By Matthew Schafer
Copyright 2014, All Rights Reserved
A large portion of my income comes from conducting seminars and it has been for over 10 years. For me conducting seminars is a love/hate kind of thing. It is primarily a "love" kind of thing in that I love the teaching, I love meeting the people, I enjoy the travel, but hands down the number one reason is that I truly feel I'm helping people. Where the "hate" aspect comes in is the perception a lot of other people have of what I do, or perhaps even more the perception that most people have of my industry. Most of the seminars I do are self-defense seminars and when people find out what I do for a living they automatically mentally lump me in with a large portion of the industry that isn't focused on helping people and brush me off with a platitude.
Over the 25 plus years I have been in the martial arts I have found that the industry of self-defense seminars isn't fully respected by either martial artists or by the general public. The reason for this is that self-defense seminars have been around forever and most people have had a mediocre to poor experience with them. When I ask people about their experience with them what I hear over and over is that they're too expensive, they're too cheap so they can't be any good, they're too short and you can't learn anything in an hour or so, the instructor wasn't competent (they either weren't knowledgeable, didn't answer their questions, or they couldn't preform what they taught and made themselves look bad), and by far the most common complaint is that they didn't learn anything... or at least anything useful. I understand every one of these complaints and I have seen them firsthand. When I was a teenager I went to more than one self-defense seminar in my area and they were laughable at best.
The way I see it there are two main problems with self-defense seminars, and the first is that most instructors aren't qualified to teach them. Most of the seminars I've seen over the last 25 plus years were taught by some guy who has a black belt. Contrary to popular belief having a black belt doesn't necessarily qualify you to teach self-defense. One of my black belts is in Songham Taekwondo (ATA style); based solely on what I learned from the ATA I would never dream of teaching someone self-defense. Most instructors with the limited knowledge gained in "just" having a black belt end up teaching a karate class instead of a self-defense class, with techniques ranging from white to yellow belt level. Walking down the floor doing high blocks, reverse punches, and front snap kicks is not self-defense.
I think a a key problem is that people in the martial arts confuse the martial arts with self-defense and see them as one and the same. The thing is that they're not; most martial arts schools teach their art as an art-form and focus on teaching a student their art-form instead of teaching their student to best ways to defend themselves. I, for example, have three black belts, I'm a "master instructor", and the main art I study focuses on self-defense and pretty much nothing in it is appropriate for tournaments... yet most of what I teach during a self-defense seminar I learned outside of my martial arts training.
People need to know a lot more than simply how to punch and kick, they need to know how criminals pick their targets, how they commit their crimes, where the most dangerous areas are and what the most dangerous situations are, and exactly how they should be aware. What is going to be of most benefit to people, especially people who don't intend on committing to regular training, is to be educated on who criminals are, how they work, how to spot them, how to establish boundaries and deal with someone trying to get too close to you, and then how to cause the most injury to the body with the least amount of effort. I've spent years and thousands of dollars studying this and I don't know any traditional martial arts school that teaches it. Knowing how to do a high block and throw a really good side kick doesn't qualify you to teach someone how to defend themselves.
The other big problem is that, from what I've seen, probably about 95% of self-defense seminars are actually not designed to teach people to defend themselves. Most self-defense seminars are actually taught for marketing purposes. Many martial arts schools offer free or low cost seminars to introduce people to their style of martial arts and then pitch them on enrolling in their regular classes. These seminars are marketed as a means for an average person to learn to defend themselves but in reality putting on a quality seminar isn't their intent. I have friends who charge $25 for a one and a half hour seminar and they spend most of their preparation time looking in the mirror and working on their sales pitch. As a fellow professional martial artist I absolutely understand thins, however, this does a huge disservice to the general public, the martial arts, and yourself in the long run. If that is the kind of seminar you're going to hold then that is fine but don't tell people you are going to teach them to defend themselves, be honest with them and call it an "introductory martial arts seminar" or something like that.
Another problem is some people hold seminars that are just all over the place. I saw someone get interviewed on TV who was pitching a three hour long women's self-defense seminar she was holding. When asked for specifics she said the first hour was actually all about fitness and would be a fitness boot camp, the second hour would be self-defense, and the third hour would be about mind/body experience so they would be doing yoga. That is not a three hour long self-defense seminar and shame on her for pitching it as such.
While there are people out there actually providing a public service, trying to teach people usable information, and actually caring about the well-being of their clients this is only a very small percentage of the instructors out there who are holding self-defense seminars. When I design a seminar I say to myself, "OK, my teenage daughter is coming to me for an afternoon of training and right after she is going to be violently assaulted. What does she need to know right now?" and then put pen to paper.
I understand the difficulty of making a living teaching martial arts and marketing a martial arts school in general. It is not easy and there is a lot of competition. Most instructors set out wanting to share their wonderful art-form with the world and end up being a glorified day care center until they have to start dipping into their savings account to pay the rent of their school. Despite this we need to honest with both our students and ourselves.
I don't blame people for not holding the industry of self-defense seminars in high respect. In my experience I don't hold them in high regard either. The world is full of fly-by-night pepper spray salesmen conning college girls with expired products and "rape whistle jockeys" saying, "Scream 'NO!', kick them in the groin, and blow your whistle. That will be $30."
Monday, January 27, 2014
Saturday, January 11, 2014
A Slight Turn Could Save Your Life
By Matthew Schafer
Copyright 2014, All Rights Reserved
Anyone that has any training in any self-protection discipline knows that when it comes to survival awareness is king. Some people take this further than others; I know several people who have developed a great relaxed attitude and their mantra is “keep your head on a swivel” and as they go through life they just calmly keep looking around and keep track of what is around them. I know others that have gotten paranoid.
I have a couple friends that can only sit certain places. If they walk into a restaurant they look around and find a table, never a booth, where they have a wall to their back, a clear view of the main entrance, and are fairly close to an emergency exit. They will go as far as to stop the hostess and tell them, “I’m sitting here” and then mess up their flow on a busy Friday night and piss off the staff.
I understand this mindset perfectly although I don’t advocate it. If the restaurant is empty I’ll politely ask if I can sit in a table (always a table) in a certain area but I’m never pushy and I try to never inconvenience the staff. Having an armed robbery or an active shooter situation at the restaurant while you’re there is fairly unlikely while the hostess letting the kitchen staff know it is ok to mess with your food because you’re a “problem customer” happens all the time. Never piss off someone who handles your food.
Anyway, awareness skills are great and it is a mindset that can save your life. The important thing is to embrace awareness training while not making family and friends feel uncomfortable or paranoid around you. To that end I have four simple awareness exercises that will give you great awareness skills and you can do them without freaking anyone out.
The first is a great exercise that is practiced by everyone from police officers and security personnel to special operations forces, it is called the “what would you do game.” The great thing about this game is that you can play with yourself or with another person. I play this game occasionally with my wife while in the car and I’ve also played it with some younger family members to start getting them to think about their own safety.
The game is simple, as you go about your life you come up with a scenario and ask yourself, or someone else, what would you do? A great thing about this game is that while there are some answers that are better than others there really are no wrong answers. For example, you’re sitting at a stop light waiting patiently and you say to yourself, “ok, the guy in front of me gets out of his car with a crowbar and walks over to me to kill me. What do I do?” Then you think through what you would do right then. There are a lot of situations:
While driving down the road a car tries to run you off the road, what do you do?
While walking down the street you notice someone following you, what do you do?
While in a restaurant a fight breaks out, what do you do?
While on your couch watching TV the front door smashes open and two men enter your house, what do you do?
While sitting in your office you hear a scream and then gunshots, what do you do?
