Action Against Violence

TIME for some tough talk about seriously hurting another human being.  Up until now, these postings have explored issues surrounding avoidance and prevention, which is 95% of successful self defense for women, perhaps 90% of self defense for men.

BUT NOW you have been cautious, employed “soft eyes,” even used distance and assertive language, but, still, the huge, belligerent drunk growls and rushes into your personal safe zone (psz) and now his hands are on you and you know he is so much stronger than you.

What do you do next?

IF YOU are like 9 out of 10 victims, you hold your breath and freeze.  You try to formulate a countermeasure, but your mind scours your Short Term Memory for a plan of action but there isn’t one because a plan is only effective if it is done before a critical incident.

You snap out of it about two seconds into the assault, but the drunk’s confidence has escalated because of your passivity and he is choking you with one hand and opening the door to his van with the other and you feel yourself too tired, too numb to even try to defend yourself now and you are giving up, silently praying that somehow he will show mercy on you, even though you keep hearing that mantra in your head:  “Never ever go with him.  If you do, you will never, ever return.”

BUT THEN, maybe you are a man, woman, or teenager who has trained in one of the Martial or Fighting Arts.  Maybe you, like me, are committed to becoming violence when abject violence is the only thing that can save you.  It is what I call The Greatest Blow On Earth, capable of leveling the playing field, of Blowing the Bad Guy Away.

THE GREATEST Blow on Earth involves a chain of actions linked together by Surprise, Speed, Power and Location.  The Survivor Philosophy is Two Eyes For An Eye.  After all, the stupid drunk asshole grabbed hold of you  I urge you, the intended victim, (The Survivor) to disintegrate any thoughts of regret about what you must do, which is, frankly, to destroy one or all of the assailant’s Primary Targets.  After all, the Bad Guy’s hands are latched onto your chest, so his hands are not hitting you and they aren’t able to block the eyes, throat, groin and/or knees.  The Survivor also understands the mentality of the attacker and when the Bad Guy pulls you in,you use the Bad Guy’s power to propel you into his personal safe zone.  From close quarters you can do many,many bad things to the assailant and there is very little he can do about it, at least for the initial few seconds.

COMMIT yourself to the tactics of multiplicity and follow-up, once you are inside his safe zone.  That means hit as hard as you can in vulnerable areas that will do some damage.  Do not stop until you can safely disengage.  Christopher Pagotto, a MMA competitor with whom I work out from time to time, suggests that anyone fighting a serious battle for his or her life should think in orbits.    He explains:

“Instead of singular and linear strikes to a target followed by returning the hands to the guard position only to repeat the stroke, I believe in smooth looping and straight punches, but let’s add another element.  Any sub-targets in the lane or zone of the primary target should be destroyed or at least struck on the orbit home.”

Pagotto demonstrated his orbit philosophy by driving a looping right fist “into” my right forehead (a touch drill which landed like a feather, thank goodness) and, then, as the punch returned on its path, he deftly clapped a Palm Heel (touch drill) into my right ear.

“Heck, Hammer, Pagotto concluded, “the thing is to hit as many targets as possible in as few strokes as possible.  Here we have a nice hook to the temple.  You got the Bad Guy reeling a bit, but he’s not out. Next thing he knows, his ear is ringing and his balance is messed up.  Follow up with an elbow or a kick and the clown is down.”

Next Posting:  More Scenarios and Survival Strategies.

By Hammer

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 5th, 2008 at 12:08 am and is filed under Action Against Violence Home Page, Domestic Violence, Safety and Survival, Strategies and Tactics, Violence Against Women, Violence Prevention. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.