Action Against Violence

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This is the second post on The Terrible Twos, the first dealing with the critical connection betwen your Mind and your Body.  Today we’re going to talk about connecting those Twos with some actual physical self defense moves that can save your life.

And I kid you not, Hammer fans.  Using these powerful combinations of two decisively and quickly can get you out of some nasty jams, be you a man, boy, woman or girl.  All you have to do is clear your mind, recognize some easy-to-spot open targets and hit them as easy as saying “one-two-buckle your shoe.”

HOW THINKING ”ONE-TWO” CAN GET YOU OUT OF SOME NASTY JAMS

1. ASSAILANT ATTACKS FROM THE FRONT.  GRABS YOUR NECK OR SHIRT OR PICKS YOU  UP TO SLAM YOU.  Not an uncommon attack, actually.  Could be a bully, home invader, sexual predator, or “Chicken Hawk” attempting to carry off a youngster.  In almost every scenario I know of here, the assailant’s hands are both on his (or her) victim’s person, leaving the face, ears and eyes vulnerable to counterattack.  “One – take both hands and violently & simultaneously clap each ear with the palm of each hand  & Tw0 - quickly follow up with either a Double Finger Gouge to each eye or a Palm Heel smash to the Bad Guy’s nose, depending upon the perceived severity of the attack.  Either way, guarantee you, I, the assailant will reflexively either loosen his grip or disengage completely.  Now, this is crucial, follow your One-Two Combination with a second set of “Terrible Twos,” like, for instance, an Ascending Knee Strike (to compliment the bad guy’s head reflexively dropping) into the breadbasket and a Descending Elbow Strike to the back of his head as he reacts to the knee.
2. THE ASSAILANT GRABS YOUR WRIST OR ARM FROM THE SIDE.  This is a very common “attack,” and, as benign as it may seem, it is often the preamble to some other nefarious crap.  My suggested first response would be a quick wrist or arm release, or, if you are feeling cocky, looking the nimrod in the eye and saying, “Ah, really?”  If you attain the release and the idiot goes on his way, fine.  If he regrabs you, he means some medieval business, so you got to TCB, like, now.  First Step, forget about his hand(s) that have forged around your wrist or arm – just one or two limbs he will not have to block your strike or punch you with.  ONE – Cant your foot a little counterclockwise and drive it hard, scraping along his shin as you drop all your weight on his instep, and TWO – as he shrinks reflexively inward, raise that same foot upward as if you were stepping in a marching band and, when your foot is at the right height, kick to the side and into the outside of his knee, making sure to step and extend in his direction.  Done correctly – and, believe me, the combination kicks are gross motor skills, and as such, dogshit simple – the bad guy will loosen his grip, or, more likely, let go completely.  Matter of fact, I would be surprised if he didn’t suffer either a dislocated knee or some fractured bones in his foot.

I think you get the picture.  There are upwards of 176 variegated Terrible-Two Combinations.  An endless number of different combinations mixed with open targets.  Virtually any attack a bad guy might try leaves the assailant open to quick and effective combinations.  After all, the bad guy has only two arms and hands with which to block, parry, grab and strike you with. 

You just need to be willing to use them.  The Bad Guy is counting on his belief that you don’t have the courage to do so.

Until the next post, stay safe.

Hammer

The best things in self defense, I have always believed, come in twos.  For instance, successfully defending onesself against almost any attacker requires a critical nexus, or connection, between (1) the brain, and (2) the body.  Yes, it is our body that is our delivery system, but unless we first engage our mind we will likely end up either frozen like the proverbial deer in the headlights, or at best flailing our limbs at the bad guy with no plan of action, no direction, no nothing, until all energy and hope lapses into nothingness.

There are other Terrible Twos, but none as critical as the mind to body connection.  Call it The Psyche of Survival, or Mental Conditioning, or Spinal Tuning,  whatever you wish, but make no mistake, in order to activate your physical powers when you need them the most, you must first get your noggin into the fight.  So, you might be asking, how do we do that?

SPINAL TUNING YOUR MIND & BODY TO FIGHT WITH MAX EFFECTIVENESS

1. Be aware of your surroundings, of other people in the environment, and of subtle and not so subtle changes.
2. Assess yourself.  Assess others.  How are you feeling?  What are your gut feelings telling you?  Is there someone around you who shouldn’t be?  Who doesn’t “fit?”
3. Anticipate.  Ask yourself what you would do if such and such happened?  Have a plan of action.
4. Maintain a general state of (360 degree) awareness.
5. Visualization.  Every day or so sit in a relaxed state and visualize yourself in a critical, perhaps life or death situation and “see” yourself fighting an attacker and prevailing, or at least surviving the attack.  Visualization, believe it or not, is the same as experiencing a real situation.
6. Teach yourself to breathe.  In order for your mind and body to connect into real and dynamic action you must send oxygenated blood to the brain and throughout your system.  Teach yourself to breathe as the first step in any physical reaction to attack.
7. Positive Self Talk.  If you believe you cannot defend yourself, you are already outnumbered and overpowered.  Give yourself positive self talks with personal self messages such as:

•  ”I can breathe and empower myself if attacked.”
• “I will explode into action when first touched by the attacker.”
• “I have the ability and the skills to hit open and vulnerable targets on the attacker.”
• “I have the ability and the skills to do whatever it takes to defeat an attacker so I can go home to my loved ones.”
• Etc.

