Just finished the Bujinkan Camp.
Good times, good people. Largely due to Jack Hoban. Some of you have heard about my first exposure to the Takumatsuden arts...
"My black belt," he actually hitched his thumb in it and sneered, "Is in Ninpo. What you civilians call ninjitsu." Followed by an epic rolling session where the 'unbeatable ninja master' submitted at least forty-five times in less than thirty minutes. Epic is the wrong word. "Pathetic" would be giving this young shidoshi-ho more credit than he deserved...
Anyway, suffice it to say my initial exposures to modern ninjitsu were not positive. But I have since met some good people- Mariusz and Earl and several of Dale's students in SF are damn good people. I like Don (although some day we are going to have a serious talk about the view from the outside).
But Jack Hoban is something special. Former Marine. Disciple of Robert Humphey, who may have cracked the code on natural ethics. Good (maybe great) man and a good (maybe great) martial artist. I like the way Jack plays and I love the way he thinks.
Today I heard his theory on PTSD and PTSD treatment. It works for me, but in the conversation leading up to it there was a gem of a question. Not about PTSD but about people who are robust against extreme stress in general. The answer, almost universally, is love.
You can become addicted to the danger. Addicted to the feeling of reality and importance when you do big, dangerous and impossible things. But that is only unbalancing if that is all you do. As long as you come back to the world and put equal weight into loving something or someone who is good, you'll be okay.
So here's the big question:
Of those of you who have spent four hours or more this week training to hurt someone who is bad... did you spend at least four hours being nice to the people you love?
Think about it.
Sunday, September 23, 2012
Friday, September 21, 2012
The Paralysis of Hope
The myth of Pandora's box always confused me. It made no sense. After all, Hope was in the box filled with all of the evils and ailments of men-- famine, disease, death, jealousy, anger-- and in order to get the benefit of Hope, it was kept in the box, not let out to infect the world.
Even as a kid, I thought that didn't make sense. Why Hope included in a list of evils? If the evils could only affect the world by being released, how could Hope help anyone by being caged? Dumb.
But maybe not.
As long as I'm cataloging some dark thoughts...
In a drawn-out violent episode, the threat wants to keep the victim from effectively fighting. In a true blitz, that's not much of a problem. Close distance, distract, flurry attack. The victim tends to freeze. In a longer, drawn out, ugly scenario (think secondary crime scene and all that implies) an unconscious victim doesn't supply the necessary 'fun' but a conscious victim might well fight. And so the threat has to get control of the brain.
Not always, and don't take anything I'm writing here as absolute. I'm trying to set up a specific type of event to examine here..
Teja described it best (and I think we captured her little talk in the "Logic of Violence" DVD coming out soon.) The threat does a mix of savagery and niceness, making the victim think her only hope is in being nice and keeping the threat nice...and so the victim doesn't fight.
Her hope keeps her from fighting.
And it makes me wonder how many people over the millennia died without fighting when they desperately needed to fight. How many waited for rescue or prayed for intervention, and let themselves die? And how many prevailed when they realized there was no hope and fought with everything they had?
Were the Greeks saying that hope is the one evil you must lock up in order to fight the others?
Even as a kid, I thought that didn't make sense. Why Hope included in a list of evils? If the evils could only affect the world by being released, how could Hope help anyone by being caged? Dumb.
But maybe not.
As long as I'm cataloging some dark thoughts...
In a drawn-out violent episode, the threat wants to keep the victim from effectively fighting. In a true blitz, that's not much of a problem. Close distance, distract, flurry attack. The victim tends to freeze. In a longer, drawn out, ugly scenario (think secondary crime scene and all that implies) an unconscious victim doesn't supply the necessary 'fun' but a conscious victim might well fight. And so the threat has to get control of the brain.
Not always, and don't take anything I'm writing here as absolute. I'm trying to set up a specific type of event to examine here..
Teja described it best (and I think we captured her little talk in the "Logic of Violence" DVD coming out soon.) The threat does a mix of savagery and niceness, making the victim think her only hope is in being nice and keeping the threat nice...and so the victim doesn't fight.
Her hope keeps her from fighting.
And it makes me wonder how many people over the millennia died without fighting when they desperately needed to fight. How many waited for rescue or prayed for intervention, and let themselves die? And how many prevailed when they realized there was no hope and fought with everything they had?
Were the Greeks saying that hope is the one evil you must lock up in order to fight the others?
Tuesday, September 18, 2012
Punishment and Justice and Vengeance
The thing with a road trip is the very long, late night conversations. Sometimes my control slips or my guard comes down or whatever happens and I see things in a different way, with more emotion than I usually do. More empathy. That's neither good nor bad, just different.
Anyway, M was talking about victims who want vengeance. Who didn't seem to realize that the vengeance they wanted was wrong, that a bullet to the head was quicker that...
And I got it, in a weird way.
Justice is a hard thing to define. It's like fairness. There is one group that says that a fair basketball game is one with objective refs where all the rules are applied to all the players equally. I'm cool with that. That's the ideal, and subject to human error, but I like that.
There is another group, and one that seems to be growing, that seems to believe that a fair basketball game is one that ends in a tie. An uneven score is prima facie evidence that the game is unfair and it is the responsibility of the refs to apply the rules in any way necessary to keep the scores even.
I'm not cool with that. Not with the power dynamic, nor with where it has to end.
But both are valid definitions for fair. (I'm assuming you all understand the difference between truth and validity.)
Justice seems tied up with fair. Actions bringing commensurate responses. An ideal, but try to adjust it much past the 1:1 math of "an eye for an eye" or "blood for blood" of the old vendettas and it gets very ambiguous very quickly.
So we wind up with a justice system and an ideal of punishment that has more to do with the feelings of society than with altering behavior (punishment in the behavioral sense) or any recognizable definition of justice.
And I'm cool with that. Some can stomach the idea of state executions, some can't. When the majority can't, those are the rules we follow. Because the mores, the way things are done, are more important to a society than any particular piece of justice. Far less cool with it when I'm too close to the problem... but when I can be objective I get it and even when it was hard to be objective that was the job, and I did the job.
My personal belief is to scrap the entire idea of justice and treat crime as a public health issue. One chance to modify behavior. If that fails, remove the individual. Years ago, I read a story (My memory is fuzzy but I think it was H Beam Piper and it was SF) where the judge said something like, "I'm not ordering your execution because of what you did. I'm ordering your execution because you have shown you are willing to do what you did." That resonated. Some bacteria are good for you, some kill. As a public health issue, why treat a person who kills any differently than a bacteria?
But the vengeance thing.
Normally I'm with M. Rapist? Shoot him in the head. Quick. Efficient. Cheap. And never, ever will he victimize anyone else. And that's enough. For me.
But, combination of sleep deprivation and the company, I got a whiff of the logic of vengeance and punishment. Not real logic. The math actually doesn't work unless there is an afterlife or reincarnation. But I have heard evil men bragging, and reminiscing about how their victims begged.
The drive (remember this is sleep deprivation talking) is to bring things full circle, to closure. And that will never feel complete until the perpetrator felt what the victim felt. Until the victimizers learn the lessons of the victims.
Anyway, M was talking about victims who want vengeance. Who didn't seem to realize that the vengeance they wanted was wrong, that a bullet to the head was quicker that...
And I got it, in a weird way.
Justice is a hard thing to define. It's like fairness. There is one group that says that a fair basketball game is one with objective refs where all the rules are applied to all the players equally. I'm cool with that. That's the ideal, and subject to human error, but I like that.
There is another group, and one that seems to be growing, that seems to believe that a fair basketball game is one that ends in a tie. An uneven score is prima facie evidence that the game is unfair and it is the responsibility of the refs to apply the rules in any way necessary to keep the scores even.
I'm not cool with that. Not with the power dynamic, nor with where it has to end.
But both are valid definitions for fair. (I'm assuming you all understand the difference between truth and validity.)
Justice seems tied up with fair. Actions bringing commensurate responses. An ideal, but try to adjust it much past the 1:1 math of "an eye for an eye" or "blood for blood" of the old vendettas and it gets very ambiguous very quickly.
So we wind up with a justice system and an ideal of punishment that has more to do with the feelings of society than with altering behavior (punishment in the behavioral sense) or any recognizable definition of justice.
And I'm cool with that. Some can stomach the idea of state executions, some can't. When the majority can't, those are the rules we follow. Because the mores, the way things are done, are more important to a society than any particular piece of justice. Far less cool with it when I'm too close to the problem... but when I can be objective I get it and even when it was hard to be objective that was the job, and I did the job.
My personal belief is to scrap the entire idea of justice and treat crime as a public health issue. One chance to modify behavior. If that fails, remove the individual. Years ago, I read a story (My memory is fuzzy but I think it was H Beam Piper and it was SF) where the judge said something like, "I'm not ordering your execution because of what you did. I'm ordering your execution because you have shown you are willing to do what you did." That resonated. Some bacteria are good for you, some kill. As a public health issue, why treat a person who kills any differently than a bacteria?
But the vengeance thing.
Normally I'm with M. Rapist? Shoot him in the head. Quick. Efficient. Cheap. And never, ever will he victimize anyone else. And that's enough. For me.
But, combination of sleep deprivation and the company, I got a whiff of the logic of vengeance and punishment. Not real logic. The math actually doesn't work unless there is an afterlife or reincarnation. But I have heard evil men bragging, and reminiscing about how their victims begged.
The drive (remember this is sleep deprivation talking) is to bring things full circle, to closure. And that will never feel complete until the perpetrator felt what the victim felt. Until the victimizers learn the lessons of the victims.
Saturday, September 15, 2012
Inspired by Kasey
Violence Dynamics seminar
is winding down here in Minnesota.
Hitting the road again in a few hours. Good and bad.