After a while you’ll see that it can be a lot of fun because really it is a mental exercise sort of like a crossword puzzle. You’ll also notice you’ll start to be more aware of your surroundings naturally without having to try and you’ll think about your safety more. Due to this game these are some of the small changes I have naturally made in my life:
I noticed my ice scraper looks like a bad ass escrima stick with an edge so I keep in by the passenger seat year round so I can grab it if I need it.
When stopping in behind a car I always make sure I can see the road behind their rear tires, that way I know that if something happens I have room to drive around them.
I have a couple cans of pepper spray hidden throughout my house in key areas so I can grab them if I need them.
I’ve taken up running because quite often you’ll see that is a real solution to a lot of problems.
The second awareness skill you can practice is simply finding one secondary exit from any room or building you walk into. If you enter a restaurant while you are being seated take notice of where at least one of the emergency exits are. If the kitchen is closest that is fine because they will have a back door. Now if something happens and you need to leave and the main entrance is blocked you will immediately know how to get out. If you enter an office building take a quick look at the fire exits. If you’re in room with only one door is there another way for you to get out? Find one alternate exit in any location you go into. You can even make this into a game with kids, whoever can tell you where the closest fire exit is gets to pick the radio station on the way home.
The third awareness skill is called the “Two Second Rule.” Simply, anytime you go from one area to another you stop and observe the area for two seconds looking for anything out of place. When you walk out of your front door in the morning stop and look at your driveway and take two quick seconds and then before you get into your car stop and take another two quick seconds (anyone/anything around your car or in the back seat?). When you get to work take two seconds to look around before you get out, before you walk around the parking lot, before entering the building, before entering the deserted stairway, etc. This is a great lifesaving skill and you can do it without anyone really knowing you’re doing anything. Basically all you’re doing is instead of just walking into an area and finding out what is there by being there, you stop and look BEFORE you enter and then ask yourself, “is there anything out of place?”
Any place that is an ancillary area where crimes happen you should just stop and look before you go; parking lots/garages, bathrooms, elevators, stairwells, and always before you get to your car and before you get out.
The last awareness skill isn’t really a skill, I guess it is more of a technique. The technique is: keep your body at an angle. How many times have you been in line for an ATM and the guy at the ATM has his body pressed against it like he’s making love to it? That guy is totally unaware of what is behind him. If he just stood at a 45 degree angle to the ATM he could still interact with the machine (and hide his pin number) while being able to simply turn his head and look around him. If he wanted to look the other way he simple adopts the opposite 45 degree angle by facing the other way and now he can see that way.
How about at the urinal? Crimes happen in public bathrooms. By standing at a 45 degree angle you can use the urinal while being able to see the room. At a restaurant one reason why I always want a table is because not only can I move freely if I want but I can turn my chain 45 degrees and still eat and be social but also see the rest of the room.
If you’re standing at a counter at a convenience store paying for gas you could again be at a 45 degree angle and interact with the clerk while seeing behind you. How about while you use the gas pump?
If you’re standing in line at a movie theatre with your spouse are you standing facing the front of the line oblivious to what is behind you? Stand at a 45 and you can still see the front of the line, interact with your spouse, and be aware of what is behind you.
Copyright 2014, All Rights Reserved
Anyone that has any training in any self-protection discipline knows that when it comes to survival awareness is king. Some people take this further than others; I know several people who have developed a great relaxed attitude and their mantra is “keep your head on a swivel” and as they go through life they just calmly keep looking around and keep track of what is around them. I know others that have gotten paranoid.
I have a couple friends that can only sit certain places. If they walk into a restaurant they look around and find a table, never a booth, where they have a wall to their back, a clear view of the main entrance, and are fairly close to an emergency exit. They will go as far as to stop the hostess and tell them, “I’m sitting here” and then mess up their flow on a busy Friday night and piss off the staff.
I understand this mindset perfectly although I don’t advocate it. If the restaurant is empty I’ll politely ask if I can sit in a table (always a table) in a certain area but I’m never pushy and I try to never inconvenience the staff. Having an armed robbery or an active shooter situation at the restaurant while you’re there is fairly unlikely while the hostess letting the kitchen staff know it is ok to mess with your food because you’re a “problem customer” happens all the time. Never piss off someone who handles your food.
Anyway, awareness skills are great and it is a mindset that can save your life. The important thing is to embrace awareness training while not making family and friends feel uncomfortable or paranoid around you. To that end I have four simple awareness exercises that will give you great awareness skills and you can do them without freaking anyone out.
The first is a great exercise that is practiced by everyone from police officers and security personnel to special operations forces, it is called the “what would you do game.” The great thing about this game is that you can play with yourself or with another person. I play this game occasionally with my wife while in the car and I’ve also played it with some younger family members to start getting them to think about their own safety.
The game is simple, as you go about your life you come up with a scenario and ask yourself, or someone else, what would you do? A great thing about this game is that while there are some answers that are better than others there really are no wrong answers. For example, you’re sitting at a stop light waiting patiently and you say to yourself, “ok, the guy in front of me gets out of his car with a crowbar and walks over to me to kill me. What do I do?” Then you think through what you would do right then. There are a lot of situations:
While driving down the road a car tries to run you off the road, what do you do?
While walking down the street you notice someone following you, what do you do?
While in a restaurant a fight breaks out, what do you do?
While on your couch watching TV the front door smashes open and two men enter your house, what do you do?
While sitting in your office you hear a scream and then gunshots, what do you do?
After a while you’ll see that it can be a lot of fun because really it is a mental exercise sort of like a crossword puzzle. You’ll also notice you’ll start to be more aware of your surroundings naturally without having to try and you’ll think about your safety more. Due to this game these are some of the small changes I have naturally made in my life:
I noticed my ice scraper looks like a bad ass escrima stick with an edge so I keep in by the passenger seat year round so I can grab it if I need it.
When stopping in behind a car I always make sure I can see the road behind their rear tires, that way I know that if something happens I have room to drive around them.
I have a couple cans of pepper spray hidden throughout my house in key areas so I can grab them if I need them.
I’ve taken up running because quite often you’ll see that is a real solution to a lot of problems.
The second awareness skill you can practice is simply finding one secondary exit from any room or building you walk into. If you enter a restaurant while you are being seated take notice of where at least one of the emergency exits are. If the kitchen is closest that is fine because they will have a back door. Now if something happens and you need to leave and the main entrance is blocked you will immediately know how to get out. If you enter an office building take a quick look at the fire exits. If you’re in room with only one door is there another way for you to get out? Find one alternate exit in any location you go into. You can even make this into a game with kids, whoever can tell you where the closest fire exit is gets to pick the radio station on the way home.
The third awareness skill is called the “Two Second Rule.” Simply, anytime you go from one area to another you stop and observe the area for two seconds looking for anything out of place. When you walk out of your front door in the morning stop and look at your driveway and take two quick seconds and then before you get into your car stop and take another two quick seconds (anyone/anything around your car or in the back seat?). When you get to work take two seconds to look around before you get out, before you walk around the parking lot, before entering the building, before entering the deserted stairway, etc. This is a great lifesaving skill and you can do it without anyone really knowing you’re doing anything. Basically all you’re doing is instead of just walking into an area and finding out what is there by being there, you stop and look BEFORE you enter and then ask yourself, “is there anything out of place?”
Any place that is an ancillary area where crimes happen you should just stop and look before you go; parking lots/garages, bathrooms, elevators, stairwells, and always before you get to your car and before you get out.
