HOW TO MAKE THE ATTACKER “GASP.”
Tuesday, July 22nd, 2008GASP is a simple training acronym. Easy to remember, and, more importantly, quite east to do. Simplicity and doability, don’t forget, are not to be taken lightly when it comes to the Fighting Arts. After all, when you are under attack, especially a spontaneous, surprise attack undertaken by an evildoer at great speed and with malevolent determination, your ability to perform anything more complex than the act of flipping a light switch – no exaggeration – will be damn near impossible to do without literally hundreds of training reps and at least a minute or two mentally mapping out an escape and evasion strategy before the attack.
TRUTHFULLY, how many of you spend any time preparing yourself for avoiding and/or repelling an attack? How many of you look at another person – be he or she an innocent-looking person or the kind of person you might think would spring an attack – and visualize targets you might hit if they opened up? Visualized how exactly you would strike, or feint, or maybe what type of distraction move you would use to surprise him or her, to fragment his or her thought process?
WHAT I thought. Warriors do. And, for that matter, so do Bad Guys. That’s how they think at all times. Warriors and Bad Guys alike train themselves constantly – actually, it is called Spinal Tuning – so they can be in the Attack Mode in order to gain the Fighter’s Edge over the victim. And. Let me tell you, Hammer Fans – you can’t ever underestimate the Fighter’s Edge since an advantage of only 1 ½ seconds is all it takes to knock the other guy back on his heels and overwhelm his or her ability to think and act. Unless your opponent has extraordinary recuperative powers and great determination and courage (a warrior who never gives up, in other words), the fight is over.
SO, WHAT IS GASP?
WHILE there are hundreds of techniques, tactics and/or strategies that I have seen advocated to develop Great Attacker (or, in some cases, Asshole) Stopping Power, I like to keep my Fighting Arts strategies down to a simple few, like:
Generate Power. The difference between hitting an object with just an extended hand and a real powerful strike using hip rotation and extending through (sticking on) a target is immense. Try this: Stand with your feet together and imagine yourself in a complete body cast with only your arms free. With someone holding a pad, strike that pad. Now, spread your feet and drop your power foot back slightly and feel how freely you can rotate your hips. Now, strike the pad and just feel how much more power you have. Keep your toes pointed toward your target, keep your elbows close to your hips and, as you throw the punch, feel your forearms brush your hips. Avoid Power Leaks that rob your strikes of power. All joint son the side of the strike should lock upon impact (ankles, knees, hips, shoulders, elbows and wrists are power joints). When you hit imagine you are punching or kicking into and through that target.
Anticipate. Mental Conditioning is over 75% of the Fighting Arts. Your mind and body must be Spinal Tuned together in order to respond immediately and effectively to a serious threat.
Spring into action. Successful self defense cannot be spastic, as it often is. By spastic I mean closing your eyes and flailing away. If for no other reason, a spastic fighting effort burns energy quickly and can leave you standing there defenseless. Take the fight instead to the attacker. As soon as you identify that he or she is about to attack, go for it! I will go into the dead-bang signs that you are under attack in another post.
Pinpoint Power Targets. Hit targets with high dollar value. In a boxing match or an MMA competition, kicking a Nerve Motor Point (femoral or Common Peroneal) several times in the course of a competition will eventually exhaust the lactic acid in that leg area and cause an involuntary collapse of that leg. Fight over. However, when you are involved in a life or death struggle, you might not have time for three uninterrupted straight or angle kicks to the inside and/or outside of a leg. The average attack/counterattack self defense episode is over in 20 seconds. Plus, here’s another tact: The average person, even above average, can only fight at 100% maximum output for 10 to 15 seconds, tops.
· Power Targets that have high dollar value include:
1. Groin, Eyes and Throat. The immediate startle response to even a superficial strike to these will be for the attacker to quickly move both hands to this area. This will leave other targets open. Power hits/gouges to any of these will take the Bad Guy out of the fight.
2. Ears and Knees. Although considered secondary targets, a kick to the inside of the knees will often stop the fight and/or open up other targets and I have ended several fights by slapping both ears and grabbing one of the ears and twisting down.