The debrief on this one will be informative, to say the least.
Kasey got a whole day to
teach yesterday—eight hours of strangles, chokes and neck cranks. Cool to be in a jurisdiction that
doesn’t automatically assume that any force to the neck is deadly force. He’s a good teacher. Good movement, good relevance, good
communication. And, most valuable
to me, he gets me thinking… (right this second, as Marc teaches, Kasey is condensing
the violence classifications from “Facing Violence” into a few sentences for
the one person who wasn’t here for the whole week.)
But, as always, the blog
is about me. And ideas. And thoughts. Kasey triggered a cascade yesterday. The thought process goes like this:
Kasey says, “I’m a judo
guy, and you can do this technique like a judo guy or an aikido guy or even a
kung-fu guy. It will all look a little
different but it will still work.”
And that triggers the idea
of a plastic mind exercise where you work a single technique, but in the
mindsets of different martial arts.
Just to feel and explore the flavor. Each repetition or series will feel and work slightly
differently.
Hence- Plastic Mind Drill
X: “Do it Like a (name martial art here)”
Earlier in the day, and
playing with the officers Thursday, I was doing light sparring with one or both
hands in pockets or with my coffee cup.
Believe it or not, I don’t do this because I’m an arrogant prick or to
show off. I do it for me. It
forces me to think differently. It
forces me to be more efficient.
With your hands in your pockets you must learn to glide strikes with
your elbows and shoulders and it really improves your tai sabaki. It also brings it to the next level
where the glides unbalance as well and, with practice, gives you a taste of
using some subtle anatomical weapons with momentum.
And so, a name to put on
something we’ve been doing forever: “Subtle Disadvantage Drills”
So:
“Do it Like X”
“Subtle Disadvantage”
A few more:
Osaekomi (I tend to use
more Japanese after hanging with Kasey.
The shared judo background makes for a nice shorthand.) Osaekomi is pinning. Pinning and escaping from pinning and
preventing pinning are great skill building for one of the hallmark combative
skills: Moving a body.
But, one of the key
differences between a good grappler and a mediocre grappler (and I will argue,
in a real fight, the difference between most people and someone who is really
good) is the ability to relax. To
simply relax. When I did a regular
JJ class, we would usually end with rolling, and I would roll with all of the
students in sequence until they were too tired to continue. Not a big deal. lots of judo, BJJ and a few JJ guys do
this.
The reason we can exhaust
a class isn’t because of conditioning or some magic skill. The better you are, the more relaxed
you are, the less sugar and oxygen you burn the longer you can last. And that efficiency in energy
conservation, IMO translates into efficiency in technique application.
So what about doing
grappling drills and every so often shift the focus from skill building to
relaxation practice? Meditating
from the pin.
(I also noticed that a lot
of people don’t get the idea of throwing their legs and using the dead weight to
pull their own bodies through a turn.
Hard to describe, but useful.
Don’t have a specific drill for it though…)
Acting practice. We try to make the approaches and
set-ups as real as possible. We
want the students to recognize a predatory approach. Especially how predators try to act like non-predators. Conversely, in some situations
(especially sexual violence with a medium or long build-up phase) the intended
victim is going to have to make an approach and then execute a plan…and is
likely to fail if she cannot disguise her intentions. Practicing acting with any build-up just makes sense. On multiple levels. “It doesn’t take a good actor to spot a
bad actor.”
Elbow chisao- done this
more often as a demo than a drill, but why not? Play with the basic sensitivity of sticky hands and work in
the leverage and momentum skills of working the back of the elbow.
Lots of themes, here, and this
is just thinking out loud.
Relax. See
opportunities. Integrate
everything. Transition from your
slow thinking mind to your faster, older brain. Training is not conditioning and what happens when you can
improvise under pressure seems to be a different effect.
Sunday, September 09, 2012
Beliefs Empowering Evil
Just wrapped up an on-line writer's course.
Near the end, I got a question:
"...what is your opinion of Ben Bova’s recommendation to authors that their works not contain villains? He states, in his Tips for writers: "In the real world there are no villains. No one actually sets out to do evil. Fiction mirrors life. Or, more accurately, fiction serves as a lens to focus what we know of life and bring its realities into sharper, clearer understanding for us. There are no villains cackling and rubbing their hands in glee as they contemplate their evil deeds. There are only people with problems, struggling to solve them."
Near the end, I got a question:
"...what is your opinion of Ben Bova’s recommendation to authors that their works not contain villains? He states, in his Tips for writers: "In the real world there are no villains. No one actually sets out to do evil. Fiction mirrors life. Or, more accurately, fiction serves as a lens to focus what we know of life and bring its realities into sharper, clearer understanding for us. There are no villains cackling and rubbing their hands in glee as they contemplate their evil deeds. There are only people with problems, struggling to solve them."
My first reaction was frankly emotional:
Sorry. I had a guy in custody who cut open a two-year-old baby's belly with a tin can lid and raped the wound. Mr. Bova is talking about his world, not mine.
I don't mind emotion sometimes, but it's not that useful. So:
I think I was unfair in my first answer to this question. Let me try it another way. No one believes that they are evil. Not Stalin, not Hitler, not Pol Pot, and not some bastard who rapes babies. Every last one of them has a justification. My emotional reaction to Bova's
statement was this-- just because some rapist justifies his actions to himself, that in no way causes me, and shouldn't cause anybody, to buy into his bullshit. Justifications are not real and the story you tell yourself doesn't make actions good and when people pretend that raping a baby is... "only people with problems, struggling to solve them" they have no idea how encouraging and useful rapists find those words. It does far more to encourage crime than the author can possibly know.
So, let's take an example and, given the audience, the example is writing fiction. I assume that you do it because you love it, that it makes you feel alive. It may be the most important thing in your life.
What if 99.9% of the world decided it was wrong? No-- it was evil. You are, after all, lying. Telling and selling lies that doom impressionable young readers into believing that there are really heroes and true love and soulmates! You need to be stopped!
Would you give up writing?
That is how some of the process predators (the ones who commit the crime for the pleasure of committing-- serial killers, serial rapists, conmen, certain assaulters) see their crimes. The best thing in the world and the benighted, ignorant masses in pure prejudice are trying to put a stop to it.
Others just don't care or grasp that other people have rights or feelings. One rapist/murderer told me that as a man, I should understand. He always asked first and he only raped the ones who said 'no.' Where did they get the idea that a mere woman had the right to say no to him?
A pedophile who didn't understand the difference between his shoes and his daughter. He could do what he wanted. That's what 'his' _means_. He thought we (society, the courts...) were completely unjust not to understand that.
There was a high-profile disappearance a while back. Not sure how much I can share, but her father had been molesting her for a long time. When the neighbor asked for a turn, daddy said, "I don't share my meat." Exact quote. So the neighbor later abducted, raped and murdered her.
One of the most violent felons I dealt with told me, "I just do what everybody wants to do. The rest of you just don't have the guts." The highest-end predators honestly think that they are better, stronger and smarter than the rest of the world. And they prove it to themselves by doing things others won't do. It's fallen into disfavor, thankfully, but remember the push to increase children's self-esteem a few years ago? The highest self-esteem scores are consistently found in violent criminals and if you raise that esteem, you raise the violence.
In each case, these guys will have a story where they are either the good guys or the victims. All respect to Mr. Bova, it's just a story and it's bullshit and it empowers them when we buy into the myth.
statement was this-- just because some rapist justifies his actions to himself, that in no way causes me, and shouldn't cause anybody, to buy into his bullshit. Justifications are not real and the story you tell yourself doesn't make actions good and when people pretend that raping a baby is... "only people with problems, struggling to solve them" they have no idea how encouraging and useful rapists find those words. It does far more to encourage crime than the author can possibly know.
So, let's take an example and, given the audience, the example is writing fiction. I assume that you do it because you love it, that it makes you feel alive. It may be the most important thing in your life.
What if 99.9% of the world decided it was wrong? No-- it was evil. You are, after all, lying. Telling and selling lies that doom impressionable young readers into believing that there are really heroes and true love and soulmates! You need to be stopped!
Would you give up writing?
That is how some of the process predators (the ones who commit the crime for the pleasure of committing-- serial killers, serial rapists, conmen, certain assaulters) see their crimes. The best thing in the world and the benighted, ignorant masses in pure prejudice are trying to put a stop to it.
Others just don't care or grasp that other people have rights or feelings. One rapist/murderer told me that as a man, I should understand. He always asked first and he only raped the ones who said 'no.' Where did they get the idea that a mere woman had the right to say no to him?
A pedophile who didn't understand the difference between his shoes and his daughter. He could do what he wanted. That's what 'his' _means_. He thought we (society, the courts...) were completely unjust not to understand that.
There was a high-profile disappearance a while back. Not sure how much I can share, but her father had been molesting her for a long time. When the neighbor asked for a turn, daddy said, "I don't share my meat." Exact quote. So the neighbor later abducted, raped and murdered her.
One of the most violent felons I dealt with told me, "I just do what everybody wants to do. The rest of you just don't have the guts." The highest-end predators honestly think that they are better, stronger and smarter than the rest of the world. And they prove it to themselves by doing things others won't do. It's fallen into disfavor, thankfully, but remember the push to increase children's self-esteem a few years ago? The highest self-esteem scores are consistently found in violent criminals and if you raise that esteem, you raise the violence.
In each case, these guys will have a story where they are either the good guys or the victims. All respect to Mr. Bova, it's just a story and it's bullshit and it empowers them when we buy into the myth.
Thursday, September 06, 2012
Silly Season
"Here we are again," K said as she took the familiar turn off to the airport. At least it's not a red-eye this time. Two weeks home. Very nice. I'll be home for a day or two at a time until late October.
Busy is good.
