Mental disconnect in martial arts theory

Oni_Kadaki

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I've only been in one fight where anything significant was on the line, and that gives me pause when teaching anything applied, let alone when a weapon is involved.

That being said, I teach my students that anything you do in self-defense is going to involve a calculation of risk to benefit, as well as an assessment of alternatives. These things may be done consciously or unconsciously, but they should occur. In my one fight, I subdued the guy, who had tried to strangle me, and then let go of him to grab my phone and call the cops. At that point he retreated and returned with a razor. At that point, I retreated, barricaded the door, and grabbed my firearm while waiting for the cops to arrive.

Many, many assessments of risk and benefit occurred in that altercation. They were going through the entirety of the verbal escalation leading up to it. When my attacker grabbed and then tackled me, my assessment of risk told me that a triangle choke was too risky, leading me to pull guard, flip him around, and go for a safer rear naked choke. My risk assessment said that a loss of control when going for my phone was worth the knowledge that the police would be on their way. When he grabbed the razor, I was in no way confident enough to take him on unarmed, and I knew that if I brandished my firearm, there was no way to ensure the situation would de-escalate, and so, not accepting that risk, I barricaded myself and waited for backup. For those of you who are wondering, I didn't do that in the first place because there was an unconscious third party present, and the initial attack was at him, not me.

All that is to say that, while I'm glad I have training in knife/club/gun disarms, the fact that many martial arts teachers have never had to use their craft in general, let alone against a weapon, makes for the dearth of real-life data OP described. As such, while I avoid fights in general, I especially avoid dealing with weapons unless I have my own in hand. It's too much risk for too little benefit under all but the most extreme circumstances.
 

Monkey Turned Wolf

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Those walls we put up have a lifespan don't they. Eventually they come down.
They only come down if you let them...I'm technically qualified (as per US govt) to help people with that sort of PTSD but I refuse to do so, since I feel without experience I'm not qualified for it.

That said, IMO it's best to let those walls down with a therapist (with experience with that), and learn to cope with it. Those feelings, nightmares/flashback/guilt/shame/terror/whatever you're experiencing don't have to last forever. But if you don't get help, they might.

Again, as I said, I may not have experienced it, but I truly thank you and @Danny T for what you have done, allowing the rest of use to live in this country safely, and not having to go through those same things, selfish as it may be.
 

Bruce7

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Another thought - just about all of the successful knife disarms I've seen on video or heard about anecdotally were situations where the knife wielder was brandishing the knife to threaten and not really committing to an attack.
Excellent video
 

Bruce7

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They were excellent police officers, they gave that man every possible chance to live.
In Houston most officers would empty their clip at the first sign of trouble.
These officers show remarkable restrain.

One thing is confessing did he put his gun in his holster rather kill the man, thinking he could disarm him?
 

Gerry Seymour

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They were excellent police officers, they gave that man every possible chance to live.
In Houston most officers would empty their clip at the first sign of trouble.
These officers show remarkable restrain.

One thing is confessing did he put his gun in his holster rather kill the man, thinking he could disarm him?
I assume you meant "one thing is confusing"?
 

Danny T

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They were excellent police officers, they gave that man every possible chance to live.
In Houston most officers would empty their clip at the first sign of trouble.
These officers show remarkable restrain.

One thing is confessing did he put his gun in his holster rather kill the man, thinking he could disarm him?
Listening to the audio. I believe he was going to his taser. Got rushed and was in process of re-deploying his service weapon. The disconnect was his failure to realize the subject was still life threatening and going to a non-lethal weapon.
 

Bruce7

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Listening to the audio. I believe he was going to his taser. Got rushed and was in process of re-deploying his service weapon. The disconnect was his failure to realize the subject was still life threatening and going to a non-lethal weapon.
Thank you that explains a lot. I respect him very much for not wanting to take a life.
 

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