3. Lower Shins: Great because a nice Front Kick with the Instep and/or toe of shoe is virtually impossible to stop, if the person using it invokes singularity of focus on the Bad Guy’s part by looking at his face while delivering the strike. Target acquisition (hitting the Superficial Peroneal Nerve Motor Point located behind and above the tongue of the shoe) is not a problem if you target the Bad Guy’s same-side shoulder. The Superficial Peroneal is always below that. A good strike or two will cause the Bad guy to drop his upper body, opening up so many targets.
Next Blog: Strikes and other moves to make your attacker GASP.
Stay Safe
Hammer
GASP is a simple training acronym. Easy to remember, and, more importantly, quite east to do. Simplicity and doability, don’t forget, are not to be taken lightly when it comes to the Fighting Arts. After all, when you are under attack, especially a spontaneous, surprise attack undertaken by an evildoer at great speed and with malevolent determination, your ability to perform anything more complex than the act of flipping a light switch – no exaggeration – will be damn near impossible to do without literally hundreds of training reps and at least a minute or two mentally mapping out an escape and evasion strategy before the attack.
TRUTHFULLY, how many of you spend any time preparing yourself for avoiding and/or repelling an attack? How many of you look at another person – be he or she an innocent-looking person or the kind of person you might think would spring an attack – and visualize targets you might hit if they opened up? Visualized how exactly you would strike, or feint, or maybe what type of distraction move you would use to surprise him or her, to fragment his or her thought process?
WHAT I thought. Warriors do. And, for that matter, so do Bad Guys. That’s how they think at all times. Warriors and Bad Guys alike train themselves constantly – actually, it is called Spinal Tuning – so they can be in the Attack Mode in order to gain the Fighter’s Edge over the victim. And. Let me tell you, Hammer Fans – you can’t ever underestimate the Fighter’s Edge since an advantage of only 1 ½ seconds is all it takes to knock the other guy back on his heels and overwhelm his or her ability to think and act. Unless your opponent has extraordinary recuperative powers and great determination and courage (a warrior who never gives up, in other words), the fight is over.
SO, WHAT IS GASP?
WHILE there are hundreds of techniques, tactics and/or strategies that I have seen advocated to develop Great Attacker (or, in some cases, Asshole) Stopping Power, I like to keep my Fighting Arts strategies down to a simple few, like:
Generate Power. The difference between hitting an object with just an extended hand and a real powerful strike using hip rotation and extending through (sticking on) a target is immense. Try this: Stand with your feet together and imagine yourself in a complete body cast with only your arms free. With someone holding a pad, strike that pad. Now, spread your feet and drop your power foot back slightly and feel how freely you can rotate your hips. Now, strike the pad and just feel how much more power you have. Keep your toes pointed toward your target, keep your elbows close to your hips and, as you throw the punch, feel your forearms brush your hips. Avoid Power Leaks that rob your strikes of power. All joint son the side of the strike should lock upon impact (ankles, knees, hips, shoulders, elbows and wrists are power joints). When you hit imagine you are punching or kicking into and through that target.
Anticipate. Mental Conditioning is over 75% of the Fighting Arts. Your mind and body must be Spinal Tuned together in order to respond immediately and effectively to a serious threat.
Spring into action. Successful self defense cannot be spastic, as it often is. By spastic I mean closing your eyes and flailing away. If for no other reason, a spastic fighting effort burns energy quickly and can leave you standing there defenseless. Take the fight instead to the attacker. As soon as you identify that he or she is about to attack, go for it! I will go into the dead-bang signs that you are under attack in another post.
Pinpoint Power Targets. Hit targets with high dollar value. In a boxing match or an MMA competition, kicking a Nerve Motor Point (femoral or Common Peroneal) several times in the course of a competition will eventually exhaust the lactic acid in that leg area and cause an involuntary collapse of that leg. Fight over. However, when you are involved in a life or death struggle, you might not have time for three uninterrupted straight or angle kicks to the inside and/or outside of a leg. The average attack/counterattack self defense episode is over in 20 seconds. Plus, here’s another tact: The average person, even above average, can only fight at 100% maximum output for 10 to 15 seconds, tops.
