Normally I like to jack ass around on my page but I am going to be a bit more serious for this topic.
The most dangerous predator in the history of the world is close by and possibly hunting you right now.
Never before has our planet seen such a cunning beast, one which is capable of incredible violence and wrath.
I am not taking about T Rexes, Great White Sharks, or Tigers.
I am talking about you. Me. Your next door neighbor Nancy. That nice old fellow who delivers you mail. The young girl who serves you coffee in the morning.
There is no animal on this planet even half as dangerous as a human being. There never has been an animal which will injure and kill for so many reasons & motivations.
Equipped with superior intelligence, problem solving skills, logical thought processing, a wide emotional spectrum, greed, fear and an increasingly greater number of mental illnesses. Prone to abuse of various mind altering substances this over-stressed predator can shift from docile and calm to raging in seconds: suddenly and unpredictably. We see rampant violence and horror in all areas, world wide, where this beast lives. This is the make up of man.
If we look at almost all other predatory animals, we see they will kill to feed. They will often fight to defend territory, and most of this is posturing. If attacked they will fight back, but there is an order to who is attacking whom.
Human beings on the other hand will injure, maim, destroy and kill for a wide range of reasons: a muddy mixture of wants, needs, fantasies, ideologies, biases and illnesses. And more often than not these influences are unknown/unconscious processes to the ones who act out. Not only will this creature hunt you down, it may do so for infractions and infringements which occurred years back, or that had an impact that was unknown to you.
I could write up a huge paper on why violence occurs, or we can agree to settle on this single point: Violence occurs. The motivation is not very important for the purpose of this article.
My back ground with violence.
As far back as I can remember I have had a mild obsession with it. Certain characteristics are fascinating to me. Why is it that given all of our talents and higher order functions, we seem to be primarily driven by a motivation to take, and take, and take from others?
I have a little brother, his name is Bryon. He and I used to fight all of the god damn time. I am certain we gave each other our first black eyes, busted lips, blood shot eyes, and countless bruises and bumps. One day while wrestling around he had me in a head lock and put me face first through the front door glass screen. I think a year or two later I hurt his ankle real bad with a heel hook. He was the first person I ever choked out, I was the first person he knocked the wind out of. I imagine I developed 90% of the submission techniques I know on him. I would like to think I built in him pain tolerance and a mindset to never fear anyone. No one ever fucked with either of us growing up.
There was no reason to fear anyone else, there was nothing they could do in my mind that I had not dealt with before. (obviously as a little guy I was not considering the introduction of weapons)
I miss my little brother.
I was never bullied in school, and I never bullied anyone else. I saw things from time to time but I very rarely had any inclination to get involved. Some black eyes and bloodied lips here and there, but that to me more of a natural rite of passage between young males. It’s usually posturing, not typically true asocial violence.
From the time was little I was encouraged to wrestle by my uncle. He was a gold medalist in the junior Olympics and traveled all over the world as a teenager wrestling in both free style and greco-roman. He no shit had a shot at making the US team, but at age 18 he was stricken with some severe health problems which in many ways wrecked his life.
I miss my uncle Joe. He lives in Michigan and I have not had much of a chance to see him either over the last decade.
My father and uncles could easily have been described growing up as “pain in the asses” and “trouble makers” which are also the exact words my grandfather still uses to describe them. They used to fight a lot growing up.
I am not certain of many details relating to that, but I do remember the lesson which was passed on to me.
It was not ok to pick a fight, but worse than picking a fight was getting your ass kicked. It was not ok fuck with someone else, but it was unacceptable to allow anyone to fuck with me. My family taught me a lot, and that was one which I have passed on to many during my travels.
Don’t be a bully, and don’t ever be a victim.
You know what a victim is? Someone who choose not to fight back.
Every time I have said that, I get someone who gets pretty fucking upset. Good. Being attacked does not necessarily make you the victim, doing nothing guarantees you will be.
We will talk about that idea very soon.
People do not want violence in their life (for good reason) and they do not want to be victims. I am fairly certain no one wakes up and wants to be the victim in theory, but their actions and belief systems maybe the lynchpin which enables it.
So where do many people turn when they want to rid themselves of the fears of violence?
Traditional Martial Arts. Karate, TKD, Kung Fu, and all the various minor stems of these branches.
My career path in the Military put me in the way of preparing others. For violence. To commit it, and to withstand it. I was selected because I was willing to do it. I was selected because of my skills as an instructor. I was given more and more room to continue because I was good at what I did.
With that said I have some issues with TMA and I am going to share with you some of them now.
What bothers me about traditional martial arts is the idea of it taking 3-5 years to be able to defend oneself.
That is a bad belief system. If someone is currently seeking combative/self defense skills it is because they are afraid at some level. What is the game plan here if you think you need to be in the dojo several times a week for over 150 weeks before you can defend yourself?
It is not hard to hurt another human being, criminals are not preparing for 5 years to jump you in the parking lot. Traditional martial arts in this country have fallen so far from their intended purpose that it is laughable they still carry the “martial” in the title. Art is appropriate because science is rarely found in the dojo.
Chi, mystical energies, bowing to the winds, looking for favor from gods, channeling dead relatives; If your current violence practice involves these things you are likely losing a lot of time doing stupid shit.
In the Military I had a lot of work with apprehension techniques, PPCT, restraint techniques, blades, clubs, guns, defensive tactics, and combatives. I have had the opportunity to work with all other branches of service and several ally nations. I really like the idea of no fucking style, just learn what works and stop doing it when it stops working.
Modern combative practices have been shaped much over the last few decades since its rebirth in America from WWII. Men such as Tony Blauer, innovator of the SPEAR system. Tim Larkin, founder of Target Focus Training group, have turned the focus of warfare and violence back to warfare and violence. Not silly pajama parties and discussions of the 15 ways to deflect a reverse punch thrown with the left hand from a bow stance.
I would also like to thanks my primary instructors D. Fischer and D. Olernick for a lot of lumps and bruises.
As a combatives instructor, I can tell teach you how to harm someone badly in a very short period of time. Just a few hours. Let’s examine this later on.
At this point in my life I have used all of the shit I have been taught. I have a perspective on violence which I didn’t necessarily ask for but definitely aligned my ass in a vector to receive.
Some opinions.
Traditional martial arts in America have become bull shit if the topic is defending your life.
Take up traditional martial arts if you want to put on pajamas, bow, and practice a slow set of strange movements to fight 100 men in the corn field. Take traditional martial arts if you like to pretend that you are Bruce Lee or Samurai Jack. Send your kids to them to get some entertainment and positive interaction with other kids. TMA and little kids: send them to a stranger to learn discipline and respect if you are incapable of teaching them that yourself. Fail. Go yourself if the place has a decent fitness program. Do not let the silly serious talk slow you down, it is as serious as the cardio kick boxing at your local globo gym.
Do not confuse any of that horseshit with what real violence looks like.
Do not confuse any of the so called “self defense” courses being taught by Rex Kwan Do instructors as a serious option when lives are on the line.
Why would I say that?
#1 What does the greatest majority of traditional martial arts teach you do? Punch A, punch B, punch C, punch D, punch E, punch F. Practice again and again. Now learn a specific defense for each movement. Now learn 10 variations to that. More and more tools thrown at you each step of the way. Very cool for collection of movements. Neat and flashy to show off to your friends. Just please don’t try the Horse Stance Rotational Block Kata Sequence A when you have been stabbed twice from the guy asking for a lighter at 2 am…it is not important how you attack, it is important you inflict injury.
Also look up Hick’s Law, it will help you understand why the bigger tool box is a mistake.
#2 Traditional martial artists love them some katas. What the fuck was that supposed to be again? Ever watch someone do a kata? Even high level black belts are confused on exactly what they are supposed to be doing. They know exactly what the movement is supposed to look like, but they rarely know what it translates to when used against a human being. Cute for the dojo, very low utility for real violence. It is not important to look stylish or cool in a violent situation, it is important to injure your attacker.
#3 Fixation on trivial details. teaching 30 hand positions, investing hours and hours of precision inspection of stances, requiring students to learn Asian languages and history, instructor worship, bowing, saluting, praying to the winds…wasteful!
What are all these hand positions people think they will use? I am certain it is an old joke sent to the USA from China to get more Americans hands broken and bruised. Snake hand, dragon hand, tiger hand, blah blah blah.
It is not important how you position your hand. It is important to injury your attacker.
#4 For the most part, TMA in America are completely ass backwards concerning weapons: I want to compare some people who got it all fucked up with some who got it dead on. I have a friend who is currently a 3rd degree black belt in California in a very popular style of hard hitting Japanese karate. Even after 10 years of study, the only weapon he ever trained to use was a Bo. For those of you not familiar, a Bo is the weapon Donatello the ninja turtle used. A fucking long piece of wood. I fuck with him all the time about this. “hey bro you going out this week? You taking your broom stick with you”
A further problem associated to this silly shit: teaching people to use silly out dated weapons to fight other people who are also using silly weapons. There are many ways someone can try to hurt you, but swords, nunchuks, and sai’s are not the likely weapons of choice.
Literally nothing about this makes sense to me
Bo staff skills get trumped by hand guns, knives, and urban life
Now I will also point out my buddy James Neidlinger, who teaches people Pekiti Tirsia. That is a knife fighting system from the Vasayan region of PI. The first 30 minutes James works with you will include how to hold a knife, where the knife needs to go to hurt someone, and where it goes to kill someone. That is a man who has his priorities straight. James will tell you how to injure your attacker.
The only reason to learn how to use a weapon is to learn how to better injure a human being.