The Psyche of Survival is more than just a mind set.  It is a belief system that you can use to maximize your power against any bad guy.

In the next post:  The Terrible Twos, Part II (”Orbits Of Death”)

Until then, Stay Safe

Hammer

If  they exist at all, nevers and always are rare (words) in the world of self defense.  So, when I say Never, ever go with the bad guy (to the isolated, secondary crime scene) in my Self Defense for Women clases, I always follow proclamation with the caveats that (1) It is always up to you.  Whatever it is that you do or do not do that helps you survive is the right thing, and (2) when you find yourself in a situation where you feel the only option you have is to go with the bad guy, then, go with him, but—-

GO WITH THE BAD GUY, BUT—

But never give up your life.  Always stay alert for opportunities to escape.  Precious seconds or even minutes where the assailant will have to pause and lose physical control over you.  Like when he pauses to unlock or open a car door, or when he lets go of you or loses visual control to unzip or unbuckle his trousers. 

1. Before he tosses you into his car.  Up to me, I’m going to do whatever I can not to get inside the car.  Depening upon the time of day & your locale, bujt there is a better chance of a witness coming along and scaring off the attacker.  Look for your opportunity here to grab hold of an object, or for a slight drop in the tightnes of his grip on you as he opens the door.

•  Prop both feet against the doorjam or the seat and push hard, making it hard for the predator to toss you inside.  Grab hold of something.  Try to force him to lose his grip.
• Drop, Lock and Roll.  Ever try to hold on to a cat who didn’t want to be held?  Once you push against the seat and get your momentum started, squirm, kick, turn hard in his arms, and, when you are able dive headfirst toward the ground (speed & determination is crucial), grabbing hold of his waist and/or legs.  If and when you can work your way down, roll and hook onto his legs with arms and legs.
• Hang On & Play For Time.  This is not a great self defense move.  It is a delaying tactic that may cause your attacker to do one or more of 3 things:  (1)  Beat on you mercilessly to force you to give up.  Hang in there.  Self defense is not an injury-free activity & there is the chance he will just plain give up out of fear that someone will call the police. (2)  He will break off his attack.  (3)  Providence will break your way & you will have delayed your abduction long enough for help to arrive.

I know that the desperation-delaying tactics I have suggested don’t fill you with hope, but, trust me, they have worked in some situations.  Even in scenarios where the bad guy had brandished a deadly weapon.  Survivors have been injured, in several cases severely, but the victims returned to their loved ones.  Almost all the women and girls reported that at one point they were certain they were going to die but that they survived because they “saw” loved ones and mentally decided that they would do whatever they had to do to survive.

Until the next post, stay safe.

Hammer

HAVE FAITH IN BIZARRO WORLD AND PREVAIL!

Do you still read comic books?  What about when you were a kid?  If so, you may remember the Bizarro World Superman episodes where everything was flip-flopped or reversed from reality.  Whether you do or do not, what I am going to ask you to do, especially if you are a girl or woman, is suspend disbelief for a few minutes and seriously consider what I am about to post about what might be a crucial and primal secret to defending yourself against a deadly, spontaneous (surprise, close quarter assault) assault by a stronger, quicker, larger, and likely armed man.

I believe, if you commit yourself to the tactic(s) I advocate, you will screw with the attacker’s belief system.   And it is that Belief System that guides him like an internal gyroscope and has probably even drove him to select you as his victim.  And it is that Belief System (and experience as a predator) that instills in him The Truth that assures him, that, upon First Touch, you will:

• Ignore your natural instincts to fight or fly.
• Freeze.
• Hold Your Breath.
• Go Mute.
• Commit to no effective fight plan, but, if you fight, commit only a vertical resistance path
• Commit to Zero Resistance when ordered to or led to a Secondary Crime Scene.

In other words, you become the Ideal Victim.  Quiet, passive, inert.

COMMIT YOURSELF TO TRUE, MULTI-DIMENSIONAL, MULTILATERAL SELF DEFENSE

So, what is the self defense plan that flip-flops reality?  I call it The Fighting Arts.  It is doing exactly what, deeeep down in your soul you were created to do to survive.  In this case, doing what you were created to do – before society got hold of you and fouled you all up – is exactly the opposite of what the predator expects.  Actually, when you think of it, it is likely the opposite of what you and so many of our esteemed self defense experts would suggest you do in this instance, which is:

1. Trust Your Gut Instincts.  You have wonderful, natural instincts, which will warn you when danger lurks.  Yet I know case after case where a victim rejected this warning & ignored the chance to escape or evade what turned out to be a fatal assault.
2. Always be Aware.  Maintain a 360 degree awareness of what is around you, subtle changes in the environment & others, escape routes, etc.
3. Always Control & Protect Your Personal Space.
4. Use the Attacker’s “First Touch” as a Trigger To Explode Into Action.
5. Do Whatever It Takes To Stay in the Initial Crime Scene.  Over 95% of victims who allow themselves to be taken to an isolated secondary scene never return!

