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  • Masters Of Drills
 
In our weekend and four day self-defense programs at RMCAT a typical class may include three or four school owners, about an equal number of black belts and perhaps some police officers. But, there will also be a number of people there with no previous training at all. Hence, we see people with various levels of skill in many different martial arts systems and styles.

In one class, just before the training started in our Weapons Defense Course a student said to me "I feel pretty confident against the knife". Well, certainly personal confidence in one’s ability is of almost paramount importance to success in any activity. But even so, to me this man’s words simply did not represent a rational statement. Equally importantly, they did not reflect the correct survival attitude and necessary combat mindset at all.

As a self-defense instructor my objective is to increase the survival potential of every student in my class as much as is possible in the rather short time frame of our classes. This attendants statement that he ‘felt pretty confident against the knife’ told me at once that he simply could not have any realistic idea of how knives were used by the criminal element in the real world. If I was to increase his odds of surviving a knife attack then I knew that I would first have to show him something about how a real world knife attack might occur. Virtually nobody seeks a solution to any problem with any serious attention until they first see that they truly have a problem that needs solving.

Please keep in mind that I knew that this man’s style strongly concentrated on the knife and knife defenses. Beyond that, earlier I had seen him "playing about" before class with the rubber knives and I recognized that he’d developed a certain amount of speed and fluidity in slapping the knife hand aside and "passing the blade" (as it is often called in his art). But I strongly suspected that this individual had simply become a "master of drills" and despite his skill he was really not prepared for an actual knife defense very at all.

But as an instructor I had to show him this without damaging his self-esteem or alienating myself to him as an instructor. We cannot ignore these factors when we are trying to effectively achieve the changes in motors skills or behavior in our students.

Therefore, I first made the attacks on him with the rubber knife in the same fashion that he was familiar with in his styles drills. I then increased the speed and even the deception with which I made the attacks. This was designed to give him a chance to demonstrate to me his skill and what he had accomplished through his years of training.

I then slipped the knife in my back pocket and began to talk to him calmly about his speed and especially his fluidity and anticipation of the angle of attack. But while doing so I suddenly grabbed his shirt and yanked him into to me as I stepped into him and then pulling the rubber knife from my back pocket I stuck him with it repeatedly in the abdomen like some human sewing machine. He was unable to even touch my knife hand much less "pass the blade" as he had done before.

I "made light" of all this to try to keep his mind "open and interested" rather than at all "confrontational" and I said to him "Do you see that recognizing when a person has hostile intentions and where his hands are and how close you have allowed him to get to you are as at least as important to your survival as the skills you have already so well developed?" Since I had just "stuck him" repeatedly, in essence he had to acknowledge my point.

We then began to work on awareness and perception of distance and the immediate perception of when an enemy’s hand was no longer visible. Thus we had moved past the "set up" of the drill, which he had already mastered. Later in the class he saw how a good verbal "woof" and the dynamic body shifting of the armored "bulletman" attacker further complicated the use of the "passing the blade" skill that he had studied for so long. Yet, I do think that his previous training did help him to adapt to these new, more realistic and dynamic knife attack scenarios much more quickly than otherwise might have been possible. By the last day of the class I even saw him apparently apply his slipping the blade drill successfully on a surprise, rush attack.

Yet, I am also rather sure that if his training had been limited only to the drills in his style and he had actually been attacked at that point in his training, then he would likely have been seriously cut or killed.

By the way, if you expect to defend yourself against a knife in the hands of someone prepared to use it to lethal effect on you then you had better expect to be cut. More importantly, you better not allow haven been cut to slow you down either mentally or physically at all. Against the blade, if you ‘choke’, you die, it’s just that simple.

For training our students for self defense objectives we must train them to be more than the "masters of drills" of our style or system. Stay alert my friends,

Peyton Quinn
   

 

 

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  • The Criminal Mind
    (Parts 1 and 2)
 
Part 1:

Despite the intensity of the armored assailant fight scenarios at our RMCAT Training Center, our instruction is not limited to how to punch, kick or throw. In order to truly teach self defense in today’s world I strongly feel that no self defense program can limit it’s instruction to physical technique skills alone.

