GaryR
Green Belt
The Way Of The Combat Mind
by Gary Romel, J.D.
www.FlowingCombat.net
Disclaimer; the training methods described herein can be dangerous and result in serious injury or death. Simulating the adrenaline dump alone for example can be damaging to your heart etc. The scenarios described should be conducted with proper supervision. Consult your physician before such activity. Gary Romel and Flowing Combat LLC are not liable for anything attempted, or any advice followed in this article.
INTRODUCTION
The following are the best “secrets” that can be shared with you. Most martial arts establishments fail to properly train the most key area to make their material combat viable. Decades of technical skills are flushed in an instant with improper training, control, timing, and use of the adrenal dump and poor combat strategy and tactics. This involuntary biochemical response is universal to all human beings, regardless of how many black belts are held. Complete relaxation or rage are both improper responses. One must understand the stages of the psyche, the conflict, and how to best control the multiple variables inherent in a combat situation to survive.
It is amazing how many so called “Masters” have never really used their material in combat, nor have had any similar life-threatening experiences that gives them insight into this area. If a teacher does not have such experience, they cannot truly claim to teach “self-defense”, it is dishonest, one cannot purport to teach something they have not themselves actually done. Scenario training can get close, however without the point of reference of a real-world encounter for such practice, it is hard for a teacher to really know what they are doing. Personally, I worked as a bouncer, and at 6 ft tall and a mere 165 pounds, size intimidation and raw physical strength was not an option. Additionally, as a product of my world travels, I have dealt with several hand-to-hand conflicts, involving one or more attackers, as well as weapon-to-hand attacks, which required disarming attackers to survive. Moreover, as far as general adrenaline and combat situations go-- I was a 9-11 first responder, and served in two wars among other deployments. Working under the pressure of potential impending death, and knowing that the lives of countless others relied on my performance under such pressure, provided some unique and vast insight into the conditioning and use of this biochemical phenomenon and the combat mind. Thus, this article is not merely academic, I will not be discussing anything that I have not personally and successfully applied on multiple occasions.
STAGE ONE: PRE FIGHT CHECKLIST
One of the aspects of a conflict that can be best planned is what decisions are made before physical contact. A realistic decision matrix must be in play in order to shorten the OODA loop (“observe, orient, decide, and act”
. This decision matrix must take into account minimization of risk, both physically, and legally. An assault has occurred when one is placed in apprehension of immediate and harmful contact, often confused with the term battery. Apprehension does not mean fear, after all a well trained experienced fighter may not “fear” such conflict, or at least think they can demonstrate such fear in a court of law. Also of note is that words can often negate such immediacy, shaking a fist in someones face and saying “If we weren't at this restaurant I would pound you into the ground”, may not be considered assault. Or, “tomorrow I am going to find and hurt you”.[SUP]1[/SUP] With the foregoing in mind, I have what I call the “rule of range”.
The rule of range consists of drawing a line in the sand so to speak. It is a predetermined distance at which you commit to a preemptive action to prevent harm to oneself. This line should be explicated, but non-negotiable. In the face of the “interview” process, or verbal / physical posturing by your would be attacker, you should say “please don't come any closer, I do not want to fight”. Being both loud and assertive will 1) alert any onlookers to your unwillingness to participate and negate the perception of you being the attacker, or it being a mutual combat situation, and 2) can dissuade your attacker by not making you seem like an easy target. Being overly aggressive is different than being assertive. Insulting the person, or verbally escalating the situation in any way is less than desirable, and will make physical confrontation more likely.
The distance line I prefer to draw for tactical reasons is the distance in which if the attacker were to put up his arms, you could touch his wrist with yours extended, and just out of punching range. Action is faster than reaction, any closer, and the window for reactive success decreases exponentially. At that range, if he moves any closer and so much as flinches, your own attack should be launched, I call this “counter offensive tactics”.
OPEN YOUR NOSE, EYES, AND EARS
To increase your situational awareness and retain the best use of your faculties you must open your nose, eyes and ears.
First, breathe, tactical breathing will help control the dump, but not prevent it. Take four count diaphragmatic breathes. Breathe in and out through your nose (you can also breath out through your mouth), and you can even count during the breathes. During the dump, people tend to hold their breathe, or hyperventilate.
