If a non-training friend asked you for some self-defense advice, what would you tell them? I recently faced that very dilemma when I was asked to co-author an article for a NY magazine on using pressure points for self-defense.

The real question was: What could we say that would be easy to understand and truly useful for those with no experience? The venue and audience demanded brevity and simplicity or the article wouldn't be read. But relevance and effectiveness could not be sacrificed to achieve that.

Previously, I had observed that suggestions to novices frequently fall into two categories: vague, conceptual transmissions; or highly precise technical instruction. Neither approach benefits beginners. In fact, those sorts of explanations interfere with basic learning.

Students greet large concepts with a great deal of head nodding and noises of agreement. But when the talk is over, the student is left to figure out exactly how to apply such abstract things to the very concrete situation they are facing. Not only would they need to be an expert to create accurate specifics from general ideas, but also they won't really have time for all that thinking in the middle of an assault.

Detailed, mechanically oriented explanations for beginners result not in greater understanding, but rather in more questions as the student tries desperately to remember a list of points composed of unfamiliar words. Afraid that not getting every detail will result in failure, the poor student concentrates so hard they squeeze out anything they might have remembered - just as physical tension ruins good taijutsu.

To avoid these pitfalls in our article, we limited ourselves to three major kyusho which are extremely effective and accessible even with rudimentary skills. We mentioned a few very natural methods (for non-martial artists) of hitting each. And we described directly the results of striking them.

In retrospect, this approach provides a good 3-point model for giving advice to those new to the training:

First, keep suggestions brief. Over-explaining causes "brain overloading" which makes them reflexively discard everything they just heard. And grand explanations communicate primarily to the intellect - precisely what they won't have access to in a stressful situation.

Second, give advice which fits reasonably with current habits. Otherwise, ingrained responses will overwrite the new programming under the pressure of a real situation. Fully transforming inefficient responses is the work of extended training. Remember, too, useful advice must be specific yet without great technicality.

images and unambiguous words facilitate recall when under stress. Use common language in place of foreign words and insider-jargon. Even when the "generic" explanation is not precisely correct, it is the best one if it helps someone remember and do the right thing.

Once, when my father, Marvin, was a young boy, his mother came to pick him up after school and discovered him embroiled in a scuffle with a bully on the playground. At the middle of an excited crowd of gawking school kids, my father warily circled the other boy, not knowing what to do in response to the threats and feints. My grandmother watched for a moment, realizing that although she certainly did not want her son fighting, if she stepped in and dragged him off his classmates would tease him mercilessly - and the bullies would never leave him alone again. Instead, from her place at the edge of the crowd she called out, "Hit him, Marvin!" And dad did.

Suddenly sporting a painful bloody lip, the other boy decided fighting wasn't such a great idea after all. He quit, the crowd dispersed and my dad went home with his mother.

The story stands as a fine example of how to give good advice: Be brief, be relevant, be useful.

Jason Bell is a NYC-based actor, writer and instructor at NY Budo under the direction of Jean-Pierre Seibel. Jason can be reached at 72143.1234@compuserve.com and believes that the protective mask of anonymity is too often misused by those on the petty soapbox of egotism.