#5 Situational awareness skills, street awareness skills, conflict defusing skills, verbal skills- Not taught in VAST majority of TMA schools. Not even mentioned. Ok so here is your acid test on how useful a given “Self Defense” class will be to you. If it opens up with an instructor saying “See here is how to get out of a rear choke hold” you have fucked up and selected the wrong place.
What should you be taught? Awareness, awareness, awareness! Verbal skills, social interaction skill sets, for lack of a precise word you need to learn “street smarts” which is severely lacking. If more people were taught this a high % of violence in America would likely be reduced. That is the starting point. Physical skills for violence only accounts for a third or less of the skill set. And of course the only physical skill set it which is important is you injure your attacker.
#6 TMA focusing on being more of “X” then your opponent.
There is only one X factor to a violent situation. Who will go further faster? That is who survives.
Not the stronger person. There is always someone stronger. On a side note, how does a strategy of being stronger play out for women? What women is going to be stronger than her male rapist attacker? Stupid.
Not faster movement. This is a huge flaw. The fastest strike does not “win” the battle, the one that does most damage does. The person who hurts the other person worse.
Not who can go longer. Violent incidents start and finish very fast. If your plan is to out last your attacker by absorbing more blows or having greater cardio vascular fitness you are off track.
Not who is more “skilled” which is the core flaw of TMA. If you think you need to spend years in the dojo to protect yourself you are wrong. You know America loves to see a TMA get knocked out. Happens all the time. It happens because violence and injury do not regard your belt. Your position in your school. How many years of practice you have had. None of that matters. Plenty of incidents every year of highly trained black belts being severely injured. Often from a sucker punch ambush. Why? The answer is found in the previous 6 bullet points.
All that matters is who hurts who first, how badly they do it, and how willing they are to keep doing it.
A question I have for all of my TMA friends. Who do you think will be the one who is most likely to try and attack you and hurt you? I will give you three options.
- Crackhead Tom, who needs a fix and has his trusty switch blade. He is waiting in the parking garage behind that Explorer your parked next to. Tommy never went to a dojo but he is pretty certain he can take your wallet after he sticks the knife in your abdominals 10-15 times.
- Drunk Billie Bob, who feels like its time to validate his manhood by kicking your ass. He plans on starting with a Miller bottle to the back of your skull as soon as you are distracted by his buddies insistence you like to smoke cock at the rest area.
- The evil master Shredder who is trained in the ninja arts. He will likely have a mutant animal to pit against you who is trained in the 7 finger bang method of Shu Ti Woo.
Just curious….
To quote Tony Blauer
“There are more untrained people who have been attacked and defended their life than there are black belts who have been attacked”
That STATE not the SKILLS, that is what will likely decide your fate. In the future I will talking about this a whole lot.
So if you are in a traditional martial art, enjoy it for the “art” enjoy it for the community, and enjoy it for fantasy and fun. But please stop peddling that shit off as a viable solution to criminal asocial violence.
Mixed Martial Arts: awesome sport. Not for defending your life.
The mixed martial art game and Jujitsu are the fastest growing sport in America. I think that is awesome. What fantastic sports they are. Development of spirit, strength, mobility, endurance, leans someone up, and has a very strong social component.
I can’t say enough good things about this sport.
It is a sport, and only a sport.
If you understand the nature of violence, and how easy it is to harm someone, you will quickly understand the two places you don’t want to be is on the ground, or wrapped up with one someone.
There are some very impressive techniques which would absolutely get you fucked up with a violent individual in an icy parking lot.
Don’t believe me, fine. Here is the experiment. Find someone who you think can kick your ass with their grappling. Tell them to grab you up. Your only job is to see how many times you can stick your fingers on their eye brow ridge or grab the inside of their leg next to their testicles. Every time you can touch their eye brow is a time you could have gotten a finger in to their orbital socket. Every time you touch their leg is a ripped sack or torn off dick. You will quickly find the limitations of someone trying to hold you down on the floor.
Second experiment, grappler vs edged weapon. Take a magic marker, put it in your pocket. Have your ass whupping grappler put the ju-ju on you. Your only task is to get to the marker, and touch them with it. Their job is to shut you down. Much learning will take place.
So nothing is wrong with the sport, but don’t confuse your tools.
MMA is an awesome sport, but should not be a first choice for defending your life.
So what is the alternative offering? I will talk about that next time. As typical, I will provide actionable information which you can use.
For my readers here, spare us the dignity of the TMA talk. Relating to criminal violence it is the wrong first call.
What to do right now? Check out Frankie’s article on Violence
P.S. did you get your copy of my new Ebook? It’s right on the side of the page. You will love it.
{ 55 comments }
Agree with the futility of TMA if the sole purpose is to learn self-defense. Why spend years at something like that? Much like my friends who spend over an hour each day in the gym or on the road running or riding their bikes to get to a similar level of fitness I achieve in 35 minutes with GM.
Our lives should be about efficiency.
Some may prefer to participate in TMA as a hobby and a social event, just the same way that some of my friends enjoy long-distance running and triathalon training as members of a running club. That is fine too.
Great post Adam. I recently read “Meditations on Violence: A comparison of Martial Arts Training and Real World Violence” By Rory Miller. He makes similar points as you do about the common disconnect between TMA training and the complexities of real violence, the unexpected effects of adrenaline dump, the importance (and complete absence in most TMA training) of social awareness, legality, the aftermath of violence (even if it goes as you plan), etc. I’ve also trained for years in both traditional and non-traditional MA and have changed course a few times in ongoing attempts to align my expectations and goals with reality. I’ve been very fortunate in that I’ve had only a small handful of truly violent encounters – all prior to any MA training – all with people who wanted my cash and some involving weapons. I’m a capable person, fairly strong, and not easily intimidated, but I believe that I got through those incidents only because 1) In the milliseconds that I realized I was being sized up or “interveiwed” as a potential victim, I went from a standstill to sprinting. Away. Really fucking fast. and 2) I’m a lucky sonofabitch. Looking forward to part 2. Thanks.
TMA is a big business. Which is no big deal, just let students know they are paying for a belt and not being equipped to deal with life or death situations.
My experience with TMA was a close minded group interested in rank and not wanting you to look for other information because they had the answers, they just weren’t going to give them to you. The importance was on the belt.$$ As a person with the ability to think, I was disappointed with the insecure and childish behavior of those in leadership roles.
Good post Adam. I’d be interested in learning some combatatives from you brother.
Great Post Adam. I like how you touched upon the awareness aspect of situations.
Stop fucking with us Adam and give us part two or I’ll Triangle choke the shit out of you.
LOL I’m no fun to roll with. Part II later this week.
Awesome post Adam! Everyone needs to read this one for sure!
I first heard Tim speak on the issues of self defense about 10 years ago and it was the first time I ever heard someone put it in that context. It instantly made sense. If it is a true violent encounter and it is either myself or the other person, there are NO rules! The criminal is not going to play by any rules, so why should I? Esp if it involves my life.
“You do what you train” so if you think that you will rapidly unlearn years of TMA training in seconds before you need to save your life, think again. Everything has a cost.
Looking forward to part 2!
Rock on
Mike T Nelson PhD(c)
http://www.extremehumanperformance.com/home.php
Good post Adam , there are 4 survival rules that i think everyone should remember now…there was a point in the early 80′s when i was told in the banking loss prevention seminars that you could “talk your way out of certain situations” and people still believe that to their own detriment….TODAY as follows 1) react immediately – your best chance to escape violence is in the first few seconds 2) resist (see Adam’s suggestions) 3) crime scene # 2 is always more isolated and always worse for you 4) never give up, your attitude can keep you alive even when you are badly injured
Brilliant. True. Needed.
I love how you draw a very, very clear line to what’s blurry at best to most people.
I appreciate how you do not diss TMA in their nature, but rather how they’re interpreted, even if you personally do not like them.
I also appreciate how you name and distinguish things for what they are. MMA is a sport. Most Martial Arts are actually arts. Real life violence happens for real.
3. Different. Things.
My MA background is similar to Nick Petroff in that I’ve tried out many styles and schools, but as time went by I seem to tend more and more to teaching that is relevant to real life situations. As a consequence, I’ve progressively come to understand that awareness and when and how you react are infinitely more important in real life situations.
However I do know that I don’t know. I’ve never been in any violent situations, other than psychological. I want this to remain true, but one never knows.
I am eager to see what’s in the next post. Awesome work, Adam!
Adam,
Great Article! Looking forward to part 2. I was introduced to ‘combatives’ while in the Army and part of that was BJJ. I decided to start BJJ training – and still train BJJ – when I got out; however, I knew the ground is not where I wanted to be when something went down. I started on Kali which introduced me to weapon stuff – and the instructor preached situational awareness. But even since taking some kali, I’ve revamped my opinions on self defense training. I agree with your conclusions on doing damage to vulnerable areas quickly and over and over again on the attacker. Right now, I use BJJ more for ground confidence and fitness. Definitely looking forward to hearing about your opinions on more viable options. Great stuff. Oh, and a strong grip helps!
Hunter,
I am going to touch on the history of combatives in the 21 century, and one of the misconceptions is that Ju Jitsu was introduced in to the US Services for combat- right out of the field manual: A test to develop and strengthen spirit and unit cohesion. Not exactly a solid move when you are wearing 70 lbs of kit and carrying a weapon. We will talk more about this soon.
I believe BJJ is an outstanding method of fitness, and I look forward to the sports expansion through out the country.
Regarding TMA- most of what is taught in this country is about as traditional as chop suey is regional chinese cuisine. I did end up meeting some folks (in TKD, amazingly enough, which, by the way, is exceptionally modern) who took their TMA to a usable level, but they were also bouncers who threw out the rules and learned their situational awareness the hard way.