This is why I have interviewed scores of convicted killers, muggers, rapists, armed robbers and drug pushers over the last few years. We use this information at RMCAT in designing some elements of our self-defense program. Please consider that it is these criminals that are the ones that commit most of the criminal assaults and these are thus the people whose thought process you need to know something about. Armed with that knowledge you have a far better chance to avoid them and to physically defend yourself from them too. The criminal mind does not operate quite like that of the decent and socialized people that you work out with in the dojo.

At RMCAT we recently finished editing a videotape (Real Criminals, Real Crimes) of these convict interviews with a small group of convicted felons some of whom were multiple killers too. Perhaps the first thing I should mention here is that all these interviews took place out of prison as even most murderers eventually are returned to the streets.

Now, having said that the criminal predator’s mind does not work just quite like yours or mine, let me also point out a significant qualification here too. When I worked as bouncer I saw a commonality in thinking between the people who bullied and punched out others in the barroom and the grade school and high school bullies I had dealt with in my school-boy years.

Understanding the modus operandi of these barroom thugs in my work as a bouncer had ultimately allowed me to avoid most of them in the first place. Yet, I still got many of them to behave as required and without the use of violence. Later in life when I began interviewing the convicts I saw this continuum of behavioral thinking again. Indeed, I would say that if a person was too successful as a schoolyard bully then he sometimes continued and escalated this behavior until he succeeded in ending up in prison.

Finally, especially looking back on my experience in the business world with a software development company that I co-founded in the 80’s (hindsight is often 20/20) I was forced to see that it was mainly the intensity, cruelty and consequences of predator like thinking that differentiated some of the things I dealt with in the boardroom with what I had dealt with in the barroom. It was clear to me that these behavioral mechanics of predatory thinking were simply greatly distilled and amplified in the crucible of the prisons.

My point here is that understanding these predatory thought patterns has application and utility for you far beyond physical self-defense against the criminal element. Knowledge is indeed power. On the street or perhaps even at the office, if you act like a victim you will likely to be treated like one. We will be looking more specifically at what these convicts told me that they looked for in selecting a victim and also what they might see that would make them pass on someone as a suitable victim too. But I will have to save that for part two of this article. I want to close this installment with a story about a RMCAT student who is a fairly young, slightly built and somewhat passive Chinese American living in Brooklyn.

He wrote to me explaining that for the last three years he had been hospitalized about every 4 to 6 months from racially motivated street assaults. These attacks had left him with some permanent disabilities too. Perhaps needless to say my first advice to him was to move into another neighborhood. He was a very meek individual when I first meet him. He walked with his head down, he would seldom make any eye contact with you and his voice was so low I had to ask him to speak up so I could understand him. But, I saw all this greatly improve over the course of the weekend’s training. His physical fighting skill was still relatively pitiful at that point though.

After he left the training he wrote and emailed me regularly. He was amazed to see that he had now gone a whole year without being attacked and hospitalized! He had a few close calls but by asserting himself a bit he had avoided them from going to physical assaults. To me it was very apparent why things had changed for him. Through his understanding of the predatory and bully mind he had learned how to not to look like such an attractive victim. Next month we will examine how to do that and how predators think in more detail. Stay alert and stay safe,

Peyton Quinn


Part 2:

In Part One of this article we pointed out that a potential criminal assailant will be far more likely to attack someone when they have a passive victim. We presented the example of a young man who seldom made eye contact with anyone, who spoke in a very low voice and who shuffled his feet as he walked with his head down. Being smaller than average and a racial minority in an ethnic neighborhood he had been assaulted many times by bullies and he was hospitalized from these attacks.

After a weekend of scenario based training at RMCAT he improved significantly and this made him a less attractive victim. He then went the longest period in his life without of being attacked after this training. Now realize, he still could not really fight effectively, he had just became more "assertive" and he showed less obvious fear when confronted. This man is a fairly extreme example of the fact that how we deport ourselves can determine if we are selected for assault. Once again, the criminal is looking for a victim and not a fight.

We interviewed a number of convicted felons (whose crimes ranged from forcible rape to murder and armed robbery) and asked them what they looked for in selecting a victim. We also asked them what behavior they might observe that would discourage them from selecting a person as a victim. Though greatly compressed here is the essence of what they told us.

