January, 2000 By Tom Callos
The objective of this drill (which is one of the most elementary drills at RMCAT) is to allow the student a low intensity adrenal experience in which they must perform a motor skill.
The student's task is to get past the aggressive and verbally challenging instructor.
The student must not present or use the bat until a weapon is seen or the student sees the movement that is a precursor to the drawing of the weapon.
They are to strike at the weapon hand only until he is subdued or loses the knife. Then quickly pass by the attacker and through the "portal of safety"..
It sounds very simple, yet many students get an adrenal rush such that they lose some motor control.
This manifests itself by wild swings that that miss the knife hand completely. Or the student ,in their haste and anxiousness to get past the attacker and through the portal of safety, will sometimes actually run into the knife themselves.
The real objective is to show how even a little stress from the barking threats and the projection of evil intent by the "knifer" can cause the student to lose the ability to coordinate this simple hand eye motor skill.
Some students report even in this drill that their hearing shuts down and they unconsciously hold their breath.
Thus in just the few seconds this drill might take they are already winded and breathing very hard and fast.
Think this could not happen to you at all?
Well, the fact is that many people feel this way, but only before they do this drill.
THE ARMORED ASSAILANTS
The armored assailants may seem to be the "heart of the program"
Yet, thee is much more to the RMCAT method of instruction than the armored assailants alone.
It is tremendously demanding job to instruct in the armor. It takes lot of different skills, acting, martial skills, and the unique training and experience to take the kind of blows an adrenal zed person can strike and not be injured. It is an armored instructors skill that keeps the student from getting injured too.
I say this not to impress you, but to impress upon you the value of Peyton Quinn, his ideas and his concept of “ adrenaline stress conditioning through scenario Based training”
Self-defense expert Peyton Quinn’s book Real Fighting (Paladin press) could just as easily been titled “All I really need to Know about Self Defense I learned in Grade School”. What Quinn has learned from being harassed by a bully as a13 year old ended up being many of the same lessons he learned when he worked as barroom bouncer.
In the preface to “Real Fighting”, Quinn tells a story of a lunchroom bully in which he learned four fundamental combat tactics.
- Never let your enemy choose the time or place of the battle if you can avoid it.
- Always use the environment and anything else at hand as a weapon.
- Take the initiative in the attack then attack continuously until you’re victorious.
- When attacking, think of nothing else but the attack.
I was fortunate to have been introduced to this art by my pals, who are former bouncers, Mike Haynack and Robert Stein. They had used the principals of Aikido very effectively in their bouncer and security work. That aspect of Aikido became their primary, personal orientation towards that art.
Also, although far all too briefly a time, I ultimately came under the instruction of Shihan Fumio Toyoda. He teaches a very combat oriented and effective style of Aikido in Chicago and is the founder of the Aikido Association of America. He is man with a great sense of humor and true master of his art.
BLACK BELT: In your books and video taps you claim that formal Asian martial arts training often is not really self defense training at all. You seem to believe that martial art training often leaves the student unprepared for a street fight. If that is, what value do these formal arts have in terms of self-defense?
Peyton Quinn: I would never put down or bad mouth any art, style or system. That would serve no constructive purpose and besides, there has already been too much of that sort of thing in the martial arts community. But I am glad to se that there now seems to be less of that my-style –is-better-than your-style bickering than there used to be.
What I am saying is that real world fighting is not nearly so much about an individual’s knowledge of technique or system, but about his or her true fighting spirit and mindset.
Recently I talked with Joe lewis, a true world champion and one of the greatest Karate fighters of all time, about this very subject. He mentioned that even in the prize ring he thought ttat the victor was decided 10 percent by technical skill and 90 percent by heart and fighting spirit. I can tell you flat out that this is also very true in the real deal in the street -and maybe even more so. In an actual assault proper mind set is far more important than technical skill. This is also what I mean when I say, “Perfect intention is more important than perfect technique”
Understand that I have seen and been forced to be involved in scores of real fights, maybe more than one hundred when I worked as a bouncer years ago. After a certain point, I had to conclude that what I was seeing there on Friday and Saturday nights was the reality of it. I also found out that this reality was far more predictable than one might think- and it was more violent and animalistic than many people have ever experienced.