From my varied experiences related to TMA, I have come to the following conclusions (which will likely evlove)
a) the people who studied one back in the day for personal protection probably started when they were small children, often getting whupped by dad until they developed awareness, then they got taught technique, getting whupped by dad and their brothers/males in the village until they could use it. After you get whupped enough, you learn how to avoid getting you ass handed to you. This methodology would not fly today.
b) kata are a teaching vehicle that hardly anyoneactually understands how to use, and the methodology has probably be permanently fucked over by things like the XMA. Which is honestly too bad. Most people have no clue what they are doing, and if they don’t, they’re just dancing. Often stupidly. Don’t get me started on the made up competition kata…sigh…
c) Most TMA in the US is pretty much to make money.
d) Most people never learn how to be effective because they are bound by rules. The exception I’ve experienced are some indoneasian arts, as taught by the guys who actually went through the civil war there and used what they know to maim and kill- silat sometimes makes me sick to my stomach when talking with my friend who was teaching me, because of the damaging violence it alludes to, especially the knife work- and the silat I was shown was all about doing more damage first (I lucked into a friend who was studying with one of the old guys who had actually used it and understood what it actually is).
e) Most TMA have been emasculated. The violence has been taken out in favor of ‘self development’, and without the violent intent, even if directed by kata (two person especially), you loose the ability to develop awareness or observation skills. Some schools (styles) still have the ‘you knock them into the wall, pull your knife and stab them in the throat’ mentality/tactics, but most teachers don’t teach it (if they know it).
f) A lot of traditional schools were about unit cohesion, and developing levels of trust between members (in japan anyway), and some were military systems, not ‘self defense’ styles.
Speaking of jujitsu as mentioned above, a lot of styles were originally all about ‘fuck, my sword broke’ and trying to throw your oponent down so you could stab him with a knife and take his sword/spear whatever- not about holding one opponent down for a choke, since in that amount of time, his buddy would have speared you in the back. So, kind of self defence, but really more about emergency use.
Ok…i’m going to quit at that. I guess my overall point is that a lot of TMA in this country is not martial art for fighting anymore, but martial art for athletics, self development or personal achievement. All can be worthwhile, but the actual violence of most has been largely removed. A long winded way of saying I agree with Adam, but also that I see some utility that some styles used to have.
Hi Christopher,
Thank you for your comment.. Once I started practising Aikido, more exactly Takemuso Aikido, and considering that most of my courses were very technical and lacked the spiritual aspect due to the style and charracter of my teacher back then, I decided to read a lot about the philosophy behind Aikido and its founder.
Indeed, in most of my posts in this Hot topic being Violence and comparing TMA and whether it can handle effiociently violent situations in real life, I am focusing a lot on the spiritual aspects of the Martial Arts dimension as most of the people neglegt that aspect and focus on the bottom line punch for a punch, matter clashing against matter!!
But I strongly believe and emphasize on this notion of achieving or tending towards reaching Mastery in ones Life should be the ultimate goal for a TMA practioner. All branches of TMA’s have had their Masters . Now I emphasize on that notion because I believe that controllling to an extent your thoughts and fears in a real deal situation will make the difference. If we take the example of two samurais or Masters, usually when they confront each other, they stay still and observe each other. They are waiting that one who will make the first mistake and that starts in the mind. So no matter what style you learn, they all teach you to give the deadly blow and to injure.. but in real deal situation, if you cant handle your thoughts and dont have a calm empty mind and dont have the intuitive wisdom, no matter how much technical you are, it wont matter. The fight is first in the mind and soul. The body is just an extrapolation of your soul. Like you said, Morihei Ueshiba use to excert the least force and control people who were charging violently at him. I saw lots of videos. There is also a story where during his Lifetime, he was confronted by a sumo and Morihei asked him to lift him up. We are talking here a three times ( maybe more) weight difference. The sumo smiled mockingly and tried to lift him in vain. Actually, after a few attempts, he was brought down in a fraction of a second. When the sumo left the dojo, the studends asked how Morihei did that and the latter answered: “When you are connected to Nature ( ie you make one with Nature), how can a sumo lift Nature?!” This is what I am trying to convey: That the Soul can lift “Mountains” in any situation.
For sure that there are out there self defense styles that focus on injuring as quickly and as efficiently as possible. But I still believe that the Warrior mindset and soul will make the difference in any situation and facing any opponent out there in real life!
I checked “hidden in plain sight’ by Ellis Amdur in Amazon and could not find it..Please advise where I can get it online. But the same author seems to have other good books that I want to get being for example Standign tall , Being Calm , Keepin Self Control… thanks for the reference.. If you have more, plse dont hesitate.
Christopher,
by the way , while doing some searches on Amazin on Ellie Amdur, i fell on a book called Transparent Force. Seemed interesting and explain a little the hidden Powers of those Grand Masters or True Warriors . Let me share its summary:
Transparent Power (“Tomei na Chikara”) became a Japanese language non-fiction bestseller in Japan, yet for over a decade no full English translation ever saw the light of day. One reason is the unusual content — a private record of the travels and esoteric teachings of one of the greatest modern martial arts legends in Japan (in fact, the true heir to the tradition that also gave rise to the art known as Aikido).
This book is not about learning physical techniques to overpower opponents. Instead, the true story of Transparent Power is about a mysterious force that one man discovered over a century ago, how it was transmitted to one of his disciples, and how the latter sensei (teacher) learned to develop it and use it at will. Although these men happened to be martial artists, they could just as easily have been dentists or lawyers or mathematicians.
In fact, the author of Transparent Power is a math teacher — a respected professor at a major university whose life is firmly grounded in logic, rational thought and empirical study. But when he happened to meet one of the men who had mastered this force they called Aiki, he discovered something beyond his wildest imagination: that logic and reason come up empty-handed when faced with the blunt reality of a controllable force that can totally negate the strength of a large man and then send him flying across the room. Not a martial arts throw or a technique using muscles, but a genuine, experiential POWER that allows a 95 year-old man to toss 30 year-old bodybuilders, judo and karate masters around like beanbags.
The author, Dr. Kimura, is still teaching mathematics. But his life changed completely through daily encounters with this mysterious force and with Sagawa Sensei, the only teacher alive who could command it. Transparent Power is Kimura’s record of both Sagawa’s life and teachings and what little is known about Sagawa’s own teacher, the man who discovered Aiki.
Great post Adam,
The sad truth is some people don’t need a reason to attack someone else because it is the attack that gets them off. And don’t expect the law to be on your side after you rip the dickhead’s balls off because laws are written by assholes who can afford $5,000 a day bodyguards and multi-million dollar alarm systems.
Steve I agree with you. With that said I will carry my head high in to court after crippling or killing my attacker. I think the legal battle is only a concern AFTER the physical battle is COMPLETELY resolved. The last thing to worry about in a violent situation is what if cases while you fight to stay alive.
Definitely on the same page with you on the chasm disconnect between law makers and the people who must live under the law.
Interesting thoughts there.
I think there is a lot to be said for how afraid one may be of violence and how scared one gets when they think about violence and how often and how much one may think about violence and even how excited someone may get about violence that has a real impact on violence actually affecting their lives.
What I am trying to say is the more someone thinks about it and the more feeling and emotion the thought of violence conjures up in someone I think the more likely violence is to come into their life.
This is not to say it’s not an awesome idea to gain knowledge on how to hurt someone way worse then they can hurt you in the name of self preservation because there are some crazy nutbags out there but I think it’s important to not get too wrapped up in it like anything else really. Learn how to hurt someone to save yourself and practise it but don’t think about it all day long as if it is inevitable that your attacker or rapist is just around the corner.
Hi everyone.
Agree that self-survival is key; and immediate violence of action is the only way to give yourself a chance. Mixed martial arts fights get a break in case of an illegal blow. Precious time better spent crushing someone’s nutsack and getting away.
I’m amazed at the violence of chimpanzes fighting and their immediate choice of targets; eyes, genitalia, mouth and nose, and fingers. Say no more.
Sensualists who justify violence through their “intellectual” reasoning are especially dangerously committed to the task. look forward to the next one.
Enrique
Awesome article Adam, great observations; nice to get some from someone with a genuine background of related experience.
speaking of which, I believe you spent some time in Military Policing? How did you deal with the expectationsof use of force in a law enforcement role?
As I work in that kind of field, I am continually frustrated by the issues that come with the constant requirement to deal with violent offenders bound by a bunch of BS rules and the public expectation that you should be able to control them perfectly without harming them because “you’ve had training”. (Which in the context, for the record, is about 20hrs a year of primarily empty-hand control techniques.) The public and the law expect that we shouldn’t care that the offender may attempt to bite, tear, gouge or spit on us, we should use all “approved techniques” unless in a situation of “personal risk or threat”.
newsflash! Apprehending a violent offender is a personal risk or threat! Hepatitis B carrying junkies that “aren’t usually violent” are just as capable of infecting me forever at any given time. A knife wielded by an angry 13 y.o. will kill me just as fast as a 30 y.o.
No gun, no taser and expected not to hurt them. What a fucking joke.
I think we need to coin a new term. Something like Noveau TMA. The TMA that is being taught in McDojos today bear very little resemblance to the Hard Style Shotokan I was taught in 1969. The training was brutally hard and there was zero bullshit in class. I’ve spent the last 33 years wearing a badge and gun and, at this point, pretty much worked my way around the Pacific Rim in terms of the martial arts available. Yet every time I’ve been in a bad situation, it’s been that first 4 years getting my Shodan (yeah, that’s how long it takes if you’ve got a real hard ass for a sensei) that have pulled me through. The ability to confront extreme violence with clear focus has saved my ass more times than I can count. Just my 2 cents.