Most of them would make some sort of intelligence gathering effort to see what the state of mind was of their potential victim. In my first book I referred to this as the "Interview". For the bully types this would most often consist of some sort of verbal abuse or challenge. An example might be a very surly "What are you doing here?" or "What are you looking at?" Of course their language would be more profane and colorful than what we choose to print here.

These predators would then see if their candidate for assault showed (1) denial, that is if they pretended not see or hear the threat and simply ignored it, perhaps hoping it would just go away ? and /or (2) Did they display other obvious signs of fear like not making any eye contact at all, or if they replied verbally did their voice betray their fear and uncertainty?. Indeed, their initial selection of victim potential even before this active interview stage was made among those who initially showed the more passive behavior.

Among the armed robbers we would hear thing like this: (1) "Well if before I even get into the store the clerk behind the counter sees me and makes eye contact, then I’m out of there" or (2) "I’ll ask him some irrelevant question like ‘Do you have this kind of beer?’ even though I see it right their in the cooler. His voice tells me if he’s scared or if maybe he already knows what’s up and he’s prepared to deal with it, or (3) If the guy stays behind one certain area of the counter, like he may have a gun there or maybe even in his hand already behind that counter, well then I’m gone. I’m not there to wrestle over no gun or to fight, I’m just there for the money and if I can’t get it easy there then I’ll just go down the road where I can".

Armed robbers differ in some ways from bully types. The armed robbers are more business like and also often more easily deterred than just "bullies". The bully just wants to make himself feel better by beating and humiliating another person, but for the most part they still look for passive game and they do not want a fighting contest of any kind.

As one person told us " …so I have him down on the ground and I make him say stuff to me like I’m sorry’ or ‘Uncle’ or something like that? It shows that I’m not such a ‘loser’, if I can control this guy, …that at least I’m better than him, I want to degrade him and that makes me look better to the other people in the bar or whatever"

Hence, we see that they are both looking for easy prey in either case, be it the armed robbery or the bully who attacks others in the bar or even in a street setting. Let me add, this is basically always the case with forcible rapists too. Rapist will very seldom choose a woman who walks with an assertive posture and who appears to be very alert.

But does this mean that we should try to act "tough" around such people? No, it certainly does not in my estimation. For one thing it is most often a real mistake to be provoking or challenging to this cretins. We must therefore clearly recognize the difference between being assertive and being aggressive or challenging.

The predator is very much aware that he can become prey too. This creates an exaggerated sense or an extreme need in him to be feared and to not be disrespected or "dissed". One convict we interviewed talked about jumping over the counter at a McDonalds to attack a cook who simply refused to re-scramble his eggs the way he wanted. In his criminal/predator mind this was being "dissed" and so it had to be dealt with immediately. So how do you think that predator might respond if you coldly told him ,"just get lost dirt bag!"

Yes, some can be scared off by such a display of "bravado", but this is most often tactically foolish to gamble on. It is also just not necessary either. One would do better by loudly and with some assertive projection demand that him to "Back off man! Just back off!" You might not see how different these two approaches are, but to the predator’s mind they are "night and day". "Back off!" most often is interpreted as "Just let me be, I am prepared to fight if need be but it does not have to go there". This way the aggressor has an honorable exit and is not being directly "dissed". But if you say, "get lost dirt bag!" or anything along those lines, to him this means " Your just trash and not a man so I don’t have to worry about you. You’re afraid or incapable of really backing up your threat and so I can scare you off with just a few barks".

Be assertive, not confrontational or even disrespectful. Make eye contact but do not try to "stare him down" in any way. Let him see that you are very much aware of him and his intentions and what is happening around you. Project your verbal boundary strongly, loudly and very assertively.

Of course sometimes it will take more than this to defend yourself, but even these harden convicts told us that such actions will sometimes motivate them to find more "passive game".

Peyton Quinn
   

 

 

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  • The Importance Of
    Teaching The Basics
 
We all know that martial styles can vary widely. There are striking arts, throwing arts, grappling arts as well as those that would combine many or all of these elements. Indeed, I am very glad to see that there is much more integration of techniques from other styles being taught in Dojo’s, Dojangs and Kwan’s today than ever occurred in the past. Sometimes this may be just a one day seminar by an instructor from another style who is invited to show the "basics" techniques of their art.

