Good talk on blocks

[Van Canna]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eMpvgjX1J1M

Jim Prouty
New England Budo Center
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eMpvgjX1J1M

Jim Prouty
New England Budo Center

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This clip shows once again the stark reality of street attacks.

The first attack, the powerful shove, brings to mind the bunkai move from seisan where some practice the 'spread block' followed by a knee strike.

Put yourself in the picture ....

That bunkai move being only 'an application' not to be mistaken as 'The application'...a critical difference that Takara sensei points out in his classes as according to Walter Mattson..

You certainly need to practice it...but you also need to practice the various applications of hat defense such as the ability to spin offline or you will be overtaken by superior force and momentum.

[Van Canna]

Dealing with the police

When most police get on the job they imagine they will be protecting the good from the evil. You learn pretty fast that is not the case.

I have been working in Hillbilly Heights & the Ghetto for over a decade and I have never worked an assault where a citizen has protected themselves against a criminal. Most of the time we have volunteers not victims and one goof vs another.

Most people who stay away from stupid places, things and people will never be the victim of criminal violence.

Of course many have to live in bad places or at least work in them. Some things in this post may upset people but they are true in the eyes of the police and may help you out in the end.


When the police respond to the call after you have just defended yourself understand that whether it is a traffic stop or an assault, to a patrolman a job is a job.

He wants to get it over and done with and get on to the next one so he can go home. The idea is to make your case easy for him to work without giving up your rights.

Here are some ideas and random thoughts. I include these in all my classes.

· Be the first to report the incident. Maybe it was your robbers first time doing it and you kicked his ass. He calls the police and they find you. You try explaining how you were the victim. The cop sees your cell phone and wants to know why you did not call first.

· If you used a weapon, tell the officer even if he does not ask for it that you wish to submit if for evidence. If he refuses then at least you can say that you offered.


· Expect to be asked if you have been drinking or have taken drugs whether they are prescription or street. This will have a massive impact on how the officer sees you. Be truthful. The first time you lie about something it is going to make any problem worse.


· If he asks you if you have any weapons DO NOT REACH FOR THEM. He will tell you what he wants you to do.


· Have state issued photo identification. Do not use a check cashing card or Dept of Corrections ID card. I have to include it because it happens. Unless you live in a very urban area most adults have a drivers license.

This may be a shocker but many people who anticipate police contact do not carry photo identification. All of a sudden you have a nice tactical folder and a Surefire in your pocket but no ID. That seems a tad unusual.

· If he asks you whether or not you have been arrested BE HONEST. He can find this out with your name and date of birth. It is not uncommon for both the victim and bad guy to end up being wanted. That is why we ask.

· Do not answer your cell phone while talking to the police. #1 it is rude and #2 it is an officer safety issue when people start showing up at the scene. It happens.

· Do not interrupt the officer. Do not try to yell over the top of him. If the other side of the altercation is yelling at the officer stay quite. He will want to give them all of his attention and that is better for you.

· DO NOT TOUCH THE POLICE all too often people want to touch the officer to show them what happened. We don’t like to be touched.

· The officer does not care if you have a friend on the police force. And no he does not know whomever it is that you want to ask him if he knows. All cops do not know each other.

· If you have friends present make sure they keep their mouths shut. He will get to them and ask them what happened.

· If you know whom he works for and his rank, address him that way. Call a deputy a deputy and a trooper a trooper. If you don’t know stick with SIR. We notice that.

· If you are in a car turn the music OFF.

· Most police are not weapons people. Don’t try to chat about the gun, flashlight or knife he is carrying. We call those people squirrels.

· Under stress we all revert back to acting like kids and getting our story in first. You can see this when a cop pulls up to a fender bender and both people run up to him talking a mile minute. Be the one to hang back and answer only the questions he asks you.

· If you are involved in a serious situation such as deadly force, give the officer your name, DOB etc and a brief idea of what happened. Chances are that due to the adrenaline dump you will fell sick to your stomach and have some pain in your chest.

You may have ##### or pissed you pants. Don’t be afraid to tell the officer that you want an ambulance. That will get you away from the scene to a safe place where you can process what happened and contact an attorney.

The officer will come to the hospital when he clears the scene.

· If at the scene you decide to just tell the officer “I am not saying anything until I see my lawyer” chances are that in the initial report you will be the complaintant and not the victim. And trust me you want to be the victim.

You can’t have complainant without complain. A lot of what happens with the case depends on the officer’s initial report. It will be reviewed by the detectives and states attorney. The more he likes you the better.


· Be sure to get the officer name, card or at least the Common Complaint / Incident Report number assigned to the case so that you can be educated when contacting the agency in reference to your case.


· Thank the officer. That one is really up to you. If he was good to you then do it. If you take some of this advice chances are he will be.