Dear Adam,
You have indeed very interesting points. I am not going to contradict you with the many aspects that you mentionned as far as ” real violence ” situations and the fact that TMA takes years to master and the importance is to inflict injury as fast and efficiently as possible. I agree with the logic of some of your points. And indeed it takes years of practise and often martial artists are not ready to handle real life combat situations.
However, let me raise a few important points about TMA:
1) Many TMA’s are ancient practices and martial art philosophies that have been developped and practised for many hundreds of years. You must understand that their aim is first and foremost to CONQUER YOUR FEARS, channel your aggressivity, develop your discipline and ultimately avoid conflict as much as possible. Furthermore, TMA’s are a Way of Life when practised in their pure essence. You know Samurais never pull their swords unless they have no choice because the sword must serve Nature . They will only pull the sword if they feel that they are facing an evil that is going against Nature ( as they believe that Nature is good in Essence).
2) On a more practical note , I dont think that a shaolin monk will have a major problem in handling a thief, a drunken guy or a violent person. Now if we take the example of these monks, through years of practice they reach a level where Fear is conquered if not dominated or controlled as much as possible. When you see a monk walking on fire with bear foot or being hit by a sword without feeling pain, it says it all : THIS IS WHEN MIND CONTROLS YOUR BODY.
It all depends what you want in Life. If you want a quick fix , you can indeed try other self defense such as Prav Maga or Systema etc… If you want a Way Life and exercise, yes, TMA’s could be good. But let me finish on a final note: They all can inflict injuries if you hit the right spot at the right moment… but all of them cannot prepare you for real life violence unless you experience it in real and trust me, if you face it one day, if you can avoid it, better to avoid, because one blow can paralyze you forever and it it not worth it and if you cant avoid it , then all the best to you, it will be the survival of the most efficient between the two: the one like you say all the time, that will apply first the blow that will inflict injury. And lets suppose we take two opponents, with same height, age, weight, and arm reach, and that have been trained in same environment by same teacher and same technique: The one who will win, is the one who will have the Chance or Luck to injure the other one first. I repeat the Chance or Luck of being at the right place at the right time… If you have the Chance to avoid conflict , take it! It is not worth the gamble!!!
Looking forward in reading your next comments and article.
respectfully,
Alec
oh by the way on a final note, Georges St Pierre, one of the best and most consistant pound for pound MMA fighter in the world in his category mentionned in the recent Men’s Health magazine interview and i quote” It is not the most powerful animal that survives, it is the most efficient”.
Also, there is a Zen saying that I had heard once on all kinds of Martial Arts: You cannot compare one style versus another.. they all grow with time, and blossom their nice fruits or leafs which should lead to the following principles well stated by Morihei Ueshiba , founder of Aikido:
There are no contests in the Art of Peace. A true warrior is invincible because he or she contests with nothing. Defeat means to defeat the mind of contention that we harbor within. To injure an opponent is to injure yourself. To control aggression without inflicting injury in the Art of Peace. Your spirit is the true shield.
Adam,
Your comments are spot on and I cannot agree more.
Do I consider TMA useful? To a certain degree. Much of what Alec may have pointed out. TMA may enable certain individuals to get their mentality in order (maybe) and if they feel confident with their ‘skill-set’, then they will probably believe they have a greater chance of defending themselves and/or injuring the others. How much of TMA’s practices will be applied? Probably close to zip. The confidence factor may come in handy.
Am i involved in TMA? No. I, like adam, had a little brother to fight with. And i been in enough fights to know the difference. I once asked my brother if he wanted to join boxing. He said “Nah, there’s rules. There ain’t no rules on the streets. if you’re in a fight, you fight hard n fast with no mercy”…why? Otherwise you’re the victem.
I may have to disagree with one sentence from Alec (to a certain degree, use your good judgement on when may be a good time to avoid conflict) “If you have the chance to avoid conflict, take it”–. I only disgree to this due to one reason. I was attacked (more than once) and my first reaction was to Hit hard and Hit fast. My reactions and my fists saved my ass countless of times. One guy came up to me, tried to rob me and take my food, the first thing I did was reacted by hitting that guy straight to the face until he was down and out. Now, IF i decided to ‘avoid conflict’…how many ways could that situation play out? He could rob me and further injure me. Sorry, dude…but there is no way am I going to gamble by HOPING that the guy is nice enough to JUST rob me. I prefer having the ‘chance’ to injure first and foremost.
The battles I been on the street, scary shit, I am damn certain it is completely different from fighting in the dojo or at competitions. I could go on and on, but the point is…Adam is dead on. I am so looking forward to part 2.
Dustin, interesting points you raised. You have been attacked more than once. Of course, if you are being attacked, you need and must protect yourself and cannot avoid combat. But again i cannot emphasize more on my points that you have so far been LUCKY not to be injured. There is always an element of Luck or Bad Luck in any action in Life and this includes combat. So far your blows and actions have been at the right place at the right time.. Next time , your opponent might have a better luck! Hopefully there wont be any next time! IF YOU CAN AVOID, AVOID!! But avoidance requires training since fear is guiding you when you are attacking. The aim and essence of a True Warrior is to reach a point where there is no fear and hence will avoid or use minimal force to control agression. Also when you reach this point, your body language becomes so confidant and calm that it scares the shit out of your assaillant. This takes practice both from the inside and outside. A good book that I recommend about conquering your fear is Soul Sword from Vernon Kitabu Turner. A small excert: ” Before you can begin to control a possible assailant, you must take control of your thoughts. A warrior must believe in his ability to win”. Vernon who lived in a very tough neighborhoud that had many gangs, ended up gaining the their respect. they never bothered him and respected him because they understood that he was a true Warrior.
Alec,
I am not disagreeing with you. You can certainly interpret that every situation has the element of ‘luck’. Did I have luck on my side? Maybe so. After all, I attacked first. Then again, you could say I made my own luck. The outcome of those situations were based on my reactions to attack first. And believe me, my body language was quite confident….fear or no fear.
Fear—a true warrior doesn’t have fear? This can be debated on so many levels, man. If a guy walks up to you and wields a knife in your face. You are just gonna stand there all calm and try to talk him out of what he is doing because you have no fear? Dude, they do NOT care about you. They WILL hurt you to get what they want. Personally, if a person is not dazed by such an experience…I do not consider them rational. If you’re too calm, it ‘could’ look like you’re suicidal/depressed. Possibly scary depending on the attacker’s point of view. But then again, most attackers are hoping you’re calm and scared out of your minds, which make it easier for them to accomplish whatever evil deed they had in mind. If you’re one of those guys screaming ‘”well, what are you waiting for!? DO IT! C’monn tough guy!” You could be viewed as a nut or someone who is definitely not scared (or even someone who is trying to use reverse psychology) Seriously, which one sounds scarier to you? Again, this is all based on perspective. Every attacker views ‘body language’ differently. If you’re calm, yet you’re confident with your chest sticking out and your head held high–they could still kill you. If you’re a psycho screaming “DO IT, c’monn you S.O.B!’ They could still kill you. If you cooperated and gave the attacker everything they wanted, they could still kill you. No outcome is the same. I rather make my own luck and take them out before they take me out.
Even better, let’s all remember a good quote from one of the Rocky movies which goes something like this “no no no..your best friend is Frankie Fear. Fear is your best friend. It will either burn so hot and shut you down or you can let that fear boil up and harness it” Something like that. The point is–fear is good. It’s how you use that fear determines the outcome of the situation. When I am in those situations–do i ‘look’ like i am afraid? No, because as soon as the situation happens I am pounding away. Alec. have you ever been in a situation where you’re attacked? Because it’s easy to quote Vernon or say what it means to be a true warrior, but have you ever had a gun or a knife pulled on you? It’s not ike you’re fighting in a competition. This is a completely different situation.
I think you need to clarify what ‘avoidance’ means. There are several ways to interpret ‘avoidance’. If you know or can sense crime will happen–like knowing that walking on that street/alley alone at 11pm at night is not a good idea. Then yeah…avoid it. That’s common sense, obviously. If you’re saying “if a guy comes up to you, tries to rob you…remain calm and try to talk him out of it.” Then sorry, dude. But there is no way am I ever going to give the attacker a chance. My quick reactions/fists saved my ass in the past. But if this is not what you mean by avoidance, then please clarify?
As for Vernon, sounds like a cool book. Who doesn’t want to be considered a true warrior walking around to the point where nobody wants to f*** with you? That’s badass, alright. But let’s face it, you cannot expect everyone to know of your reputation. I doubt the people who attacked me thought “that dude has kicked everyone’s ass who tried to attack/rob him”. It’s just not realistic to expect everyone to know ur reputation. Unless you attended a small college and your ‘survivor’ stories got spread around, then yeah–I will say people acknowledged me.
Then again, Vernon’s ‘theme’ could completely back-fire on him. Instead of everyone leaving you alone, everyone would want to challenge you and kick your ass for the ‘title’. Look at Kimbo Slice, haha! He doesnt look like a guy who’s afraid and everyone wants to beat him for the pride.
Iam glad for Vernon. But it does not happen like that everywhere.
Dustin,
YOU DONT MAKE YOUR OWN LUCK! Nature makes your Luck! You are lucky to live one more day! Save for suicide, you dont decide when it will be your last day!
