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