Good talk on blocks

[Van Canna]

The one thing you can be sure about is that the current situation of corona virus getting progressively worse, will see much Xenophobia, and other emotional upheavals in people...we will see increasing confrontational mannerism, in just about any walk of life, including 'car wars'...you stand the chance of being attacked out of nowhere for no apparent reason in days ahead...be sure to keep your distance from people and don't be foolish behind the wheel.

If you are ever attacked, forget closing the distance, or grappling...right now in class, if you are still going to attend class, start to learn avoidance moves with off line stepping techniques. This is no time to think blocking moves that put you in close contact with anyone risking contamination...in your classes stop practicing two men sets and keep at least three feet away from anyone in the dojo.

An Aussie mom group's argument about the coronavirus outbreak turned into a violent brawl that left one unconscious.The fight started between a pair of moms on a Sydney mothers' group chat site and ended with the two in the hospital, according to police.

The woman, ages 33 and 36, planned to settle the argument over the health effects of the coronavirus outbreak in person Tuesday in the Brookvale suburb, each bringing backup, but neither was able to break up the brawl.

The 36-year-old mom was treated for a head and shoulder injury and a cut to her arm, and the 33-year-old mom was treated for a sore shoulder and other non-life-threatening injuries.

[Van Canna]

People in the US are worried about the new coronavirus outbreak. That concern is warranted: the virus is a scary new threat, it can cause serious harm, and there aren’t any medications that can stop it.

That’s not to mention the cancellations of schools, popular events, and the general disruption to people’s lives it’s causing.

But fear, and the things people do when they’re afraid, changes and drives the societal impact of the virus. Viruses can’t function on their own: they require a host, a person, in order to survive and reproduce.

That person makes choices and behaves in certain ways. When that person’s behaviors are driven by fear, it can lead to discrimination and decision-making out of line with public health recommendations — which can make the outbreak even worse.

That’s the major common thread connecting outbreaks from the Black Death to the current novel coronavirus outbreak: fear and panic can magnify the harm done by a virus.

“People can get worked up and do bad things in response,” says Philip Alcabes, professor of public health at Hunter College and author of Dread: How Fear and Fantasy Have Fueled Epidemics from the Black Death to Avian Flu.

[Van Canna]

In the US, panic over rising case counts has triggered a rush on grocery stores and pharmacies. In New York City, for example, there’s hardly a bottle of hand sanitizer to be found, and pasta and beans are in short supply.

It’s good to prepare for disruption to everyday life, but there’s a difference between preparedness and panic buying — and the later can cause shortages.

More troublingly, people in the US and around the world have also been buying up supplies of surgical masks and respirators, despite pleas from experts not to.

Masks may offer some people comfort, but they don’t provide much protection against illness if they’re not used properly (and laypeople usually don’t use them properly).

When they’re squirreled away in people’s homes, they’re not available for health care workers who actually need them and know how to use them.

[Van Canna]

Panic also unearths racism and discrimination. The novel coronavirus originated in China, and when it started to spread, anti-Asian racism took off around the world. The same thing happened during the SARS outbreak in 2002.

It’s an old story, Alcabes says. “When the Black Death first came to Europe, there were rumors in Switzerland that a Jewish guy had a secret recipe for poison and was putting it in drinking wells,” he says.

“It caused a series of really dreadful attacks on Jewish communities.”

The fear doesn’t create prejudice; it just reveals it. “It allows it to manifest. And it can do so in ways that can be really harmful to people,” he says.

Also harmful are rumors and misinformation, which can spread quickly during epidemic outbreaks. They had devastating effects during the 2014–2015 Ebola outbreaks in West Africa: people kept sick relatives home because they were afraid of treatment centers.

When they tried to care for them without proper equipment, they quickly became ill themselves. That let the disease spread among families, which made the outbreak harder to contain.

[Van Canna]

People often turn to misinformation out of fear and when they can’t access or don’t trust information from experts or public health officials, Rob Blair, assistant professor of political science and international and public affairs at Brown University, told The Verge. Believing misinformation can then create distrust in experts. That cycle may lead people to disregard public health advice and continue to, for example, buy and hoard masks or to ignore recommendations around isolation and quarantine.

