by Van Canna
In addition to martial study,I have had experience in investigating and preparing in the defense of self defense cases in my work.Further, along with Jim Maloney,I attended classes at lethal force institute under the tutelage of Massad Ayoob and John Farnam, noted deadly force combat teachers,and found the lessons learned of great impact upon martial arts applications.In addition I have survived a few serious encounters of my own as well as witnessing a number of others which bear out the many conclusions I have espoused over time re violent confrontations.
Those I will share with you as time moves on,but plase understand that I am not an ultimate expert in defensive combat;there is really no such person as there are no guarantees of winning over and over due to the variables of each encounter.
In order to logically assimilate the various concepts components of defensive mindset and trigger you must first learn to successfully visualize yourself in a real survival engagement.Most people have a distorted sense of what is really involved simply because it has not yet “happened” to them and they fantasize thru the armor of the martial arts controlled experience.
Mull this in your head as a start:
Most of us are not violent people and we go out of our way to avoid ugly situations. In the dojo you are thought that your only excuse for defensive combat is if you are about to fall prey to grave bodily harm and have no way out. Suddenly you find yourself over this threshold in astonishment and neck deep in a startled,surprised,isolated state of mind,and as you start to recoil and hyperventilate under the kick of the “chemical cocktail” triggered by the primal brain ,you first conscious impulse will be one of denial and bargain.This internal downshifting of gears immediately cedes the initial advantage to your adversary and, it is indeed within these microseconds of time that many victims are hurt or killed .
In a flash it dawns on you you are in the dreaded “trap” you may have nowhere to run or tactically you should not run,there is no help nearby, there is no way back,and you’re about to test your mettle in an ugly,hard and brutal uncontrolled hand to hand battle with an unknown unpredictable mean enemy,perhaps a habitual thug who enjoys “busting” people up.At the same time multiple opponents may appear,improvised or real weapons may materialize and physical blows will be preceded by obscene and loud verbal assault to demoralize you and achieve psychological dominance.
As in a nightmare ,all your conscious karate responses seem to vanish in thin air,your brain dulles up but retains the perception of potential crippling injury and helplessnes at the hands of your bad ass assaillant.
Although we can prepare for this moment by cultivating mindset trigger of the most devastating defensive action we are capable of,there are no guarantees we will prevail with our empty hands when we consider that even after taking multiple hits by .45 caliber pistol bullets some adrenalized,hopped up thugs were not stopped in time before they had a chance to kill or maim.
Okay, with this in mind,let’s stimulate discussion on ways to deal with the negatives of violent confrontations but please use simple modern approaches without quoting the philosophies of the various martial arts.We want students at all levels to understand and be able to participate in comfort.
Regards,
Van Canna