The political silly season is on, and it is a showcase for tribal, monkey-brained limbic-system thinking. Very little neocortex activity is involved. If their side says it, it is evil and reprehensible; if our side says the exact same thing it is wise or the only option or...
This has been hard. I predicted a while ago that as the two major parties in the U.S. become even more similar, the rhetoric would have to get more heated. If there are no substantial differences you must emphasize the cosmetic ones to keep the tribal lines clear, after all.
I have a lot of very intelligent friends who I both admire and disagree with. If I ever agree with you on everything, the world doesn't need us both. But this election season has been ugly.
I've seen very intelligent, compassionate people indulge in something that they themselves would call bigoted hate-speech if the nouns were simply changed. Hate speech is not defined by the target, but by the manner.
I have read a best-selling author and a good man say that anyone not on his side (not the people who disagree with him, any individual who is not a member of his party) is 'stupid' and 'allergic to truth'.
One, possibly more insightful, did not want to discuss a subject because she did not want any facts shaking her beliefs.
And I have seen fine men of integrity spread lies...and no matter how much they want to believe the things they say are true, they weren't even subtle lies.
So here's some advice from the Conflict Communication model. It might be easier to grasp if you've taken the whole class.
If your monkey/tribal brain is working your human/thinking brain is not.
If you are feeling emotion, you are not thinking. That part of your brain is turned off.
If it is about who did or said it and not what was said, you are in your tribal brain.
If you label anyone, it is a tactic to put that person in another tribe specifically so that you don't have to listen to the content.
And one piece of advice not out of ConCom: People who disagree with you are rarely stupid. If you cannot effectively, compassionately and convincingly argue the other side's point of view, you are the one in your tribal brain. You are the stupid one.
Stay in the debate, but use your brain.
Busy is good.
The political silly season is on, and it is a showcase for tribal, monkey-brained limbic-system thinking. Very little neocortex activity is involved. If their side says it, it is evil and reprehensible; if our side says the exact same thing it is wise or the only option or...
This has been hard. I predicted a while ago that as the two major parties in the U.S. become even more similar, the rhetoric would have to get more heated. If there are no substantial differences you must emphasize the cosmetic ones to keep the tribal lines clear, after all.
I have a lot of very intelligent friends who I both admire and disagree with. If I ever agree with you on everything, the world doesn't need us both. But this election season has been ugly.
I've seen very intelligent, compassionate people indulge in something that they themselves would call bigoted hate-speech if the nouns were simply changed. Hate speech is not defined by the target, but by the manner.
I have read a best-selling author and a good man say that anyone not on his side (not the people who disagree with him, any individual who is not a member of his party) is 'stupid' and 'allergic to truth'.
One, possibly more insightful, did not want to discuss a subject because she did not want any facts shaking her beliefs.
And I have seen fine men of integrity spread lies...and no matter how much they want to believe the things they say are true, they weren't even subtle lies.
So here's some advice from the Conflict Communication model. It might be easier to grasp if you've taken the whole class.
If your monkey/tribal brain is working your human/thinking brain is not.
If you are feeling emotion, you are not thinking. That part of your brain is turned off.
If it is about who did or said it and not what was said, you are in your tribal brain.
If you label anyone, it is a tactic to put that person in another tribe specifically so that you don't have to listen to the content.
And one piece of advice not out of ConCom: People who disagree with you are rarely stupid. If you cannot effectively, compassionately and convincingly argue the other side's point of view, you are the one in your tribal brain. You are the stupid one.
Stay in the debate, but use your brain.
Tuesday, September 04, 2012
Hard to Systematize
Working on outlining/writing two projects now.
One is the Big Book of Everything, my personal notebook on everything that I think works and matters for self protection. The stuff I trust and the teaching methods that I believe work best.
The other is "Awareness" coming off of the recent post.
Both are kicking my ass.
The hardest thing about writing "Meditations on Violence" was trying to find a logical order. Violence is big, probably as big as communication. And it is complicated. And every little detail affects many things. In a way, it is four dimensional. You have to start somewhere and build up to levels of understanding, but each thing you learn changes you understanding of the things you thought you already had.
For Awareness, my gut is to break it into the Four Factors:
You
The Threat(s)
The Environment
Luck
Can't start with 'You' though because until people understand and trust the way I analyze it can be very off-putting to have some unknown schmoe say in a book, "Y'all probably don't know yourself that well or have any idea of who you truly are under stress." Get a little exposure to the method, and the readers will try some of the drills.
So start with the threat, right?
So violence motivations and how goals and parameters drive the crime. (And that's another issue in that I don't want to repeat stuff I've put in other books, since I hate reading that...but I also don't want readers to feel they are being tricked or pressured into buying a second book. Yeah. My integrity issues.) Logic of Violence stuff.
And within that we'll talk about drugs. All the drugs? Or general types, stimulants and depressants and hallucinogens? What phase of the cycle? Early withdrawals, late withdrawals, high as a kite and steady? How to tell and what it indicates and how to use the information...
Individual and group dynamics...
And you have to know what to look for (observe) know what it means (orient) and what you can and can't do with the information (decide/options).
So motivations are a part of it, as are thought processes. As are physicality, from weapons to positioning to reading feet.
And all of this is interactive. The Threat is continuously interacting with the environment and on some level with you and in many situations with other people-- confederates or bystanders or witnesses.
You and the environment are just as complicated.
The information isn't that hard. Organizing it is.
One is the Big Book of Everything, my personal notebook on everything that I think works and matters for self protection. The stuff I trust and the teaching methods that I believe work best.
The other is "Awareness" coming off of the recent post.
Both are kicking my ass.
The hardest thing about writing "Meditations on Violence" was trying to find a logical order. Violence is big, probably as big as communication. And it is complicated. And every little detail affects many things. In a way, it is four dimensional. You have to start somewhere and build up to levels of understanding, but each thing you learn changes you understanding of the things you thought you already had.
For Awareness, my gut is to break it into the Four Factors:
You
The Threat(s)
The Environment
Luck
Can't start with 'You' though because until people understand and trust the way I analyze it can be very off-putting to have some unknown schmoe say in a book, "Y'all probably don't know yourself that well or have any idea of who you truly are under stress." Get a little exposure to the method, and the readers will try some of the drills.
So start with the threat, right?
So violence motivations and how goals and parameters drive the crime. (And that's another issue in that I don't want to repeat stuff I've put in other books, since I hate reading that...but I also don't want readers to feel they are being tricked or pressured into buying a second book. Yeah. My integrity issues.) Logic of Violence stuff.
And within that we'll talk about drugs. All the drugs? Or general types, stimulants and depressants and hallucinogens? What phase of the cycle? Early withdrawals, late withdrawals, high as a kite and steady? How to tell and what it indicates and how to use the information...
Individual and group dynamics...
And you have to know what to look for (observe) know what it means (orient) and what you can and can't do with the information (decide/options).
So motivations are a part of it, as are thought processes. As are physicality, from weapons to positioning to reading feet.
And all of this is interactive. The Threat is continuously interacting with the environment and on some level with you and in many situations with other people-- confederates or bystanders or witnesses.
You and the environment are just as complicated.
The information isn't that hard. Organizing it is.
Friday, August 31, 2012
A Dragon Falls
Just heard that Joe Lewis died.
He was fun. Great mind. Great timing. Power and speed in a nearly perfect package (and I met him well after his prime.) Analytical mind, and a blast to hang with.
He's left a good legacy. Taught some fine, tough people.
Fought cancer longer than the doctors thought he could.
Don't know what else to say. The old Dragons are passing.
He was fun. Great mind. Great timing. Power and speed in a nearly perfect package (and I met him well after his prime.) Analytical mind, and a blast to hang with.
He's left a good legacy. Taught some fine, tough people.
Fought cancer longer than the doctors thought he could.
Don't know what else to say. The old Dragons are passing.
Monday, August 20, 2012
Principles and Details
There are divisions to
this.
Principles are the big
things. Principles are the things
(usually physics) that make other things work. Principles apply to everything.
‘Maximize leverage’ is a
principle. Poor leverage will make
locks fail and takedowns fail and significantly weaken strikes. Good leverage (and good leverage for
strikes includes using a stick) makes everything better. It’s just physics.
Range is a principle—you
can’t hit something you can’t reach.
But teaching range poorly (e.g. this is good range for hand strikes but too close for
kicks and that is good range for kicks but too far away for
hands) is an easily-inherited lack of understanding and creativity. Jack Dempsey
proved you can knock someone out with a jab from well out of punching
range. There are kicks that work
very effectively at clinch range.
There are power generation systems that require no more distance than
what you can get with your fingers touching the threat, and there are ways to
use some of those on the ground.
There are more principles,
but not that many (at least that I’ve identified). Simple, universal.
Like many things, there is a big gap between knowing them and understanding
them. I’m coming too believe that
it is easy to know something and at some level you can teach just from
knowledge. But the stuff you apply
instinctively under stress is only the stuff that you understand.
Thought during the drive
yesterday. Things must have either
eased off or tightened up, since I’m thinking about writing almost
constantly. Details. I know there
is enough material in details for a book, but I doubt that I’m consciously
aware of a tenth.
Details are the little
things. Not big universals like principles. More specific, maybe more limited, but
the tricks we all do to make things work.
Like the ulnar
rotation. You smack into a bicep
or under the jaw with the flat of your forearm and then rotate and dig the ulna
into the target. Or the sawing action. No idea why pushing directly against
certain points won’t work but when you saw your forearm it moves much bigger
people.
And some little details
make things fail. When (as many
do) you apply a wristlock with some of your fingers actually on the joint, you
are in your own way. You support
the joint, just like a splint.
And some things I’m not
sure are details, maybe a nuances: You should be able to tell the orientation
of your blade by the feel of the handle.