The last awareness skill isn’t really a skill, I guess it is more of a technique. The technique is: keep your body at an angle. How many times have you been in line for an ATM and the guy at the ATM has his body pressed against it like he’s making love to it? That guy is totally unaware of what is behind him. If he just stood at a 45 degree angle to the ATM he could still interact with the machine (and hide his pin number) while being able to simply turn his head and look around him. If he wanted to look the other way he simple adopts the opposite 45 degree angle by facing the other way and now he can see that way.
How about at the urinal? Crimes happen in public bathrooms. By standing at a 45 degree angle you can use the urinal while being able to see the room. At a restaurant one reason why I always want a table is because not only can I move freely if I want but I can turn my chain 45 degrees and still eat and be social but also see the rest of the room.
If you’re standing at a counter at a convenience store paying for gas you could again be at a 45 degree angle and interact with the clerk while seeing behind you. How about while you use the gas pump?
If you’re standing in line at a movie theatre with your spouse are you standing facing the front of the line oblivious to what is behind you? Stand at a 45 and you can still see the front of the line, interact with your spouse, and be aware of what is behind you.
Wednesday, January 8, 2014
What Does A Killer Look Like?
By Matthew Schafer
Copyright 2014, All Rights Reserved
When you think of a killer most people think of someone like this:
However most serial killers look like every day normal people. While young black males in the bad neighborhoods of big cities are responsible for the most violent crime, the typical serial killer is a white male. Here I will put up the pictures of some of the most notorious serial killers in America to drive this point home.
Copyright 2014, All Rights Reserved
When you think of a killer most people think of someone like this:
Monday, January 6, 2014
Going Predator: How to Know When It Is Time to Use Force
By Matthew Schafer
Copyright 2014, All Rights Reserved
One of the most common questions I get asked is how do you know when to use force and how do you know how much force to use. These are perfectly good questions in our civil and litigious society. Most people in our society are so removed from violence they know it is something to be avoided but they also don’t know when it is appropriate to engage in it.
Most people are so focused on being civil and not wanting to risk doing the wrong thing they don’t know when it’s time to use force and they end up trying to reason with their attacker while their attacker is busy killing them. The same is true even with military and police officers. Many times a police officer is dealing with a suspect and they don’t realize when that person makes the jump “person to predator” or from “social to asocial” and they end up getting seriously injured or killed because of it.
In the military they teach you to develop a “kinetic trigger” or a “visual kinetic.” What these are is a trigger that you train your brain to recognize and when your brain sees it, just like the dog in Pavlov’s experiment, you know it’s time put all your social skills aside and engage in violence. What we are going to be talking about in this article is what “predator” or “asocial” is and how to turn them into a kinetic trigger.
I have found the easiest way to put forth these ideas is to first think of a large silver back gorilla fighting with another male. The gorilla will stand tall, make big motions such as flailing his arms, yell loudly, and making a big display of his teeth. This gorilla’s purpose is to show his strength in hopes of scaring off a rival and in doing so maintaining his status in his troop. The gorilla doesn’t really want to fight because that would risk both losing and also getting injured. If the gorilla does fight he doesn’t try to kill his rival but rather run him off. A fight between gorillas will often end with one walking off to sulk perhaps nursing some bruises and maybe bleeding but fights are not commonly fatal.
Now, think of a lion hunting for dinner. The lion creeps into an area he knows his prey is likely to be and he waits until he finds a prey he thinks is vulnerable to be taken. Then, he waits; he waits until just the right minute. He lowers his body and keeps his head low to the ground. His eyes are fixed on one thing and one thing only. He approaches trying not to spook his intended prey. He tries to move carefully with no unnecessary movement or noise. As he approaches there is no emotion to be had, no communication with his prey to be done. Finally he is ready to spring the trap and he charges giving 100% off his effort and catches his prey by surprise. The lion succeeds first through surprise and then by overwhelming and overpowering his prey. Throughout the encounter the lion is not concerned at all with what his prey will do; rather his complete focus is on what he will do to his prey. He never thinks about getting kicked or being on the wrong side of a horn because his focus is single minded on his task.
The two examples above describe the two paradigms of violence, “posturing/social” and “predatory/asocial.”
When people think about “fighting” what most people think about is “social violence.” Social violence is doing violence with the goal not being the violence itself but rather socializing and communication. Social violence can be broken into two categories: sporting and posturing. Boxing, kickboxing, wrestling, and other forms of organized fighting would fit under “sporting.” Here the goal isn’t to kill or seriously injure their opponent but rather best them in an evenly matched contest and improve their social standing.
Posturing occurs when someone wants to intimidate through a show of force. Here there is no sporting aspect but the aggressor isn’t trying to kill or seriously injure the other person but rather make them back down, run them off their turf, or make submit in some way. If physical violence does happen here the goal is not to kill but to “beat up” the other guy and send them home with a black eye, bloody lip, and loss of face.
Social violence is completely avoidable. You can avoid going into certain places, leave places when you feel something is about to happen, decide not to engage in the conflict, and of course comply or submit to someone else if necessary.
Asocial violence is the complete opposite of the above. Asocial is the lion stalking the prey. The goal is not to communicate something or to improve their social standing, rather the goal is to seriously injure or kill their prey. That is very important to realize. If someone is acting like the gorilla you are dealing with posturing, social violence, and the person (at least at that point in time) isn’t trying to seriously injure or kill you but rather communicate something with you. In this situation you should rely on social skills to get out of the situation because your aggressor wants a social response from you.
However, if someone is acting more like the lion then they are “going predator” and engaging in asocial violence. At that point social skills are useless because the other person wants to hurt you. Trying to reason with someone that is trying to stab you to death isn’t going to work. The only way to survive asocial violence is to engage in it yourself because it really is a fight for your life. Once someone “goes predator” you need to kill them or at the very least disable them before they kill you.
It is imperative that you learn how to recognize asocial behavior because if you don’t you will be caught off guard and you’ll be using social methods to deal with the person who is trying to kill you, which is like a gazelle trying to talk the lion out of killing him.
Fortunately if you’re paying attention to you can spot their body language. Before we get into the exact body language let’s talk about the two profiles you’ll probably encounter.
You can tell a lot about a person’s intentions by how they stand. If a person is in front of you in sort of a “ready stance” posture (focused on you and probably talking to you but they have one side forwards and their hands are up, not necessarily in fists but making motions while they talk) then that person is most likely in a defensive mode. They probably do not want anything to happen but if it does their first response will probably be defensive. A person standing in that posture tends to have a defensive mindset and may even have a competitive mindset where if he was forced into action he would abide by the rules of whatever combative sport he practices. A person standing like this will be harder to hit but less likely to attack because they are focused on being attacked.
A person standing like mentioned above is focused on being attacked so a person doing the opposite (standing with their shoulders squared off to you) is focused on attacking. Someone who is standing with their shoulders totally squared off is not ready for anything; they are decided if or when to attack. There is nothing about standing in front of someone and exposing your entire body that is defensive, so someone doing this is more dangerous. They don’t have sporting mindset they won’t follow a set of rules and may, even if unintentionally, seriously injure you. They are usually quite easy to hit because while they are focusing on when or if they should attack you they are not focused on being attacked themselves. This is why it is important to get distance, at least 5 or 6 feet, between you and him because distance buys you reaction time.
Now, how do you recognize asocial? It is often not too hard. Are they a gorilla or a lion?
A gorilla tries to appear as big as possible because he’s trying to intimidate you while a lion tries to appear small as possible because they are trying to go unnoticed until it is too late.
A gorilla looks you in the eyes and makes scary faces because he’s trying to intimidate you while a lion looks through you because you’re just a piece of meat to tear apart.