This was not always so and I feel that back then this situation hurt us all as professional school owners. In the sixties having an instructor from another style or system teach a class in your school was far too often simply "taboo". Back then most everyone seemed to automatically feel that there system was all that was really needed, that it was even complete in and of itself for all self-defense purposes.

But, these day we see our industry maturing and in many more ways than simply "mixed style training" too. Personally, I see NAPMA’s role as a central factor in increasing that new level of professionalism and the openness to new ideas in the Martial Arts industry. This in addition to simply increasing the financial health of so very many of it’s nearly two thousand members. Yet, NAPMA members (though many are primarily TKD stylists) can still be found from almost any particular martial arts style or system that’s out there.

I do want to keep this column concentrated on applied self-defense and thus the theme & title of this article is the "importance of the basics". It is my fundamental premise that the basic techniques & concepts that are taught in the first two to six weeks of proper instruction in any art or style are almost always the very one’s most applicable to a real world self defense situation. Anyone who reads my column each month knows that I all but beat to death the importance of awareness and avoidance and in particular adrenal stress training as being more decisive than skill at physical technique when it comes to a real self defense situation. Master Joe Lewis even told me that he felt it was basically the same thing in the prize ring too.

Yet, so many times I am asked a question something like this "Yeah, I understand the significance of all that awareness and avoidance stuff, but what techniques did you use most often when you were a bouncer?" Well, the ones I used were rather few but I used them repeatedly and they were almost always the most basic & simple techniques of the given art. Be that art Wado-Ryu karate, Judo or some of the elements found in the Aikido or Chinese Wing Chung. Here is the list that space allows me to present here.

(1) The shuto or sudo to the carotid artery. This is a powerful knife hand strike to the side of the neck and it is taught in almost all striking arts styles like TKD or Karate. Many times I would trap the assailant’s potential defending limb with one hand as I struck the blow with the other. Nothing works all the time, some dropped like a stone. But a few others showed little more than a momentary closing of the eyes and transitory disorientation. They were thus able to continue their attacks pretty quickly.Yet, that split second of incapacitation is all that is really needed most times if you press and continue the attack such that the enemy never has no chance to recover and defend themselves.

(2) The outside reaping throw as taught in Judo (Osoto Gari) as well as in some other throwing arts. So many fights do go to some sort of standing grapple that this technique comes up a lot. It can be dangerous to the enemy as he is thrown to the ground rather hard and sometimes the back of their heads will strike the floor from the inertia of the impact. You must step past the leg you are going to reap with your non-reaping leg before executing the throw. The common error is to attempt the throw too far away from the enemy. You need to be shoulder to shoulder on the throwing side of the enemy.

(3) The basic chokes. Mainly the "grumas" of the Japanese arts but no matter what you call them they are all about the same. The Brazilian’s jujitsu people teach them very well and call one "Mate De lion" or killing the lion". Knowing how to apply a good solid choke like this is a key self-defense skill. The most useful ones are done from behind the enemy. You must learn to be immediately be aware of when the enemy has passed out and the technique can be released.

(4) The basic front kick to the groin. I do not feel kicking above the waist should be attempted in any real fight.

(5) The knee strike to the groin or the side of the thigh (a nerve center).

This is not a complete list of course, but these were the main ones I used. Please keep in mind how basic they all are.

Yet, in the safety of our schools when we spar things are much different. We know that the simple and basic techniques, that is the ones that can carry true damaging power can almost always be avoided by our training partners who trains in our own style. Hence, sometimes the tendency is to put together "tricky combinations" and esoteric and complex techniques to "score" on the training partner or tournament opponent. But these things have no real application to a real self-defense situation at all. They are dangerous for you to even attempt in a real fight. There is simply no "scoring" in a real fight. Even if you managed to tag him three times with such tricky" but non disabling shots (and to do so you would truly have to be an exceptional martial artist) none of that will matter at all when he hits you with that one simple knock out shot.

Train your students well on the basics. From time to time have them all return to practicing these basic techniques regardless of rank. And if it is a strike, then have them actually hit something like a Tai pad or air shield and not just the air.

