People have often argued that Shuo Shu is impractical and ineffective, hence the reason most of us don't want to get involved in some sort of a competition.

Well, most Shou Shu martial artists won't get into the ring to demonstrate their skills, and the reason is totally different from the assumption above.

For one, Shou Shu wasn't meant for sports or competitions. Its principles cannot work in a ring fight unless rules are relaxed. But if rules are relaxed, then there is no Shou Shu.

It's an efficient way of defending oneself on the streets. A student who learns Shou Shu is one who will equip themselves with Beast Knowledge because this martial art is translated to mean fighting way of the beasts.

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The fighting style itself mimics the fighting motion of7 different types of animals. These are seamlessly combined to work harmoniously with one another so we can have a vast array of self defense weapons to rely on.

The fighting way of the 7 beasts won't mean anything to anyone who hasn't taken their time to study this wondrous art of fighting. It is total crap to the average Tom, Dick and Harry. But it is a golden knowledge to people who understand how effective and efficient those techniques can work together to achieve a common goal.

Each one of the animals exhibit a special motion when resisting an attack. Also, each one of the animals creatively utilize the laws of physics to generate immense power, although in different ways.

So when you have a combination of all the 7 animals' fighting motion, you get a system that creates an immense power that can be used to bring out a desired effect.

Each animal represents a complete martial art. Nevertheless, if you separate these animals so that they can act individually, this is not known as Shuo Shu. Instead, it's known by the individual animal's name.

Every fighting system is extremely fast and efficient. They are guided by strict principles, and this adds some sort of limitation to the equation. But also, it is for this reason that the fighting will seamlessly transition among the 7 animals.

A Shoushuer does not constrain themselves to a particular fighting style -- as popularized in many Kung Fu movies. Instead, he uses all animals because he is trained from the word go to utilize all strengths at once.

Obviously this reminds us of the weaknesses of the individual animals which make up Shou Shu martial art system. In as much as these animals have their own strengths, they also have weaknesses too, and that's the reason ShouShu must combine all their strengths to cancel out their individual weaknesses.

A fighter will therefore transition seamlessly such that it is not apparent which animal style they are using. Ultimately, this creates one effective system that exhibits a fighting style that none of the 7 animals are able to achieve. Because of this complex combination, new principles emerge, giving the fighter the advantage that could not be realized using one beast alone.

Martial art is not sport. In fact, the term martial art was used to refer to hand-to-hand combat in the battlefield. So in essence, martial art only refers to the skill of fighting a hand to hand battle -- as was the case centuries ago. For this reason, ShouShu will never be used as a sport. It will not be applied in a competition or anything close to that. It is purely for self defense purposes, or if you like, street fighting.

Most people treat casual punches as mere tools of asserting dominance. But I want to sound a fair warning out there to anyone who might think there is a safe way to punch someone. Truth is, there isn't. Unless you're participating in a mixed martial arts bout where a lot of parameters are formed with safety as priority, you should know that one punch can send someone to their grave. Worse still, it could see you getting prosecuted for murder.

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So, isn't all this worth it? Of course not, and here's why:

Punches occur everywhere around the world, and at least dozens of those result in deaths annually. Another research claimed that people are more likely to get punched in Texas than in any other state in the U.S. In my view,  I don't see any correlation or reason why you'd most likely get punched in Texas than in any other place.

Anyway, young, energetic men around the globe continue to be fooled with the idea that they can settle their differences with a punch. In the ideal world, it is thought that male dominance can be determined by throwing a punch or two on the offender.

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The idea of the movie fight myth has sunk into the minds of young men around the world. They believe that at worst, punches would only result in a few bruises and maybe drops of blood trickling from one corner of the lip.

This lie is further carried forward by the popularity of mixed martial arts today. You've probably watched it on wrestling, where two professional fighters last for between 3 or 4 rounds and emerging out of the fight with only few bruises, or if you like, minimal injuries.