[Van Canna]

Darren Laur »

Offensive Intent

Recently, I had the opportunity to witness offensive vs. defensive intent, or what some also call predator vs. prey psychology. Here at the school we train all senses for personal protection, including something that has been called your “Etheric” sense.

I primarily accomplish this type of training through sensory deprivation exercises where the senses of sight, sound, and touch are handicapped. The purpose of this training is to experience the “fog of combat” and learn to inoculate, adapt, overcome, and improvise to this tactical challenge

Through this type of training, offensive vs. defensive intent has become very evident in what I have called the “Blindfold Stalking Drill”.

In this drill, two combatants are blindfolded (visual deprivation), music is turned up loud (auditory deprivation), and then students are moved throughout the school and turned (spun) dynamically (space/plain deprivation) by other students.

Next, the word “fight” is yelled at which time both students need to locate and engage each other.

Of great interest is not necessarily the physical engagement upon contact, but rather the pre-contact stalking behaviour that has been consistently observed in the students;

there is a clear difference observed between predatory behaviour (offensive intent) and prey behaviour (defensive intent). What has also been clearly observed in this drill is the fact that those students, who take on offensive intent, have a clear tactical advantage over those who adopt a defensive intent mindset.

Those students who take on a defensive intent mindset are more “reactive” than “pre-emptive”. These students have a tendency to wait for the physical engagement and then resist it, thus becoming “reactive” rather than “proactive”.

Those students, however, with clear offensive intent, will hunt their prey and attack upon contact and overwhelm with surprise, speed, and violence of action through combative “initiative”.

Those who adapt defensive intent, appear to only want to “survive” or “resist” the attack, where as those who adapt offensive intent, want to “dominate” and defeat the threat. This is very IMPORTANT attribute that needs to be honed in students of self protection.

Darren

[Van Canna]

Darren Laur>>

One way to link this concept in our training is through our passive stance in the pre-contact phase. Here at the school I do not call the passive stance a “defensive” concept, BUT rather a “protective” concept designed to shield one against a surprise attack, or to launch a pre-emptive strike where appropriate and reasonable to do so.

The passive stance is an “offensive intent” launch pad (designed to be stealthy), that allows us to immediately launch a physical overwhelming shielding attack, via penetration and domination, through a first strike initiative or a reactive response to a surprise attack.

The passive stance, unlike a castle wall that is rooted and built primarily for defence or to resist an attack, is more like the armour found on a M1 tank that offers a shield to fend off a surprise attack while remaining mobile for the purpose of “engaging” and defeating the enemy in an immediate and overwhelming offensive counter attack if and when needed.

The passive stance offers protection while attacking (offensive intent), rather than protection while defending (defensive intent). The passive stance is a means to an end that is designed to offensively engage a threat either non-verbally, verbally, and or physically.


Darren
www.personalprotectionsystems.ca

[Van Canna]

Darren Laur>>

Neural Based Scenario Training:
A Holistic Approach to Anchoring Combative Motor Skill Performance To An Optimum Combative State

As many on this forum know through my past postings, I am a proponent of integrating a variety of training methodologies, including NLP and Hypnotherapy, for the purpose of enhancing motor skill performance during what I have called Survival Stress Reaction (SSR); please see my article on the Anatomy of Fear located at: http://www.personalprotectionsystems.ca ... ticles.htm .

One of the challenges that we face as instructors however, is how do we get our students to transition their training and skills from the school to the street if, and when, the time comes?



How often have we seen students who are skilled in practice (closed mode) apply their training in a less-desirable context when called upon in an actual self-protection situation (open mode).

It is my opinion that although we all train the physical, and some train the cognitive, most of us fail to train the emotional “states” that need to be “anchored” to both the physical and cognitive attributes during combatives training.

The physical, cognitive, and emotional aspects to training are a holistic or synergistic three-legged chair, if one leg is missing then the chair will collapse!!!

It is my opinion that those who can integrate this holistic and synergistic combatives state approach in training, will more likely be able to transition their skills from the school to the street, thus optimizing their combative performance during SSR.

Darren

[Van Canna]

Darren Laur>>

To conduct desirable Neural Based Scenario Training (NBST), one must incorporate “structured” reality simulations that evoke the desired SSR state physically, cognitively, and emotionally.

Noticed I stated structured !!!!! Far too often, scenario training that is not neural based, involves nothing more than throwing students into a so-called “simulation” that is nothing more than an un-structured free for all that has no cross over to the real world.

NBST however, is designed to train and test combative motor skills learned in the environment that you “expect” to use the skills in. This type of training does take preparation, planning, and orchestration, and is dependent upon using role-players who have a script that allows them to branch depending upon the reactions of the trainee.

If science fiction were reality, the use of Star Trek’s holodeck would be my preferred NBST environment. Unfortunately, the holodeck is not a reality, it should be noted however, that some computer simulators that are used by the military and police do come close.

