When “Perfect” Becomes the Enemy of Action

A couple of weeks ago, I posted a short video demonstrating a simple self-defense move. The technique was about escaping a hair grab without letting someone rip half your scalp out in the process. Pretty practical, if you ask me.

Unfortunately, an internet bro arrived almost immediately with some very strong opinions about the realism of the roleplay, and basically my entire existence.

The funny part? Several members of the Kung Fu community stepped in to defend the video, including the owner of our school, who very graciously offered the guy a free trial lesson. Shortly afterward, the comment mysteriously disappeared into the void. Sadly, the supportive comments disappeared with it because they were all in reply to his original comment.

The sadder part? According to his Facebook profile, the guy owns a self-defense business himself. And honestly, that bothered me more than the criticism did. If you teach self-defense, or claim to care about protecting people, the mission should matter more than your ego.

Why This Class Exists

Women freezing in dangerous situations is a real issue. So is the fear that causes the freeze. And so is the belief that you need to become some kind of perfectly trained fighter before you’re “allowed” to defend yourself.

That last one is the belief I want to dismantle, and it’s why this upcoming women’s self defense class Omaha event matters so much.

Are my techniques perfect? No. Did I used to freeze the second something uncomfortable happened? Absolutely. But action matters more than precision, movement matters more than form, and trying matters more than waiting until you feel ready – because you’re never going to feel ready.

“Done is better than perfect” applies here too.

Reacting Beats Freezing, Every Time

Maybe my hips didn’t rotate to the internet experts’ satisfaction. Maybe the hair pull in the demo wasn’t aggressive enough (which I’m perfectly fine with, by the way).

But another commenter claimed that what we showed was somehow a “scam” and that other methods would work better. That part is frankly a little dangerous.  It’s the act of freezing that is a scam and doesn’t work. No matter how nice you are, an attacker is going to do whatever it is he or she planned. If they responded to niceness, they wouldn’t be out there pulling your hair in the first place.

Freezing helps nobody. You have to move, create space, and break the mental paralysis that fear locks in. That’s what we drill in our women’s self defense class Omaha training. Not perfection, not performance, not turning anyone into an action-movie star. Just learning to respond instead of shut down.

Why So Many of Our Students Come Back

That same skill — staying functional when your brain wants to freeze — is the reason a lot of our women come through self-defense classes again and again. It’s not exactly the same as sparring, but the underlying training is closely related. Sparring is built around the exact same problem: somebody is actively trying to disrupt your plan, and you have to keep moving anyway.

If you want a deeper look at why that kind of training works, and how it builds patience, discipline, and confidence that carry well outside the dojo, I wrote about that here.  Sparring builds patience discipline and confidence

Saturday’s Class: 2-for-1 on the Final Spots

Because this kind of training can feel intimidating, we’re doing something a little different for the last four spots in Saturday’s women’s self defense class Omaha session.  You can thank those gentlemen in the comments, because we’ve never done any discount on this class before.

But their “criticize first” attitude really got me to thinking about exactly how important it is for all women to be trained in self defense.  And I know how intimidating it is to show up to something like this alone, so this idea hit me.

It’s a 2-for-1 deal. For $67, you and a friend — a daughter, sister, coworker, or fellow nervous beginner — can attend together. Sometimes showing up is easier when you don’t do it alone.

Once these final four spots are gone, registration closes.

If you’d like to get registered, you can do it all right here: Self Defense Class in Omaha for Adults & Teens