If you can’t see or feel where the elbow joint is, the little finger
will tell you where to put pressure.
Stuff like that.
Something to let stew for
awhile.
Wednesday, August 15, 2012
Product
David S has been pushing me to say something nice about the "Facing Violence" video. He directed it, and I think he does a lot of YMAA's video marketing, too.
But I'm feeling nostalgic and kind of want to do a life recap. Like everything on the blog, this is for me. It might read like a CCA (Crass Commercial Announcement) so feel free to skip it.
My first published works were articles to Black Belt Magazine (on jujutsu striking, I was starting to get tired of JJ being characterized as a pure grappling art with the advent of GJJ) and American Survival Guide (an article on some nifty rappelling and climbing tricks with limited equipment). That was about 1997 and almost as soon as I sent them in I got promoted to sergeant. Which turns your life around. I dabbled, but didn't think about publishing again for ten years.
Meditations on Violence
Coming off of an ugly year, I started writing. About the same time, Kris Wilder invited me to teach at a seminar. I hadn't been in a room with pure, shiny martial artists for a long time... and it seemed that none of them had a clue to what I was talking about. Fights are different than assaults? Adrenaline? Environment? Aftermath? You mean some of this stuff is illegal? And some won't work?
So I started writing things down, partially to explain, partially to get some stuff out of my head. 'Meditations' is a core dump. Sort of a psychic vomit. And originally intended as something for my senior students when I got older.
I sent it to Kris, of course, since he was a friend and a big reason the book was written. He sent it to the publisher.
Facing Violence
MoV was a core dump, Facing Violence is a plan. MoV addressed what too many martial artists didn't know. FV was my list of what they need to know. It grew out of a class at the very last Martial University (that seminar that Kris used to host) before I went to Iraq. Thought about it for a couple of years and wrote the first draft in less than a month. It organized information, particularly the categories of violence, in a way that I'm really proud of.
Force Decision
I wrote this entirely in Baghdad and Sulaymaniyah. And I'd decided not to publish it. There are huge battles in perception going on right now. One of the ones I've been closest to is how some people hate and fear the police...and how many police expect that they will simply be punished for doing their job no matter how well they do it. That there is no level of gentleness, even all the way up to letting criminals run free plus constant ass-kissing that won't leave some of our citizens calling us thugs and Nazis. It was frustrating. K is the product of a 'worker's paradise' and damn well knows what 'police state' really means. I was in Baghdad, trying to teach leadership to a generation that had learned that any glimmer of initiative was answered with summary execution. I wanted to write something so that the people who cared could have the facts. But I know perfectly well that the people deepest in the controversy don't give a damn about the facts. They want to be vindicated and the other side to be evil. Reason is not welcome here.
And I really, really didn't want to step into the middle of that. Not because of fear (since, realistically, the scariest thing in my world right now are live TV interviews) but because there is no gain in trying.
But Tiff read the book and disagreed. And so have a few other people. I'm not hopeful, not yet. Maybe.
Campfire Tales from Hell
A certain person was getting in trouble with some extreme medical bills, and a group of us decided to do something more permanent than donations. I volunteered to edit and some very cool people shared stories. And it was a blast. And, for all the horror stories I had heard about editing ("What's the difference between herding cats and editing an anthology? Cats aren't neurotic and insecure.") it was painless and fun. And the book is awesome. Smashwords link.
The E-Books
Smashwords
Amazon Author Page
The Blog Compilations
Currently five of them, they cover all the blog posts from 2005-2009. I didn't feel I had the right to the comments, so comments are excluded, but I also wanted to add value, so there is a little extra information in all of them.
Drills
I wanted to experiment with the e-book platform and I wanted a writing challenge. Every year, K does Nanowrimo, the National Novel Writer's Month. Essentially a challenge to complete a full book in 30 days. Sounded cool. I asked for suggestions on the Blog and Maija suggested a book of drills. Done. And fun. YMAA plans on doing an illustrated print version in 2013, with some new chapters.
Talking the Through
With a little pressure from Tim Boelhert, I finally got this one done. It's essentially a write-up of the course I designed and taught for the Mental Health Team at my old agency. Good reviews. The people in the trenches seem to like it.
Working With a Translator
Actually an article I'd been toying with for awhile. Wanted to see how it went. Lessons from the best of the best, and some of the worst interpreters.
And now, for David, the video:
Facing Violence
I don't watch videos. For whatever reason, with books non-fiction engages me and fiction annoys but with video, it's the opposite. I like shoot-em-ups and westerns and noir and some comedy and... but the best directed, cast, narrated non-fiction bores the absolute crap out of me. And, personally, I think that any sort of combatives is much easier to learn by touch than by sight.
So, hmmmmm. I think it's good. I'm not an actor. Alain was being kind when he said I'm not a polished speaker. I said some bad words. Never really got the knack of looking at the camera like it was a person. But the information is solid and there are some things that were easier to show than to explain in a book. Everything else aside, if you are interested in self-defense the example of "Articulation Wars" is incredibly important. The story you tell will compete with the threat's and it is another form of battle you must practice.
Upcoming Stuff
Book- Scaling Force, a collaboration with Lawrence Kane should be coming out in a month or so. It includes the best stuff I've written on presence and verbal skills. And interacting with Lawrence got me to put somethings in words that were important. You know, the stuff that everyone knows but you don't realize it until it's phrased just right?
Book- Drills, an expansion of the e-book early next year.
Book- Working slowly on the Conflict Communications Manual revision.
E-Book- It will be under a pseudonym (since I'm not thrilled about broadcasting the actual names of my children) but I've been collecting some of the horrible stories I used to tell my kids. At one point, they believed we got them from the Kid Pound. And the time I convinced them my mother-in-law was a cannibal. Stuff like that.
Videos- Two for next year release are in the can. Or in post. Or whatever magic David does after we've packed up our toys and gone home.
Logic of Violence: It's been killing me to figure out how to write this as a book. David suggested we just film a class. It's a lot of talking, and I'm afraid it might be boring, but the information and the process are both cool. Get a room full of smart people and have them solve the problems a crook solves. On their own, they create and understand a raft of common street-crime tactics. It's cool.
Joint Locks: No idea what this will actually be titled. It will be about an hour and will cover everything you need to know about locks. For instructors, I want you to look at the method for breaking down the information. For everyone else, pay attention and do the drill. IMO locks, like a lot of things in MA are simply taught wrong. They aren't complicated, they aren't hard. But most martial arts who specialize in locks can train for years and still not be able to apply them. I was able to get officer to improvise locks under stress consistently with 90 minutes or less of training. It's not hard.
But I'm feeling nostalgic and kind of want to do a life recap. Like everything on the blog, this is for me. It might read like a CCA (Crass Commercial Announcement) so feel free to skip it.
My first published works were articles to Black Belt Magazine (on jujutsu striking, I was starting to get tired of JJ being characterized as a pure grappling art with the advent of GJJ) and American Survival Guide (an article on some nifty rappelling and climbing tricks with limited equipment). That was about 1997 and almost as soon as I sent them in I got promoted to sergeant. Which turns your life around. I dabbled, but didn't think about publishing again for ten years.
Meditations on Violence
Coming off of an ugly year, I started writing. About the same time, Kris Wilder invited me to teach at a seminar. I hadn't been in a room with pure, shiny martial artists for a long time... and it seemed that none of them had a clue to what I was talking about. Fights are different than assaults? Adrenaline? Environment? Aftermath? You mean some of this stuff is illegal? And some won't work?
So I started writing things down, partially to explain, partially to get some stuff out of my head. 'Meditations' is a core dump. Sort of a psychic vomit. And originally intended as something for my senior students when I got older.
I sent it to Kris, of course, since he was a friend and a big reason the book was written. He sent it to the publisher.
Facing Violence
MoV was a core dump, Facing Violence is a plan. MoV addressed what too many martial artists didn't know. FV was my list of what they need to know. It grew out of a class at the very last Martial University (that seminar that Kris used to host) before I went to Iraq. Thought about it for a couple of years and wrote the first draft in less than a month. It organized information, particularly the categories of violence, in a way that I'm really proud of.
Force Decision
I wrote this entirely in Baghdad and Sulaymaniyah. And I'd decided not to publish it. There are huge battles in perception going on right now. One of the ones I've been closest to is how some people hate and fear the police...and how many police expect that they will simply be punished for doing their job no matter how well they do it. That there is no level of gentleness, even all the way up to letting criminals run free plus constant ass-kissing that won't leave some of our citizens calling us thugs and Nazis. It was frustrating. K is the product of a 'worker's paradise' and damn well knows what 'police state' really means. I was in Baghdad, trying to teach leadership to a generation that had learned that any glimmer of initiative was answered with summary execution. I wanted to write something so that the people who cared could have the facts. But I know perfectly well that the people deepest in the controversy don't give a damn about the facts. They want to be vindicated and the other side to be evil. Reason is not welcome here.
And I really, really didn't want to step into the middle of that. Not because of fear (since, realistically, the scariest thing in my world right now are live TV interviews) but because there is no gain in trying.
But Tiff read the book and disagreed. And so have a few other people. I'm not hopeful, not yet. Maybe.
Campfire Tales from Hell
A certain person was getting in trouble with some extreme medical bills, and a group of us decided to do something more permanent than donations. I volunteered to edit and some very cool people shared stories. And it was a blast. And, for all the horror stories I had heard about editing ("What's the difference between herding cats and editing an anthology? Cats aren't neurotic and insecure.") it was painless and fun. And the book is awesome. Smashwords link.
The E-Books
Smashwords
Amazon Author Page
The Blog Compilations
Currently five of them, they cover all the blog posts from 2005-2009. I didn't feel I had the right to the comments, so comments are excluded, but I also wanted to add value, so there is a little extra information in all of them.