What you did in your fights, is that you applied the theory of the “best defence is the best offence”. I am not saying you did not do the right thing. In situations that happen without warning, dualistic thought can mean disaster. He who hesitates is lost. fear is the great enemy, the force which can grip the mind and paralyze us. On the path to developing a warriors instinct we must replace fear with faith. Faith givs rise to the greatest power a warrior or an ordinary man could have .. also called instictive wisdom. It is this power that have shows samurais that face ten oponnents at the same time or shaolin monks that walk on fire or face cutting knives spiked in their flesh without one scream or with utter calm. It is the same power which works with ordinary people that make amazing rescues.
Fear can be tamed. It takes conditioning and years of practice and meditation. The aim of a a true warrier is to conquer his fears. its an aim, and we are all humans and we all face fear of one form to another.. even the greatest shaolin monk or warrier feels the fear.. but has a degree of control on it that the average dude doesnt. Plus he has developped the instictive wisdom…
Dustin, you must not forget that when you are facing an opponent, the battleground is not in the realm of the body.. ” we fight not against flesh and blood but against spiritual wickedness in high places”
Finally, you are asking me if and I quote : “Alec. have you ever been in a situation where you’re attacked? ” Dude, I am a child of war. I grew up in a war zone. When you were playing with GI Joe’s , we were collecting rifles, M-16′s kalachinkovs or all kind of cartridges. Ive seen elite combatants come back wounded and some did not make it back … Some were on self defense mode, others tried to attack first Like you say ” try to make their own luck”. But at the end of the day, on both sides of the fence, the lucky ones got out of it.. the unlucky ones are not in this world anymore.. You dont decide, when luck is on your side!! Hopefully it will be always on your side Dustin!!
Alec,
I mean no disrespect, but I am going to go on the offense here.
Regarding Luck–You are speaking philosophically. I am speaking literally. The actions I took, affected my luck. Actions affect outcomes. Period. Now it is true that you never know when your number is up via luck as your phrased it, but your actions refer to your luck that you make. Doing nothing and leaving my life on a strong of luck is not going to get me anywhere. My actions are the outcome. I make my luck literally. Philosophically, your number is up when it is up.
“He who hesitates is lost. fear is the great enemy, the force which can grip the mind and paralyze us. On the path to developing a warriors instinct we must replace fear with faith. Faith givs rise to the greatest power a warrior or an ordinary man could have .. also called instictive wisdom. ”
My instinctive wisdom–always be prepared. Everytime I walked those streets, I was mentally prepared, I walked by faith. To say I did not walk by fear is bogus. Fear is a good thing. Fear keeps you alert. Fear (from a biological perspective) pumps out adrenaline and we all know that can definitely help your performance. A control over fear and a strong mentality will take you far. I am prepared to fight a gang anytime anywhere. Now, would you say I have faith and a strong set of mentality? I do.
“Dustin, you must not forget that when you are facing an opponent, the battleground is not in the realm of the body.. ” we fight not against flesh and blood but against spiritual wickedness in high places”
—definitely true. But that is not going to change the fact when an attacker comes up to you with a gun, a knife, or nothing but bad intentions. You must always be prepared to fight with the realm of your body.
When you say you are a child of war, I believe you. But that does not answer my question–Have you ever been attacked randomly on the street? Collecting rifles is exactly what it sounds, so I am confused. I will go on a limb and believe you were a soldier of some sort and we all cannot thank you enough. We are sorry for your losses. I mean no disrespect, but fighting in the war and being attacked randomly on the streets is entirely different. As a soldier, you are constantly in the zone, always prepared to fight, weilded with weapons and battle strategies. Your duty is to protect and serve and you have that mentality. Again, we thank you all! but this is different from being attacked on the streets randomly and caught off guard with no weapons to defend yourself.
“True Warriors dont fight for money, for entertainment or …” “A True Warrior is invincible because he or she contests with nothing. Defeat means to defeat the mind of contention that we harbor within. To injure an opponent is to injure yourself. To control aggression without inflicting injury in the Art of Peace. YOUR SPIRIT IS YOUR TRUE ” Alec, you have based your discussions on a book. What about your beliefs? I like this quote, but that is all it is. If you truly believe in this, there is nothing wrong with that. But you are not abiding by the very own quote, read…to defeat the mind of contention…to control aggression. You are emotional when we respond to each other via the capital letters, exclamation points. Not exactly at peace with my comments. You are confident in your words, but so am I.
The bottom line is that you are Alec Yaverian and I am Dustin Maynard. Your past experiences molded you into the man you are today and the same holds true for me. Do we agree on everything? No, obviously not. But that’s all it is. A difference of opinions and life experiences. I enjoyed sharing our opinions and perspectives. And lastly, I hope luck is always on your side as well!
oh by the way Kimbo Slice is not in my definition of a True Warrior. True Warriors dont fight for money, for entertainment or for competitiveness . True Warriors are humble, noble and have learned to cut through any obstacle as it arises and they only fight if they need to eradicate an Evil force from Nature.
Let me rephrase again following principles well stated by Morihei Ueshiba , founder of Aikido and which says it all:
“There are no contests in the Art of Peace. A True Warrior is invincible because he or she contests with nothing. Defeat means to defeat the mind of contention that we harbor within. To injure an opponent is to injure yourself. To control aggression without inflicting injury in the Art of Peace. YOUR SPIRIT IS YOUR TRUE SHIELD.
Hey Dustin,
the pleasure is all mine. I enjoyed it too!!
By the way when I write in capital letters, it is not to be emotional , but to attract your attention or emphasize the point to you. I am calm when I write to you.
In the past , I have practised a few martial arts and ended up finally with Aikido as I believe in that you dont need as much violence and agressivity to defeat or control an opponent. You must harmonize your energies. The Yin and the Yen.. But again easily said than done in real situations. Nobody can truly test its technique and its efficiency unless it is in the real deal situation.
By the way there is a very good book called The Millionaires Mind.. and they asked Hundreds of Millionaires on what in their opinion were the main and/or common attributes that makes a Millionaire.. For your information, The first one was ” Interpersonal Skills and in the last ones you still had an element called “Luck”! By the way, in the top five attributes you have ” Supportive Wife ”
PS: dont forget to take a peek at the book Soul Sword by Vernon Kitabu Turner.. give and take some ideas in there.. !!!
@Alec-
As an aikidoist, you might be interested in ‘hidden in plain sight’ by Ellis Amdur. Ueshiba was a lot more complex that people think, and most people have forgotten that his minimal expressed power (even at advanced age) was greater than a lot of other’s maximal expressed power- especially in terms of grip strength (I thought Adam might appreciate that fact)! His was a combination of physical power plus a lifetime’s dedication to understanding body mechanics and how to affect/control them. People focus on his spiritual ideals as expressed in aikido, and forget the rest.
Having read the great discussion between you and Dustin (thanks to both of you), the only thing I could add would be to say to investigate the history of the martial arts, particularly the Japanese ones quite a bit deeper. To them, the ‘way of the warrior’ was obediance, not nobility. I agree with your ideals (well, except being fearless- Dustin is spot-on) but don’t neglect the realities. As you have seen the reality of warfare, you know what people are like, and the samurai were no exception, only they had spears, bows and blades, not machine guns.
A lot of the points raised by yourself have been around for 30+ years. Bruce Lee was posing these questions when he moved away from Wing Chun and started picking apart all the other traditional arts before developing his own take on things by picking what works and discarding all the impractical shit.
It’s easy to bash the traditional martial arts but you can’t deny the amount of bouncers in the world who have done alright in both their jobs and personal conflicts with traditional arts backgrounds. An example bring Geoff Thompson is perfect (in the UK). Karate man. Where he differs from most flabby black belts who have probably never pressure tested their skills is that he and many others do did. Geoff trained hard and pioneered ‘animal days’ ( intro’d gradual intensity to build to full on, full contact sparring) with other martial artists and decided the only way he was going to deal with adrenalin, his fear, and be able to actually react right with his skills was to put himself in the firing line. That’s why he went on the doors of Coventry too. He’s written a book on fear and adrenalin and although he’s probably pinched from many other sources it raises a lot of points about where people pressure test their skills. So there are traditional martial artists out there who have innovated and transcended their beginnings. I do agree with you though on kata’s, pressure points and the use of Chi etc. In real time fighting useless.
RANT: Yes Self defence classes that start with chokes and all that bollocks and are held in unmatted community centres around the world are shit… period. They are watered down hybrids and marketed for housewives and people who don’t want to really be challenged or really learn how to deal with conflict. The people that teach it are doing more harm than good. Adrenaline, fear and physical conditioning are absent in their training and that is what any full contact sparring art helps you to deal with.
That is something Royce Gracie did in creating the UFC. He wanted to pressure test his Brazilian Jiu Jitsu against all other fighting methods. He conquered, yes with rules in there, but if you watch the early ones there were a lot less rules and it was brutal. BJJ over the last few years has been put on a pedestal and people have mistakenly believed it to be the most effective fighting art but as has been common knowledge within the martial arts for some time going to ground is only for the arena and should be avoided where possible in the street. If all fights were one on one and we all walked around with a flappy jacket or gi to use then they may be able to claim that. Even in MMA they have learned how to deal with BJJ specialists now. The skillsets have improved. Stand up skills are paramount on the street. I think most martial artists with any sense will train those to be better than their ground skills if they are concerned about the street. I’d much rather have a better left hook than a vice like triangle choke!
There are some shaky statements about MMA too. For me, boxing, muay thai, Vale Tudo and MMA are the nearest things you are going to get to the real thing of an opponent trying to rip your head off. Competitive fights with only light gloves and mouth guards gives you a bigger test than anything with further protective clothing. No amount of intensity with lots of protective clothing and sparring with a classmate can touch it. It’s a false scenario even if you are going hard…there is still an element of holding back. Yes there’s no rules in the street and grapping on the floor is not a good idea unless you know for a fact its a one on one.