Second, opening your eyes means to scan, be aware that tunnel vision is a huge negative factor during an adrenaline dump. Avoid focusing on just one thing. For example, your focus visually should not be to stare at his eyes, or at the hands specifically, but to make use of your peripheral vision to take in his entire body, so the motion detection can be best put to use. Look over his shoulder or to his side, and take in everything else. This is a relaxed state of heightened awareness and intent.
Third, open your ears. Auditory exclusion can be combated by keeping a listen on your environment, cars going by, other voices. Scan with your ears. The foregoing will help you keep your senses about you.
PROJECT, RELAX, FOCUS
Calmly project your opponents defeat into them. This projection will be felt, it will make him think twice, even subconsciously about engaging you.
Relax. Scan your body for muscle tightness, you can quickly tense and release to help ease any lock up. He may bark at you which can start this adrenal dump with a “what are you looking at”, or “do you want to go?”. Do not let this phase you, if you quick-start your adrenal dump too soon, there are several consequences; one is that you may freeze at the critical movement before initial contact, when that first action or re-action could save you.
Fight or flight is the known saying, but you are very likely to FREEZE. Freezing is one very likely reaction of the adrenal dump. Think of a deer in the headlights, one of the evolutionary survival modes is this act of freezing. It evolved with us so that a predator may not notice its prey. Second, the peak of the adrenal dump is not sustained for very long. Peaking before you need it will not allow you to maximize the benefits of the dump, namely; more strength, speed, pain tolerance, and the tachy psyche effect. Tachy psyche is when the mind speeds up, and thus things seem to happen in slow motion. This allows one to better process the visual cues and react more optimally to survive. Third, using the adrenal dump too early will reduce cognitive function, disallowing access to your beset preemptive or initial contact measures-which are vital. Tunnel vision, auditory exclusion, and limited use of the more fine motor functions are all consequences of this. Alternatively, reaching the height of the adrenal response too late will prevent use of the aforementioned benefits of the response. Namely, the tachy psyche effect.
In this pre-fight stage it is important that you do not fall into a rage and loose control of your emotions. Rage may help the untrained, but it is the enemy of the trained, staying as “calm” as possible, yet alert and ready is best.
ASSESS YOUR OPPONENT
Part of this pre conflict checklist includes a quick threat assessment. Is your would-be attacker intoxicated? Do they hold a posture which would indicate any training? If so, what training? Where is their balance point? What is their weight distribution? Does it appear that they are carrying, or are about to deploy any weapons? What is their mindset; are they in a rage, scared, ego driven? If you notice a knife on their right side for example, and their weight is on their lead left foot, you want to get to the opposite side of the weapon and take out that weight bearing leg/knee quickly, and a reach for that weapon means a lethal force escalation, it's not time to pull any punches.
You must retrain new patters into your visual cortex that signal your brain into recognizing different types of threats. The adrenal dump can further hinder your lack of experience in threat recognition. Criminals know how to act casual in reaching for a weapon, or setting up an ambush or sucker punch. Practice different types of approaches, weapon deployments, and attacks from one or multiple opponents.
ASSESS YOUR ENVIORNMENT
First, Scan. As tunnel vision is a product of adrenaline, actively scanning can help ensure this does not become as much of a hindrance. Scan for specifics: Aside from how many potential attackers / buddies this guy may have, are there environmental features you can utilize to your advantage? Are there features that could become disadvantageous? An example could be something as simple as a curb behind your opponent, an easy trip wire for them. Is there something that could limit your movement? Are you uphill or downhill? Another key factor is the question of the availability of environmental weapons. You will not find golden nun-chucks glowing in the dust, but the dust itself may be of use, or a rock or stick. An amusing story of an environmental weapon so-to-speak, was when a friend of mine was at a gas station, he was confronted with multiple attackers while pumping gas. He was a former federal prison guard and shootfighter, but still made good use of his available weapons. He took the gas pump and jammed it (while running) through the teeth and into the mouth of his first attacker. Needless to say he didn't have to deal with the rest of them.