Yet the real skill, that is one’s first best self defense strategy is avoidance.That skill lies in seeing what is coming down the pike so to speak. That is seeing the true intent and hostile agenda of the aggressor before he throws that first shot. That is almost always possible too and that is why most fights are avoidable as well. If you are aware of the modus operandi of the bullies and other potential assailants and if you are willing and want to try to avoid the fight (that is you are not afraid to do so), then most times you really can avoid the fight. This is why developing these skills represents about half of the course material that we teach at RMCAT. Awareness and avoidance may well be more important to real world self-defense than anything else. Peyton Quinn: I can explain it very easily. We are all made f the same clay. For example, I live in Colorado and many years ago there were bars here where they kept a rattlesnake in a closed aquarium. The deal was that one man would bet another (tourist type) that he could not keep his hand on the glass when the rattler struck at him. Now the man being offered this wager would know that he could not be hurt, that the snake could not bite him through the glass. Hence, he might take the bet. Especially since the gambler would offer him odds of two to one or more. But, inevitably when the man held his hand on the glass and the snake struck, he reflexively jerked his hand away. It was really no gamble at all for the “gambler” since he knew from experience that almost nobody could keep their hand on the glass. Also, virtually nobody at all can do so the first time out. This is because we are programmed at a primary and instinctual level for another response to this stimulus .That programming overrides our self-aware mind. It is the self-aware mind alone that controls your actions. But, only the self aware mind "knows" that the snake can’t bite you through the glass. But the knowledge of this self-aware mind is pre-empted by what I call the “frog brain”. That is our innate, animal sense of survival. Real fighting and violence are exactly the same way. Real fighting is controlled not by the self-aware mind so much as this “frog brain”. That frog brain is takes over under high adrenal stress. Any real fight will elicit a fairly high adrenal reaction too. Indeed, this is about the only thing you can really count on in a real fight. This is why it is so essential to train the adrenal mind to teach truly effective self-defense. So when we present the stimulus of the instructor in the armored suit barking and threatening the student, displaying all the primitive cues very authenticly which say “predator about to attack”, it is just like that rattlesnake in the aquarium. The student is cast into that non-self aware mindset and enters the adrenal mind where instinctual reactions mostly prevail. This is a big reason why this training method is so consistently effective, as I said; we are all made of the ” same clay”. The student can’t help but be adrenalized in the scenario, then they discover the real problem in self-defense and they understand immediately why “technique” alone is clearly not the complete answer. Once you begin to train the student under adrenal stress then dramatic progress can be made in a very short time.Further, if the person has some martial training and skill then this method unlocks that knowledge to the adrenal mind. Hence it is then accessible to them in an actual fight. Yet, no martial arts expireince or any previous training is really needed for the course to actualize the bulk of anyone’s real world self defense and fighting potential. This is often accomplished in just an intensive weekend. too. The martial arts people who attend RMCAT often tell me things like “ Even though there are a lot of forms and techniques in my system, my sensei told me that I did not need a lot of techniques for a real fight. I really didn’t understand what he meant then, but now I really do”. Let me also point out that knowing how to slip a blow or punch or to throw are useful skills. But they are only one part of real world self-defense. At least as important as this physical technique skill, perhaps more so really, is knowing how to spot the potential aggressor beforehand, before he throws a shot or even barks out a threat . Knowing how to immediately recognize his “interview” of you for victim potential, not denying it and then shutting it down so tat he moves on to more passive “game”, these are the essential self defense skills. Yet, most people, even advanced and talented martial artists, rarely have much experience practicing these skills in a realistic, adrenal environment. It is thus quite enlightening to them when they come here to see and experience the adrenal mind and the “adrenal effects” for themselves. Until then, all this is often just a non-issue for them. The exceptions are the advanced martial artists that have experienced a brutal beating by some faceless, homeless man that they even dismissed as a threat maybe. They tell us they were unable to use any of their martial training when he jumped them at the ATM. Yet, they report that they had won many a “full contact” tournament. But then they think about it and these people ultimately do realize and accept why they could not respond to the crisis. That is why they come hereto RMCAT too. They have already discovered the true problem in self- defense in the real world and the thus recognize the need for a solution.. They came by that knowledge by the most brutally effective method there is too, actual experience with real violence. At RMCATwe provide a far safer and much more controlled and less painful way to achieve this same knowledge. The training shows people that they all have an innate ability to both overcome and partially control that adrenal dump. That is why we were endowed with this adrenal response in the first place, to deal with the “fight or flight” situation and to survive it.Indeed, the attendants of these weekend RMCAT programs learn not just to overcome the negative effects of the adrenal dump, they also learn and experience how to effectively use that adrenaline pump in the fights.Te result is that even smaller people can sometimes deliver tremendously powerful blows on the armored assailants. I know you have seen that yourself at RMCAT too. It is really the norm actually. Everyone has heard story of a mother lifting a car off her child or some other seemingly impossible feat of speed, strength or power in an adrenal crisis. Frankly, after more than 38 years in martial study this adrenal phenomenon to me is the real “mystic” element of proper martial study. Yet is it truly mystical? I think not in an important sense. It is just that our modern social order tends to separate us from our natural selves, our more primitive selves, or maybe I should say our most fundamental selves. This training shows you that other self within you. It allows people to experience their inner power. Once they do that, then they always know that the “beast in the basement” can and will be summoned up for them in the crisis. Some people call this “killer instinct” but I do not. It is more properly called what it really is and that is survival instinct and we all have it within us for sure. About the author: Tom Callos is a Tahoe, California based free lance writer and 5th degree Black belt under Ernie Reyes Senior. For more information about Peyton Quinn or write RMCAT box 535, lake George CO, 80827, or go to www.rmcat.com,You can FAX RMCAT at 719-748-8557. Peyton’s email is quinnp1@aol.com BLACK BELT: How do you teach that sort of thing?