I think you insult the intelligence and knowledge of people who have taken up MMA who have experience often in multiple arts before settling on MMA. They are not stupid enough to apply the sport rules when they are on the street. In fact in the street they can add in the dirty stuff…happy days. Most MA’s into fighting skills will all know you can’t strengthen your eyes, throat or balls no matter what weights or steroids you do. That’s fair game when fighting for your life and you don’t get in trouble with the law.
Also, the point concerning MMA and chokes about gouging eyes and grabbing handfuls of balls only applies if fighting with people who know what they are doing. On the most part assholes that attack you are untrained bullies. They will panic just like anyone untrained if oxygen is being cut off to the brain. They’ve got about 8 seconds to gather their strategy before its game over and if they don’t know about putting your tongue to the back of your throat to give you a fair few more seconds consciousness….then you’re ok. They’ll most likely be clutching at your arms to create space for their throat to open. If they do have skills that is gonna be evident pretty quickly and people with decent experience will adapt QUICKLY to take that into consideration and know that the floor is a no no.
Personally I’d quite happily put money on anyone with decent experience, on the most part to do themselves justice in a street situation with a background in one of the arts I mentioned. Why???
1. because they’ve been trained to take a hit without a load of gear on.
2. because they spar regularly and fight competitively with unpredictable opponents who want to hurt or beat them.
3. Adrenaline, fear (and the desensitization to it) and conditioning is part of their regime.
Sean thanks for such a thoughtful and long comment.
I have a quick question about your bottom paragraph. When you say fighting with someone who knows what they are doing- I will be more specific for you in the next post. But for the sake of simplicity I am not talking about people who are slugging it out at the pub over a beer.
You don’t learn what someone knows or doesn’t know until they show you. So you are left to assume they know more, or they know less. One of these thoughts is much more dangerous to assume than the other.
I think the one thing I might pick out is that since most MMA practice fighting within a set of rules, their natural reactions will be to those rules- you fight how you train. They might intellectually know that they can punch a guy in the balls on the street, but when the chips are down, they’re going to fall into practiced patterns. Some might be able to adapt on the spot, but I’d wager a lot won’t.
Not all attackers are “bullies” and if you are in poor areas, many probably had to learn to fend for themselves the hard way- you’re either predator or you’re prey, and they likely go armed, which a lot of MMA stylists won’t have a clue how to deal with (possibly the older generation of Gracies excepted, since Helion was a street fighter before jujitsu, iirc). How will you react when you try to intersect a knife and the guy targets your hand and wrist? Would an MMA stylist know he was going to have to bleed in order to get close enough to win? Would he (or she) flinch at the cut and back pedal, or take the cut to gain control, if they even could (you’re pretty much f’d if facing a good knife fighter)? If slammed in the head from behind, would they be able to deal with the shock? It’s one thing to go into a ring knowing that you’re going to risk your teeth, another to be minding your own business and have to react.
In my admittedly not-so-vast experience, it seems that there is a limited subset of martial arts that still train for keeps- and the ones that do, don’t spar very much unless it serves a specific function. They primarily practice drills and kata ( yeah, yeah, I know)…
I’m going to interject my one gripe on kata, at least with respect to classical actual fighting arts, not the majority of modern black belt factories. They taught/teach skill sets (physical and mental) and body mechanics, and were the original pressure cooker- especially with weapons arts. As your skill grew, your instructors pushed and pushed, and you could get hurt fairly easily. It wasn’t a replacement for actual fight experience, but a preparation for it. Some of the deadliest swordsmen learned strictly by kata, followed by actually fighting. I’m not saying kata is the end-all be-all, just saying don’t throw the baby out with the bath water.
One thing I’ll credit the bushi class with relates to Adam’s reply- they trained with the belief of a 1 in 3 chance of winning. You either were vastly more skilled, so won, you were on par with your oponent, so probably you both ended up dead or wounded, or you just got your ass outclassed and hence, dead.
I’m enjoying the conversation – I’m interested in opinions about violence, self protection, and the personal ethics different people have. I’m quite looking forward to the next piece.
This is a really thought provoking and well considered article. I’ve trained TMA 25 years through Karate and Kick Boxing and I think if you take the time to consider and test what you know you come to realise the limitations of your style fairly quickly, if you allow your mind to register that. I think the closed mindedness is one of the main problems (just look at Ki master vs MMA on You Tube for the consequences) and the block to further your own learning.
Kata was originally developed for practice training when there was no one else to train with or when meeting to practice was illegal, particularly when the Japanese clamped down on the Southern Islands, so I have to agree that it has only a very limited use these days.
I have seen other recent discussions about going to the ground: Stephan Kesting has recently put some videos on You Tube about BJJ for self defence and has been fairly well slated for showing self defence ground techniques. Training BJJ at the moment I know exactly what he is trying to do and I have to say that we ought to have some clue what to do on the ground. Should we go there willingly? No of course not, that make no sense at all. I completely agree that we should have a damn good left hook more so than a damn good triangle choke but ideally we have both.
Modern theories of fighting have replaced theories of range with the phase of combat ideas that show that we ought to train standing free movement, standing clinch and groundwork to make sure we can work where ever we need to. Even if you train a sport MA you ought to do some of the drills that Adam mentions above (Jits with hits, pen drills from your pocket, open a marker pen and then try to slash your partner whilst they defend and see the result, etc) simply because they open the mind.
What does MMA add to the fight? A more rounded skill set, an understanding of distance and timing and a mindset that helps. Will it definitely mean you will win a street fight? No.
I think the main thing from Adam’s article that is usually missed from any MA syllabus is the verbal skills and the tactical knowledge to escape. You need to learn what happens to someone when they fight, what happens to you as a defender and then you need to experience it. Minor modulations and some tactics make all the difference. If that fails you need simple and easy stuff to do with the maximum efficiency to injure someone and then get the hell out of there. You definitely can’t wait 3-5 years for that…
Thanks for an excellent article. I look forward to the next bit.
@ christopher. I think the ‘fight like you train’ buzz term can be used for either side of the arguement concerning MMA and defending your life. Personally I think a person will use their most efficient and best best developed tools in the mix. By your point, someone who has only ever sparred at say 50% in protective gear does that mean they’ll hold back in a fight because they fight like they train? I didn’t and haven’t. If you’ve developed your animal lightswitch in your head then its a whole new ball game! Or will a Tae Kwon do guy working on the doors have the idiocy to try and crescent kick someone in a tight doorway because his training heavily involves kicks? People aren’t robots but they will stick to what they know and have learned. Does this mean that what they’ve learned is not good enough to defend their life?
On the knife stuff I’m not even going there as that’s a whole other conversation as to whether you want to learn an art that focuses on that. Whatever art you use can be criticized when a knife comes into play. I think the best art is the one that teaches you to just get the hell out of dodge where weapons are concerned. Use your tools for your exit strategy…simple as that!!
@ Adam. I’m not sure what your question was? Looked more of a statement.
Perhaps I shouldn’t have used the buzz term- what I mean is that in extremis, your body and reactions fall into the patterns you’ve ingrained through training. MMA might be more fluid in its training than TKD, but it’s still someone training their body to move and react. You might not hold back, but you will move a certain way a majority of the time. It’s not a matter of idocy, or stupidy or your brain at all, or your ‘animal lightswitch’. The first targets you choose will be the ones you target repeatedly, and your first couple of techniques will be the ones you use repeatedly in a given scenario. The first reaction you have will be what you trained. I’m not saying it won’t work, because it might very well work. So yes, MMA is likely better equiped to handle the immediate adrenalin surge than most TMA because most TMA doesn’t train to high levels of intensity these days (there are instructors around who do, but it’s a small %). BUT, I think even MMA guys can over-estimate their effectiveness on the street.
I will say also that if we’re truly talking self defence, then weapons needs to be acknowledged. I agree that first response is to evade and get out- even some old line silat stylists I know say that- even if you are armed yourself. But the discussion of defending oneself needs to take them into account, and the very real things that can happen.
I’m going to leave it at that- I have a couple of more thoughts about MMA, but they’re probably best left to a private chat, since it’s not germaine to self-defense. Thank you for the thoughtful debate!
Adam,
What is , in your humble opinion, ( please anyone pitch in as well ) one of the current most efficient self-defense training style or technique that teaches the fastest and most efficient way and in the “least time” possible, the way to inflict injury upon a charging raging opponent ? and that also teaches Situational awareness skills, street awareness skills, conflict defusing skills, verbal skills….? What is your first choice for defending your life?
Probably Larkin’s Target Focus Training.
thanks David.. Ill check that out!
David,
pretty interesting video actually:
Self defense techniques of Justified Lethal Force
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lc8sgHmbnDw
Self defense techniques of Justified Lethal Force ( part 3). Interesting speech in the Training room starting in the middle of the Video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D2zT3DKxO_M&feature=related
Target Focus Training book review
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D6a6pKYcEnQ
Gentlemen
a lot of discussion here, which is good. Some of the topics have moved outside of the realm of these points.
Rather than jump to philosophy and meta physics let us stay on the course of science.
Violence can be simplified to pieces of matter colliding, one piece damaging the other.
As we get going, We will look at concepts scientifically. This means there is no need for debate when we can experiment.
Try and present experiments for each other to try out rather than thinking words will win minds. You will be a lot happier with your ability to influence each other by giving each other things to do rather than things to think about.
“There are only two forces in the world, the sword and the spirit. In the long run the sword will always be conquered by the spirit.”
