I am becoming increasingly uncomfortable with the term "self defense."

It's used across the board to sell martial arts, but I doubt it really has much to do, historically, with traditional war arts. We all know "self defense" has long been used to persuade Western parents into putting their kids into a MA program, but are we drinking our own Kool Aid?

If you think about it, "self defense" is almost counter intuitive to the mindset of fighting. The military drills, conditioning and desensitizing of orthodox Gong Fu seems awfully far removed from anti-bullying and protecting yourself from rapists. I'm not saying those are bad things, but are we really to believe that comes from the same art as forging the body and mind into a weapon?

What kind of person is going to start a street fight with me? More likely than not it will be an Alpha male type. It will probably be an aggressive person that feels they are stronger than me. Putting yourself on defense starts you off with a losing strategy...you really need a mindset, not unlike the aggressors, to deal with this type of aggression.

Sure, it's a cliche that the best defense is a good offense, but do you really think your going to deflect and parry your way to victory? Going to save it all up for the one big finish? The attacker, is generally in a better position than the defender.

I think if you look at it objectively, the whole "self defense" thing isn't really what the tradition was.