Okay, that is for the professionals. But how about an amateur blow from a guy who has never stepped into any Karate, Wing Chun or Shou Shu class?

An amateur punch up ignores a lot of parameters that are often present in fights which take place on the streets.

The streets don't present ideal atmosphere for performing mixed martial arts, let alone a single punch. It is not the punch that will kill you here, rather, it's the impact of the concrete you're most likely going to fall on that will inflict maximum damage on you.

If you smacked your head on a concrete as a result of a punch, it would be extremely disastrous, trust me. Many people have not liked the outcome either. It's pathetic, and sometimes lawsuits often get involved. I am sure you wouldn't want this kind of thing to happen to you irrespective of which side you were taking in the fight.

Why typical casual punches are different from those in MMA

If you have been trained in MMA or any other martial art for example, you wouldn't spar on the streets, right?

All sparring classes take place in a safe atmosphere where participants are not likely to get hurt in the event of one fighter sending the other one to the ground. So we cannot debate that street fights are not dangerous, and especially if you're not trained. Just keep off.

On avoiding street fights

A real street fight is often chaotic. Dynamics are not predictable here because a punch or punches could come from different dimensions.

A simple verbal confrontation could see you ''eating up'' an unexpected punch which could see you losing a tooth or worse still, hurting you in the process.

Apparently, in the situation where two young men are participating in a fight because either of them want to prove a point, there is never any form of order such as one that typically exists in an MMA fight. No one says, ''Okay, young boys, I want a good clean fight. Ready...... go!''

This is what I call a surprise attack situation -- where a weapon hits you off-guard. Surprise attacks don't always come from behind you anyway.

Also, you should keep off from ''drunken'' fights or those which young men engage in when out in the bar. With too many bottles of beer, your mind is probably intoxicated already. While alcohol may fool you into believing you're the strongest man on earth, that may not be necessarily the case, and thus a fight would cause a lot of damage on you (considering your status quo).

MMA fighters are often conditioned to take in hard blows. The same applies to every other sports fighter out there - if they've been trained sufficiently.

Natural pressures select them. Combat sports fighters generally don't enter the ring unless they've been through countless hours of training or hard sparring during which their coaches will determine if they are physically fit and capable of undertaking a cage fighting scenario.

Combat sports are highly regulated to eliminate a significant chance of injuries. For this reason, mixed martial art fighters will be matched up by their equal in terms of experience and weight.

Finally, if you don't have any self defense skills, it's dumb to try fighting or participating in some sort of fighting which, obviously involves punches. Otherwise, you'll be like a sitting duck to every punch that is directed at you.

P.S

There's also another issue that I have seen out there -- people rushing to find out why others are fighting, and they blindly enter the fight as if this fight was there's.

If you don't have any training, God knows whatever you're going to contribute in that fight. But as for me, I can assure you that your lack of training will be met by another surprise you least expected. You might fail to block a punch coming your way, or better still, you might end up pulling the flight, fight or freeze kind of response. Whatever move you make, you will most likely invite trouble.

Next: Flight, fight or freeze

The terms civilian defense and self defense are often used interchangeably to mean the same thing when they mean totally different things. It is until recently that I begun understanding the meaning of civilian defense in relation to self defense.

It's clear that Civilian defense is used to distinguish martial arts from what military people do.  Yet again, it is used to distinguish what we do from martial arts as a sport. In fact, the dynamics of military and sport fighting is quite different from those of civilian defense. 

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The real world scenario

People often use the words ''real fight''. You will hear them talk about how so and so engaged in a real fight with another guy outside a pub.

But whenever they use this term, they often refer to a situation where two guys throw punches at each other inside a pub or bar after a disagreement over a girlfriend or whatever else they're fighting for. They are never talking about a struggle that could have potentially led to death -- such as one that typically happens in a war-tone country like Somalia's Mogadishu, Baghdad and so on.

