Fighting violence in Jackie Chan’s style

Last week I came across an interesting comment on ‘empowerment’ for people living in environments with high level of violence: “maybe learning some type of martial arts in a Jackie Chan sort of way would be empowering”. Hm, let’s have a closer look at how much power you can get from such ’empowerment’.

Known for his acrobatic fighting style, comic timing, use of improvised weapons and innovative stunts, Jackie Chan impressed the East and the West with his movies and popularised martial arts. Martial arts are great as spectator sports and a good way to get fit. If you’re on the street and a stranger attempts to mug or attack you, martial arts training will surely come handy, especially if an offender doesn’t know any particular fighting style and is unarmed.

Unfortunately, in violent environments offenders rarely roam streets alone – they usually come in packs (or gangs), armed with all sorts of weapons (including guns) and fighting extremely viciously and dirty.

I do not know what Jackie Chan was using for self-defence in real life, however other influential martial artists rarely relied on martial arts for self-defence outside the big screen. As pointed out in “Top 10 Martial Arts for Self Defense”, “It’s something of a joke, and out of regard for the popular definition of “martial arts,” firearms were left off the list. They are, however, by far the most efficient method of self-defense. Bruce Lee carried a .357 magnum everywhere once he became famous as the guy no one could beat in a fight, because there are always stupid jerks who want to prove that wrong. He had no intention of risking injury. Chuck Norris is well known as a pro-gun advocate, and in response to a reporter’s ironic question, “If someone broke into your house, would you use your roundhouse kick?” he replied, “No, I’d use my 10 gauge.”

I was unlucky to grow up in a country where violence became a norm in recent decades. As an example, have a look at the video below. Even though this video features skinheads only, other gangs roaming in my native city were operating in a pretty similar fashion. No one could feel safe there.

Though in Russia it’s illegal to own a handgun privately, criminals did not seem to have any issues with obtaining all sorts of guns, including automatic ones. Knives, axes and other weapons were commonly used as well.

From Gun Violence

Do you think Jackie Chan’s magic martial arts would provide you with sufficient self-defence in such environments?