· Power Targets that have high dollar value include:
1. Groin, Eyes and Throat. The immediate startle response to even a superficial strike to these will be for the attacker to quickly move both hands to this area. This will leave other targets open. Power hits/gouges to any of these will take the Bad Guy out of the fight.
2. Ears and Knees. Although considered secondary targets, a kick to the inside of the knees will often stop the fight and/or open up other targets and I have ended several fights by slapping both ears and grabbing one of the ears and twisting down.
3. Lower Shins: Great because a nice Front Kick with the Instep and/or toe of shoe is virtually impossible to stop, if the person using it invokes singularity of focus on the Bad Guy’s part by looking at his face while delivering the strike. Target acquisition (hitting the Superficial Peroneal Nerve Motor Point located behind and above the tongue of the shoe) is not a problem if you target the Bad Guy’s same-side shoulder. The Superficial Peroneal is always below that. A good strike or two will cause the Bad guy to drop his upper body, opening up so many targets.
Next Blog: Strikes and other moves to make your attacker GASP.
Stay Safe
Hammer
GASP is a simple training acronym. Easy to remember, and, more importantly, quite east to do. Simplicity and doability, don’t forget, are not to be taken lightly when it comes to the Fighting Arts. After all, when you are under attack, especially a spontaneous, surprise attack undertaken by an evildoer at great speed and with malevolent determination, your ability to perform anything more complex than the act of flipping a light switch – no exaggeration – will be damn near impossible to do without literally hundreds of training reps and at least a minute or two mentally mapping out an escape and evasion strategy before the attack.
TRUTHFULLY, how many of you spend any time preparing yourself for avoiding and/or repelling an attack? How many of you look at another person – be he or she an innocent-looking person or the kind of person you might think would spring an attack – and visualize targets you might hit if they opened up? Visualized how exactly you would strike, or feint, or maybe what type of distraction move you would use to surprise him or her, to fragment his or her thought process?
WHAT I thought. Warriors do. And, for that matter, so do Bad Guys. That’s how they think at all times. Warriors and Bad Guys alike train themselves constantly – actually, it is called Spinal Tuning – so they can be in the Attack Mode in order to gain the Fighter’s Edge over the victim. And. Let me tell you, Hammer Fans – you can’t ever underestimate the Fighter’s Edge since an advantage of only 1 ½ seconds is all it takes to knock the other guy back on his heels and overwhelm his or her ability to think and act. Unless your opponent has extraordinary recuperative powers and great determination and courage (a warrior who never gives up, in other words), the fight is over.
SO, WHAT IS GASP?
WHILE there are hundreds of techniques, tactics and/or strategies that I have seen advocated to develop Great Attacker (or, in some cases, Asshole) Stopping Power, I like to keep my Fighting Arts strategies down to a simple few, like:
Generate Power. The difference between hitting an object with just an extended hand and a real powerful strike using hip rotation and extending through (sticking on) a target is immense. Try this: Stand with your feet together and imagine yourself in a complete body cast with only your arms free. With someone holding a pad, strike that pad. Now, spread your feet and drop your power foot back slightly and feel how freely you can rotate your hips. Now, strike the pad and just feel how much more power you have. Keep your toes pointed toward your target, keep your elbows close to your hips and, as you throw the punch, feel your forearms brush your hips. Avoid Power Leaks that rob your strikes of power. All joint son the side of the strike should lock upon impact (ankles, knees, hips, shoulders, elbows and wrists are power joints). When you hit imagine you are punching or kicking into and through that target.
Anticipate. Mental Conditioning is over 75% of the Fighting Arts. Your mind and body must be Spinal Tuned together in order to respond immediately and effectively to a serious threat.
Spring into action. Successful self defense cannot be spastic, as it often is. By spastic I mean closing your eyes and flailing away. If for no other reason, a spastic fighting effort burns energy quickly and can leave you standing there defenseless. Take the fight instead to the attacker. As soon as you identify that he or she is about to attack, go for it! I will go into the dead-bang signs that you are under attack in another post.