Drills
I wanted to experiment with the e-book platform and I wanted a writing challenge. Every year, K does Nanowrimo, the National Novel Writer's Month. Essentially a challenge to complete a full book in 30 days. Sounded cool. I asked for suggestions on the Blog and Maija suggested a book of drills. Done. And fun. YMAA plans on doing an illustrated print version in 2013, with some new chapters.
Talking the Through
With a little pressure from Tim Boelhert, I finally got this one done. It's essentially a write-up of the course I designed and taught for the Mental Health Team at my old agency. Good reviews. The people in the trenches seem to like it.
Working With a Translator
Actually an article I'd been toying with for awhile. Wanted to see how it went. Lessons from the best of the best, and some of the worst interpreters.
And now, for David, the video:
Facing Violence
I don't watch videos. For whatever reason, with books non-fiction engages me and fiction annoys but with video, it's the opposite. I like shoot-em-ups and westerns and noir and some comedy and... but the best directed, cast, narrated non-fiction bores the absolute crap out of me. And, personally, I think that any sort of combatives is much easier to learn by touch than by sight.
So, hmmmmm. I think it's good. I'm not an actor. Alain was being kind when he said I'm not a polished speaker. I said some bad words. Never really got the knack of looking at the camera like it was a person. But the information is solid and there are some things that were easier to show than to explain in a book. Everything else aside, if you are interested in self-defense the example of "Articulation Wars" is incredibly important. The story you tell will compete with the threat's and it is another form of battle you must practice.
Upcoming Stuff
Book- Scaling Force, a collaboration with Lawrence Kane should be coming out in a month or so. It includes the best stuff I've written on presence and verbal skills. And interacting with Lawrence got me to put somethings in words that were important. You know, the stuff that everyone knows but you don't realize it until it's phrased just right?
Book- Drills, an expansion of the e-book early next year.
Book- Working slowly on the Conflict Communications Manual revision.
E-Book- It will be under a pseudonym (since I'm not thrilled about broadcasting the actual names of my children) but I've been collecting some of the horrible stories I used to tell my kids. At one point, they believed we got them from the Kid Pound. And the time I convinced them my mother-in-law was a cannibal. Stuff like that.
Videos- Two for next year release are in the can. Or in post. Or whatever magic David does after we've packed up our toys and gone home.
Logic of Violence: It's been killing me to figure out how to write this as a book. David suggested we just film a class. It's a lot of talking, and I'm afraid it might be boring, but the information and the process are both cool. Get a room full of smart people and have them solve the problems a crook solves. On their own, they create and understand a raft of common street-crime tactics. It's cool.
Joint Locks: No idea what this will actually be titled. It will be about an hour and will cover everything you need to know about locks. For instructors, I want you to look at the method for breaking down the information. For everyone else, pay attention and do the drill. IMO locks, like a lot of things in MA are simply taught wrong. They aren't complicated, they aren't hard. But most martial arts who specialize in locks can train for years and still not be able to apply them. I was able to get officer to improvise locks under stress consistently with 90 minutes or less of training. It's not hard.
Monday, August 13, 2012
Voices
We used to do a drill for new members of the mental health team. One of our best psych counselors had collected what "the voices" told various schizophrenics and created two scripts. One was anger and rage and paranoia: "Kill them. They're laughing at you. Hide what you feel kill them all. Taste blood. Shit!. Control. Hide it." The other was self abasement: "You are a worm. Die. Kill yourself. Make the world better and bite off your tongue."
Those aren't the actual scripts (though I have them in a file). The actual scripts were much better, more intense. The exercise was to have two people whispering scripts in your ear-- while you went through a job interview. It gave the new officer an idea of what some of our charges needed to deal with, how hard it could be to concentrate on the 'real' world. 'Real' is in quotes because the voices are real, too. Not something imagined but something heard, very like a stranger or a demon whispering in your ear.
We also noticed that some people adapted quickly. They got good at it. For most people distraction was obvious as eyes darted towards the voices or they flinched. For a very few the voices could be ignored, the flinches suppressed. You still heard them but didn't give it away. You could get through the job interview and show very little.
It gave us a lot of respect for high-functioning schizophrenics.
This morning I was interviewed on TV for the first time. Sorboni Banerjee of Fox 25 in Boston is friends of a student of Bill Giovannucci's and found out I was in town. I was nervous, normal for a first time at almost anything, but the crew was good, very smooth and practiced. They knew how to deal with rookies.
But I learned something about an interviewer's job. It's a lot like being a paid schizophrenic. The entire time, while paying full attention to me, Sorboni had an earphone and was getting constant updates. "Speed up, slow down. Ninety seconds to go. Next point." Not a blip she was hearing voices. And watching monitors. And seeing a teleprompter. The whole time carrying on a normal conversation.
But not really. She wasn't just carrying. She was driving and directing. A slight turn of her head would get a reaction from me and keep things where they needed to be for the camera. She would change her rate, tone, pitch or volume knowing I would have a tendency to match. It's a technique I used on EDPs all the time (Emotionally Disturbed Persons).
Incredible multi-tasking. Strategic direction of a social interaction with a naive subject in a stressful (relatively and I have no idea why this was so much more stressful than my last fight. Which is bullshit. I know. The last one was last of what? Hundreds. This was a first.) milieu.
Very impressive.
Those aren't the actual scripts (though I have them in a file). The actual scripts were much better, more intense. The exercise was to have two people whispering scripts in your ear-- while you went through a job interview. It gave the new officer an idea of what some of our charges needed to deal with, how hard it could be to concentrate on the 'real' world. 'Real' is in quotes because the voices are real, too. Not something imagined but something heard, very like a stranger or a demon whispering in your ear.
We also noticed that some people adapted quickly. They got good at it. For most people distraction was obvious as eyes darted towards the voices or they flinched. For a very few the voices could be ignored, the flinches suppressed. You still heard them but didn't give it away. You could get through the job interview and show very little.
It gave us a lot of respect for high-functioning schizophrenics.
This morning I was interviewed on TV for the first time. Sorboni Banerjee of Fox 25 in Boston is friends of a student of Bill Giovannucci's and found out I was in town. I was nervous, normal for a first time at almost anything, but the crew was good, very smooth and practiced. They knew how to deal with rookies.
But I learned something about an interviewer's job. It's a lot like being a paid schizophrenic. The entire time, while paying full attention to me, Sorboni had an earphone and was getting constant updates. "Speed up, slow down. Ninety seconds to go. Next point." Not a blip she was hearing voices. And watching monitors. And seeing a teleprompter. The whole time carrying on a normal conversation.
But not really. She wasn't just carrying. She was driving and directing. A slight turn of her head would get a reaction from me and keep things where they needed to be for the camera. She would change her rate, tone, pitch or volume knowing I would have a tendency to match. It's a technique I used on EDPs all the time (Emotionally Disturbed Persons).
Incredible multi-tasking. Strategic direction of a social interaction with a naive subject in a stressful (relatively and I have no idea why this was so much more stressful than my last fight. Which is bullshit. I know. The last one was last of what? Hundreds. This was a first.) milieu.
Very impressive.
Friday, August 10, 2012
Awareness Details
I don't think I've broken this out as its own piece before, and doubt if I have the space to go into details. To follow along, you'll need a basic understanding of Violence Dynamics, which is just a fancy way of saying you know about different kinds of bad guys and how they attack.
This is a quick overview of what I mean (and what I teach) when I say, "Be aware of your surroundings."
1) The uber fundamental: You probably don't think about the same things a criminal thinks about or value what he values. But you can. And once you understand the criminal's goals and values, the threat becomes far more predictable.
1A) The criminal has more experience dealing with citizens than citizens have dealing with criminals.
1B) If you try to deal with a criminal the way you would deal with a civilian, you will probably fail.
1C) If the criminal is sophisticated, your standard (social) tactics will be used against you.
2) There are criminals with different needs. They choose different targets and attack in different ways. The goal drives almost every aspect of the attack.
3) Potential for danger
3A) Personal. What is your personal threat profile? How does it change over time and circumstances? A fit martial athlete is largely only going to be targeted for a Monkey Dance-- until the day he is injured and/or drunk. The elderly are targeted by resource predators more than process. Women are targeted for many different types of violence. What would a predator or an insecure monkey want from you?
3B) Dangerous Dynamics. Most violence is predictable. If you are in or create a dangerous dynamic, physical skills are not the answer. In an abusive relationship? The relationship has to change, probably end. It is very, very rare for a person to be targeted by bad people unless he did something wrong or stupid. No, I'm dancing around this. Straight out, the number one prevention for probably 90% of non-drug related murders is to not sleep with somebody else's mate. And the prevention for most drug-related murders is to stay away from drugs and the people who use them.
3C) Reading Terrain. The places where bad stuff happens has certain qualities. They are different--very different-- between social violence and asocial, but all predictable. For social, groups of young men, alcohol... for asocial resource-rich (ATMs or out of town businessmen or collections of drunk college girls or...) with isolation and an escape route are good starts. You can learn, quickly and easily, to see this.
4) Presence of Danger. For social, this is largely the ability to recognize the script. For asocial, the absence of normal social cues. Big ones for this are proxemics (there are natural and unnatural distances to stand); Orientation (how often do people asking you questions stand at your flank?); and foot placement (normal social interactions will have the power line perpendicular to you.) Signs that a weapon is involved (hand placement, clothing, tells, unequal armswing when walking....). And whether there is an audience (social).
For both social and asocial, the ability to recognize the signs of adrenalization, and how to tell how experienced the threat is with adrenalized states (from adrenaline-controlling 'self-calming' behavior to the blank-eyed relaxation from someone who's skin has just paled.)