Napoleon Bonaparte
I posted this on FB, and Adam asked me to put it here. I don’t usually post on MA things the past several years. This is just my opinion based upon my background. I also have not read all of the above, so it may be repetitive. Adam asked me to put it here, so I am because I have appreciated his program and his advice. Plus, he cracks me up.
As a way of background–I have what I consider 27 years of “serious” TMA training in November–not counting about a year of so of Mas Oyama Kyukoshin before that because I didn’t practice that seriously. After that I did, and still play with, a traditional form of Yang Taijiquan (T’ai Chi) which I consider to have some value for self-defense, but how I was trained the value primarily comes from basic body control and motion. Then a smattering of various things such as kung-fu, TKD, jiujutsu, etc. Functionally speaking, I would say only about 10 years–9/11 was a big switch for me in which I focused upon RBSD and then found my teacher. Nowadays, my primary art is a form of Silat (we call it Silat Tanjung Sari).
There is a saying “Without the knife there is no Silat.” This is often erroneously interpreted, in my opinion. It is not that you have to have a knife on you at all times to do silat, it is that the knife (and weapons) are the basis of our silat. This is part of our notion of “simplicity”–the same set of techniques are used whether weapons are involved or not. It is easier to show than explain, but in short, one of our principals is that if you have to SWITCH between methods of defending yourself based upon whether your attacker is armed or not then you will be in trouble. One set of movements should defend you against an opponent. Couple that with the fact that we ALWAYS anticipate an armed opponent, and you will see why we do what we do, and why combative sports and such are a little different. If you go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bFCRnxececw at about 42:40 you will see more of our expectations.
For example, one of the things my teacher will often ask is if you learn to fight on the ground offensively or defensively. To us that is often a distinguishing point between “MMA” and sport, verses TMA and defense. Again, we do not put ourselves into position to be vulnerable even if the opponent is “unarmed.”
That being said, we also do keep some “outdated” weapons alive, because that is part of the art and tradition. For example, the arit, or rice scythe (similar to Japanese Kama) the lessons it teaches is more about wrist motions and coordination–and there are empty hand techniques that come right out of it as well. I also practice Japanese sword, in which I find value on two accounts–1) it really solidifies the sense of immediacy of martial techniques for me; 2) it teaches me the origin of aki-jutsu techniques for when we compare contrast.
Ok, with that as a background. Here is what I posted on FB. These are just my opinions from my experience, and YMMV:
I’ve seen Bob Orlando do a Dim Mak thing where he calls a guy up and pokes him with his finger and says “I guarantee you’ll be dead within 100 years.”
That said, I am a TMAist (who hasn’t been training enough because of the fitness focus) …so I don’t really agree with your comment 100%, I think you are correct to say that many practitioners of so-called TMDs/TMAs would have trouble defending their lives, but I think the old saying about the Holy Roman Empire holds in this case as well: MOST TMA that I have seen practiced are neither “traditional,” “martial,” nor “arts” at all, they are only what I call combative pastimes or combative sports.
That said, it also depends upon your time frame, and how much time you have to train. An art is a pursuit–it may not be “necessary” to learn to defend your life–but THAT doesn’t necessarily make it wrong for it either. In the main art I do, we start with an almost combative base in basics, and then build upon it. As my teacher is fond of saying “There are no advanced techniques, only basics refined over time.” No matter how far you go, that level of basics is something to which we always return and is always there to fall back upon. For instance, most of our entries begin with “tonjok” or “striking” (punches etc.) as practitioners get better certain take downs/arm locks etc. can be performed without it–however, that depends upon both your skill and your opponents–we never give up that striking base, just build upon it.
I think that any truly “traditional” or “martial” practice should provide this base–a problem is that since most are no longer vital that base is either not valued or frankly (and this is the case in most TMA that I have observed) has been lost. This is one of the major problems with TMAs nowadays is the lack of a functional base–most realistic applications have been lost over time due to the history of the past 150 years–and although I have also practiced TCMA for decades, I think it is true for most of what I have seen there. But being fair there too, even the concept of “dim mak” / “dian xue” is warped in the way most conceive of it–technically, any joint manipulation/arm bar/etc. falls under “dim mak.” People only like looking at an extreme, romantic notion.
My teacher said to me years ago something like: “At this point you have a choice. Between what you already know, and what I have taught you and you have learned over the past few years, you can defend yourself. The choice is whether you want to pursue the art.” But once again, I think this is often not an option in many so-called “arts” as that level of practice is missing and mostly “advanced” techniques are pursued–but I think that is a baby with the bathwater situation: just because most of what is called TMA doesn’t function well, to me that is the fault of the practitioners rather than the “art.”
Dear reader,
Maybe my thought here can make a difference as it may also just agree with many other points. However i would just enjoy sharing what i have in mind, after reading the main topic and some of the interesting comments.
There might be teachers in here and of course students, keeping in mind that the best lesson a teacher can learn are from his students, and not from his master.
It is not a matter of only fighting but understanding and seeing the hidden in all what it moves in the surrounding.
TMA, MMA, and TFS are all related to dealing with what is given, and I will be mentioning how I see these from my own objective through many angles. At the end I will be talking about what I see true for me at least based on many beautiful years of training many arts and sciences.
TMA: every spiritual aspect is to be cherished in each TMA, and that can build a balanced and well disciplined practitioner, away from what is materialistic, not to forget the technical skills and of course the physical changes that may occur and those can be negative or positive.
Now if we want to practice a discipline, we go for TMA whatever is its type , it will definitely take long beautiful years of training in order to master what the masters already mastered and this is a demanding commitment, and consistency. Of course not everyone can make it .
TMA is not to be done because of Hollywood actors, we already know they are actors even if they truly teach or practice what they show and what we love to see just to please our inner ego. Many people want to become Steven Segal, jet lee, Jackie Chan.
But why do people wish to become what they are not in first place? Why do they want to think they will learn it easily? It is all because of pleasing the ego! And if this is the reason than i think they will stop after a while, with only some theoretical knowledge that works only at the Dojo or Gym.
Another idea that just keep me thinking, about ruining the essence of True TMA, by just transforming a TMA into a competition with a judge where all TMA become just rubbish beating exploding on the protectors holding the sponsor’s name, and the judge stopping the fight when he thinks he should…etc . Kung fu became just like kickboxing and Thai Boxing (the eight weapons indisputable fighter who lost every discipline) to become a hero. Not to forget the uncontrolled adrenaline rush.
Concerning TMA, if you want to learn a discipline in many years it’s amazing but not to defend yourself.
MMA, that’s when things become a bit shallow,
MMA competitors are basically made of some Mixed Traditional Martial Arts that are over commercialized in the media. I still remember a coach standing at the corner informing his student in the fight ” you are the hero, you are winning , go kill him tiger ” and “tiger” is the students nickname that has nothing to do with his real name but maybe the artificial temporary spirit embed into his mind because of ( becoming famous, and money) .
i can see the wet gloves sliding on the opponent face because of the Vaseline around the eyes, few strikes and here we go to the ground. At the end there should be a winner because of the time! Or the knockout! Or someone broken because he was told he is too powerful and he want to believe it while inside he is full of fear and anger.
In the training the MMA fighter is advertised just like a product pulling a truck while jogging is his daily exercise. Practicing a TMA which he will use half of it, practicing on wearing a mask made of a fake attitude to irritate his opponent.
And we ask ourselves is MMA for the practitioner to practice or to entertain the viewers just like old Rome, is it a fake simulation?
Well why must a person fall to ground fighting if there are no necessities for it?
well for MMA, and TMA you learn techniques and endurance and you repeat again and again until they become a reflex which when your life is on the edge you will hate your coach because you can’t recall the technique (oh how do i block the knife? is it the X block? which will definitely lead to cutting both wrists and a whole in the throat.
Or having the gorgeous martial artist stance recalling Bruce lee’s or tom cruise stance in mind, extending the fingers so he can cut them easier?
After all that we can think again, why are we practicing Martial Arts is it for discipline? Is it for simply maybe becoming a champion?
All that and I keep my full respect to many traditional teachers who did not forget yet why they learned and taught martial arts behind the scene and we do not even mention them, such as Mureiah Ushiba, Kimura, Saito, Ji Han Lee and many others . And I see it fair to throw some of them blame on those who stereotyped martial art and made it only movements without the essence.
We spoke about TMA of our days, and MMA from some different angles based on a fact that we live and see every day. And the result says that in the street there will be no judge, no protectors, and no audience, and most probably the kill intention will be existing, the fear type will change because no one will be allowed to stop the fight, the crowed will be there, everyone will interfere of course with their chains, knives, fire arms, and stunning guns, blades, and most probably chaos all around.
MMA train you to fight only one person with no weapons, and also it mixes some TMA together and the mixing may contain a lot of gaps.
TMA trains you on one discipline that requires many years of training to reach the level of becoming full proof.
I believe in principals not techniques, those principals must be always easy to the body to use and natural and go directly to the instinctive subconscious and not to the consciousness.
I believe controlling a violent attacker is not always by attacking back, and decreasing his adrenaline is my first concern without increasing mine.
Awareness is essential to understand what I can use and how may I manipulate what is around.
Accepting being stricken is mandatory, and awakening the many powers we have in ourselves is a necessity, and of course there are many ways to do this. Surely I will not mention in which science this exist because my aim here is not a debate but a point of view.
A complete efficient science of fighting must include: hand to hand combat, grappling, knife fighting and fire arms training as well. Training should involve drills and sparring without set kata. It should mainly on controlling the six body levers (elbows, neck, knees, waist, ankles, and shoulders) through pressure point application, striking and weapon applications, and dynamic understanding of ground fighting with all its form.
