Thursday, December 31, 2009
Re-Cap. Ho Hum
Sunday, December 27, 2009
Process
Had a long talk with Kris Wilder the other day. It made me introspective, as talks with Kris are wont to do. He comes off as the classic bluff and hearty good ol’ boy… sometimes it takes a few minutes to realize that he was talking about some very deep stuff.
He’s also incredibly analytical, which you will see in a lot of his writing, and he lives truer to his beliefs than most are willing. All good stuff.
But enough about him. This post is all about me and, in a way, all about the blog and my writing and how I see teaching-
He gave a good analysis of what happens on most martial arts blogs- uplifting stories, analysis, descriptions of classes or techniques. Which grows readership? What speaks to who?
Chiron isn’t about growing readership and I’m not writing for you. We all know that. What readership there is appears to be from word of mouth and google searches- but there is readership and it is growing. Despite the fact that there are very few technique posts, not much uplifting, and even if I do skewer sacred cows I don’t do it with the entertaining glee of the dedicated iconoclasts.
(I also use big words, sometimes, which is a no-no on many martial arts sites.)
It’s a matter of how versus what, I think. Because the writing is for me, it isn’t about what I think. I already know that. It’s about how I think. The deeper it gets, the more it is exploring a process. There are a lot of epiphanies here, and questions and doubt and mysteries. Those are what I think about, those are the things that writing helps to explore, the way others talk to themselves.
I think, maybe, the difference with Chiron is that you can go to thousands of martial arts sites and read what ‘masters’ and experts think… here you can read how a working professional thinks.
The blog, writing, and teaching as well. It’s not about what you know but how you learn, less about what you do than how you decide what to do. Not about what the student thinks, but how the student thinks. My interest isn’t in the end product (except as a measure of effect) so much as in streamlining the process.
The language gets weird, here. A fighter is not something you are, but something you be. Grr- there’s no really active verb for existence. You can be a painter or be a painter. You can be a painter with efficiency and intensity, or you can be a painter lackadaisically, wastefully. The painting part doesn’t interest me as much as the being part.
Thanks, Kris.
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Kris also asked me to do a guest blog on his "Striking Post" should be coming up soon. It's an idea I've been working on for a while...
Monday, December 21, 2009
The Rules
Saturday, December 19, 2009
Get Out of Your Way!
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
So Close...
Monday, December 14, 2009
Frame of Reference
Sunday, December 13, 2009
Universal Wristlock Escape
Thursday, December 10, 2009
Caveat Lector
Wednesday, December 09, 2009
Done... Mostly
Saturday, December 05, 2009
Putting it in Words
Friday, December 04, 2009
Chapter List
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction
CHAPTER 1: Legal and Ethical
1.1 Legal (Criminal)
1.1.1 Affirmative Defense
1.1.2 Elements of Force Justification
1.1.2.1 The Threat
1.1.3 Scaling Force
1.1.4 Civil Law
1.2 Ethics
1.2.1 Conscious Stuff: Capacity
1.2.1.1 Beliefs, Values, Morals and Ethics
1.2.2 The Unconscious Stuff: Finding Your Glitches
1.2.3 Through the Looking Glass
CHAPTER 2: Violence Dynamics
2.1: Social Violence
2.1.1 The Monkey Dance
2.1.2 The Group Monkey Dance
2.1.3 The Educational Beat-Down
2.1.4 The Status Seeking Show
2.1.5 Territory Defense
2.2 Asocial Violence
2.2.1 Predator Basics
2.2.2 Two Types
2.2.3 Two Strategies
CHAPTER 3: Avoidance
3.1 Absence
3.2 Escape and Evasion (E&E)
3.3 De-Escalation
3.3.1 Know Thyself
3.3.2 Know the World You Are In
3.3.3 Know the Threat
3.3.4 The Interview
3.3.4.1 De-Escalating the Monkey Dance
3.3.4.2 De-Escalating the Group Monkey Dance
3.3.4.3 De-escalating the Resource/Blitz Predator
3.4 Altered Mental states
3.4.1 Rapport Building
3.4.2 The Psychotic Break
3.4.3 Excited Delirium
3.4.4 Fakes
3.5 Hostage Situations
CHAPTER 4: Counter Assault
4.1 Foundation
4.1.1 Elements of Speed
4.1.2 The Perfect Move
4.2 Examples
4.2.1 Attack From the Front
4.2.2 Attack From Behind
CHAPTER 5: Breaking the Freeze
5.1 Biological Background
5.2 What Freezing Is
5.3 Types of Freezes
5.3.1 Tactical Freezes
5.3.2 Physiological Freezes
5.3.3 Non-Cognitive Mental Freezes
5.3.4 Cognitive Freezes
5.3.5 Social Cognitive Freezes
5.3.6 The Pure Social Freeze
5.4 Breaking the Freeze
5.5 One other Habit
CHAPTER 6: The Fight
6.1 You
6.1.1 This is Your Brain on Fear
6.1.2 And This is Your Body
6.1.3 Training and You
6.1.4 Mitigating the Effects
6.2 The Threat(s)
6.3 The Environment
6.4 Luck
6.4.1 Gifts
6.4.2 Managing Chaos
6.4.3 Discretionary Time
6.5 The Fight
CHAPTER 7: After
7.1 Medical
7.1.1 As Soon as You are Safe
7.1.2 Hours to Months
7.1.3 Long Term
7.2 Legal Aftermath
7.2.1 Criminal
7.2.2 Civil
7.2.2.1 The Threatening Letter
7.2.2.2 Difference
7.3 Psychological Aftermath
7.3.1 Story Telling
7.3.2 Change
7.3.3 Feelings
7.3.4 Questions
7.3.5 Victim Power
7.3.6 Friends, Society and Alienation
Afterword
Further Reading