IN SELF-DEFENSE TRAINING, BEWARE OF INTELLECTUALIZATION!

Increasingly, I notice the trend in combatives and other self-defense “systems” to intellectualize — actually, to over-intellectualize. The definition of intellectualization that appears above perfectly captures the meaning as it applies to fighting.

In an effort to avoid the pain, consequence, damage and stress of fighting — whether in training or for real — instructors use constructed language to describe the impossible (what’s expected in the moment) and use pseudoscience to justify what they’re professing.

Those of you