A cross post from a forum discussion I am having on my master’s karate forum.
Can you describe what these mean to you, and, what are the differences (if any) between the three?
1) Self-defence
2) Self-protection
3) Martial Arts
______________
My answer:
1) Self-defense
The act of physically defending one’s person or property. Usually used in the context of violent combat. For myself, defense is not merely passive as most of the time only “reacting” to violence will not protect you; the most important act of self defense is therealisation of what situation you are in, thereby allowing you to act first if necessary.
2) Self-protection
What you buy in a chemist to avoid excess children?
Could also be taken to mean the measures a person takes to protect against conflict or injury. So a bullet proof vest would be self-protection. There is some argument that the carrying of weapons as protection actually increases the risk of conflict. In any case, my own self protection is what is known as “the invisible fence” (Geoff Thompson).
3) Martial Arts
The training in combat oriented skills to the level of an artform. To become an artform the performance of these skills must be instinctive and natural. Obviously this requires a lot of training to make the techniques instinctive and a definition of what those techniques are. Hence, the phrase is also commonly taken to refer to the popular or well-defined systems of combat, such as Go Ju Karate.
What do you think? Too narrow? Too wide? Comments welcome!
Basho
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