5) Analysis of Danger. Kind of touched on above, but telling a social from an asocial situation and a resource predator (where giving up your purse will work) from a process predator (where it profoundly will not work.)
6) Analysis of Opportunity. Globally seeing what you can do about your identified problem-- from bringing social pressure to bear (from getting the audience to intervene to creating witnesses) to learning to use the environment offensively to...anything.
Just some thoughts. This would be easy to expand on for a long time.
This is a quick overview of what I mean (and what I teach) when I say, "Be aware of your surroundings."
1) The uber fundamental: You probably don't think about the same things a criminal thinks about or value what he values. But you can. And once you understand the criminal's goals and values, the threat becomes far more predictable.
1A) The criminal has more experience dealing with citizens than citizens have dealing with criminals.
1B) If you try to deal with a criminal the way you would deal with a civilian, you will probably fail.
1C) If the criminal is sophisticated, your standard (social) tactics will be used against you.
2) There are criminals with different needs. They choose different targets and attack in different ways. The goal drives almost every aspect of the attack.
3) Potential for danger
3A) Personal. What is your personal threat profile? How does it change over time and circumstances? A fit martial athlete is largely only going to be targeted for a Monkey Dance-- until the day he is injured and/or drunk. The elderly are targeted by resource predators more than process. Women are targeted for many different types of violence. What would a predator or an insecure monkey want from you?
3B) Dangerous Dynamics. Most violence is predictable. If you are in or create a dangerous dynamic, physical skills are not the answer. In an abusive relationship? The relationship has to change, probably end. It is very, very rare for a person to be targeted by bad people unless he did something wrong or stupid. No, I'm dancing around this. Straight out, the number one prevention for probably 90% of non-drug related murders is to not sleep with somebody else's mate. And the prevention for most drug-related murders is to stay away from drugs and the people who use them.
3C) Reading Terrain. The places where bad stuff happens has certain qualities. They are different--very different-- between social violence and asocial, but all predictable. For social, groups of young men, alcohol... for asocial resource-rich (ATMs or out of town businessmen or collections of drunk college girls or...) with isolation and an escape route are good starts. You can learn, quickly and easily, to see this.
4) Presence of Danger. For social, this is largely the ability to recognize the script. For asocial, the absence of normal social cues. Big ones for this are proxemics (there are natural and unnatural distances to stand); Orientation (how often do people asking you questions stand at your flank?); and foot placement (normal social interactions will have the power line perpendicular to you.) Signs that a weapon is involved (hand placement, clothing, tells, unequal armswing when walking....). And whether there is an audience (social).
For both social and asocial, the ability to recognize the signs of adrenalization, and how to tell how experienced the threat is with adrenalized states (from adrenaline-controlling 'self-calming' behavior to the blank-eyed relaxation from someone who's skin has just paled.)
5) Analysis of Danger. Kind of touched on above, but telling a social from an asocial situation and a resource predator (where giving up your purse will work) from a process predator (where it profoundly will not work.)
6) Analysis of Opportunity. Globally seeing what you can do about your identified problem-- from bringing social pressure to bear (from getting the audience to intervene to creating witnesses) to learning to use the environment offensively to...anything.
Just some thoughts. This would be easy to expand on for a long time.
Wednesday, August 08, 2012
No Good Answers
Good talks with Jake Steinmann yesterday. About teaching students versus subjects; learning versus experimenting; why the easy things are hard and the hard easy sometimes. We also talked about his experiment with knife defense. He has more to do-- turns out people are not nearly as keen on banging out stuff when there is considerable pain and impact involved-- but the preliminary results are in. There aren't good answers.
That shouldn't come as a surprise to anybody. It's all percentage points. Taking the Monkey Dance bullshit off the table, no one is going to pick you as a victim if they think you will win. The bad guy gets position, surprise. The bad guy prefers to have the edge in size and strength (not always-- skinny, short meth addicts need drugs too). And if there is a weapon, the bad guy will have it in play. You won't, because why the hell would he pick you if you did? The world is full of marks.
Knife-in-play blitzes (what most martial artists envision when they think of defending against an active attack) don't happen that much in my experience-- but they are a formidable tactical problem. The crazy guy attacking a crowd doesn't happen that often either. Outside of certain populations, neither does shanking-- but that is where I concentrate my training time. And I think I have the best available answer for it.
But I'm not gonna delude myself for a second into believing it's a good answer.
Self-defense is a thin list of things that might give you a chance. But just a chance. If there was something reliable, criminals would change their tactics.
Take that back-- there is something reliable. And that is victim behavior. There are exceptions (and our entire goal as SD instructors is to turn our students into those exceptions) but those exceptions are rare. Almost all victims freeze under a flurry and their hands go up to protect their faces. Most people yanked try to pull away instead of step in. Most men (even very well-trained ones) try to instinctively use the body mechanics of a Monkey Dance fight, with the shitty base and poor body mechanics and wide open centerline that comes with that. On some level almost all humans when they perceive themselves to be under attack by another human, try to communicate. What fighting they do is (subconsciously) intended to send a message, not to eliminate a threat.
It's not conscious, but criminals know this stuff and they count on it. And it works.
But that's an aside.
Close range knife assault. Caught in a riot. Being a civilian on the receiving end of an active shooter scenario. There is stuff you can do for all of them, but there is nothing with a guaranteed outcome and sometimes the best possible outcome (the shooter only got one person--that's how you knew-- and you got him) still leaves two grievously wounded or dead people and a messy aftermath.
No good answers. Whatever you have, if you are sure about it, you are wrong. Don't get comfortable.
That shouldn't come as a surprise to anybody. It's all percentage points. Taking the Monkey Dance bullshit off the table, no one is going to pick you as a victim if they think you will win. The bad guy gets position, surprise. The bad guy prefers to have the edge in size and strength (not always-- skinny, short meth addicts need drugs too). And if there is a weapon, the bad guy will have it in play. You won't, because why the hell would he pick you if you did? The world is full of marks.
Knife-in-play blitzes (what most martial artists envision when they think of defending against an active attack) don't happen that much in my experience-- but they are a formidable tactical problem. The crazy guy attacking a crowd doesn't happen that often either. Outside of certain populations, neither does shanking-- but that is where I concentrate my training time. And I think I have the best available answer for it.
But I'm not gonna delude myself for a second into believing it's a good answer.
Self-defense is a thin list of things that might give you a chance. But just a chance. If there was something reliable, criminals would change their tactics.
Take that back-- there is something reliable. And that is victim behavior. There are exceptions (and our entire goal as SD instructors is to turn our students into those exceptions) but those exceptions are rare. Almost all victims freeze under a flurry and their hands go up to protect their faces. Most people yanked try to pull away instead of step in. Most men (even very well-trained ones) try to instinctively use the body mechanics of a Monkey Dance fight, with the shitty base and poor body mechanics and wide open centerline that comes with that. On some level almost all humans when they perceive themselves to be under attack by another human, try to communicate. What fighting they do is (subconsciously) intended to send a message, not to eliminate a threat.
It's not conscious, but criminals know this stuff and they count on it. And it works.
But that's an aside.
Close range knife assault. Caught in a riot. Being a civilian on the receiving end of an active shooter scenario. There is stuff you can do for all of them, but there is nothing with a guaranteed outcome and sometimes the best possible outcome (the shooter only got one person--that's how you knew-- and you got him) still leaves two grievously wounded or dead people and a messy aftermath.
No good answers. Whatever you have, if you are sure about it, you are wrong. Don't get comfortable.
Sunday, August 05, 2012
Paraphrased and From Memory
Darin Yee:
People misunderstand the five animals. All arts have all five, but they pretend to ignore some or emphasize them differently. The Dragon is structure and breathing, all of the stuff that is really subtle but has a big effect. The Crane is about flow and continuous movement. The Snake is about speed and flexibility. The Leopard is stealth and cunning. The Tiger is power.
That's it. You need all five of these to fight. At some level you need cunning and power, speed and flow and the subtle things. Every workable system has them all.
Van Canna:
It's the people. I worked at my job for a long time but never made friends like I have through martial arts. When things get bad and the end gets close, what do you have, really? Nothing but friends.
George Mattson:
Tell Kimmi (for some reason he always calls her Kimmi instead of Kami) she has to be here next year. People are still talking about the belly-dance class for martial artists workshop she taught. You're okay, Rory, but Kami is really something special. Get her here next year.
Greg Postal:
You've been busting my balls, my turn to call you on your bullshit. It wasn't chance. Conscious or not everyone involved made that decision. EVERY good leader thought they were a better XO (Executive Officer) than they were a leader. People wind up in the position other people need them to be in.
Kami, Robb Buckland, Clyde Bagley and about a dozen other people in different times and contexts:
I missed you.
Absolutely mutual.
People misunderstand the five animals. All arts have all five, but they pretend to ignore some or emphasize them differently. The Dragon is structure and breathing, all of the stuff that is really subtle but has a big effect. The Crane is about flow and continuous movement. The Snake is about speed and flexibility. The Leopard is stealth and cunning. The Tiger is power.
That's it. You need all five of these to fight. At some level you need cunning and power, speed and flow and the subtle things. Every workable system has them all.
Van Canna:
It's the people. I worked at my job for a long time but never made friends like I have through martial arts. When things get bad and the end gets close, what do you have, really? Nothing but friends.
George Mattson:
Tell Kimmi (for some reason he always calls her Kimmi instead of Kami) she has to be here next year. People are still talking about the belly-dance class for martial artists workshop she taught. You're okay, Rory, but Kami is really something special. Get her here next year.
Greg Postal:
You've been busting my balls, my turn to call you on your bullshit. It wasn't chance. Conscious or not everyone involved made that decision. EVERY good leader thought they were a better XO (Executive Officer) than they were a leader. People wind up in the position other people need them to be in.