A gorilla tries standing tall to appear bigger or taller than you; they may also raise their chin so they have to look down at you, because he’s trying to intimidate you while a lion does the opposite. A lion lowers his weight so he is stable and he lowers his chin to protect his throat.
A gorilla makes faces and is loud because he’s trying to intimidate you while a lion is perfectly silent because he is not trying to communicate with you and his face is blank because he is concentrating on his task at hand.
That is how you tell them apart and it is vital that you do. Someone who is posturing and trying to intimidate you is not trying to kill you so you should use social skills to deal with the situation; while someone who is exhibiting asocial traits should be dealt with with violence right away because they are trying to kill you and not intimidate you.
Earlier we talked about a kinetic trigger. I have two such triggers. The first one is if I get hit; not just hit lightly but hit with intent. If I’m minding my own business and suddenly I get hit I’ll turn to face what hit me and my body weight will lower, my chin will go down, and my mindset is “Ok, who is going to the hospital?” The reason I developed this one is because criminals like to attack by surprise and quite often a situation will start with you being hit, shot, or stabbed. So as soon as that happens by brain instantly says “Ok, this is an asocial situation, it is me or you, and I’m going to try to make it you.”
My second kinetic trigger is seeing someone “go predator” or recognizing asocial. A person might start out being perfectly social but as the altercation progresses you can see them change, suddenly their face goes blank and you can see that focus and right there all social responses are no longer appropriate. When I see that change to asocial then that person has my attention.
If someone is posturing and they put their hands on me depending on how much of a threat I feel I might use a joint lock or a pressure point to try to restrain them; but if I detect asocial body language then all restraining goes right out the window because he is going lethal right away so if I want to survive I have to go lethal right away too.
All over the internet you can see videos from police dashboard cameras as they make traffic stops and then get attacked and sometimes murdered. In many of those videos if you watch closely you can see the officer’s screw up. He’ll start talking to a guy who is perfectly social and then the guy will start posturing and may start to resist the officer and so the officer tries to restrain the individual and then suddenly you see the guy’s body language change and the officer isn’t trained to notice it. Suddenly they “go predator” and now it is an asocial situation where they guy is trying to kill the officer and the officer is still not responding with deadly force. The officer continues to use a lesser level of force and ends up dead. If the officer would have recognized it right away and responded in kind they probably would be alive now.
So the final question is, now that you know what asocial is and how to spot it how do you make it to be a kinetic trigger? The answer is simple: you train it. If you want to have a trigger being hit unexpectedly then first make a conscious decision where that is a trigger and then practice where a partner hits you with something from behind and you immediately turn and go into him. Do it over and over all sorts of different ways until your brain realizes “Ok, when this happens I respond with this.”
To recognize asocial and have that be a trigger just get used to seeing it in your training environment. That means take being social out of the classroom. In my classes as soon as a class starts there is no socializing. If I’m addressing the class and someone has a funny comment then that is fine, but when I pair them up and say “go” you could hear a pin drop. No one talks and no one smiles or tries to communicate with their partner. Anyone caught smiling or communicate immediately has to apologize to their partner for interfering with their training and has to do 20 knuckle pushups and ask to rejoin the class. It is very odd at first and people are uncomfortable but when you explain to them that this just could save their lives they start to embrace it. By the time they’ve been in my school a couple months doing anything else just seems odd.
When we take a break or when they walk off the mat they socialize all they want, but by being asocial during training their brain learns to recognize the signs of asocial and it starts to learn that asocial equals me going into action.
Copyright 2014, All Rights Reserved
One of the most common questions I get asked is how do you know when to use force and how do you know how much force to use. These are perfectly good questions in our civil and litigious society. Most people in our society are so removed from violence they know it is something to be avoided but they also don’t know when it is appropriate to engage in it.
Most people are so focused on being civil and not wanting to risk doing the wrong thing they don’t know when it’s time to use force and they end up trying to reason with their attacker while their attacker is busy killing them. The same is true even with military and police officers. Many times a police officer is dealing with a suspect and they don’t realize when that person makes the jump “person to predator” or from “social to asocial” and they end up getting seriously injured or killed because of it.
In the military they teach you to develop a “kinetic trigger” or a “visual kinetic.” What these are is a trigger that you train your brain to recognize and when your brain sees it, just like the dog in Pavlov’s experiment, you know it’s time put all your social skills aside and engage in violence. What we are going to be talking about in this article is what “predator” or “asocial” is and how to turn them into a kinetic trigger.
I have found the easiest way to put forth these ideas is to first think of a large silver back gorilla fighting with another male. The gorilla will stand tall, make big motions such as flailing his arms, yell loudly, and making a big display of his teeth. This gorilla’s purpose is to show his strength in hopes of scaring off a rival and in doing so maintaining his status in his troop. The gorilla doesn’t really want to fight because that would risk both losing and also getting injured. If the gorilla does fight he doesn’t try to kill his rival but rather run him off. A fight between gorillas will often end with one walking off to sulk perhaps nursing some bruises and maybe bleeding but fights are not commonly fatal.
Now, think of a lion hunting for dinner. The lion creeps into an area he knows his prey is likely to be and he waits until he finds a prey he thinks is vulnerable to be taken. Then, he waits; he waits until just the right minute. He lowers his body and keeps his head low to the ground. His eyes are fixed on one thing and one thing only. He approaches trying not to spook his intended prey. He tries to move carefully with no unnecessary movement or noise. As he approaches there is no emotion to be had, no communication with his prey to be done. Finally he is ready to spring the trap and he charges giving 100% off his effort and catches his prey by surprise. The lion succeeds first through surprise and then by overwhelming and overpowering his prey. Throughout the encounter the lion is not concerned at all with what his prey will do; rather his complete focus is on what he will do to his prey. He never thinks about getting kicked or being on the wrong side of a horn because his focus is single minded on his task.
The two examples above describe the two paradigms of violence, “posturing/social” and “predatory/asocial.”
When people think about “fighting” what most people think about is “social violence.” Social violence is doing violence with the goal not being the violence itself but rather socializing and communication. Social violence can be broken into two categories: sporting and posturing. Boxing, kickboxing, wrestling, and other forms of organized fighting would fit under “sporting.” Here the goal isn’t to kill or seriously injure their opponent but rather best them in an evenly matched contest and improve their social standing.
Posturing occurs when someone wants to intimidate through a show of force. Here there is no sporting aspect but the aggressor isn’t trying to kill or seriously injure the other person but rather make them back down, run them off their turf, or make submit in some way. If physical violence does happen here the goal is not to kill but to “beat up” the other guy and send them home with a black eye, bloody lip, and loss of face.
Social violence is completely avoidable. You can avoid going into certain places, leave places when you feel something is about to happen, decide not to engage in the conflict, and of course comply or submit to someone else if necessary.
Asocial violence is the complete opposite of the above. Asocial is the lion stalking the prey. The goal is not to communicate something or to improve their social standing, rather the goal is to seriously injure or kill their prey. That is very important to realize. If someone is acting like the gorilla you are dealing with posturing, social violence, and the person (at least at that point in time) isn’t trying to seriously injure or kill you but rather communicate something with you. In this situation you should rely on social skills to get out of the situation because your aggressor wants a social response from you.
However, if someone is acting more like the lion then they are “going predator” and engaging in asocial violence. At that point social skills are useless because the other person wants to hurt you. Trying to reason with someone that is trying to stab you to death isn’t going to work. The only way to survive asocial violence is to engage in it yourself because it really is a fight for your life. Once someone “goes predator” you need to kill them or at the very least disable them before they kill you.