TRAINING FOR THE BEST USE OF ADRENALINE
Train like you fight, and fight like you train is a good maxim. While there is no replacement for real world experience, if one does not train under adrenal stress it is much less likely to help you when needed, and more likely to be hindering. Training under such stress is a different sort of education, and is processed into the memory much differently. This is why every flight aboard my Aircraft involved a mandatory emergency drill that would occur at a random time determined by the Mission Crew Commander. The hormones involved in the dump, adrenaline and noradrenaline sets off a sort of emotional memory that has evolved well due to it's survival value. Moreover, this education is more permanently imbedded into ones psyche. Studies have proven the foregoing to be true. If you think you can meditate your way out of this, or do enough kata to prevent it—you are wrong.
SCENARIO BASED TRAINING
Simulating every stage of attack, beginning with the interview stage is critical. In order to do this properly the most protective gear available must be used, so full power attacks and responses can be used. While contracted by the DOD I used a “Red Man Suit”, the suit was several thousand dollars, and was still not quite adequate, a motorcycle helmet in a pinch helps. Shop around for gear, but you may have to fashion your own. For liability reasons I am leaving this advice purposely brief, just be careful and increment up in power with your gear to discover the limits.
Start by training the initial confrontation stage, simulate the shove match, the insult exchange, and learn to use the rule of range and control and protect your own space. Practice engaging them proactively as they move past your line, even if they are not hitting you. Of course practice them moving in with all type of strikes. This initial contact stage is critical, and can be drilled in isolation, over and over. Many say “everyone has a plan until they get hit”, this is very true. Once contact is made you are left with only what is trained into tactile sensitivity and hardwired into reactive mechanics. For many people, this is much more limited than what is available at the initial contact, when you should have more higher cognitive functions available pre-peak adrenaline dump.
Turn off the lights. One way to get the adrenaline pumping is to force yourself to go from blindness to reaction. Turn off the lights, and/or close your eyes. Allow your training partner to attack you at a random time, and from a random position. It is also useful to have multiple possible attackers, and designate one or more of them to attack when the lights come on. Additionally, having one yell from behind as another attacks from the front is beneficial.
Make a maze. Use a house, bar, office, whatever, with multiple rooms. Set up people in random places and have the student casually walk the maze. Designate some people to just say hello or not pay attention to the student, and others to attack. Going room to room like a SWAT team member is of course an option, but it is more helpful to make them walk through at a normal pace, much they would normally walk around such building. You can also put a headset on them, make them read something while walking, or recite something from memory.
Simulate weapons. Invest in a fake knife and handgun for starters. The scenarios should not be limited to hand-to-hand attacks. Practice engagement at every stage of movement, from the weapon holstered / concealed, to already presented. Do all of the above from different distances. Baseball bats / sticks are also good to practice with, you can use a whiffle or foam bat. As for a handgun, if you can simulate a trigger pull attempt--all the better. You can use a real weapon to do so, but obviously it needs to be quadruple checked and cleared. Leave the magazine out, have multiple parties check the chamber, and even dry fire before each use. Every time the weapon changes hands it needs to be re-checked by all parties involved in the drill. Using a real knife however is not a good idea. A blade is not only a stabbing weapon, it is a contact weapon—it cuts on contact. Instead you can chalk up a fake knife, or use wet paint and white shirts.
KISS
Keep it simple stupid. This is not the time to try your fancy spin kick, or the five stage technique you learned in a Kata. In fact, at first, it is best to think of the overall strategy you will use, i.e. , blend and redirect the attack, strike while taking his balance. Second to that overall strategy, is technique. Drill something simple, a parry and palm to the face. I like to teach material based on plane of attack and defense, and shape. So I will start with a horizontal circle, having the student blend/redirect, and attack on that plane. There are countless variations of “techniques” from this movement template based on all of the real-world variables. If the mechanics, movement, structure, and timing are sound, the rest will fall into place. Those are the factors you are building in by doing this scenario training, especially the first contact clash scenario.
SHOCK AND AWE
This concept is a double edged sword. Let your partner attempt to shock you in more ways than one. When doing scenario training, have your partners be as verbally abusive as possible, and sometimes stolid. Have them be very still, or very mobile. Be sure they attack both as expected, and mid-sentence when they are being verbally abusive. Be sure to have them attack you out of a perfect state of calm. Even have another attack you from the side while they are engaging in such verbal abuse and physical intimidation. The real world is not a sparring contest, where you bounce up and down, and circle one another. Often it ignites as quickly as a burns out.