Kami, Robb Buckland, Clyde Bagley and about a dozen other people in different times and contexts:
I missed you.
Absolutely mutual.
Friday, August 03, 2012
I'll Sleep Later
It's not insomnia. Because I'm not tired. Last night it was just too hot to sleep. Today, though drowsy in the afternoon, I don't feel tired at all. Energized.
Rob once said that being sleep deprived was just the natural state of operators. The odd hours, the shift work, the obsession with the perimeter (however you define the perimeter) always half-awake listening for the pager... you don't sleep much or often or well. Your body finds a new steady state, a homeostasis of functional sleep deprivation.
I'll make myself sleep soon. Another big day tomorrow. But for now I feel like riding the wave, running out the energy. Writing (since all the people I would consider brawling with are already asleep, snoring softly).
Good day today. I don't study karate. As far as I know there isn't a Uechi instructor within 200 miles of my base. I can make a long list of all the things I don't have in common with this group, martially... and yet I love being here. Tried to put it in words today. Good people, a big family, many brilliant (research physicians, counselors, scientists, investigators) many talented (champions, athletes, martial pioneers) many dedicated (people who have studied, for the purpose of comparing, similar systems from Okinawa and China). But deep down, I think I love them because at the very base so many people here are thugs. Sorry if that sounds like a harsh word. 'Thug' is what I used to insist on when anyone seemed to be romanticizing violence: "I don't do this for noble purposes, I do this for money."
It was never really true, Marc would call me on the 'lie to children.' It was never about the paycheck and I always committed to doing the right thing-- but that's something you can say from the experienced end of it. For a beginner to rationalize it... let's just say that there appears to be no limit to the evil a person can do if they feel they are righteous.
This group though, more than almost any I have encountered, know what they are doing. They know the cost of it. The old dragons here have put people down and avoided being put down. Street time, bar time and jail time... they've done it, and survived and hung together.
And so I feel good here. Watching George as the master strategist he is (you see the effects, but never what he does). Hanging with Bear, who knows his dark side. Joking and drinking with Robb (though we haven't had to avoid police in a couple of years-- I think he's getting old). Getting my brain analyzed by Greg and my motion by Bill. Watching R slay her demons with every stroke of her bo. And the new generation of talent...
It's all good. Time to force some sleep.
Rob once said that being sleep deprived was just the natural state of operators. The odd hours, the shift work, the obsession with the perimeter (however you define the perimeter) always half-awake listening for the pager... you don't sleep much or often or well. Your body finds a new steady state, a homeostasis of functional sleep deprivation.
I'll make myself sleep soon. Another big day tomorrow. But for now I feel like riding the wave, running out the energy. Writing (since all the people I would consider brawling with are already asleep, snoring softly).
Good day today. I don't study karate. As far as I know there isn't a Uechi instructor within 200 miles of my base. I can make a long list of all the things I don't have in common with this group, martially... and yet I love being here. Tried to put it in words today. Good people, a big family, many brilliant (research physicians, counselors, scientists, investigators) many talented (champions, athletes, martial pioneers) many dedicated (people who have studied, for the purpose of comparing, similar systems from Okinawa and China). But deep down, I think I love them because at the very base so many people here are thugs. Sorry if that sounds like a harsh word. 'Thug' is what I used to insist on when anyone seemed to be romanticizing violence: "I don't do this for noble purposes, I do this for money."
It was never really true, Marc would call me on the 'lie to children.' It was never about the paycheck and I always committed to doing the right thing-- but that's something you can say from the experienced end of it. For a beginner to rationalize it... let's just say that there appears to be no limit to the evil a person can do if they feel they are righteous.
This group though, more than almost any I have encountered, know what they are doing. They know the cost of it. The old dragons here have put people down and avoided being put down. Street time, bar time and jail time... they've done it, and survived and hung together.
And so I feel good here. Watching George as the master strategist he is (you see the effects, but never what he does). Hanging with Bear, who knows his dark side. Joking and drinking with Robb (though we haven't had to avoid police in a couple of years-- I think he's getting old). Getting my brain analyzed by Greg and my motion by Bill. Watching R slay her demons with every stroke of her bo. And the new generation of talent...
It's all good. Time to force some sleep.
Wednesday, August 01, 2012
The Next Five Days
Last night: Red-eye flight to Boston. Couldn't sleep on the plane, as usual.
Today: Jeff picked me up at the airport, despite the delay (the one checked bag went missing then reappeared) then wander the Boston waterfront, trying to stay awake. Beautiful hikes, humid and sweaty until the rain broke and then very nice. Too slagged to meet with the gang (the 'Handlers') slept a bit, through calls and texts.
Tomorrow: Film. Fill-in scenes and re-shoots for "Logic of Violence" and shoot (working title) "Everything There is to Know About Joint Locks." Original plan was to shoot "Drills" but David agreed it was a little ambitious to try to knock anything definitive out in one day. Re-think, plan, script and shoot that in the spring. It will be good times with good people, including my ECBT (East Coast Brain Trust).
Friday: Meet up with Harry and get to Plymouth in time to teach two classes at George Mattson's Summerfest. Then two more Saturday and whatever on Sunday. A good time to play with good people. There will be some of the Old Dragons there-- George, of course but also Jimmy and Bill and Van and probably Art and... names you may not know and if you are a martial artist, that is a shame.
Good skill building followed, if the pattern holds, by good talks and maybe a wee dram of fine scotch. Just found a new one, Ledaig, at one of my favorite stores, Federal Wine and Spirits.
Then a week of hanging with friends, hiking, writing...
Today: Jeff picked me up at the airport, despite the delay (the one checked bag went missing then reappeared) then wander the Boston waterfront, trying to stay awake. Beautiful hikes, humid and sweaty until the rain broke and then very nice. Too slagged to meet with the gang (the 'Handlers') slept a bit, through calls and texts.
Tomorrow: Film. Fill-in scenes and re-shoots for "Logic of Violence" and shoot (working title) "Everything There is to Know About Joint Locks." Original plan was to shoot "Drills" but David agreed it was a little ambitious to try to knock anything definitive out in one day. Re-think, plan, script and shoot that in the spring. It will be good times with good people, including my ECBT (East Coast Brain Trust).
Friday: Meet up with Harry and get to Plymouth in time to teach two classes at George Mattson's Summerfest. Then two more Saturday and whatever on Sunday. A good time to play with good people. There will be some of the Old Dragons there-- George, of course but also Jimmy and Bill and Van and probably Art and... names you may not know and if you are a martial artist, that is a shame.
Good skill building followed, if the pattern holds, by good talks and maybe a wee dram of fine scotch. Just found a new one, Ledaig, at one of my favorite stores, Federal Wine and Spirits.
Then a week of hanging with friends, hiking, writing...
Friday, July 27, 2012
Movement
My legs are shot. Have been for a while. Very tiny broken bone in the socket of my big toe. Broke it the first time in a match a long time ago and every time it almost heals it re-breaks. On the same side, the ankle is popped. Finally got some good advice from a physical therapist and it is slowly improving. On the other side, I tried to brace to block a pair of rolling bodies in Greece last month and something popped from my knee to my hip. It doesn't hurt most of the time, but the knee has collapsed suddenly a couple of times since then and the hip doesn't like certain angles at all...
Just whining. It has interfered with working out and I can feel my wind getting weaker, imagine my legs atrophying...
Movement is a physical skill and takes physical practice. It does degrade over time.
Not quite changing the subject-- went caving yesterday with my son. I used to love it, but years ago, when I hit that stage where my adrenal glands were completely burned out, I gave it up. I gave a lot of things up. Caving became just a hike underground. Kayaking was a cold, wet, upper-body workout. Climbing Mt. Adams was just a cold uphill hike in the snow. No adrenaline, no thrill, no joy. The petty annoyance of getting the gear together wasn't balanced by the excitement of the climb anymore.
Anyway, the boy said we hadn't hit a cave together in a long time. Years, in fact. And he wanted to. And hike and shoot a little, as well. Side effect of all the travel and my lovely wife reorganizing our home multiple times while I was away, I couldn't find my technical gear. Somewhere in the house or the garage is a big bag of carabiners and jumars and webbing and extra helmets and gloves and kneepads and... couldn't find it.
So, since it was all free solo, we limited the climbing. Some.
At first, everything hurt. Knees, ankle, broken toe. And I was clumsy. Clumsy by my own standards, anyway. In a lava tube, you spend most of the time moving over breakdown, piles of rock fallen from the ceiling. It is the ultimate broken-country hiking. The lava has never weathered and is sharp. Some is stable, much is not and shifts under your feet. Holes and spikes. Slippery areas from the constant drip.
I remembered, in that dark place, that this was what I loved. Not the view, although it is always cool to see something rare. But the feeling of moving, swiftly, reading the rocks with a glance but mostly by feel. Adapting as a rock started to roll and using the roll or countering it. I had forgotten, but in the dark I remembered. And my body remembered. Starting like a clumsy noob with twinges of limping pain in an hour I was flowing again, foot-to-foot, using gravity in a falling run sometimes, pushing off boulders or wall with my hands to leap rock to rock to rock... and my ankle didn't hurt much. And I didn't notice the twinges from the toe. The other knee started to collapse a few times, but even that was better.
It was a good time. Found a new beautiful place to camp. Did a little tracking. Got my son to tighten up his grouping to almost acceptable standards. I'll be sore later today, but it was glorious to move like that again.
Just whining. It has interfered with working out and I can feel my wind getting weaker, imagine my legs atrophying...
Movement is a physical skill and takes physical practice. It does degrade over time.