People forced into isolation and quarantine will become very dangerous to deal with. Start thinking now how whatever you have learned in karate can really protect you when you suddenly become the target of an attack out of nowhere...from people who may be contaminated.

This is a good time to carry OC pepper spray...

[Van Canna]

With social distancing and closings of gyms...I wonder if karate classes would be
deemed an irresponsible activity/

The corona virus is incredibly contagious.

[Van Canna]

Gun sales have spiked as consumers who worried that people are becoming desperate and unpredictable amid the outbreak rushed to buy weapons and ammunition.

You can already see mannerism change in people. Rudeness is increasing...selfishness is evident in grocery stores... people dart in front of you with their shopping carts...will steal from your cart...will argue with you...and soon enough there will be physical attacks in food markets...tailgating and road rage is increasing.

Your karate will get worse as you are no longer able to workout in class format as you practice social distancing.

[Van Canna]

A warning

The world may be upside down. Many may be living in mortal fear. Millions of us may be losing our livelihoods, and our minds.

But, even as so much else falls away, some American values endure: Self-interest, ignorance, cruelty, racism.

As the best of us come together (not too close!), bucking each other up and trying to soften the blows of the catastrophe wrought by coronavirus and abject incompetence at the highest levels, others continue to do what the worst of us have always done: Look out for number one.

Some things never change. Isn’t that comforting?

As John F. Kennedy said lo, those many centuries ago: “Ask not what you can do for your country. Ask what you can do for yourself as your country falls apart.”

It’s truly a comfort to see the president try to racist his way out of this problem, as he has so many others, repeatedly calling coronavirus “the Chinese virus” and giving his lemmings an excuse to harass Asian-Americans.

And substituting his hunches for the expertise of the nation’s top infections expert? And chuckling — with what, pride? — when our Republican governor says Massachusetts can’t buy desperately needed medical supplies because it’s being outbid by the feds.

This is where our martial arts practice will be put to the test. There are countless yahoos surfacing from the cracks of solipsism to take their place in the great unwashed legions...you can not only see and experience them in person when out and about shopping for necessities...you can also smell them as they tailgate you having found another 'justifiable reason' to 'lick your bumper'...

Soon you will be involved in verbal and physical fights with the 'corona zombies' and you better be prepared as you will find out quick enough how good you really are.

[Van Canna]

https://facebook.com/HappiestIGV/videos ... 963304792/

[Van Canna]

Dangers of Task Fixation

Good article by Mercop

Under extreme stress human beings can experience what is known as task fixation. Task fixation means that they are 100% focused on the threat at hand and will likely continue use of the same tactic, movement or tool even although it is not proving effective.

Very often during force on force with firearms we see someone being charge with a knife or bludgeon at a distance, they are shooting as fast as they can but remain flatfooted. They keep shooting and the bad guy just will not go down. After being cut/stabbed a few times they learn to move off line. Just because you have a tool in your hand does not mean you can ignore everything else.

Another example is during a stabbing when an attacker is on top of the victim and keeps stabbing him with ice pick type stabs. Responding to an attack with these gross motor responses that utilize a cyclic type motion decrease the chance of the officer transitioning to another tactic or tool when doing so should be obvious.

Task fixation is even more dangerous during open hand edged weapons when the person being attacked grabs the weapon or the weapon wielding hand without moving off the centerline. Even when this does not prevent them from getting stabbed for some reason they fail to let go in order to do something else.

My default defense against task fixation during bad breath range confrontations is to habitually move in at a hard 45-degree angle to my attackers right. Since 93%+ or the population this puts you to their non-reaction. This accomplishes several things whether the confrontation involves open hand, impact weapons, edged weapons or a pistol.

Suppresses their weapon hand.
Moves you off the center line.
Puts you to their outside.
Allows you to off balance them with a push.

I have found that once you are on the outside you kinda get reset and realize that you have more options that bridge to other options instead of getting stuck.

