Self-Defense vs. Martial Arts
There is a strong distinction between self-defense and martial arts.
Martial arts, regardless of style, are not an effective physical form of self-defense until you have had many years of hard practice. The skills that you are striving to learn are difficult and demand a great deal of body coordination, muscle memory, and strength. It takes a long time to acquire enough skill to use in a real self-defense situation. If we take into account the formula ("skill equals repetition multiplied by time") that the old masters lived by, it is the same story. Acquiring any skill in a particular technique requires the practitioner to perform many repetitions over time. Therefore, the more reps you do over a longer period of time, the greater your skill level for actual self-defense situations. Unfortunately, it take a long time to be able to defend yourself utilizing martial arts.
Actual self-defense techniques are basic, simple, and practical. If the technique requires any amount of skill, it is then considered an art, and becomes martial arts, not self-defense. Self-defense is not an art, and therefore, not pretty. Self-defense consists of basic techniques like punches to the throat, eye pokes, groin kicks, or even scratching or biting to free oneself from an attacker. None of this is pretty, but it is actual self-defense. It is not martial arts.
Then, why even practice martial arts? For all the reasons beyond fighting! You practice martial arts to get into great shape, to discipline your mind and body, and for the deeper, more philosophical aspects, to learn about yourself and to grow from the experience martial arts training has to offer. Despite popular opinion, martial arts are not solely about fighting: in fact, fighting is only a very small portion of what martial arts (especially an old style like Kung Fu) have to offer.
Martial arts work on strengthening you physically, emotionally, and mentally, in that order. When it comes to self-defense, however, it works in reverse order, strengthening you mentally first. We call this "mental self-defense" against what we call "stinking thinking," thoughts such as "I'm too weak, too slow, too ugly, too fat," or even "too perfect." We live in an age when mental self-defense is actually much more important than physical self-defense. Martial arts training also starts to work on your mental awareness of your surroundings. This is the first and most important step to removing yourself from a dangerous situation where physical self-defense may be required.
After some time, martial arts practice will start strengthening your emotional self-defense, allowing you to grow "thicker skin" to the things that happen around you. You will become more calm and focused when things go wrong. This will allow you to see the situation from a different perspective, and help not to escalate the situation into a physical confrontation. This is the second most important aspect of self-defense. Taking control of a bad situation is just as important than what you do to physically defend yourself, if not more so.
Finally, after many years of practice, you'll gain the physical strength that is required to take what you have learned and apply it to an actual physical self-defense situation. The result is that by the time you are physically in a position to actually use what you have learned of actual fighting, you are already a master of the first two mental and emotional levels. As a result, the first two levels will resolve the majority of your conflicts with only a very small chance of ever needing to get physical, as a last resort.
No wonder the old masters trained so intensely in the practice of martial arts! It pretty much guarantees that you will not need to physically hit someone to resolve any situation. After all, if there is nothing to be learned in a real physical fight, why resort to it?
As your journey as a Kung Fu student begins, you will find yourself on a path to expand your physical, mental, and emotional abilities. Kung Fu requires total commitment on your part to your personal growth and development as a student of the fascinating art of Kung Fu.