8 Harmful Mindsets About Self Defense

4 min readDec 16, 2020

Harmful mindsets are assumptions that are so established in a person’s mind, they can create powerful blocks to other ideas or thoughts.

Here are Eight Harmful Mindsets about Self Defense that may be holding you back from learning how to defend yourself.

I’m too uncoordinated to learn self defense

Many self defense techniques involve large motor skills that are easy to learn. So you can be uncoordinated and still do them. You just need to learn HOW to do them.

And you need to learn where to make your blows land to do the most damage and cause injury. Coordination (or the lack of it) is no excuse.

It takes too long to be good enough to defend myself

Again, many self defense techniques involve motor skills that are easy to learn. And it doesn’t take a long time to learn them. You should practice them. But it doesn’t take months or years to get good at them.

Look for a self defense instructor that teaches techniques that use your body’s natural reactions. And that teach you the best places to strike so you can cause injury and get away.

I carry a gun, knife, pepper spray or some other defensive weapon

Carrying a defensive firearm or other defensive weapon is a great idea. But keep in mind that there may be situations where you won’t have time to draw your defensive weapon. When that happens, you’ll need some self defense training to fall back on.

Be sure to take classes to learn how to use your firearm and/or other weapon effectively and safely. And practice using it. No weapon will protect you if you don’t know how to use it. And that includes pepper spray and kubotans.

I’m physically fit… I can handle a thug

It is possible that people who look “big and strong” will probably be less likely to be attacked. But that doesn’t mean it’ll never happen. If someone is desperate enough for cash and/or valuables, they will choose anyone to be a victim.

And remember, desperate attackers don’t fight fair. So take a self defense class and learn how to focus on targeting key parts of the attacker’s body. Just in case.

It will never happen to me

This is the one that always makes me roll my eyes. Seriously, no one is immune from violence. Everyone is a potential victim.

It doesn’t matter where you live, how careful you are or what you look like. No one who has ever been attacked expected it to happen. And you can be sure that they also thought that it would never happen to them. So be prepared. Because it can happen to you. Hopefully it never will. But it can happen.

I can reason myself out of trouble

Bad guys do not follow the same societal rules that you do. Trying to reason with a sociopath or drug-induced attacker will not work. So you need to be prepared to defend yourself physically.

I’m too old, overweight, out of shape, etc., for self defense classes

Self Defense is first about learning to recognize and avoid dangerous situations. It’s called Awareness.

Anyone can learn awareness skills. And they can lessen your chances of being attacked.

And when it comes to the physical part of self defense, find an instructor who teaches simple, yet effective defense techniques that are easy to do and remember. You can learn to protect yourself no matter what your age, weight or fitness level is.

My adrenaline will kick in and save me

A rush of adrenaline actually causes fine motor skills and cognitive skills to diminish. But if you learn and practice large-motor-skill defensive techniques, you’ll be able to use them to get away or fight back.

If any of these harmful mindsets are keeping you from learning to defend yourself, I hope this post has helped. Sign up for a self defense class or two, even if you think you have a “good” reason not to.

And even if you are limited in what you can do, you can still learn danger-avoiding awareness skills, develop a defensive mindset, and learn practical physical skills. Because you never know when you may need to use those skills to avoid/defend against an attack.

~Shereen

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