One of the main reasons an adult takes up karate is for self defence. This will always lead to a myriad of questions and feedback on self-defence situations, possible action and potential results.

All responsible martial arts clubs stress that the skills they teach are never to be used outside of the training hall (dojo), ‘except in defence of Law & Order’ and this is where there is a very large grey area. We are told to use minimal or reasonable force on any attacker, but should a martial artist in such a situation inflict any serious damage, it is likely the martial artist would then be defending himself or herself again-this time in a court of law.

The attack we all fear most is the surprise attack in the street. This is associated with mugging or gratuitous assault. This is the most easy to defend against. Don’t be there in the first place. It is usually common sense that will tell you to avoid a dark alley short cut, or ‘that’ sort of rowdy Pub.  If you find yourself in a potentially dangerous situation, run away. OK, no one’s suggesting that you lock yourself in at home when the sun goes down, but these situations can be avoided if you stay alert, be aware of your surroundings, and if anything happens, make sure you see it coming. 

So, do we give in to muggers, rapists and bullies, cross to the other side of the street when others are in danger, in fear of the Law, Court & Prison? Our training includes ancient & modern, tried and tested forms of combat, self defence and attack. Don’t we have a moral obligation to ourselves, and the next potential victim to use our skills against any attacker? What most people assume are laws of self defence, upheld by the Police and the Courts, are in fact further from the truth than you may realise. Waiting for an attacker to make the first move before blocking and attempting a counter-strike is not necessary in an attempt to avoid a visit to the courts. In fact most self defence experts would agree a pre-emptive strike should be used where possible and is legal if in defence of yourself or another.

A local police sergeant was interviewed to obtain his personal and professional opinion on the following sets of questions.

What do the Police expect the outcome to be from a martial artist defending themselves in the following situations? 

• A woman defending herself against a woman, or women.
• A woman defending herself against a man, or men.
• Similar situations for Men on men and women.
• The use of weapons against a martial artist. Wooden sticks, bars, knives etc.
  

His response was as follows:


“The Police and the law don’t view assault like this. Self defence can be a defence to any assault up to and including homicide. Someone is entitled to use force to protect himself (or herself), his or her family or property and even to prevent someone committing a crime.There is no longer any rule that someone must actively try to avoid a fight, but if it could ever be proved that you started it, any plea of self defence would be thrown out. 

The Police do not judge. They keep public order. They will detain anyone involved in this type of situation and take statements, check witnesses, CCTV footage and so on. It is up to the courts to decide who is at fault.”

Lets say you were attacked, you defended yourself and your attacker is on the floor. Should you stay and explain yourself to the police and get this scumbag arrested, prosecuted and locked up?

“Absolutely right, provided you don’t kick the living daylights out of him once he’s on the floor, you’ve done nothing wrong. You should give an attacker a chance to run away, and break off your attack once you have the advantage. That is what is meant by reasonable force. Use what you have to in order to avoid getting yourself beaten up, but don’t continue your ‘defence’ once the battle is won. This will go against you when evidence is studied”. 

What's your favourite self-defence technique? 

From a case on the back of his belt he produced a telescopic, iron baton and jerked it open. “Hit ‘em as hard as you can across the arms or legs until you’re sure they can’t hurt you back”. 

Would you ever hit someone across the head? 

“It already happened, I thought he was going to kill me, I wasn’t going to let that happen”.

The law is based largely of past cases and judgements. Can you strike first? Does this mean that technically you started it?

The answer was a resounding "no". 

Case: R v Beckford 1988 AC130 – Lord Griffith on force in the question of self-defence.

“The common law has always recognised as one of these circumstances the right of a person to protect himself from attack and to act in the defence of others, if necessary to inflict violence on another in so doing. If no more force is used than is reasonable to repel the attack, such force is not unlawful and no crime is committed” 

“Furthermore, a man about to be attacked does not have to wait for his assailant to strike the first blow or fire the first shot, circumstances may justify a pre-emptive strike”. 

In the heat of the moment it is possible to make a mistake, but your ‘honestly held belief’ had to be made in a fraction of a second.

So what if you do honestly make a mistake? How bad can it be? How would you ever explain it in court? 

Case: R v Williams 1984 78CAR276 – A plain-clothes police officer was attempting to arrest a youth, he had identified himself as a police officer, but failed to produce a warrant card. A passing member of the public believed the police officer to be assaulting the youth went to his assistance and assaulted the police officer.

The case was held in court, the prosecution could not prove the unlawfulness of his actions, although the assault on the officer was a mistake he would “have to be judged on his belief at the time, its unreasonableness, so far as guilt or innocence was concerned, was irrelevant”.  

 “The jury having been directed that the passing member of the public had an honest belief, based on reasonable grounds that reasonable force was necessary to prevent the crime”.

This does not give you the right to beat the living daylights out of anyone who looks at you in a funny way, but you don’t have to wait to get your face punched in before attempting to defend yourself. Also, the ‘3 warnings that you do Karate’ before you attack is laughable -a myth perpetuated by the same people that tell you their hands are registered as lethal weapons.

These facts of law bring about another serious point for consideration. What is necessary or minimal force? How can you judge what will stop an attack? If you under-assess the situation you may live to regret it.

Of course, if someone is bullying you in the playground you are not going to stamp on his or her knee and cripple him or her for life, far better to run away and report the bully to a teacher. If the bullying is serious, it is the schools duty to call the police. Remember, in a school playground there are always going to be lots of other children who will see exactly what is going on. If an individual strikes another without reason, it will be the former up in front of the Head Teacher facing suspension, detention or a trip to the police station. Incidentally, if the individual is a member of Kernow Karate, he or she will be banned for life as the juniors are told repeatedly not to use anything they learn in the dojo unless necessary.

On a more adult overview, there are perhaps two courses that prevail.

Firstly, on the street, the use of force, when all other avenues have failed should be total. One look at the papers any morning should be enough to convince you that the sort of person who you “honestly believe” is picking a fight with you has no fear of doing you very serious damage. Strike first & strike hard. Take control & finish it as quickly as possible.

Secondly is when you might misjudge a situation and the attacker makes the first move. The reflex would be to block and step back. This immediately creates more openings for him to continue his attack. Your ability to get power into any strike whilst on the back foot is greatly reduced. The advice is to go the other way! Don’t block but cover, head-down, hands up, elbows tight in and “Blast” forward with your bodyweight. Stop the attacker coming forward and take the initiative. Elbows, punches, gouges & low kicks. Don’t exchange blows, don’t try to block, “explode forward” and finish it. Difficult to say when you may have taken the first hit, but if you think about it, it’s the only option you have to take control if there is no escape route.