Why martial arts (and not governments) will keep people safe

This week saw a man admitted his guilt of the manslaughter of 16 year old Christina Edkins. She was stabbed in the chest whilst on a bus in Birmingham. She was just on her way to school, that's all she was doing.

Her killer was a mental patient on release from hospital. Clearly, he has his problems, and he knows that he shouldn't have been amongst the general public.

Mental? Perhaps by some definition he is - but it's interesting to me that he chose to attack a young school girl, as opposed to someone his own size. Yet he chose not to, which says to me he knew what he was doing. Is it still manslaughter then?

Yet the authorities involved say 'we will learn the lessons', 'this won't happen again under our watch', 'we will get rid of knife crime in this country', and so on.

I'm sure they believe it when they say that, but really? A girl lies dead, and it wasn't like there weren't warnings. This guy had form. I wish he had gotten the help he needed, and that Christina could have just gone about her business that day. 

I have tried to strike a balance in lessons between the Art side of martial arts, and the Reality or self defence aspects.

Too  much of one or the other isn't good, and as instructors, we should be aiming - always, for that balance.

I never offer a 100% guarantee that students will survive an attack by someone thrusting a knife in their face. 

But we do work on aspects of the training so that in scenario one - where they can turn, move, but are not allowed to block - it is likely that the knife will get through.

Scenario two does allow them to block, and by and large they do stop the knife hitting vital areas.

For reasons known only to them, the current UK government cut funding of sports to schools. Martial Arts teaching was a major casualty of this measure. 

I know football, netball, gymnastics, basketball et cetera are all fun. But give the children a life skill - isn't that what martial arts should be viewed as?

Schools, governments and authorities wouldn't need to 'learn the lessons' if they just put what is needed in place instead of what's easy to do. 

I was often shocked at the lack of fitness - and discipline at some schools when I taught there.

I do hope that for some of the children I taught, that they got enough from it to pursue martial arts in their life outside school.

The world isn't necessarily more dangerous. We just need to recognise what we can do to help ourselves.

Christina Edkins should have had that help and the basic right to enjoy her bus ride in safety. 

I hope people do take up the chance to learn an effective martial art that keeps them safe within the law. 

If they do, a repeat of Christina's case may never happen, and I will campaign in my own way to make sure our streets are a safe place to be.