•  Use The Element of Surprise (see my last two posts).
• Employ Target Focused Counterattacks.  If and when the Bad Guy grabs you, be aware he is exposing at least one primary target and several secondary targets (I will expand on this in the next two posts).
• Scream, Yell, Drop to the Ground.  To prevent being carried off to a waiting car, dark alley, etc., use the ground as your ally.  Wrap both legs around his ankles, keep your head down.  Suddenly dropping to the ground as a bad guy is dragging you to a car, etc., can throw him off balance, and now, on your back you can use your feet while rotating on your hip to keep him away.  I am not saying use this as your only counter attack, but do not dismiss this as an option.  As soon as you can get to your feet and go!
• Grab and Turn Into Him.  When grabbed from behind, or even from the front, the conventional thought would be to always turn in the opposite direction, which, by the way, usually plays into the bad guy’s strength.  Instead, here are a few possible tactics:

In the next post, “Staying in the Initial Crime Scene.”

Until then, Stay Safe

hammer

As I’ve written in many of my posts, the element of surprise, is nothing short of essential in the art – if I can call it that – of defending oneself against the predatory sexual assailant (women) and criminally violent attacker (women, men, boys & girls).  Double or triple that when dealing with an attacker who is larger, stronger, faster, meaner and more prepared to destroy you without a second thought and meaner than you.

It is an inarguable truism, far as I am concerned, that, without the use of surprise, you’ve got two chances against the criminally-dedicated criminal attacker.  Cremated or conventional burial?

THE 3 LEVELS OF SURPRISE,

I separate surprise into three basic categories.

1. “TACTICAL SURPRISE.”  Tactical Surprise is an innovative and pre-planned response to whatever the Bad Guy throws at you.  Tactical Surprise is a scary and unpleasant undertaking because, usually in order to invoke this tactic, the Bad Guy would have to have at least invaded your PSZ (Personal Safety Zone, within 3’), and, more likely to have laid hands upon you (initiated “first touch”).  Tactical Surprise depends also upon your ability to think under severe (life or death) stress.  The intended victim must be thinking clearly under the most debilitating circumstances (Survival Stress floods the mind and body with stress hormones, initiating Sympathetic Nervous System activation, causing debilitating events, such as perceptual narrowing, visual difficulties, decision-making problems, and a truckful of physiological and psychological changes).

•  Ergo, in order to employ Tactical Surprise, you must always commit yourself to Breathe Tactically (more on this in future posts); to use “First Touch (by the Bad Guy)” as a trigger to explode violently, and to commit yourself to prevail!
• You must also understand what the Bad Guy anticipates you, as his chosen victim, will do when attacked suddenly and spontaneously.
• In order to be able to carry off Tactical Surprise, you must have a Plan of Action in mind before the Bad Guy even approaches.

• WHAT SURPRISES THE BAD GUY?
  • Immediate Action.
  • Loud & determined vocalization.
  • Logical Movement.
  • Target Focused Counterattack (instead of hapless “slapping” eyes-closed action of a frightened victim).
  • True Anger.

• What exactly is Tactical Surprise?
  • It is any type of countermeasure where the intended victim employs Survivor Tactics rather than those of what the attacker expects out of his intended victim.
  • More likely than not, the Bad Guy has attacked his ‘victim” because he expects that “victim” to respond in such a way and in such a manner that will prove the least amount of resistance to said attack. 
  • Meaning, Tactical Surprise can be as simple as this: 

-        If an attacker with superior strength is using that strength to pull you toward a car, bedroom, isolated spot, whatever, surprise him by initially pulling against his power, which is exactly what he expects, then, at the right moment, use his power to pull you hard into his center-line targets, and, before he knows what is happening, violently and quickly drive your knee into his groin, temple into his nose, etc.   

-       If an attacker grabs your wrist with a powerful hand, use a conventional Wrist Release, which will come as no surprise to the miscreant, but – and here’s the dealio – if and when he re-grabs your wrist(s), it’s time for invoking Tactical Surprise.  Allow the Bad Guy to hold your wrist – the tighter the better – and, in your mind (I have actually said this out loud to an idiot attacker), say “thank you, Bad Guy,” because the attacker now has no use of that  hand, or, if he has grabbed you with two hands, he has no ability to block what you are about to do next, which should be a vicious front kick to the side of his knee, or a straight kick to his groin, followed up nicely. 

-       If the Bad Guy invades your PSZ & is verbally threatening you, maybe brandishing a boulder-sized fist toward you, put up both hands, palms facing the Bad guy, in the universal gesture of “please don’t hit me; I don’t want to fight!”  This is what the Bad Guy expects you to do as his targeted victim & by doing this you invoke a sense of security in the attacker, which will be short lived as you drive both hands forward and up into his face, driving it back on his neck and following that up with knees into his groin, hammer fists into the face, etc. 

In the next post, we cover the next two levels of Surprise.

Until then, Stay safe.

Hammer