Add to all that the mind manipulation, through body language, neuro linguistic programming, biology, and physics, and surely understanding many chemical and alchemical reactions.
Survival training as well is important, and to be learned for all situations.
We all know there is something that is acquired which is called:
Ability to fight and from this many factors come out: stress factors, afflictions, geographic conditions, survival hand to hand and by these factors we can have access to other factors such as :
-existence of matter
Rules of combat
Psychological preparation
Distance in combat
Medical knowledge
Psychological condition
Physical condition
Autonomic state reaction
Equipment
Temperature and humidity
Precipitation
Solar radiation
Topography
Sources of water
Traumas
Infections
Bacterial infections
Poisoning
Tactics
Strategy
Dynamic of combat
Mechanics of movement
Fear
Sexual hunger
Thirst
Heat
Cold
And many others are supposed to be included in what a human being must learn, of course these can take time, but taking the essential out of these won’t take time.
And I believe what I just mentioned do not fully exist in Krav Maga or any similar training not to mention specifically which. Brute force is not the solution but seeing things from many places in a minimal time is the answer. Therefore adrenaline, fear, and desire control is important.
After all, the art of mastery is to make everything work to your favor by doing simple small things. And this is not a mystery to someone who already knows how to apply this.
In the whole topic I realized no one mentioned breathing with its diver’s ways, while when we don’t breathe then we are just puppets. A fight must never occur if it will not make a difference just like talking, when we speak to someone who is ignorant and only believe in (lets kick his ass self defense) then we shouldn’t expect a fruitful outcome that means we shouldn’t expect a difference.
Defending someone self must be accurate and extremely safe even in the middle of a dangerous situation that contain many attackers, or a hard situation to deal with. And here comes the simplicity of thoughts and movements.
The only way to be all that is to learn through the subconscious level and this is how it won’t take a lot of time. special guided drills can give this outcome when applied correctly by scientific original art of fighting made by doctors, fighters , negotiators, mechanics, and military, and of course believers in human beings.
For example: why should be vacuum our stomach from air in order to harden the muscles and the strike won’t affect us, while if we take a balloon = stomach fully inflates and we crash it will explode. Of course there is a way how to receive any strike safely no matter who is delivering with feeling nothing at all and while keeping the stomach loose and not tense and a strike become a loved act not a bad feeling, without altering our internal organs because of pressure.
Emotions must not exist while in situations because they will be only an obstacle between you and keeping the person alive if you think he deserves a chance. And this is when we speak about a controlled strike that helps you to only alter what you want and cause damage only as necessary.
Emotions exclusion can help us amazingly to judge everything objectively and see what other can see.
Being humble is also important because it was never and will never be a matter of who win but instead it’s a matter of who stay alive with minimum or no damage for any one.
Understanding pain with all its aspects
“In pain but isn’t it through pain that we become warriors?”
Tarek Shoughari
Pain is to become wisdom whenever it occurs, and wisdom is the age of the mind, and the mind is the essence of a human being where belief, love, and true powers exist.
Now all this can be learned in a very short time but in a short enough time to be safe.
In conclusion there is no good or bad, wrong or right, there is only a situation no matter what it is and we must deal with it, therefore something wrong somewhere can be right at another place and in another time.
I believe a human being is perfect and can achieve and make a difference
“Nothing is impossible until it proves its improbability”
Tarek Shoughari
Note that i did not share my thought to start a debate but to simply share my thoughts, with full respect to MMA, TMA,TFS, and every teacher, and all beliefs, and every breathing being.
“From the moment we are born we breathe deeply, and before we die we breathe even deeper because we know that it will be our last. Therefore Mikhail Riyabko says: “breathe well between life and death”.
Tarek Shoughari
Regards every one
Tarek Choughari
Adam, you and Frankie are going to hate me for not sharing this story sooner, but my brother disarmed a guy who beat his wife down with the intent of shooting her (bro was a wrestling champ & MMA student.) Bro took the gun from the guy as he was loading it, broke Wifebeater’s nose, and whisked the wife away in a cab. (It was essentially a night of drinking gone bad + domestic violence drama)…..
I was so horrified by this story I put it in the back of my head. It only came to mind because I’ve been mulling over this blog post since I read it. I am happy that people are interested in MMA and self-defense, but feel too many want to use those skills for the wrong reasons …… Thank God my brother has good judgment, even when drunk. (lol)
“People’s eyes explode when you touch them and so do their balls” is as much bullshit as horse stance. Solid positional skills win fights, regardless of if your goal is to maim, draw a weapon or escape. If i have side control solidly on you, my ability to eye gouge the shit out of you vastly exceeds your ability to eye gouge the shit out of me.
I’ve performed your experiment, dozens of times.
What have i learned?
The guy with superior footwork, positional dominance, and takedowns gets to dictate who is ripping who’s eyes out.
If only there were some sort of ruleset popular in japan and brazil, where submission holds AND dirty tactics were alllowed, that we could check to see the efficacy of….
Oh, wait, Yuki Nakai has something to tell us. You know, like when a french douche gouged both his eyes, and he then proceeded to make that man’s MCL his bitch.
Nakai is the one every one keeps bringing up. My question – would you say he represents the average, above average, or below average for human beings and fighters?
I would say he is far beyond average. the eye gouge in question was not total destruction of the orbital sockets.
So I am curious, with your premise: What are you telling your little sister/girl friend/mom/and female coworkers? They have no chance unless they dedicate the next 10 years to getting a black belt in jujitus?
Winning is not really something we are discussing, nor it is accurate in the sense of defending your life. Injury is. Positioning does not decide winning, injury does. Foot work dos not decide winning, injury does. Take downs do not decide winners, injury does.
Oh hell no. Within a few months of any grappling combat sport, you should really be able to dominate an untrained opponent, because you’ve been fighting people who are trying VERY VERY hard to stop you for months. I feel pretty confident that any guy without significant training who tries to rape my girlfriend is going to get put on his ass very, very quickly(she took to judo practice fast).
That leaves weapons unadressed, which is the reason I take pekiti, but the odds are, if you’re a woman(really the only category here other than LEO’s likely to be attacked, street violence is waaaaaay down over the last few decades), you’re going to be attacked by a man, whom you know, who doesn’t have a weapon, who is going to try to control you physically. I love FMA, but for women’s self defense the ability to sweep from bottom, stand back up, make space, and prevent from being controlled should be on the top of the list. Fortunately most sex crimes aren’t multiple attacker scenarios.
If you don’t have a good attribute base, then going for “dirty” tactics first doesn’t make a lot of sense. If you can’t get access to his eyes, how are you going to rip them out? If you can’t reliably hit a resisting opponent, how are you going to break his knee with a kick? I’ve tested my scissor sweep. I’ve done it hundreds of times now on people who significantly outweigh me who are being completely noncooperative, several who were trying to stand back up. I’m just a white belt in BJJ, but inevitably, if someone new comes through the door, I can put them on their ass and dominate positionally.
You wrestled in HS, which means that you have a skill-base that will frustrate most of the population at close range- to move their body around regardless of if they want you to.
I’ve seen Tom’s stuff, and I can’t see anything that looks remotely like “testing”- making sure that you actually know what will keep you from doing it live. Nothing that looks like the way i’ve trained my high-percentage sweeps or knife entries.
You are a white belt in BJJ and you are so certain of all of this?
I really like this post. Looking forward to part 2.
-Dan
my ground game only has to be good enough to get to a knife
I carry more than 1
that’s my bjj speech
formula for success
360 degree awareness
will to live
and the will to inflict injury
combined with speed and violence of action
add in a dash of knowing your environment
sprinkle in some understanding of physical cues and verbal cues
you will have a better chance
it’s a crap shoot
Adam is right
art=intellectual and spiritual pursuit
sport=rules,referee,controlled environment
science=military/le involves clear roe and sanction removing moral ambiguity
asocial violence=they don’t give a fuck about you,your training,karma,spiritual development,or how you would totally dominate them in your dojo
they have a plan
it is to impose their will and receive their reward
unless you are constantly walking around in condition yellow or red you will likely just flinch/startle then revert to any training you may have had or even more likely
just freak the fuck out and turn into a bag of shut wondering why how whoda thought
been mugged (pipe to skull after distraction)
boot partied (hard to be a punk rocker back in the day)
shot at ( lived an iteresting life as a youth)
slashed and stabbed at (see above,even got poked In the ass once, beat that douchebag with a yard sign,it still hurt to sit for a month)
beaten more times as a youth than I care to count
now I teach folks art,sport,and science and on occasion how to deal with the less respectful members of our little clan
you think crooks are all baddies?
some of them are taking what’s yours to feed their kids and wives
they will likely be nicer than the ones that just want a fix or a little bit of comeuppance on what they perceive as an obstacle to their living out the dreams they have of being o. cribs
quit the bs philo sophistry
the subject is violence
not fucking macrame
post script
people revert to the trained reaction that has been most successful for them ingraining
we call it motor set
it’s ok in the gym
even funny at times
but odds are super high you will do the same thing under stress
and remember
the stressor has a plan they are executing,
you are likely playing catch up
G DeBcker has his ep recruits go through some interesting stuff
including getting shot without any warning with simunition as they respond to a call
just wanted to toss that out there
any one here work on their sweeps after being shot with a paintball gun?
knife defense with aluminum and no pre amble?
swarms?
distraction to attack?
ever work on emotional state reactions?
strobe lights?
environmental changes? I call bullshit on most tma
I had tocall bs on myself a long time ago and started working on correcting those issues
made me a nicer guy
more quiet and polite in public and private
and made me be sure that everything was always well oiled,sharp,had good batteries,and that I had a plan before I left my home, and one for when I was in my home
selah
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