(both the military and police understand the power of NBST) Having said this, we can make our training environments more NBST friendly; all it takes is a little imagination and application. Here at the school I incorporate strobe lights, fog machines, uneven flooring, disco colored lighting, furniture, wind fan, and all kinds of real and improvised weapons.

Soon, funding permitting, I hope to have the ability to build a portable and changeable floor and wall-based environment, which can replicate a variety of different floor plans, thus enhancing the NBST experience for both armed (simmunition), and unarmed combatives training.

Darren

[Van Canna]

Darren Laur>>

The NBST experience must also involve all sensory modalities including sight, sound, smell, touch, taste, and of course one’s etheric sense (intuition, situational awareness, gut instinct).

The attacker (role players) MUST use the verbal and non-verbal language in combination with the physiology, emotion, and intent of a “real” attacker.

The more real the NBST environment, both internal (student) and external (environment), the more likely we can evoke the optimum combative state, and anchor it to the “trained” desirable motor skill response.

This is one reason why if a student does something less desirable in a NBST simulation, as an instructor, you must ensure that you constructively debrief it immediately (utilizing video feedback is optimum) and then run the student through the same simulation again until their combative performance becomes desirable.

This is why instructors must be careful that they do not allow a student to anchor a less desirable response to a combative state, which is easy to do if an instructor is not schooled and skilled in NBST.

It is also important that NBST simulations are structured around unknown, low, medium, and high threat responses. As we all know, not every street encounter can be considered a “deadly force” threat.

Again by anchoring a combative state to a variety of incremental threat responses, we are best preparing our students for a desirable outcome based upon their perception of threat (context) in the real world.

The brain, through NBST conditioning, is more likely to say under SSR, “Been there done that, and I know what to do, and will do it”

Darren

[Van Canna]

Darren Laur>>

Another very important component to anchoring an optimum combative state to a learned motor skill is to ensure that during physical practice, students, once they become consciously competent, begin to practice their skills with each other utilizing “imagination” and “emotion”.

In other words, students should be visualizing the context in which the motor skill learned will be used, again bringing in all their sensory modalities.

Rather than just hitting a bag, they should visualize the bag is a threat intent on hurting them, someone they love, or someone who is under their care and control.

Again the subconscious mind cannot tell the difference between fantasy and reality, the more real the training, the more likely you can develop the optimum combative state and anchor the learned motor skills to that state.

Darren

[Van Canna]

Darren Laur>>

To take this one step further, prior to participating in a NBST simulation, students should also visualize or imagine (see my article on Combative Based Action Imagery) what their plan “A”, “B”, and “C” strategy will be against possible threats, but also give themselves permission to adapt, overcome, and improvise when needed.

The secret here is to train in an optimum combative state (physically, cognitively, and emotionally) because if you do, you will more likely operate in an optimum combative state when the ##### hits the fan in the real world when SSR is triggered.

Darren

[Van Canna]

Darren Laur>>

NBST optimally conditions or “anchors” the brain (both conscious and subconscious) to using your non-verbal, verbal, and combative motor skills in an open mode (real world) environment during the pre-contact, contact, and post-contact intervention stages of an actual confrontation.

In my opinion, most traditional martial art schools, and even some who say they teach RBSD/Combatives, are mistakenly anchoring, not knowing any better, combative state to their closed mode training of the school, training studio, or dojo.


This is, in my opinion, the primary reason why I believe we see students not being able to transfer combative skills learned, to the reality of the street.


Darren

[Van Canna]

Darren Laur>>


Van:

Do you teach any specific ways of keeping your hands and feet in a 'fence' position?

Another question frequently asked is how do you achieve domination when engaging an opponent who is extremely big and strong and striking even nerve points may not be enough to subdue.

We teach this default "fence" position on the very first day of training, and we also continue to create a mental blueprint through NBST as mentioned above.

On your second question, I don't care if my opponent is extremely big and strong........ I always "ghost" or "dehumanize" the threat (ie I see the person as a meat target, nothing more nothing less).

If size or strength concern me, then I am allowing this to affect me in a negative way at the cognitive level, in other words, I have already lost the fight...


Darren

[Van Canna]

Good advice…but I wasn’t clear on the question:

When engaging a big powerful and mean spirited adversary, a person needs to bring the right weaponry to bear, whether it is empty hands and or armed ‘hands’ along the force continuum.

A smaller person, even with martial arts training may not have this effective ‘weaponry’ to stop or stun and run.

[Van Canna]

Systema pre-emptive work...great training concepts.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xcf_AIIJ1eM

[Van Canna]

Watch this...excellent

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mKJ5hPL_gJ4

[Van Canna]

Kuma-de »


The fist is inly tightened upon impact using a squeezing effect of the forearm which is loose upon initial throwing.

The reason the thumb is along the side, is that they teach the punch from the side too using the thumb to penetrate the muscle. Also you will see the punch dragged to have the energy transverse the area.

One thing you may see is the striker often rub the area where the strike landed to alleviate the pain.