To put it in a better perspective, I'd refer to what Thomas Hobbes once said. He talked about man being reduced to ''the state of nature'', and by using that phrase, he was talking about the kind of physical resistance that makes man brutish, nasty and care-free when they live in a place where life is short!

And you don't need to visit Somalia or any other country with some form of unrest to witness what am talking about here. Look at the appalling stats of crime rates in your town right now. You realize that crimes which have led to loss of lives are often committed with some form of brutality.  There is no empathy anywhere!

But this might lead you to asking me one question: Does this apply to where I live too?

The answer is yes, it applies, but in a subtle way. The society now appears very comfortable watching extreme violence in the media. You can see it in movies and computer games.

In fact, with certain events like MMA now allowing ''ground and pound'' form of fights to the extent of seeing it as light entertainment, we can confidently conclude that we've slowly began accepting the way of violence into the society.

So, what exactly is civilian defense in relation to self defense or military defense?

Martial arts such as Karate seemed to have developed at the same time other Chinese martial arts were developing. These arts were closely tied to some philosophical or religious trends of the ancient time.

If you look at some societies around the world, you realize that they have never had a structured form of community self defense training despite the need to equip persons with those skills even when they live in the most peaceful places on earth.

As a matter of historical fact, I can say that the act of ''grappling and striking'' was taken into civilian defense systems back in the 18th century.  This happened in the far east where such practices originated.

So what I can say is that the primary deference between civilian defense and military combat lies in the root intent.

A military guy in a war zone will hit back with an intent to neutralize an enemy even if it means putting an end to the life of that enemy.

On the other hand, civilian defense is primarily meant for avoidance as opposed to inflicting harm on your opponent.

Gichin Funakoshi once made a powerful statement when he put it like this -- Karate ni sente nashi. In English, that means there is no first strike in the art of Karate.

As far as my level of skill is concerned, (I train in Shou Shu anyway), I know that most martial arts, if not all of them begin with defensive skills rather than attack skills. I have carefully observed Korean or Japanese martial arts only to realize that all forms put emphasis on defensive skills first before anything else.

In Shou Shu Kung Fu, Yellow belt is the lowest level a student will achieve before climbing up the ladder. But even then, you find that students are mostly taught how to defend themselves as opposed to being the one to attack first.

In military defense however, there are no rules of engagement. Here, anything goes as long as it will inflict maximum harm against the enemy.

In short, there are all dirty tricks you might have had of. There is scratching, biting, gouging, including the use of lethal techniques or weapons.

Therefore, in a warfare atmosphere, relevant Geneva conventions apply and so do his or her own army's rules of engagement. However, rules are very minimal here, plus the intent is different. This is contrary to what happens in a civilian defense scenario where rules of engagement are too restrictive. In other words, your response to a threat has to be rational, appropriate and necessary. If you do otherwise, you will end up facing a judge in court.

In a civil defense situation, you will typically have the skills required to defend yourself. But no one will ever teach you how and to what extent you should use force. Instead, you will do it with reference to the law and society values.

I can say that most human beings are empathetic beings. We don't resort to drastic measures unless we have undergone some brutality in the past. But those individuals are very rare to come across, plus the instinctive empathy to preserve fellow human being is something that can't always be subsumed.

In short, we will be reticent to inflicting harm in the form of gouging eyes, biting or other drastic things. This is almost the same thing to what happens in a snake bite scenario. Most snakes know that venom is precious. It is used to maim a prey so it won't escape, thus it will be presented to the reptile as a meal.

But to use venom extravagantly would mean the reptile suffering extreme hunger and frustration. They wouldn't be able to kill a single prey, hence they have to learn to preserve venom by not wasting it, i.e biting everything they come across, including human beings. 

Bottom line is that self defense equips you with the skills you will need to react when attacked in a life-threatening scenario. But then, until you are attacked, you can never lift a finger on the attacker. Also, even if you're forced to react, your intent will generally be different from that of the military defense.