Most of all teach them to stay out of fights in the first place and that either they are in control of themselves or someone else is.
Peace to you all

Peyton
   

 

 

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  • Towards Understanding
    The "Book Of Five Rings"
 
I think I was about 13 years old when I first read "A Book of Five Rings". This is the book on strategy and "swordsmanship" written by the legendary, feudal era samurai, Mushashi.

At that tender age of 13 I had been in more than a few schoolyard scraps but my experience with "combat" was much too limited for me to make much sense of what I read in that grim swordsman’s book.

Now however, at age 51, and having had to spill some blood and having had mine spilled too in actual combat, the samurai’s book makes a bit more sense to me. I certainly do not pretend to grasp it in its entirety. I am not sure anyone could really. Further, I might even be accused of the mindset of: "To a man with a Hammer, everything looks like a nail" None the less I want to try explain to you my interpretations of a small but significant part of Musashi’s work.

Consider this passage "Think neither of victory nor of yourself but only of cutting and killing your enemy". Thirty-eight years ago those words sounded more like macho bravado than any practical insight into the reality of personal combat. But today, they mean something entirely different to me.

To understand this consider the converse of Mushashi’s statement, which might read, "If you are thinking of victory or of yourself then you can not be thinking only of cutting and killing your enemy"

Now why would that be and what does all this really mean? I believe that this experienced samurai is using these words to express an abstract thought which in the language and culture of his day could not be expressed any more clearly than he did. If we are thinking of "victory" or of "ourselves" then we are still trapped in our self-aware minds! This experienced swordsman and slayer knew that in the heat of battle (fog of battle?) that a person was not often capable of acting out of their self-aware consciousness. He knew that facing another man with a three foot razor sharp piece of steel in his skilled hands was a very adrenal stress-eliciting event!

Under that adrenal rush it is not our self-aware minds that control our movement or our "sword". The mind that is capable of thinking of "victory" or of "ourselves" is thus not the mind that can control our or actions under the adrenal rush of a life and death encounter. Hence, he offers this simple prohibition "Think neither of victory or of yourself but only of cutting and killing your enemy".

A corollary to this is to not to overly rely "technique skill" to save you since this type of training may reside solely in one’s self aware mind too and not in the adrenal, non self-aware mind of combat.

"Some people hope to win by using Crow’s foot or by leaping and hopping, But no matter how much leaping and hopping you do, it is never really justified". Here he is saying that the battle is not won by "tricks" or techniques or even longer swords as much as the aforementioned proper mindset that is able to control and employ the altered adrenal state of actual combat. Let’s not forget that Mushashi choose to use a wooden "sword" to kill a very experienced samurai who wielded as splendid katana. By accounts the day he did so with a single stroke too, that is a single, simple "technique".

Musashi also points out: "The voice is a thing of life, we shout at the fires, we shout at the sea". Here he is telling us to shout in combat as well. Even if our enemy seems as fierce as a "fire", or as vast and powerful as the "sea", we shout to engage them. In most striking arts today we still have the "Kiyai" type shouting when we strike (even though now days it is mostly used only in "breaking" demonstrations).

Why does Musashi advise us to shout in combat? Because if we are shouting then we cannot be holding our breath! Again, he knew that under the tremendous adrenal rush the inexperienced warrior tends to hold his breath in a fight. I must point out that we see this a lot in our RMCAT Training too. In their first few fight scenarios we see young, strong martial artists with excellent cardio vascular conditioning become totally exhausted in less than 30 seconds under the adrenal stress of the fight simulations. Why? Because, as they later see in the videotape, they were holding their breath during almost that entire fight!

We thus advise the attendants of our training from the very outset to shout in the fights. When they do start to shout in the fights we see that their stamina not only dramatically increases, but their motor skill control and power does as well. It is then that we begin to see some effective martial technique too (and frankly, seldom before).

I think that when we attempt to study the written words of the ancient combat masters (those with actual combat experience) then we often need to see them in the light of what we know today about the physiological effects of adrenal stress on the mind and body.

Stay alert my friends, and may peace be with you all.

Peyton Quinn
   

 

 

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