It is imperative that you learn how to recognize asocial behavior because if you don’t you will be caught off guard and you’ll be using social methods to deal with the person who is trying to kill you, which is like a gazelle trying to talk the lion out of killing him.
Fortunately if you’re paying attention to you can spot their body language. Before we get into the exact body language let’s talk about the two profiles you’ll probably encounter.
You can tell a lot about a person’s intentions by how they stand. If a person is in front of you in sort of a “ready stance” posture (focused on you and probably talking to you but they have one side forwards and their hands are up, not necessarily in fists but making motions while they talk) then that person is most likely in a defensive mode. They probably do not want anything to happen but if it does their first response will probably be defensive. A person standing in that posture tends to have a defensive mindset and may even have a competitive mindset where if he was forced into action he would abide by the rules of whatever combative sport he practices. A person standing like this will be harder to hit but less likely to attack because they are focused on being attacked.
A person standing like mentioned above is focused on being attacked so a person doing the opposite (standing with their shoulders squared off to you) is focused on attacking. Someone who is standing with their shoulders totally squared off is not ready for anything; they are decided if or when to attack. There is nothing about standing in front of someone and exposing your entire body that is defensive, so someone doing this is more dangerous. They don’t have sporting mindset they won’t follow a set of rules and may, even if unintentionally, seriously injure you. They are usually quite easy to hit because while they are focusing on when or if they should attack you they are not focused on being attacked themselves. This is why it is important to get distance, at least 5 or 6 feet, between you and him because distance buys you reaction time.
Now, how do you recognize asocial? It is often not too hard. Are they a gorilla or a lion?
A gorilla tries to appear as big as possible because he’s trying to intimidate you while a lion tries to appear small as possible because they are trying to go unnoticed until it is too late.
A gorilla looks you in the eyes and makes scary faces because he’s trying to intimidate you while a lion looks through you because you’re just a piece of meat to tear apart.
A gorilla tries standing tall to appear bigger or taller than you; they may also raise their chin so they have to look down at you, because he’s trying to intimidate you while a lion does the opposite. A lion lowers his weight so he is stable and he lowers his chin to protect his throat.
A gorilla makes faces and is loud because he’s trying to intimidate you while a lion is perfectly silent because he is not trying to communicate with you and his face is blank because he is concentrating on his task at hand.
That is how you tell them apart and it is vital that you do. Someone who is posturing and trying to intimidate you is not trying to kill you so you should use social skills to deal with the situation; while someone who is exhibiting asocial traits should be dealt with with violence right away because they are trying to kill you and not intimidate you.
Earlier we talked about a kinetic trigger. I have two such triggers. The first one is if I get hit; not just hit lightly but hit with intent. If I’m minding my own business and suddenly I get hit I’ll turn to face what hit me and my body weight will lower, my chin will go down, and my mindset is “Ok, who is going to the hospital?” The reason I developed this one is because criminals like to attack by surprise and quite often a situation will start with you being hit, shot, or stabbed. So as soon as that happens by brain instantly says “Ok, this is an asocial situation, it is me or you, and I’m going to try to make it you.”
My second kinetic trigger is seeing someone “go predator” or recognizing asocial. A person might start out being perfectly social but as the altercation progresses you can see them change, suddenly their face goes blank and you can see that focus and right there all social responses are no longer appropriate. When I see that change to asocial then that person has my attention.
If someone is posturing and they put their hands on me depending on how much of a threat I feel I might use a joint lock or a pressure point to try to restrain them; but if I detect asocial body language then all restraining goes right out the window because he is going lethal right away so if I want to survive I have to go lethal right away too.
All over the internet you can see videos from police dashboard cameras as they make traffic stops and then get attacked and sometimes murdered. In many of those videos if you watch closely you can see the officer’s screw up. He’ll start talking to a guy who is perfectly social and then the guy will start posturing and may start to resist the officer and so the officer tries to restrain the individual and then suddenly you see the guy’s body language change and the officer isn’t trained to notice it. Suddenly they “go predator” and now it is an asocial situation where they guy is trying to kill the officer and the officer is still not responding with deadly force. The officer continues to use a lesser level of force and ends up dead. If the officer would have recognized it right away and responded in kind they probably would be alive now.
So the final question is, now that you know what asocial is and how to spot it how do you make it to be a kinetic trigger? The answer is simple: you train it. If you want to have a trigger being hit unexpectedly then first make a conscious decision where that is a trigger and then practice where a partner hits you with something from behind and you immediately turn and go into him. Do it over and over all sorts of different ways until your brain realizes “Ok, when this happens I respond with this.”
To recognize asocial and have that be a trigger just get used to seeing it in your training environment. That means take being social out of the classroom. In my classes as soon as a class starts there is no socializing. If I’m addressing the class and someone has a funny comment then that is fine, but when I pair them up and say “go” you could hear a pin drop. No one talks and no one smiles or tries to communicate with their partner. Anyone caught smiling or communicate immediately has to apologize to their partner for interfering with their training and has to do 20 knuckle pushups and ask to rejoin the class. It is very odd at first and people are uncomfortable but when you explain to them that this just could save their lives they start to embrace it. By the time they’ve been in my school a couple months doing anything else just seems odd.
When we take a break or when they walk off the mat they socialize all they want, but by being asocial during training their brain learns to recognize the signs of asocial and it starts to learn that asocial equals me going into action.
Sunday, January 5, 2014
Military Training Not Always Ideal For Civilians
By Matthew Schafer
Copyright 2014, All Rights Reserved
Being someone that is into martial training I want the best training possible. Before I go to an instructor or sign up for a seminar I want to know what the instructor’s credentials are and I, like most other people, are impressed by someone who is a former SEAL or from the 75th Rangers or what have you. These guys get some of the best training in the world and there is a vast amount of great information that they can share with you that just could save your life.
Something that I learned a long time ago was that when you teach the military it is a little different then teaching civilians. With the military you have to look at their rules of engagement and plan your curriculum around that; you also have to look at the group’s specific mission and modify your curriculum to that too. I can teach a civilian anything I want but if I teach a room full of military police officers or infantrymen I have to be kind of choosy.
It didn’t dawn on my until a few years ago but the same is true in reverse. You could get a notice that “Mr. X” is coming to town to do a seminar and he is a former Navy SEAL with 146 combat missions under his belt and you get really excited since a guy like that must know some great stuff. It’s true that our fictional “Mr. X” probably knows some great stuff but you also have to take into consideration that he was trained by the military for military purposes. His training is molded to his unique rules of engagement and his unit’s unique mission.
In other words, while he can teach some great stuff it may not be the best information for the average civilian. It could even get the average civilian killed in the right situation.
Consider this, in the military their main weapon is a rifle which is meant to kill at a distance. Also, many military groups including the SEALs zero their rifles at 100 meters. Right there that tells you that the military knows that if a soldier has to respond to a threat it is probably not going to be close in. Most engagements for the average infantry soldier are probably from 25 meters to maybe 200 meters (educated guess). Soldiers with different jobs would face different distances.
As a civilian if we have a threat to respond to it is more than likely going to be anywhere from 0 to just 5 feet away from us. That is a big difference right there.
In the military a soldier is first taught hand-to-hand combat for the purposes of learning to be aggressive. The military doesn’t care about the hand-to-hand skill of a basic infantryman or whether they know the best techniques, rather they know that if the infantryman loses his rifle and is aggressive enough he can probably overpower his enemy long enough to get to another weapon. The military knows aggression is key.
Going beyond a basic infantryman to advanced training the military now cares if the techniques you know work or not but your training is focused on fighting to a weapon. If you are too close to use your rifle you fight until you can get enough distance to use your rifle. If you lose your rifle you fight until you can get to your side arm or a knife. Everything is based on the practice of getting you to a weapon.