Keeping your situational awareness, calm, and scanning/assessment as well as your boundaries as previously described are paramount. You want to be able to go from 0-1000 instantly. Your attacker will find himself seeing you put your hands up and trying to back down, and saying please get away, to having his head ripped off and kicked into oncoming traffic before he can sneeze. You must go from Yin to Yang. Still to explosive. Getting into a fight posture, or dancing around are all tells. You do not want to let your attacker be able to assess you any more than possible. You capability, and attack / counter attack efficacy should come as a complete shock and awe to your assailant.
“CHAIR FLY”
The next best thing to actual physical training is visualization. Pilots call it “chair flying”, we picture ourselves in the air, at the controls, and reacting to potential stimuli. The brain is a wonderful simulator, and there are countless studies on how the effectiveness of such visualization is nearly as a effective as actual experience. The problem with this regarding combat, is that self induced fear, the adrenal dump is harder to get into. It is possible, but difficult. You can close your eyes, sit still, imagine a violent encounter, and parse out your own reaction to it. Do not be a slave to your vision. Create your response in your mind. Direct yourself mentally to achieve the result you want. Even if the technique is not exactly specific, fine. Remember, your overall strategy, and engagement response is what is paramount here. Your physical and emotional response is key. It is getting over that shock and awe hump, that range rule, and the basic situational awareness and strategic hurdle that is more than half of the battle. When you visualize create an entire scene, birds, cars, scents, everything. Put yourself somewhere. Many people, quite rightly and naturally are hesitant to actually hurt someone to protect themselves when needed. Visualization will help get over this hesitation as well.
In conclusion, one can have all the technical skill in the world, and enough black-belts to tie up an elephant. They are no good without learning how to control adrenaline and use your material under pressure. I hope this brief article helps you in anyway.
1This does not constitute legal advice, nor constitute an Attorney / Client relationship. Check your state and local laws.
by Gary Romel, J.D.
www.FlowingCombat.net
Disclaimer; the training methods described herein can be dangerous and result in serious injury or death. Simulating the adrenaline dump alone for example can be damaging to your heart etc. The scenarios described should be conducted with proper supervision. Consult your physician before such activity. Gary Romel and Flowing Combat LLC are not liable for anything attempted, or any advice followed in this article.
INTRODUCTION
The following are the best “secrets” that can be shared with you. Most martial arts establishments fail to properly train the most key area to make their material combat viable. Decades of technical skills are flushed in an instant with improper training, control, timing, and use of the adrenal dump and poor combat strategy and tactics. This involuntary biochemical response is universal to all human beings, regardless of how many black belts are held. Complete relaxation or rage are both improper responses. One must understand the stages of the psyche, the conflict, and how to best control the multiple variables inherent in a combat situation to survive.
It is amazing how many so called “Masters” have never really used their material in combat, nor have had any similar life-threatening experiences that gives them insight into this area. If a teacher does not have such experience, they cannot truly claim to teach “self-defense”, it is dishonest, one cannot purport to teach something they have not themselves actually done. Scenario training can get close, however without the point of reference of a real-world encounter for such practice, it is hard for a teacher to really know what they are doing. Personally, I worked as a bouncer, and at 6 ft tall and a mere 165 pounds, size intimidation and raw physical strength was not an option. Additionally, as a product of my world travels, I have dealt with several hand-to-hand conflicts, involving one or more attackers, as well as weapon-to-hand attacks, which required disarming attackers to survive. Moreover, as far as general adrenaline and combat situations go-- I was a 9-11 first responder, and served in two wars among other deployments. Working under the pressure of potential impending death, and knowing that the lives of countless others relied on my performance under such pressure, provided some unique and vast insight into the conditioning and use of this biochemical phenomenon and the combat mind. Thus, this article is not merely academic, I will not be discussing anything that I have not personally and successfully applied on multiple occasions.