__________________

[Van Canna]

The task fixation is largely hard-wired: the prefrontal, sensory, and motor cortexes work together under live-fire, and once it finds something that seems to be working, the brain keeps doing it,
and it explains chain thrusting with knives to people who expend all their ammunition into a threat and continue to pull the trigger on an empty weapon.

Just as the finger goes "click click click" on the trigger, the brain keeps doing that with the command to do so.

Tunnel vision and task fixation are usually the result of heart rate, which is elevated and in turn caused by epinephrine (adrenaline) in the blood. The more epinephrine your adrenal glands dump in, the worse it gets.

The amount dumped in is all courtesy the hypothalamus, which in turn is getting kicked in the crotch by the amygdala... so the bigger you perceive the threat, the more likely you're subject to tunnel vision and task fixation.


Among fighter pilots, it's called "target fixation", and it's caused the demise of numbers of experienced pilots.

[paulg]

Speaking of task fixation: watch videos of real fights and you will see this. When someone throws a punch or combination and it does not connect what do they do next? Very often, it is the same thing again. And again. Likewise true for the defender.

[Van Canna]

Very true, Paul. And the advice above to get off line is scoffed at by Uechi people who are 'task fixed' at standing their ground, according to 'sanchin'...instead of learning to ingrain 'zig/zag' skills with footwork/blocks/ and sweeps.

While it might be easier to block an opponent not so big and not too strong...the linear blocks will fail every time if up against big strong opponents. Think of blocking someone like Andre Tippet, as an example.

I have a couple of 'supermen' in my class who will be glad to prove the point. And landing a kick or punch on them is like hitting a steel wall.

Also if a student has not ingrained off line skills...the moment he is attacked by multiple opponents, he will be quickly swarmed, taken down, and kicked to death.

We have the off line drills in the hojo undo set for the ones who can recognize them.

[Van Canna]

Tunnel vision and task fixation are usually the result of heart rate, which is elevated and in turn caused by epinephrine (adrenaline) in the blood. The more epinephrine your adrenal glands dump in, the worse it gets.

The amount dumped in is all courtesy the hypothalamus, which in turn is getting kicked in the crotch by the amygdala... so the bigger you perceive the threat, the more likely you're subject to tunnel vision and task fixation

You have no idea how many Uechi students discard this information thinking/saying it does not apply to them or to Okinawan teachers, even though it is hardwired by nature. They really think they can beat tunnel vision by practicing the sanchin stare/vision expansion

[Van Canna]

Ponder this...THE RULES FOR BEING HUMAN


When you were born, you didn’t come with an owner’s manual; These guidelines make life work better.

You will receive a body. You may like it or hate it, but it’s the only thing you are sure to keep for the rest of your life.

You will learn lessons. You are enrolled in a full-time informal school called life on planet earth. Every person or incident is the Universal Teacher.

There are no mistakes, only lessons. Growth is a process of experimentation. "Failures" are as much a part of the process as "success."

A lesson is repeated until learned. It is presented to you in various forms until you learn it-then you go on to the next lesson.

If you don’t learn easy lessons, they get harder. External problems are a precise reflection of your internal state.

When you clear inner obstructions, your outside world changes. Pain is how the universe gets your attention.

You will know you’ve learned a lesson when your actions change. Wisdom is practice. A little of something is better than a lot of nothing.

"There" is no better than "here." When your "there" becomes a "here" you will simply obtain another "there" that again looks better then "here."

Others are only mirrors of you. You cannot love or hate something about another unless it reflects something you love or hate about yourself.

Your life is up to you. Life provides the canvas; you do the painting. Take charge of your life-or someone else will.


.You always get what you want. Your subconscious rightfully determines what energies, experiences, and people you attract-therefore, the only foolproof way to know what you want is to see what you have. There are no victims, only students.


. There is no right or wrong, but there are consequences. Moralizing doesn’t help. Judgments only hold the patterns in place. Just do your best.

. Your answers lie inside you. Children need guidance from others; as we mature, we trust our hearts, where the Laws of Spirit are written. You know more than you have heard or read or been told. All you need to do is look, listen, and trust.

. You will forget all of this.

. You can remember any time you wish.

Source: Unknown