I often get asked if people should carry pepper spray or other self defense accessories. Here are my thoughts on weapons.
The first thing to know is that your best and most reliable weapon will always be your mind. Weapons can malfunction or be taken away from you. Your mind cannot. This is why I recommend training in a physical gym to learn some “empty handed” (no weapon) skills, to move your body and get desensitized to being hit. Also, I recommend reading and watching everything you can get your hands on about self defense and security from reputable sources you trust. I am always looking for the next skill, a new perspective on safety, more information to add to my knowledge base. The more options you have in any situation, the better.
That said, let’s talk about weapons. In most martial arts, weapons are part of training. Part of it is historical, to learn the art form using the traditional weapons, but that training can be useful even if you’re not carrying a sword like they did in ancient Japan. I have found that the movement for most weapons like escrima sticks, swords, and even nunchaku are similar. There are only so many ways the body can move and when you get deep enough into any martial art, you’ll usually run into the same general movements.
How can this help you in real life? Improvised weapons. Many people cannot or will not carry around things that are obvious weapons for several reasons. It may be illegal, they don’t want to look like a target, and for deniability. If you are caught with a weapon, there’s not much you can say. But if you used a rock that happened to be lying around or a stick, then you can’t be accused of planning an attack or even carrying anything because you weren’t. One thing I learned in Kung Fu is that everything is a weapon. If you ever want an interesting read, look up old Chinese weapons. There are hundreds of them, some of them are wild and a lot are modeled after everyday objects. When I learned this, it clicked in my head. Everything is a weapon. Look around you. What is easily within your reach that you could use as a weapon and how would you use it? While you’re at it, check out your exits and strategize a little. What if someone came from different directions? At night? During the day? How would you use your awareness, avoidance, and action? These are good mental exercises to get you used to evaluating places. After awhile, you don’t really have to think about it, it becomes second nature.
Back to weapons. Should you carry pepper spray, a kubaton, or any of the other nifty accessories out there on the market? Ultimately that’s up to you, your training, and your personality. I don’t tend to carry those things, but I have plenty of hard objects I can whack someone with and strategies for ducking out of bad situations. I can’t tell you what’s right for you, just that if you decide to carry a weapon, make sure you have the training to go along with it or more than likely, you may lose it or it won’t work the way you planned. Everything goes out the window in a real dangerous situation. When the adrenaline is up, motor skills decrease, blood flows away from your brain to your extremities and your IQ drops. This is why physical training and repetition is so important, because muscle memory will be your best friend.