STAGE ONE: PRE FIGHT CHECKLIST
One of the aspects of a conflict that can be best planned is what decisions are made before physical contact. A realistic decision matrix must be in play in order to shorten the OODA loop (“observe, orient, decide, and act”
. This decision matrix must take into account minimization of risk, both physically, and legally. An assault has occurred when one is placed in apprehension of immediate and harmful contact, often confused with the term battery. Apprehension does not mean fear, after all a well trained experienced fighter may not “fear” such conflict, or at least think they can demonstrate such fear in a court of law. Also of note is that words can often negate such immediacy, shaking a fist in someones face and saying “If we weren't at this restaurant I would pound you into the ground”, may not be considered assault. Or, “tomorrow I am going to find and hurt you”.[SUP]1[/SUP] With the foregoing in mind, I have what I call the “rule of range”. The rule of range consists of drawing a line in the sand so to speak. It is a predetermined distance at which you commit to a preemptive action to prevent harm to oneself. This line should be explicated, but non-negotiable. In the face of the “interview” process, or verbal / physical posturing by your would be attacker, you should say “please don't come any closer, I do not want to fight”. Being both loud and assertive will 1) alert any onlookers to your unwillingness to participate and negate the perception of you being the attacker, or it being a mutual combat situation, and 2) can dissuade your attacker by not making you seem like an easy target. Being overly aggressive is different than being assertive. Insulting the person, or verbally escalating the situation in any way is less than desirable, and will make physical confrontation more likely.
The distance line I prefer to draw for tactical reasons is the distance in which if the attacker were to put up his arms, you could touch his wrist with yours extended, and just out of punching range. Action is faster than reaction, any closer, and the window for reactive success decreases exponentially. At that range, if he moves any closer and so much as flinches, your own attack should be launched, I call this “counter offensive tactics”.
OPEN YOUR NOSE, EYES, AND EARS
To increase your situational awareness and retain the best use of your faculties you must open your nose, eyes and ears.
First, breathe, tactical breathing will help control the dump, but not prevent it. Take four count diaphragmatic breathes. Breathe in and out through your nose (you can also breath out through your mouth), and you can even count during the breathes. During the dump, people tend to hold their breathe, or hyperventilate.
Second, opening your eyes means to scan, be aware that tunnel vision is a huge negative factor during an adrenaline dump. Avoid focusing on just one thing. For example, your focus visually should not be to stare at his eyes, or at the hands specifically, but to make use of your peripheral vision to take in his entire body, so the motion detection can be best put to use. Look over his shoulder or to his side, and take in everything else. This is a relaxed state of heightened awareness and intent.
Third, open your ears. Auditory exclusion can be combated by keeping a listen on your environment, cars going by, other voices. Scan with your ears. The foregoing will help you keep your senses about you.
PROJECT, RELAX, FOCUS
Calmly project your opponents defeat into them. This projection will be felt, it will make him think twice, even subconsciously about engaging you.
Relax. Scan your body for muscle tightness, you can quickly tense and release to help ease any lock up. He may bark at you which can start this adrenal dump with a “what are you looking at”, or “do you want to go?”. Do not let this phase you, if you quick-start your adrenal dump too soon, there are several consequences; one is that you may freeze at the critical movement before initial contact, when that first action or re-action could save you.
Fight or flight is the known saying, but you are very likely to FREEZE. Freezing is one very likely reaction of the adrenal dump. Think of a deer in the headlights, one of the evolutionary survival modes is this act of freezing. It evolved with us so that a predator may not notice its prey. Second, the peak of the adrenal dump is not sustained for very long. Peaking before you need it will not allow you to maximize the benefits of the dump, namely; more strength, speed, pain tolerance, and the tachy psyche effect. Tachy psyche is when the mind speeds up, and thus things seem to happen in slow motion. This allows one to better process the visual cues and react more optimally to survive. Third, using the adrenal dump too early will reduce cognitive function, disallowing access to your beset preemptive or initial contact measures-which are vital. Tunnel vision, auditory exclusion, and limited use of the more fine motor functions are all consequences of this. Alternatively, reaching the height of the adrenal response too late will prevent use of the aforementioned benefits of the response. Namely, the tachy psyche effect.