As a civilian you don’t have a bunch of weapons on you to fight to. If you did you probably wouldn’t be fighting to get enough time and distance to get to a rifle but rather a pocket knife or maybe some pepper spray. A civilian has to focus more on empty handed skills then their military counterpart.
You might see “Mr. X” teach a great empty handed technique and think it’s great and then ask him why he did what he did and the conversation might go like this:
“That’s a cool technique, but why did you make that big movement there?”
“Because that way my right arm is clear and I can access my sidearm or knife.”
“What if you didn’t have any other weapons?”
“Well, in that case I probably wouldn’t have done that motion. I probably would have struck him with my arm instead.”
Or maybe he’d say that he did the technique in that manner because in Iraq their rules of engagement required a very narrow response, but given freedom of choice he may have chosen to do something else altogether.
Take using a pistol for example; in the military you’re taught to draw your pistol and go from position 1 to position 4 where you present you weapon, put your finger on the trigger, and focus on the front site. That is great training…when your target is at least 7ft away.
If a civilian is confronted at the statistical 5ft and they draw their pistol and present it they are holding it out and are basically begging for their attacker to take it away from them. It is better for a civilian to learn to point shoot from position 2 and 3 so their pistol is close in and protected and then go to position 4 if distance allows. Effectively point shooting from 5ft is very doable.
When a soldier goes into battle they are well armed, have team mates to watch their backs, and will most likely encounter threats from a distance and work to close that distance. A civilian will most likely not be well armed (even if you carry a gun you’re probably not as well armed as a modern soldier), is probably alone or with others who are not trained to watch their back, and when they encounter a threat it will be extremely close in and they will have to fight through it or engage it close in and then work to getting distance. Two very different paradigms.
That is two very big differences that need to be taken into account. When I used to teach the military all the time I had to change my training to fit their needs and military instructors need to do the same for civilians. This is something important to keep in mind when selecting an instructor or choosing a curriculum to teach if you’re an instructor.
As a last example, if a soldier was on the battlefield and they spotted a new threat in the middle of a magazine change they would immediately transition to their side arm, present it to the target, focus on the front site, and most likely engage the target while walking either towards it or at a 45 degree angle.
If I had a firearm concealed on me under my jacket and I’m out with my wife and suddenly a man comes out of the shadows while we’re approaching our car I’m going to judge my response by our distance, what he’s doing with his hands, if he’s alone, and if I detect asocial behavior. If he comes out of nowhere and he is standing at arm’s length threatening me with a knife I’m not going to go right to my gun and end up getting stabbed to death while it is halfway out of the holster. I might wait until he says the next word and then knock his arm out of the way while I step in deep and punch him in the throat using my bodyweight and every bit of strength I can muster. As he stumbles back a few feet and falls to the ground I’m going to move with him and be right there with a stomp to the groin or maybe a kick to the head, but I’m going to do something while he is on the ground. Once I put a hard stomp or two into him I’m then going to turn and scan for more threats while I draw my gun at the same time. Why did I not draw my gun sooner? I was too close and I didn’t have time.
Copyright 2014, All Rights Reserved
Being someone that is into martial training I want the best training possible. Before I go to an instructor or sign up for a seminar I want to know what the instructor’s credentials are and I, like most other people, are impressed by someone who is a former SEAL or from the 75th Rangers or what have you. These guys get some of the best training in the world and there is a vast amount of great information that they can share with you that just could save your life.
Something that I learned a long time ago was that when you teach the military it is a little different then teaching civilians. With the military you have to look at their rules of engagement and plan your curriculum around that; you also have to look at the group’s specific mission and modify your curriculum to that too. I can teach a civilian anything I want but if I teach a room full of military police officers or infantrymen I have to be kind of choosy.
It didn’t dawn on my until a few years ago but the same is true in reverse. You could get a notice that “Mr. X” is coming to town to do a seminar and he is a former Navy SEAL with 146 combat missions under his belt and you get really excited since a guy like that must know some great stuff. It’s true that our fictional “Mr. X” probably knows some great stuff but you also have to take into consideration that he was trained by the military for military purposes. His training is molded to his unique rules of engagement and his unit’s unique mission.
In other words, while he can teach some great stuff it may not be the best information for the average civilian. It could even get the average civilian killed in the right situation.
Consider this, in the military their main weapon is a rifle which is meant to kill at a distance. Also, many military groups including the SEALs zero their rifles at 100 meters. Right there that tells you that the military knows that if a soldier has to respond to a threat it is probably not going to be close in. Most engagements for the average infantry soldier are probably from 25 meters to maybe 200 meters (educated guess). Soldiers with different jobs would face different distances.
As a civilian if we have a threat to respond to it is more than likely going to be anywhere from 0 to just 5 feet away from us. That is a big difference right there.
In the military a soldier is first taught hand-to-hand combat for the purposes of learning to be aggressive. The military doesn’t care about the hand-to-hand skill of a basic infantryman or whether they know the best techniques, rather they know that if the infantryman loses his rifle and is aggressive enough he can probably overpower his enemy long enough to get to another weapon. The military knows aggression is key.
Going beyond a basic infantryman to advanced training the military now cares if the techniques you know work or not but your training is focused on fighting to a weapon. If you are too close to use your rifle you fight until you can get enough distance to use your rifle. If you lose your rifle you fight until you can get to your side arm or a knife. Everything is based on the practice of getting you to a weapon.
As a civilian you don’t have a bunch of weapons on you to fight to. If you did you probably wouldn’t be fighting to get enough time and distance to get to a rifle but rather a pocket knife or maybe some pepper spray. A civilian has to focus more on empty handed skills then their military counterpart.
You might see “Mr. X” teach a great empty handed technique and think it’s great and then ask him why he did what he did and the conversation might go like this:
“That’s a cool technique, but why did you make that big movement there?”
“Because that way my right arm is clear and I can access my sidearm or knife.”
“What if you didn’t have any other weapons?”
“Well, in that case I probably wouldn’t have done that motion. I probably would have struck him with my arm instead.”
Or maybe he’d say that he did the technique in that manner because in Iraq their rules of engagement required a very narrow response, but given freedom of choice he may have chosen to do something else altogether.
Take using a pistol for example; in the military you’re taught to draw your pistol and go from position 1 to position 4 where you present you weapon, put your finger on the trigger, and focus on the front site. That is great training…when your target is at least 7ft away.
If a civilian is confronted at the statistical 5ft and they draw their pistol and present it they are holding it out and are basically begging for their attacker to take it away from them. It is better for a civilian to learn to point shoot from position 2 and 3 so their pistol is close in and protected and then go to position 4 if distance allows. Effectively point shooting from 5ft is very doable.
When a soldier goes into battle they are well armed, have team mates to watch their backs, and will most likely encounter threats from a distance and work to close that distance. A civilian will most likely not be well armed (even if you carry a gun you’re probably not as well armed as a modern soldier), is probably alone or with others who are not trained to watch their back, and when they encounter a threat it will be extremely close in and they will have to fight through it or engage it close in and then work to getting distance. Two very different paradigms.
That is two very big differences that need to be taken into account. When I used to teach the military all the time I had to change my training to fit their needs and military instructors need to do the same for civilians. This is something important to keep in mind when selecting an instructor or choosing a curriculum to teach if you’re an instructor.
As a last example, if a soldier was on the battlefield and they spotted a new threat in the middle of a magazine change they would immediately transition to their side arm, present it to the target, focus on the front site, and most likely engage the target while walking either towards it or at a 45 degree angle.
