Gaxicus ~
You need to go back and re-read, maybe. I don't so much object to the
words you used. But I do object -- strongly! -- to the
entire concept you were expressing with those words.
Earlier, you said something (to another poster) that showed how thoroughly you'd missed my original point. And you are still missing it. So let me try again.
Here's what you said:
Gaxicus said:
Mentally, golfers dont swing the club, they hit the ball to where they want it to stop. The final result is part of the mental decision to start the chain of events and involved in every step along the way.
Martial Artists dont just kick, punch, or throw, They defeat their opponent. The decision and resolve to defeat their opponent is present during every link in every chain of execution. Boxers and UFC fighters rely on this to maintain strategy while they are being pummeled. Intent starts with result.
The concept of result guides the building chains of execution until it reached.
This is
exactly right. Action starts with intent. Our students won't do the right thing under stress
unless they have the right goal in mind. We're solidly in agreement on that point.
Unfortunately, immediately after that is where we part ways. And I think, if you look around on this thread, you will find a lot of very qualified people telling you the same thing: the goal of self-defense is NOT killing the attacker. The goal of self-defense is ... (drumroll please) ...
SELF-DEFENSE.
You do
whatever it takes to defend yourself and you keep doing it until you know you are safe.
You stop immediately as soon as you are safe.
That's
self-defense.
So despite what you've said above, this isn't about the
words you use. It isn't a plea to be gentler or kinder or whatever nonsense you've ascribed to this idea. This is a serious conversation about the
goal you're presenting to your students. By telling your students that the goal is to
kill the attacker, you're doing a disservice to your students. You're giving them a goal that is likely to lead them into practical and
tactical trouble immediately, and into legal trouble later.
Tactical trouble? Sure! Just as the martial artist trains to strike
through the attacker (or the innocent pine board standing in for an attacker in the dojo), an intelligent person training for self-defense always, always, always keeps the ultimate goal in mind, striking
through the attacker to the ultimate goal of survival and escape. Focusing on the attacker's death is
stopping too soon, tactically speaking.
As I said earlier:
pax in post #24 said:
Someone who is focused on survival and escape may very well kill an attacker, when the attacker and his actions are in the way of that goal. But someone who is focused on killing the attacker might instead utterly miss her one and only good chance to escape in safety, because she has tunneled in on "winning the fight." With the wrong goal thus in mind, her chances of survival go down dramatically. This is particularly true for women, among whom even the most skillful and trained are generally at a disadvantage when the assailant is male: males generally have larger bodies, greater reach, more endurance, and so on. The longer the physical assault lasts, the better it generally will be for him and the worse for her. So if she can escape safely, she should escape rather than prolong the fight. And she should steel herself to do whatever it takes to manage that escape in safety.
Strike
through the attacker
to your own safety. Don't stop at the wrong goal.
****
Setting that aside for something even further back, more foundational, in your philosophy. I'm increasingly disturbed by the attitude I see in your posts toward your students. Frankly, as a student myself I would have a difficult time learning from an instructor who had as much contempt for me as your posts appear to express toward your students.
My own philosophy toward beginning defensive shooters is simply this: they purchased guns for self-defense
because they have made the decision that their lives are worth defending. They enrolled in a class
because they already understand that using a firearm in self-defense is deadly serious stuff. So I believe these folks are adults who are capable of making their own choices when given good information, so they don't need cheerleading or brow-beating. They don't need motivational speeches or emotional tricks. What they need is good, solid instruction in the basics, including physical skills, some understanding of defensive tactics, and the legal underpinnings of lawful self-defense in our society. They need trigger time, realistic targets, and an honest discussion of the social, legal, and physical aftermath of shooting events. With those elements in place, there's no adult on the planet who would somehow fail to grasp that using a gun constitutes
lethal force – and these
educated people are much more emotionally and psychologically prepared to cope with the realities of self-defense than is someone who merely responded to an emotional pep talk full of powerful buzzwords.
Defensive firearms students do need to come to the place where they are emotionally, psychologically, morally, and ethically okay with the idea of deliberately taking an attacker's life. No question about that.
My contention is that a little more respect for your students' decision making process would go a long way in your credibility here. They're adults!
Of course when you talk to people who have
not yet been educated about the realities of self-defense, they are going to express some pretty silly ideas. Sometimes the newly educated haven't yet absorbed the full impact of what they've been taught, and they'll also have some strangely offbeat thoughts. But the way to get those silly ideas out of them
isn't by browbeating them with emotional appeals. It's by educating them and presenting what they need to know. When given the full information they need, they'll make the right decision for themselves, and won't need the empty-of-content but full-of-emotion pep talk. If they are motivated only by a pep talk, they might walk out of your class feeling pretty good and energized and enthusiastic ... but it won't last. It'll wear off. Emotions always do.
True education doesn't wear off. It changes the shape of the student's mind
forever. A mind that's been stretched by a new idea, even one it later rejects, never returns to exactly its former shape...
pax