In this pre-fight stage it is important that you do not fall into a rage and loose control of your emotions. Rage may help the untrained, but it is the enemy of the trained, staying as “calm” as possible, yet alert and ready is best.
ASSESS YOUR OPPONENT
Part of this pre conflict checklist includes a quick threat assessment. Is your would-be attacker intoxicated? Do they hold a posture which would indicate any training? If so, what training? Where is their balance point? What is their weight distribution? Does it appear that they are carrying, or are about to deploy any weapons? What is their mindset; are they in a rage, scared, ego driven? If you notice a knife on their right side for example, and their weight is on their lead left foot, you want to get to the opposite side of the weapon and take out that weight bearing leg/knee quickly, and a reach for that weapon means a lethal force escalation, it's not time to pull any punches.
You must retrain new patters into your visual cortex that signal your brain into recognizing different types of threats. The adrenal dump can further hinder your lack of experience in threat recognition. Criminals know how to act casual in reaching for a weapon, or setting up an ambush or sucker punch. Practice different types of approaches, weapon deployments, and attacks from one or multiple opponents.
ASSESS YOUR ENVIORNMENT
First, Scan. As tunnel vision is a product of adrenaline, actively scanning can help ensure this does not become as much of a hindrance. Scan for specifics: Aside from how many potential attackers / buddies this guy may have, are there environmental features you can utilize to your advantage? Are there features that could become disadvantageous? An example could be something as simple as a curb behind your opponent, an easy trip wire for them. Is there something that could limit your movement? Are you uphill or downhill? Another key factor is the question of the availability of environmental weapons. You will not find golden nun-chucks glowing in the dust, but the dust itself may be of use, or a rock or stick. An amusing story of an environmental weapon so-to-speak, was when a friend of mine was at a gas station, he was confronted with multiple attackers while pumping gas. He was a former federal prison guard and shootfighter, but still made good use of his available weapons. He took the gas pump and jammed it (while running) through the teeth and into the mouth of his first attacker. Needless to say he didn't have to deal with the rest of them.
TRAINING FOR THE BEST USE OF ADRENALINE
Train like you fight, and fight like you train is a good maxim. While there is no replacement for real world experience, if one does not train under adrenal stress it is much less likely to help you when needed, and more likely to be hindering. Training under such stress is a different sort of education, and is processed into the memory much differently. This is why every flight aboard my Aircraft involved a mandatory emergency drill that would occur at a random time determined by the Mission Crew Commander. The hormones involved in the dump, adrenaline and noradrenaline sets off a sort of emotional memory that has evolved well due to it's survival value. Moreover, this education is more permanently imbedded into ones psyche. Studies have proven the foregoing to be true. If you think you can meditate your way out of this, or do enough kata to prevent it—you are wrong.
SCENARIO BASED TRAINING
Simulating every stage of attack, beginning with the interview stage is critical. In order to do this properly the most protective gear available must be used, so full power attacks and responses can be used. While contracted by the DOD I used a “Red Man Suit”, the suit was several thousand dollars, and was still not quite adequate, a motorcycle helmet in a pinch helps. Shop around for gear, but you may have to fashion your own. For liability reasons I am leaving this advice purposely brief, just be careful and increment up in power with your gear to discover the limits.
Start by training the initial confrontation stage, simulate the shove match, the insult exchange, and learn to use the rule of range and control and protect your own space. Practice engaging them proactively as they move past your line, even if they are not hitting you. Of course practice them moving in with all type of strikes. This initial contact stage is critical, and can be drilled in isolation, over and over. Many say “everyone has a plan until they get hit”, this is very true. Once contact is made you are left with only what is trained into tactile sensitivity and hardwired into reactive mechanics. For many people, this is much more limited than what is available at the initial contact, when you should have more higher cognitive functions available pre-peak adrenaline dump.
Turn off the lights. One way to get the adrenaline pumping is to force yourself to go from blindness to reaction. Turn off the lights, and/or close your eyes. Allow your training partner to attack you at a random time, and from a random position. It is also useful to have multiple possible attackers, and designate one or more of them to attack when the lights come on. Additionally, having one yell from behind as another attacks from the front is beneficial.