If I had a firearm concealed on me under my jacket and I’m out with my wife and suddenly a man comes out of the shadows while we’re approaching our car I’m going to judge my response by our distance, what he’s doing with his hands, if he’s alone, and if I detect asocial behavior. If he comes out of nowhere and he is standing at arm’s length threatening me with a knife I’m not going to go right to my gun and end up getting stabbed to death while it is halfway out of the holster. I might wait until he says the next word and then knock his arm out of the way while I step in deep and punch him in the throat using my bodyweight and every bit of strength I can muster. As he stumbles back a few feet and falls to the ground I’m going to move with him and be right there with a stomp to the groin or maybe a kick to the head, but I’m going to do something while he is on the ground. Once I put a hard stomp or two into him I’m then going to turn and scan for more threats while I draw my gun at the same time. Why did I not draw my gun sooner? I was too close and I didn’t have time.
Scanning For Multiple Attackers
By Matthew Schafer
Copyright 2014, All Rights Reserved
When I first started learning martial arts I learned a lot of things that I later found out other people didn’t. My primary instructor was a man in his late 50’s who I would call Master Martinez. Master Martinez was a small Mexican man that still had a thick accent even though he was born in America. Growing up his father told him to tell people he was Spanish because they were more socially accepted by whites then Mexicans, and for the rest of his life he insisted he was Spanish unless he really knew you. He spent three tours of duty in Vietnam while a member of the Army Special Forces before finishing out his enlistment in a training position and moving back home.
His teachings were very molded by his experiences. He spoke a lot of keeping a positive attitude in the face of adversity, being big enough to walk away from people taunting you into a fight, how to survive getting jumped, and he was a very big fan of neck breaking techniques. One of the things he had me do after every technique was to stop and look around to scan the area for more attackers. A technique may start by a punch being thrown and you’d respond with a series of strikes, maybe a throw or a takedown, a few finishing shots while they were on the ground, and then you’d quickly look around to see if there were any other threats you had to deal with.
I never saw this in any other martial arts school and having been taught it from the start of my martial arts career it didn’t make sense to not do it. It was always drilled into my head to always assume the person I was dealing with was bigger, faster, stronger, more skilled, armed, and not alone, therefore I had to be smart, strike first even if he moved first, finish him fast, be brutal, make sure he couldn’t continue, and then expect to have someone else there when I turned around. This is the way I have always trained and it is the way I train my students.
What has changed over the years is the way that I scan for more threats. What I was taught was to look around really quick by moving my head, not much of a technique but a great practice. My technique changed in perhaps 2002 when I had to chance to train with some members of Delta Force. The name “Delta Force” is a civilian term of course and they wouldn’t really respond when I asked them what they did but it wasn’t too hard to figure out. Anyway, I worked out with these guys during our free time for about a week and a half and they had some really interested ways of doing things. I quickly noticed everything they did was integrated; their hand-to-hand skills flowed right into their shooting skills and vice versa.
The clearing technique they taught me is the one I practice today. After you put down a threat you look up and take one step forwards visually clearing what is in front of you, then you take a second step forwards and turn 180 degrees clockwise or counter clockwise (depending on what foot you were stepping with) and clear the other 180 degrees. The foot that is now in front after you’ve turned is moved to the side to put you in a stable stance.
When I do this I keep moving making it harder for someone to hit me. If someone is getting ready to hit or stab me while I’m finishing on his friend those two steps I take suddenly put me out of range. The when I turn I take whatever elbow is on that side and I raise it up and I lead with it so if something is coming hopefully my elbow will catch it.
Another clearing technique if someone is approaching you and you feel they may attack you is to turn to the side. Many times one threat will approach you from the front while another sneaks up behind you. Therefore, if someone approaches you from the front you should keep distance but turn your body 90 degrees to the side and slowly back up to put him in front of you while you quickly turn head 180 degrees to see if anyone is behind you. By doing this you keep your eye on the guy in front but instead of being in between two guys you go to the side and force them to be in front of you.
Of course it is important to know what you’re backing in to, but this clearing technique can be done in about a second and can keep you from getting caught by surprise. If you find you have one guy in front of you and two or more sneaking up behind you it is best to try to escape laterally (if confronted on a sidewalk you’d run across the street and away or the other direction if it was open) but if neither possibility worked is it best to run towards the single threat, running through him and knocking him over. Even if you don’t escape from the multiple attackers behind you, you will at least separate them by running.
Copyright 2014, All Rights Reserved
When I first started learning martial arts I learned a lot of things that I later found out other people didn’t. My primary instructor was a man in his late 50’s who I would call Master Martinez. Master Martinez was a small Mexican man that still had a thick accent even though he was born in America. Growing up his father told him to tell people he was Spanish because they were more socially accepted by whites then Mexicans, and for the rest of his life he insisted he was Spanish unless he really knew you. He spent three tours of duty in Vietnam while a member of the Army Special Forces before finishing out his enlistment in a training position and moving back home.
His teachings were very molded by his experiences. He spoke a lot of keeping a positive attitude in the face of adversity, being big enough to walk away from people taunting you into a fight, how to survive getting jumped, and he was a very big fan of neck breaking techniques. One of the things he had me do after every technique was to stop and look around to scan the area for more attackers. A technique may start by a punch being thrown and you’d respond with a series of strikes, maybe a throw or a takedown, a few finishing shots while they were on the ground, and then you’d quickly look around to see if there were any other threats you had to deal with.
I never saw this in any other martial arts school and having been taught it from the start of my martial arts career it didn’t make sense to not do it. It was always drilled into my head to always assume the person I was dealing with was bigger, faster, stronger, more skilled, armed, and not alone, therefore I had to be smart, strike first even if he moved first, finish him fast, be brutal, make sure he couldn’t continue, and then expect to have someone else there when I turned around. This is the way I have always trained and it is the way I train my students.
What has changed over the years is the way that I scan for more threats. What I was taught was to look around really quick by moving my head, not much of a technique but a great practice. My technique changed in perhaps 2002 when I had to chance to train with some members of Delta Force. The name “Delta Force” is a civilian term of course and they wouldn’t really respond when I asked them what they did but it wasn’t too hard to figure out. Anyway, I worked out with these guys during our free time for about a week and a half and they had some really interested ways of doing things. I quickly noticed everything they did was integrated; their hand-to-hand skills flowed right into their shooting skills and vice versa.
The clearing technique they taught me is the one I practice today. After you put down a threat you look up and take one step forwards visually clearing what is in front of you, then you take a second step forwards and turn 180 degrees clockwise or counter clockwise (depending on what foot you were stepping with) and clear the other 180 degrees. The foot that is now in front after you’ve turned is moved to the side to put you in a stable stance.
When I do this I keep moving making it harder for someone to hit me. If someone is getting ready to hit or stab me while I’m finishing on his friend those two steps I take suddenly put me out of range. The when I turn I take whatever elbow is on that side and I raise it up and I lead with it so if something is coming hopefully my elbow will catch it.
Another clearing technique if someone is approaching you and you feel they may attack you is to turn to the side. Many times one threat will approach you from the front while another sneaks up behind you. Therefore, if someone approaches you from the front you should keep distance but turn your body 90 degrees to the side and slowly back up to put him in front of you while you quickly turn head 180 degrees to see if anyone is behind you. By doing this you keep your eye on the guy in front but instead of being in between two guys you go to the side and force them to be in front of you.