Not quite changing the subject-- went caving yesterday with my son. I used to love it, but years ago, when I hit that stage where my adrenal glands were completely burned out, I gave it up. I gave a lot of things up. Caving became just a hike underground. Kayaking was a cold, wet, upper-body workout. Climbing Mt. Adams was just a cold uphill hike in the snow. No adrenaline, no thrill, no joy. The petty annoyance of getting the gear together wasn't balanced by the excitement of the climb anymore.
Anyway, the boy said we hadn't hit a cave together in a long time. Years, in fact. And he wanted to. And hike and shoot a little, as well. Side effect of all the travel and my lovely wife reorganizing our home multiple times while I was away, I couldn't find my technical gear. Somewhere in the house or the garage is a big bag of carabiners and jumars and webbing and extra helmets and gloves and kneepads and... couldn't find it.
So, since it was all free solo, we limited the climbing. Some.
At first, everything hurt. Knees, ankle, broken toe. And I was clumsy. Clumsy by my own standards, anyway. In a lava tube, you spend most of the time moving over breakdown, piles of rock fallen from the ceiling. It is the ultimate broken-country hiking. The lava has never weathered and is sharp. Some is stable, much is not and shifts under your feet. Holes and spikes. Slippery areas from the constant drip.
I remembered, in that dark place, that this was what I loved. Not the view, although it is always cool to see something rare. But the feeling of moving, swiftly, reading the rocks with a glance but mostly by feel. Adapting as a rock started to roll and using the roll or countering it. I had forgotten, but in the dark I remembered. And my body remembered. Starting like a clumsy noob with twinges of limping pain in an hour I was flowing again, foot-to-foot, using gravity in a falling run sometimes, pushing off boulders or wall with my hands to leap rock to rock to rock... and my ankle didn't hurt much. And I didn't notice the twinges from the toe. The other knee started to collapse a few times, but even that was better.
It was a good time. Found a new beautiful place to camp. Did a little tracking. Got my son to tighten up his grouping to almost acceptable standards. I'll be sore later today, but it was glorious to move like that again.
Monday, July 23, 2012
Identity
"I can't do
that."
Most of the time, people
are thinking cause and not effect, or motion rather than results. "I
can't do that (hit hard, or knock someone down or pull a trigger) because I'm
(too weak, too small, too...)" It's mostly horseshit. You can
do it (get the effect) but you probably can't do it in that way.
Can't do some kind of force
block against a stronger man's kick? Congratulations, you're normal. But
doing that particular defense against that particular attack isn't the point. The
point is to not get hit. Not getting hit is much easier. And much more
personal. Small people and large people do it differently, as do timid
and aggressive people. It's not a one-size fits all.
Anyone, barring vegetative
states or nearly complete paralysis, can take out anybody else. They just
can't all do it the same way. You can't score on your sifu? He can't
block a bullet. Competitor so tough he can take anything you dish out? Quit
using your fists and use a car. This mindset ties back to cheating and a
number of other things. The big idea to take away, though, is to
understand when you are limiting your own options because you have either
chosen or been brainwashed to look at a situation from only one point of view.
But that's not the point of
this post.
"I can't do
that," she said. It was a basic self-defense problem, a question
that has been asked and answered a hundred times. And that's what I do
professionally, so three different proven, workable options off the top of my
head in ten seconds.
"Those don't
work."
"You've tried
them?"
"No, but you don't
understand. I can't do that."
Oh. This was never
about trying to find an answer. This was about preserving identity. Nick
asked me once about students who just don't get it. There aren't a lot of
people who can't get it. There are a fair number who refuse to get it. I walk away from those.
You can teach people who
want to learn. Despite almost any psychological trauma or physical or
mental disability, it is a matter of finding the words and the modality, a way
to communicate and a way to practice. It's not that hard.
But you cannot teach people
who refuse to learn. No matter how enthusiastic they seem or the
certificates they have collected, if they are coming to you to get their world
view confirmed instead of refined (or, preferably, rocked), you are wasting
your time.
Understand this-- they are
not wasting their own time. They carefully sift what you say, latch on to
anything they like, completely forget anything they don't and walk away more
ignorant and more confident than
when they arrived. It is good value for them. That is what they
want.
And when an inability "I
can't" has become part of their identity, they will fight the truth with
everything they have.
Saturday, July 21, 2012
Training Artifact
T stomped down on my knee. Why? It was pressed forward. I could take his entire weight at that point at that angle. A kick to either side not only would have done more damage, but would have been quicker and less telegraphed. We talked about it, and he saw immediately that he had hit me in the one way that would do the least harm. Why? Habit.
Later, D did a hugely telegraphed sidekick (a true kansetsu geri) to the outside of my knee. Her chambering action, had it been applied to the inside of my knee, would have done more damage, faster and with less warning. "It's a habit," she said, "we go to the outside of the knee so we don't hurt anyone." The better to protect the students.
During the targeting drill, I almost wanted to call it off. There are a lot of good targets on the human body. It is not difficult to put a body down. But somethings require very specific angles (in and up on the C1 vertebra has an entirely different effect than straight in) or specific conformations (the difference between gouging a nerve with the tip of your thumb and the pad is profound.)
Skilled martial artists, but almost the whole room was working on reproducing motion, not effect.
Mostly, it was a collection of training artifacts. The trouble with kata, or doing forms in the air, is that you start worrying about whether it looks right. Let me tell you, of the five senses, looking is the least able to tell you if you did something right in a fight. Hearing bone break, smelling blood, the all important feel of a good hit... okay, maybe taste is more useless in evaluating effectiveness in a fight. Maybe.
You want to see if the form looks right, so you remove the obstacles (including the bad guy) from the field of vision to see it better...and so you remove both the greatest problem and the best feedback from the equation. Precision without effectiveness.
The guys who trained mainly by flow were doing it, too. More concerned with whether it felt right internally (you know, each strike felt like a natural extension of the last) than whether any of the strikes would have done anything to the threat.
So, next time you are doing a drill that involves another person stop and evaluate: if I did do this, to this target at this angle with this hand conformation...what would happen? And if the answer is, "Not a damn thing," you need to fix that.
Later, D did a hugely telegraphed sidekick (a true kansetsu geri) to the outside of my knee. Her chambering action, had it been applied to the inside of my knee, would have done more damage, faster and with less warning. "It's a habit," she said, "we go to the outside of the knee so we don't hurt anyone." The better to protect the students.
During the targeting drill, I almost wanted to call it off. There are a lot of good targets on the human body. It is not difficult to put a body down. But somethings require very specific angles (in and up on the C1 vertebra has an entirely different effect than straight in) or specific conformations (the difference between gouging a nerve with the tip of your thumb and the pad is profound.)
Skilled martial artists, but almost the whole room was working on reproducing motion, not effect.
Mostly, it was a collection of training artifacts. The trouble with kata, or doing forms in the air, is that you start worrying about whether it looks right. Let me tell you, of the five senses, looking is the least able to tell you if you did something right in a fight. Hearing bone break, smelling blood, the all important feel of a good hit... okay, maybe taste is more useless in evaluating effectiveness in a fight. Maybe.
You want to see if the form looks right, so you remove the obstacles (including the bad guy) from the field of vision to see it better...and so you remove both the greatest problem and the best feedback from the equation. Precision without effectiveness.
The guys who trained mainly by flow were doing it, too. More concerned with whether it felt right internally (you know, each strike felt like a natural extension of the last) than whether any of the strikes would have done anything to the threat.
So, next time you are doing a drill that involves another person stop and evaluate: if I did do this, to this target at this angle with this hand conformation...what would happen? And if the answer is, "Not a damn thing," you need to fix that.
Thursday, July 19, 2012
WSD
Eight-hour class Saturday in Elko, NV. The sign-ups so far are all women and the host, Subtle Warrior Self-Defense, LLC, specializes in WSD, so the lesson plan is going to go that way.
The outline of what I want to teach is right here and so much of it is not physical. Almost all of it centers on two aspects of the triangle-- Awareness and Permission. Largely because almost every failure that I have seen came from these issues.
The outline:
Introduction and Safety Briefing. Talking points include:
Threat Assessment
Quick detour into Logic of Violence: the questions the threat must answer and what those mean to your preparation.
Prevention by type
Internal Skills
The outline of what I want to teach is right here and so much of it is not physical. Almost all of it centers on two aspects of the triangle-- Awareness and Permission. Largely because almost every failure that I have seen came from these issues.
The outline:
Introduction and Safety Briefing. Talking points include:
- What I don't know
- Understanding what you need
- Chosen beliefs that may be dangerous or false
- Fear versus danger
Bad Guys
- Social (and types)
- Asocial (and types)
- Social scripts gone toxic
- Asocial behavior disguised as social scripts
Threat Assessment
- Potential for danger: Places (including reading terrain); Time; Understanding normal; Personal threat profiles for each student.
- Existence: Time; distance; demeanor; signs of adrenalization
- Evaluation: Primary indicators of social vs. asocial, e.g. proxemics; witnesses; disparity of force behaviors; skill indicators
Quick detour into Logic of Violence: the questions the threat must answer and what those mean to your preparation.
Prevention by type
Internal Skills
- Recognize personal conditioning
- Be rude
- Permission
- Finding the switch
Physical Skills
- Leverage
- Momentum
- Environmental Fighting
- 'A' and 'B' strikes (A are reliable and require little strength or practice; B are reliable but require a little skill or power to pull off)
- Counter-assault
Strategic Skill: Fight to the Goal
I kind of want to add self-defense law. It's not as important for most women unless they are afraid of it, at least not in a legal sense. But some people find that when they mentally justify actions to an imaginary jury, they can act because they have also justified acting internally. Also, the Logic of Violence section can be expanded to look at a crime longitudinally, and the different options at each stage.
Lots to cover. Not sure there will ever be enough time to make the people I care about safe enough.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