Make a maze. Use a house, bar, office, whatever, with multiple rooms. Set up people in random places and have the student casually walk the maze. Designate some people to just say hello or not pay attention to the student, and others to attack. Going room to room like a SWAT team member is of course an option, but it is more helpful to make them walk through at a normal pace, much they would normally walk around such building. You can also put a headset on them, make them read something while walking, or recite something from memory.
Simulate weapons. Invest in a fake knife and handgun for starters. The scenarios should not be limited to hand-to-hand attacks. Practice engagement at every stage of movement, from the weapon holstered / concealed, to already presented. Do all of the above from different distances. Baseball bats / sticks are also good to practice with, you can use a whiffle or foam bat. As for a handgun, if you can simulate a trigger pull attempt--all the better. You can use a real weapon to do so, but obviously it needs to be quadruple checked and cleared. Leave the magazine out, have multiple parties check the chamber, and even dry fire before each use. Every time the weapon changes hands it needs to be re-checked by all parties involved in the drill. Using a real knife however is not a good idea. A blade is not only a stabbing weapon, it is a contact weapon—it cuts on contact. Instead you can chalk up a fake knife, or use wet paint and white shirts.
KISS
Keep it simple stupid. This is not the time to try your fancy spin kick, or the five stage technique you learned in a Kata. In fact, at first, it is best to think of the overall strategy you will use, i.e. , blend and redirect the attack, strike while taking his balance. Second to that overall strategy, is technique. Drill something simple, a parry and palm to the face. I like to teach material based on plane of attack and defense, and shape. So I will start with a horizontal circle, having the student blend/redirect, and attack on that plane. There are countless variations of “techniques” from this movement template based on all of the real-world variables. If the mechanics, movement, structure, and timing are sound, the rest will fall into place. Those are the factors you are building in by doing this scenario training, especially the first contact clash scenario.
SHOCK AND AWE
This concept is a double edged sword. Let your partner attempt to shock you in more ways than one. When doing scenario training, have your partners be as verbally abusive as possible, and sometimes stolid. Have them be very still, or very mobile. Be sure they attack both as expected, and mid-sentence when they are being verbally abusive. Be sure to have them attack you out of a perfect state of calm. Even have another attack you from the side while they are engaging in such verbal abuse and physical intimidation. The real world is not a sparring contest, where you bounce up and down, and circle one another. Often it ignites as quickly as a burns out.
Keeping your situational awareness, calm, and scanning/assessment as well as your boundaries as previously described are paramount. You want to be able to go from 0-1000 instantly. Your attacker will find himself seeing you put your hands up and trying to back down, and saying please get away, to having his head ripped off and kicked into oncoming traffic before he can sneeze. You must go from Yin to Yang. Still to explosive. Getting into a fight posture, or dancing around are all tells. You do not want to let your attacker be able to assess you any more than possible. You capability, and attack / counter attack efficacy should come as a complete shock and awe to your assailant.
“CHAIR FLY”
The next best thing to actual physical training is visualization. Pilots call it “chair flying”, we picture ourselves in the air, at the controls, and reacting to potential stimuli. The brain is a wonderful simulator, and there are countless studies on how the effectiveness of such visualization is nearly as a effective as actual experience. The problem with this regarding combat, is that self induced fear, the adrenal dump is harder to get into. It is possible, but difficult. You can close your eyes, sit still, imagine a violent encounter, and parse out your own reaction to it. Do not be a slave to your vision. Create your response in your mind. Direct yourself mentally to achieve the result you want. Even if the technique is not exactly specific, fine. Remember, your overall strategy, and engagement response is what is paramount here. Your physical and emotional response is key. It is getting over that shock and awe hump, that range rule, and the basic situational awareness and strategic hurdle that is more than half of the battle. When you visualize create an entire scene, birds, cars, scents, everything. Put yourself somewhere. Many people, quite rightly and naturally are hesitant to actually hurt someone to protect themselves when needed. Visualization will help get over this hesitation as well.
In conclusion, one can have all the technical skill in the world, and enough black-belts to tie up an elephant. They are no good without learning how to control adrenaline and use your material under pressure. I hope this brief article helps you in anyway.
1This does not constitute legal advice, nor constitute an Attorney / Client relationship. Check your state and local laws.
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