Pinpoint Power Targets. Hit targets with high dollar value. In a boxing match or an MMA competition, kicking a Nerve Motor Point (femoral or Common Peroneal) several times in the course of a competition will eventually exhaust the lactic acid in that leg area and cause an involuntary collapse of that leg. Fight over. However, when you are involved in a life or death struggle, you might not have time for three uninterrupted straight or angle kicks to the inside and/or outside of a leg. The average attack/counterattack self defense episode is over in 20 seconds. Plus, here’s another tact: The average person, even above average, can only fight at 100% maximum output for 10 to 15 seconds, tops.
· Power Targets that have high dollar value include:
1. Groin, Eyes and Throat. The immediate startle response to even a superficial strike to these will be for the attacker to quickly move both hands to this area. This will leave other targets open. Power hits/gouges to any of these will take the Bad Guy out of the fight.
2. Ears and Knees. Although considered secondary targets, a kick to the inside of the knees will often stop the fight and/or open up other targets and I have ended several fights by slapping both ears and grabbing one of the ears and twisting down.
3. Lower Shins: Great because a nice Front Kick with the Instep and/or toe of shoe is virtually impossible to stop, if the person using it invokes singularity of focus on the Bad Guy’s part by looking at his face while delivering the strike. Target acquisition (hitting the Superficial Peroneal Nerve Motor Point located behind and above the tongue of the shoe) is not a problem if you target the Bad Guy’s same-side shoulder. The Superficial Peroneal is always below that. A good strike or two will cause the Bad guy to drop his upper body, opening up so many targets.
Next Blog: Strikes and other moves to make your attacker GASP.
Stay Safe
Hammer
GASP is a simple training acronym. Easy to remember, and, more importantly, quite east to do. Simplicity and doability, don’t forget, are not to be taken lightly when it comes to the Fighting Arts. After all, when you are under attack, especially a spontaneous, surprise attack undertaken by an evildoer at great speed and with malevolent determination, your ability to perform anything more complex than the act of flipping a light switch – no exaggeration – will be damn near impossible to do without literally hundreds of training reps and at least a minute or two mentally mapping out an escape and evasion strategy before the attack.
TRUTHFULLY, how many of you spend any time preparing yourself for avoiding and/or repelling an attack? How many of you look at another person – be he or she an innocent-looking person or the kind of person you might think would spring an attack – and visualize targets you might hit if they opened up? Visualized how exactly you would strike, or feint, or maybe what type of distraction move you would use to surprise him or her, to fragment his or her thought process?
WHAT I thought. Warriors do. And, for that matter, so do Bad Guys. That’s how they think at all times. Warriors and Bad Guys alike train themselves constantly – actually, it is called Spinal Tuning – so they can be in the Attack Mode in order to gain the Fighter’s Edge over the victim. And. Let me tell you, Hammer Fans – you can’t ever underestimate the Fighter’s Edge since an advantage of only 1 ½ seconds is all it takes to knock the other guy back on his heels and overwhelm his or her ability to think and act. Unless your opponent has extraordinary recuperative powers and great determination and courage (a warrior who never gives up, in other words), the fight is over.
SO, WHAT IS GASP?
WHILE there are hundreds of techniques, tactics and/or strategies that I have seen advocated to develop Great Attacker (or, in some cases, Asshole) Stopping Power, I like to keep my Fighting Arts strategies down to a simple few, like:
Generate Power. The difference between hitting an object with just an extended hand and a real powerful strike using hip rotation and extending through (sticking on) a target is immense. Try this: Stand with your feet together and imagine yourself in a complete body cast with only your arms free. With someone holding a pad, strike that pad. Now, spread your feet and drop your power foot back slightly and feel how freely you can rotate your hips. Now, strike the pad and just feel how much more power you have. Keep your toes pointed toward your target, keep your elbows close to your hips and, as you throw the punch, feel your forearms brush your hips. Avoid Power Leaks that rob your strikes of power. All joint son the side of the strike should lock upon impact (ankles, knees, hips, shoulders, elbows and wrists are power joints). When you hit imagine you are punching or kicking into and through that target.
