Action Against Violence

It happened not too long ago at one of my self-defense courses.  During a routine blocking drill one of my students “accidentally” hit her partner in the face.  Mayhap “hit” is misleading.  My 94-year old aunt packs a punch like Mike Tyson when compared to this “hit.”  Still, the assaulted student froze like a statue immediately upon being struck, she then blanched, her eyes getting about the size of a redneck’s belt buckle, and then she topped it off by collapsing to the floor in a pile.

I have seen this remarkable episode before.  Frankly, it is almost always a woman, once it was a male officer.  Gender aside, it is always someone who had never been in any kind of fight before.  More specifically – and here is my point – without exception, it is a student who never expected to get hit!

Now, Hammer Fans, this is always an interesting phenomenon when it happens at a training.  Actually, I like it.  Gives me a chance to make a point, which I always do.  I will get to that in a minute.  However, when a citizen or a law enforcement officer dies or is seriously injured in real life because of what I call A-Tactical Expectations, it is tragic.  Catastrophic because it could have easily been avoided. 

Inability to respond properly to surprise leads to debilitating shock, and this type of shock leads to a massive shutdown of one’s Autonomic Nervous System, activates Survival Stress (Sympathetic Nervous System Activation), virtually cutting one’s wires, a sniper’s term for icing a subject in his or her tracks.

So, here’s the lesson.  The primary psychological underpinning of a successful knife defense is expecting to be stabbed or cut when defending against a lethal edged weapon attack.  This psychological strategy is based upon the reality that a person, almost automatically, when he or she realizes that he or she is bleeding from even a superficial cut, will avert his or her attention from the attacker and his/her weapon.  The superficial cut is usually the result of a flick tactic of a smart edged weapon attacker who flicks the hands, wrists and/or forearms in order to cause superficial bleeding in order to distract the defender.  Once the victim is distracted, the merciless attacker slashes and thrusts vital targets to finish off the victim. 

A well trained civilian or officer, however, who is trained to expect to be cut, will be indifferent to any wound or bleeding that might distract him from defending his or her life.

If ever you have to defend yourself against a lethal gun, knife or empty hand attack, then, give yourself a fighting chance by psychologically accepting the reality that you will receive some sort of injury.  I ask you to think of this:  If you are still alive and you realize you have been shot, stabbed or struck with a blunt object, the wound is most likely not fatal.  Even if it is a serious injury, believe me, you are far better off concentrating your efforts on the task of fighting for your survival.

Research shows that military and law enforcement officers who give up the fight and believe they are about to die once wounded, usually do perish.  Those who breathe tactically and mentally and spiritually control themselves, more likely than not do survive.

Until next time, stay safe.

Hammer

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 3rd, 2008 at 6:01 am and is filed under Action Against Violence Home Page, Safety and Survival, Strategies and Tactics, Uncategorized, 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.