Monday, April 11, 2011

Video Plans

The first two of these won't be shot until September and I have absolutely no experience with this, so I don't know how long production and distribution will take.  Anyway, David Silver at YMAA has been doing the planning for two videos as kind of a match/augmentation of the books.

My concept right now, for the video of "Meditations on Violence" is simply to look at an attack, specifically an assault.  To look at the motivation and what that requires from the bad guy (if a bad guy is terrified of withdrawals, his actions must result in money, must be physically safe and not get him caught).  How those requirements drive the dynamics of much violence (goals dictate strategy, strategy dictates tactics, tactics dictate technique.  Sound familiar?)

And that, on the victim end, dictates what you must recover from.  MoV, as a video, will be all about recovering from extreme disadvantage.

The "Facing Violence" video will cover the seven necessary areas: legal/ethical; Violence Dynamics; Avoidance, E&E and De-escalation; Operant conditioning for counter assault; Breaking the freeze; Realities of dynamic fighting and; Aftermath.  Lots of it will refer to the book.  A ninety-minute lecture on self-defense law would be boring as hell.

They should be good and YMAA has a reputation for putting out high-quality videos.

There's a third one I want to do, though, and the real reason is that most knife defense instruction makes me sick.  I'm not a knife guy.  I've played in a couple of systems and had five real encounters.  Big deal.  But the most intense of the knife systems didn't resemble the real encounters in any way.

This is what I want to do and, if I had my dream team, who I would like to team up with:

Mauricio in Montreal.  He comes from a knife culture and he is more scarred up from that than anyone I know who has lived.  Plus he's skilled, intelligent and I love him like a brother.

and

Teja from Devi Protective Offense.  NOT because of her extensive training in a knife system, but because she understands how women are victimized.

So instead of some bullshit fantasy about clean defenses aimed at attacks that don't happen, start with how the knives are used and the logic of violence.  

Someone coming at Teja with a knife won't be wanting to kill her, not right away.  The threat will want a compliant victim and will be looking to hurt and dominate if necessary.  Most of the solutions in that scenario happen early, with prevention or action before the victim gets isolated.  If not, the dynamics are close, brutal and the defender is someone who has likely already been emotionally destroyed and is now looking at physical death.

Someone coming at Mo or me will be an old enemy and it will be fast, brutal and from behind.  Solo if they want a reputation, otherwise not.  Head or right arm controlled.  Extremely close range.  There are no high percentage options from that, but there are a few that are better than zero.

Some stuff will be included about the knife as a rage attack (that stupid figure four armlock from old-school JJ actually works beautifully against an enraged person doing the over-hand stab) and possibly armed EDPs.  A section about the weapon as a dominance display.  A last section about not stepping into shit: when not to get involved as a third party, how to tell if you are in an area with a weapons subculture.  Stuff like that.

Partially thinking out loud.  Partially a taste of things to come. 

12 comments:

  1. Hi Rory,

    Coming from SE Asia it's very difficult to get to one of your seminars. The videos will be the next best thing and can't wait to see them one day.

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  2. All three videos sound good to me. I now practice Krav Maga and most knife defense in this so called "realistic" system are pretty lame and make too many simplistic assumptions. So your knife video should be real interesting.

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  3. All three sound good to me. Too many of the knife defensives I see come from the traditional martial arts background: Guy standing in front of you, knife visible, performs one attack and not multiple jabs and slashes.

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  4. Glad to see the Videos are starting to become more real. All interesting. Knife defense - there is a gap in what most people teach and what really happens. (like the other stuff you talk about) Though I've never had that situation, I know someone that has had several. A couple of additional aspects you discuss...is the real stuff (like there is blood) and the psychology aspects before, during, and after. Good stuff!

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  5. Looking forward to it Rory.

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  6. I look forward to the end result and will assume when ready you will post it here ;-)

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  7. I have only heard great things about YMAA so I'm sure the end result will be awesome.
    As far as the content, I like to test my scripts by filming them on a cheap camera and then reviewing the footage. It's always fun to see what looked so good on paper doesn't come across at all on video. :-) But in many cases, with a slight tweak here and there or a different camera angle, you can fix it.
    I did a series on how to learn techniques from video on my blog. Nothing fancy, just some thoughts to consider. but it might be of help in deciding how you do certain things.

    Just my 2 cents. Hope it helps and I look forward to the final products.

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  8. Anonymous10:54 AM

    Was discussing with some students the concept of what some people call attacking the person versus attacking the weapon. Rory has also mentioned attacking the mind I think, if I got that right. Some are quick to say to rush a gun and run form a knife. My Dad always gladly offered his advice. Run like hell ...and find a 2x4 along the way in case the knife catches up with you".
    So, in that casual discussion a metaphor popped out as I was trying to emphasize some points. (Its not perfect, and I am not a weapons guy at all. Forgive me on those counts...)

    Intentionally fighting someone with a knife would seem to be a lot like trying to stop a blender by putting your hands in it and grabbing the blades. Its so intuitively not-smart, when you could much more safely pick the whole thing up and smash it to pieces on the floor. Or, simply kill the power. So, you could play with that metaphor and come up with maybe a better one or refute parts of it. But the premise that sharpened steel cuts flesh should eliminate any idea that knife fighting is a complete last resort.

    When fighting someone with a knife is not discussed in the true context of 'survival' ...meaning being any version of 'still alive' afterward (And, what better place then here for that discussion?), then I'll call that pretending every time unless someone convinces me otherwise.

    -Billy G.

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  9. I like the concept for the third; a realistic and honest knife defense video (and program...) is sorely lacking.

    I'm not 100% sure about the first, for MoV, though it may just be that I'm not following the idea well. I like the idea of examining a violent attack from the attacker's perspective, and of examining how to respond for massive disadvantage. But somehow I feel like something is absent in the proposal here... Some sort of bridge, I guess, between the assailant POV and the assaillee POV.

    Maybe an idea to play with is this: In my martial art, we talk about three ways of looking at a fight, a form, or what have you. There's your point of view, as the person doing the techniques. There's the point of view of the attacker, the guy doing unto you. And there's the global or universal viewpoint, that of an uninvolved onlooker, like a TV camera that happens to catch it.

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  10. Rory -

    This is going to be awesome...
    No pressure or anything.
    :-)

    Jim -

    I might be missing something. What do you mean by or are looking for in a bridge "between the assailant POV and the assaillee POV." and how would this help us survive an assault on our person?

    Josh

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  11. Seems to me that any realistic knife defense, when it is bare hands against a blade, is going to have a strong "oh, shit!" component no matter where you start.

    When the Piper guys talk about it, they start from the notion that it's assassination, because their stuff started out in prisons and that was SOP. Sneak attacks rule.

    If you begin with your head or arm locked and the guy working your kidney like a sewing machine, I'm curious as to why expecting to get cut or stabbed *isn'*t part of the scenario?

    As Rory points out, the baddest knife guy he knows is carrying a lot of scars. Wouldn't that say something?

    Ditto the knife v knife instance. The Javanese proverb is, In a knife fight, the loser is ashes, but the winner is charcoal ...

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  12. Although to bring up the opposite end of the spectrum from the Piper stuff Steve references; I know lots of people who have had encounters where knives were brandished but not necessarily used beyond the threat level. I know people who had success, one in particular tremendously so, with launching an unarmed assault as soon as the knife was presented (cop, big guy, bare knuckle boxer).

    I personally know exactly no one who has done a true 'knife to knife'.

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