SYMMETRICAL STRIKES and Winning the Fight For Your Life
LET’S face it, Hammer Fans, in the context of this blog when we talk self defense, with maybe the rare exception of a schoolyard bully, what we really are talking about is a dead bang fight for your life. You are either fending off an abductor, (power) rapist, maniacal, enraged and maybe homicidal (former) spouse or boyfriend, or desperate criminal. Any one of these attackers is there to do you irreparable damage, not to spar and run.
I fashioned the Fighting Arts for a life or death, no-holds-barred, ultimate risk, back-against-the-wall Blood Battle. I tailored it for situations where you, in the great majority of situations are:
- The smaller, weaker, least experienced fighter.
- Tracked and marked like prey, selected because you have been perceived as vulnerable, weak, unwilling to fight back, or, even if you do fight back, selected because you will likely freeze or at least hesitate at the moment of truth..
- Distracted. You might have articles in your hands, or, you may be distracted by answering the “attacker’s” questions, etc.
- Attacked in a low-witness environment chosen by the attacker for its isolation, for the terrain, which makes fighting difficult (for you), for its low light or for other elements advantageous to the attacker.
- Alone or accompanied by a weak, defenseless child who might further distract you or absorb your attention.
- Inside-Out. You are attacked just as you are either going in to a car, building, house, etc., or coming out. Inside-Out is when you are most distracted, criminals tell me.
- Betrayed. You are being attacked suddenly, spontaneously and with astonishing cruelty by someone whom you trusted – allowed into you home, allowed to get close to you after he has earned your trust. Worse, the attacker taunts you by claiming that no one will believe you were attacked because it was you who invited him into your car, house, whom you shared drinks with etc.
- Surprised and further weakened and slow to counterattack as a result of all the preceding issues.
WHEN YOU are attacked, your HR (Heart Rate) will spike from about 60 to 70 BPM to something like 220 BPM in a few seconds. This is the Fight or Flight Syndrome kicking in, and, in some ways this is good because your system will be flooded with cortisol and you will be two to three times as strong so you can either fight or run much better. Sounds swell, doesn’t it? Problem is the accelerating heart rate makes it virtually impossible to take advantage of Fight Or Flight because:
Ø You will not be able to access your Neo-Cortex, your Smart Brain, because of the perceived lack of time to respond. You will be at the mercy of the Primitive Brain. Unless you are properly trained, or have a Pre-Determined Survival Plan, you will not be able to spontaneously think of an Escape, Evasion, or even a Survival Countermeasure in the two or three seconds you will have to properly respond.
Ø You will not be able to perform any fine or complex motor skills when your heart rate passes 145 BPM, which renders any Martial Arts you may have learned virtually useless..
Ø Your vision will be greatly impaired.
Ø You will experience Auditory Exclusion.
Ø When you do fight back, you will only be able to fight at 100% maximum output (M.O.) for 10 to 15 seconds. After that, you will only be able to fight at 45% M.O.
Ø In many situations, you will have trouble even talking and/or moving. You will hold your breath and freeze in place, hence, making you the Ideal Victim.
Symmetrical Countermeasures, or Gross Motor Skills.
THE Fighting Arts, therefore, are comprised of skills and techniques that are easy to perform, easy to retain (while most Complex Martial Arts techniques require 5000 or more repetitions in training to inculcate them into your Blood (Physical) or Psychic Memory while the Fighting Arts, dominated by Gross Motor Skills, require only about 25 repetitions in order to Hard Wire them into your system), and, importantly, not diminished by Survival Stress. As a matter of fact, most GMS are more effective under stress. Consider the simple, push-pull (GMS are actually simple push-pull events) activity of the bench press. An athlete either competing in this kind of power events (GMS) will enhance his or her chances of achieving his or her personal best by actually artificially increasing his or her personal stress level or heart rate. I call the strikes and other techniques I teach Symmetrical Countermeasures because – as opposed to Complex Motor Skills – GMS involve one, maybe two body parts working as one unit.
ONE KEY FEATURE of practically every Symmetrical Strike is that the techniques replicate an activity that person performs during routine everyday situations. All the person has to do is remember to perform that act under stress and hit a high-value target (since we can only fight at 100% for about 10 seconds, we cannot waste time and energy). For instance:
- THE HEAD BUTT is a powerful and virtually unstoppable strike using one our body’s “battering rams.” The temple is designed to withstand tremendous assaults and to protect the brain. Ever gotten hit on the nose by an 8-month old baby you were holding in your arms? If you have, you know how powerful this Symmetrical Strike can be. You will also realize how simple, easy and natural is this GMS.
- THE AXE HANDLE STRIKE is a tremendous weapon against a Bad Guy unlucky enough to be standing in-range. Comprised of the (little finger) side of your hand and along the bony surface of your forearm right down to your elbow. Using the same motion you would use to stop someone from advancing past you (take that portion of your arm and hold it out straight where the chest of someone standing slightly behind you would be) in line and you have the motion for the Axe Handle Strike. To strike properly, keep your palm down, fingers relaxed and together, and swing that hand until your thumb touches your chest. Now, drive the Axe Handle from that position hard -like dead weight – and penetrate that target (picture your arm going all the way through the chest and out through the attacker’s back). You can use this Symmetrical Strike also in a devastating preemptory strike into the Bad Guy’s throat, stomach and groin also,
- PALM HEEL STRIKES are, in my book, the best all around symmetrical strikes in the system. They require very little skill and absolutely survival stress resistant and they always work if the target is open. Turn your palms of your hands up, facing you. At the bottom of each are the hard heel area. Touch your chin with the palm coming straight up. That is all it takes as far as the skill goes. Now, place your hand, palm down on your chest and look straight ahead, as if you are an attacker looking a victim in his or her eyes. Now, slide that hand deliberately up, staying close to the chest, and then touch your chin again with the heel of the palm. At what point did you actually see your hand “attack?” Truth is, you never did. Take advantage of the Bad Guy’s Blind Spot and drive that Palm Heel Strike up from the chest, rotating your hips and using your body weight (Total Body Mass) to triple the power. If you hit the side of the chin right, you will rattle the Bad Guy’s brain just enough to cause a knockout or a short circuit at least. Combine the Palm Heel Strike with the fingers to create a powerful TIGER CLAW STRIKE. Simply hit the chin or nose with the PHS but continue driving the head back and clawing with the fingers into the eyes. Follow this up with a TIGER CLAW STRIKE DOWN. Slap down on the nose with the palm and rake the eyes, face, neck and chest hard with the curled fingers on the way down. Devastating, surprising and demoralizing to the Bad Guy.
- THE FRONT KICK is a great Symmetrical Strike using practically the same quick, scooting motion you would use to kick open a screen door when you don’t want to set down whatever it is you have in your arms. The target is the lower shins, just above the tongue of the Bad Guy’s shoe. This kick almost cannot fail because the Bad Guy more often than not expects an upper body counterstrike. Enhance this belief (Singularity Of Focus) by looking into his eyes and/or distracting him with your hands. Drive the point of your shoe into his lower shin and snap it as if you were wearing a new pair of shoes and had just stepped into a puddle and you were trying to shake the muddy water off. Hit hard several times and follow-up with an ascending knee strike *while holding his head in place with both hands) and I guarantee the Blood Battle is over!
By Hammer