(Approx 2 minute read)

It’s interesting that in my articles about self-protection or self-defense, several comments suggest that many people simply don’t need it.
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For clarity, in this article I use “self-protection” to describe all the measures we take to stay safe – awareness, avoidance, preparation, and mindset. “Self-defense” refers more specifically to the skills and actions used if a threat escalates to physical confrontation.
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Some say they live in low-crime areas and therefore don’t need it. Others say if training was only about self-defense, they wouldn’t have stayed in karate very long. One even said, “If you want to protect yourself, just get a gun.”
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Another pointed out that most karate today is really “karate-do” – personal development with little relevance to real-world protection.
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These opinions are worth exploring.
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The belief that self-protection is unnecessary overlooks the unpredictable nature of life. Danger doesn’t respect your post-code. At the moment I live in the Chicago suburbs – a fairly quiet area on paper – yet serious violence has occurred here unexpectedly. Peaceful places are great… until suddenly they aren’t. They’re not immune.
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And this is where the misunderstanding starts. Most people assume “self-defense” means fighting.
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It doesn’t.
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The average karate school that claims to teach self-protection usually teaches how to trade blows, then fails to teach the far more important skills of avoidance.
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And avoidance is far bigger than just “not being there”. It includes threat awareness, environmental awareness, de-escalation, posture and positioning, protecting others, escape, and risk reduction long before physical confrontation ever begins.
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When someone says they would have quit karate if it was only about self-defense, what they really mean is they would have quit if it was only about fighting. And that tells me they don’t understand the topic they’re rejecting.
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Imagine the impact of teaching a child how to avoid an abduction attempt, simply by recognizing danger, posturing, drawing attention, creating space, and reaching safety. That is self-protection. No fight. No combat. Just effective survival.
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That isn’t paranoia. That’s preparedness.
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While some may dismiss the need for self-protection based on their environment, or the belief that training this way would be boring over time, the need is still there. But first there has to be an understanding that it is not just about the fight.
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Yes, karate is cultural, emotional, physical, philosophical, and personal. None of that gets removed from our training. But when we talk about self-protection, the focus must shift to what works when it matters, not what comforts the ego or feels traditional in the dojo.
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Self-protection is not the absence of karate-do. It is the proof of it.
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Safety is not a skill you rush to learn once life turns dark. It’s a skill you quietly build long before darkness ever arrives.
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If fighting is all you know, all you train for, then the fight is what you will look for. Avoid it. This is self-defense training.
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Written by Adam Carter – Shuri Dojo