Of course it is important to know what you’re backing in to, but this clearing technique can be done in about a second and can keep you from getting caught by surprise. If you find you have one guy in front of you and two or more sneaking up behind you it is best to try to escape laterally (if confronted on a sidewalk you’d run across the street and away or the other direction if it was open) but if neither possibility worked is it best to run towards the single threat, running through him and knocking him over. Even if you don’t escape from the multiple attackers behind you, you will at least separate them by running.
Saturday, January 4, 2014
Using Keys For Self-Defense
By Matthew Schafer
Copyright 2014, All Rights Reserved
For my first article of 2014 I decided to revisit something I wrote about first in 2009 but have talked about during seminars hundreds of times, it is the subject of using your keys as self-defense weapons.
In my prior article I stated that this is a very common teaching and I am asked about this all the time. Usually it is by a woman who raises her hand during the Q&A portion of training and says she puts her keys in between her fingers before she walks to her car at night, and really I think most of them are looking for me to give them a pat on the back rather than bring this up as an actual discussion.
When this happens I’ll look at her with a little smile and say, “Great! I can tell your thinking about your own protection and you have a plan. Great stuff. You’re keys really are not really the best weapon to use, but it is great that your mind is in the right place.” I learned a long time ago that when someone brings something up about what “they do” you always respond with “hey, that’s great” and then keep moving on. That way they get their approval and you can keep moving on with the class.
During classes I’ll mention that there are better weapons than your keys and I show the ones experience has taught me are better, but I usually don’t go into why keys are not a very good weapon unless we have extra time. However, lately more and more people want me to talk about using keys as a weapon because there are self-defense products on the market now to help you use your keys as weapons more effectively.
In my previous article (“A Common Self-Defense Misconception”) I gave five reasons why it is not a good idea to use your keys as weapons, so now I’ll briefly go over them and then I’ll discuss how I would use keys as a weapon if I were going to.
Reason #1: You can damage or lose your keys and now you may not be able to access your car or home for safety.
Reason #2: If you are close enough to punch them with your keys you are close enough to do something that creates a bigger net effect in the situation. A well placed shin to the groin or forearm to the throat can cause a disabling injury while the keys probably won’t.
Reason #3: You’re still punching him. Most of the people that would do this are untrained and if you are not properly trained to throw a punch and spent a good deal of time driving your fist into something hard (a punching bag is ok but a makiwara or iron palm bag is better) then you will probably hurt yourself more than them.
Reason #4: Anyone who advocates this has never put keys in between their fingers and punched something as hard as they can. I did once; only once. What happens is the keys jam back in your hand and start to twist. The keys jamming back in your hand can cause an unexpected shot of pain that can make your hand start to relax putting your hand and wrist at risk. Plus the twisting keys in your fingers are not only painful but tore my skin enough to make me bleed.
Reason #5: You’ll be without your keys. If everything goes as planned and you survive to call the police they will have to take your keys as evidence and they’ll sit on a shelf until the legal matters are settled. Hope you have copies you can get a hold of right now.
Now there are products available to help you turn your keys into swinging weapons, sort of a modern “morning star,” and there are a few on the market. None of these products are necessary.
If you want to use your keys as a swinging weapon first I would go buy extra keys. That way you could keep your keys in your pocket and have some extra keys that you can use as weapons. You can even buy a heavy clip to add weight and bulk by adding something like a carabiner quick link, or spring snap (various metal key clips you can find at any hardware dept.) and put it on a lanyard. Now just grab a hold of the end of your lanyard and swing your extra set of keys at your target. If you want more reach tack on another lanyard. Not the best weapon but certainly not the worst.
The other option I’d suggest is to take a bigger key, like a modern car key, and grasp it tightly in between your thumb and index finger and use it to stab with. With decent force it will go through both clothing and skin. You really need about 4 inches of penetration into really do immediate damage so this is mostly just distracting and causing pain unless you target the eyes, neck, and groin. I wouldn’t really suggest that unless you had no other options, just because better things are available, but if an armed robber was herding me and a bunch of other shoppers into the back room of a store and I thought he was going to kill us, and then I notice a car key on a desk and his carotid artery just jumped right out at me and looked accessible I just might put two and two together.
Copyright 2014, All Rights Reserved
For my first article of 2014 I decided to revisit something I wrote about first in 2009 but have talked about during seminars hundreds of times, it is the subject of using your keys as self-defense weapons.
In my prior article I stated that this is a very common teaching and I am asked about this all the time. Usually it is by a woman who raises her hand during the Q&A portion of training and says she puts her keys in between her fingers before she walks to her car at night, and really I think most of them are looking for me to give them a pat on the back rather than bring this up as an actual discussion.
When this happens I’ll look at her with a little smile and say, “Great! I can tell your thinking about your own protection and you have a plan. Great stuff. You’re keys really are not really the best weapon to use, but it is great that your mind is in the right place.” I learned a long time ago that when someone brings something up about what “they do” you always respond with “hey, that’s great” and then keep moving on. That way they get their approval and you can keep moving on with the class.
During classes I’ll mention that there are better weapons than your keys and I show the ones experience has taught me are better, but I usually don’t go into why keys are not a very good weapon unless we have extra time. However, lately more and more people want me to talk about using keys as a weapon because there are self-defense products on the market now to help you use your keys as weapons more effectively.
In my previous article (“A Common Self-Defense Misconception”) I gave five reasons why it is not a good idea to use your keys as weapons, so now I’ll briefly go over them and then I’ll discuss how I would use keys as a weapon if I were going to.
Reason #1: You can damage or lose your keys and now you may not be able to access your car or home for safety.
Reason #2: If you are close enough to punch them with your keys you are close enough to do something that creates a bigger net effect in the situation. A well placed shin to the groin or forearm to the throat can cause a disabling injury while the keys probably won’t.
Reason #3: You’re still punching him. Most of the people that would do this are untrained and if you are not properly trained to throw a punch and spent a good deal of time driving your fist into something hard (a punching bag is ok but a makiwara or iron palm bag is better) then you will probably hurt yourself more than them.
Reason #4: Anyone who advocates this has never put keys in between their fingers and punched something as hard as they can. I did once; only once. What happens is the keys jam back in your hand and start to twist. The keys jamming back in your hand can cause an unexpected shot of pain that can make your hand start to relax putting your hand and wrist at risk. Plus the twisting keys in your fingers are not only painful but tore my skin enough to make me bleed.
Reason #5: You’ll be without your keys. If everything goes as planned and you survive to call the police they will have to take your keys as evidence and they’ll sit on a shelf until the legal matters are settled. Hope you have copies you can get a hold of right now.
Now there are products available to help you turn your keys into swinging weapons, sort of a modern “morning star,” and there are a few on the market. None of these products are necessary.
If you want to use your keys as a swinging weapon first I would go buy extra keys. That way you could keep your keys in your pocket and have some extra keys that you can use as weapons. You can even buy a heavy clip to add weight and bulk by adding something like a carabiner quick link, or spring snap (various metal key clips you can find at any hardware dept.) and put it on a lanyard. Now just grab a hold of the end of your lanyard and swing your extra set of keys at your target. If you want more reach tack on another lanyard. Not the best weapon but certainly not the worst.
The other option I’d suggest is to take a bigger key, like a modern car key, and grasp it tightly in between your thumb and index finger and use it to stab with. With decent force it will go through both clothing and skin. You really need about 4 inches of penetration into really do immediate damage so this is mostly just distracting and causing pain unless you target the eyes, neck, and groin. I wouldn’t really suggest that unless you had no other options, just because better things are available, but if an armed robber was herding me and a bunch of other shoppers into the back room of a store and I thought he was going to kill us, and then I notice a car key on a desk and his carotid artery just jumped right out at me and looked accessible I just might put two and two together.