapon even when protecting yourself. AWARENESS, ASSESS and APPLY are the key components to listening to your gut instinct and making the hopeful right choice.

Self defense techniques ONLY work when you have the muscle memory and a ton of pressure testing to assure they will work!

SP - 12 627584 Judith Nyman SS says:

Rokas, good job, if you weren't to tell the reality of these self-defense techniques, peoole who have no fighting or martial art experience would blindly believe thoses techniques and get themself killed behind thoses techniques real life . Many self defence techniques don't work because they are made up, trained with no resistance or pressure testing and self defense are just few moves to defend yourself, when you need to laern all the moves to defend yourself, so its better to take a martial art class than laerning self-defense techniques. Rokas whats your suggestion on wushu and judo for self defence.

Reply to Martial Arts Journey Cancel reply

*