Anticipate. Mental Conditioning is over 75% of the Fighting Arts. Your mind and body must be Spinal Tuned together in order to respond immediately and effectively to a serious threat.
Spring into action. Successful self defense cannot be spastic, as it often is. By spastic I mean closing your eyes and flailing away. If for no other reason, a spastic fighting effort burns energy quickly and can leave you standing there defenseless. Take the fight instead to the attacker. As soon as you identify that he or she is about to attack, go for it! I will go into the dead-bang signs that you are under attack in another post.
Pinpoint Power Targets. Hit targets with high dollar value. In a boxing match or an MMA competition, kicking a Nerve Motor Point (femoral or Common Peroneal) several times in the course of a competition will eventually exhaust the lactic acid in that leg area and cause an involuntary collapse of that leg. Fight over. However, when you are involved in a life or death struggle, you might not have time for three uninterrupted straight or angle kicks to the inside and/or outside of a leg. The average attack/counterattack self defense episode is over in 20 seconds. Plus, here’s another tact: The average person, even above average, can only fight at 100% maximum output for 10 to 15 seconds, tops.
· Power Targets that have high dollar value include:
1. Groin, Eyes and Throat. The immediate startle response to even a superficial strike to these will be for the attacker to quickly move both hands to this area. This will leave other targets open. Power hits/gouges to any of these will take the Bad Guy out of the fight.
2. Ears and Knees. Although considered secondary targets, a kick to the inside of the knees will often stop the fight and/or open up other targets and I have ended several fights by slapping both ears and grabbing one of the ears and twisting down.
3. Lower Shins: Great because a nice Front Kick with the Instep and/or toe of shoe is virtually impossible to stop, if the person using it invokes singularity of focus on the Bad Guy’s part by looking at his face while delivering the strike. Target acquisition (hitting the Superficial Peroneal Nerve Motor Point located behind and above the tongue of the shoe) is not a problem if you target the Bad Guy’s same-side shoulder. The Superficial Peroneal is always below that. A good strike or two will cause the Bad guy to drop his upper body, opening up so many targets.
Next Blog: Strikes and other moves to make your attacker GASP.
Stay Safe
Hammer
GASP is a simple training acronym. Easy to remember, and, more importantly, quite east to do. Simplicity and doability, don’t forget, are not to be taken lightly when it comes to the Fighting Arts. After all, when you are under attack, especially a spontaneous, surprise attack undertaken by an evildoer at great speed and with malevolent determination, your ability to perform anything more complex than the act of flipping a light switch – no exaggeration – will be damn near impossible to do without literally hundreds of training reps and at least a minute or two mentally mapping out an escape and evasion strategy before the attack.
TRUTHFULLY, how many of you spend any time preparing yourself for avoiding and/or repelling an attack? How many of you look at another person – be he or she an innocent-looking person or the kind of person you might think would spring an attack – and visualize targets you might hit if they opened up? Visualized how exactly you would strike, or feint, or maybe what type of distraction move you would use to surprise him or her, to fragment his or her thought process?
WHAT I thought. Warriors do. And, for that matter, so do Bad Guys. That’s how they think at all times. Warriors and Bad Guys alike train themselves constantly – actually, it is called Spinal Tuning – so they can be in the Attack Mode in order to gain the Fighter’s Edge over the victim. And. Let me tell you, Hammer Fans – you can’t ever underestimate the Fighter’s Edge since an advantage of only 1 ½ seconds is all it takes to knock the other guy back on his heels and overwhelm his or her ability to think and act. Unless your opponent has extraordinary recuperative powers and great determination and courage (a warrior who never gives up, in other words), the fight is over.
SO, WHAT IS GASP?
WHILE there are hundreds of techniques, tactics and/or strategies that I have seen advocated to develop Great Attacker (or, in some cases, Asshole) Stopping Power, I like to keep my Fighting Arts strategies down to a simple few, like:
Generate Power. The difference between hitting an object with just an extended hand and a real powerful strike using hip rotation