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

The great majority – if not all – of those who come to me for self defense training are men, women, boys and girls who, without actually saying it, are forever looking for what I have long called the Self Defense Silver Bullet.  The Silver Bullet, in case you’re not a fan of the old werewolf movies where the hero, when all else failed, would kill the beast with a silver bullet.  The Silver Bullet has become a law enforcement and self defense training metaphor for any one technique or concept seen or hoped to be a simple, easy and total solution to a threat or problem.  Insecurity and a sense of vulnerability are key motivators for those coming to me.  I rarely get those who feel secure and powerful, fearful of no predator, who come to my self defense classes.

So it makes sense that everyone is “seeking the bullet,” as I like to say.  And I am not saying that is a bad thing, either.  After all, most of my classes are only about 8 hours long, spread over 4 weeks.  They are looking for something they can learn, something they can wield, in the least amount of time with the least amount of effort that will be The Great Equalizer against a bully, sexual predator or psychopathic and violent criminal who they perceive will almost always be much larger, stronger, combat-hardened and confident .

There are many Great Equalizers, to be sure.  For instance, a firearm is probably the best.  There are pros and cons to the gun, which I will go into in another post, but, with or without a gun, knife, bat or other real weapon, I have advocated the Element Of Surprise as my Great Equalizer/Silver Bullet For Prevailing in a Fight for years.  Even if you are armed with a powerful weapon, real or improvised, in order to vanquish that hulking, feral and/or psychopathic attacker, you need to invoke the Element of Surprise.

Explosive Surprise as the Great Equalizer:  The Formula.

1. Distraction:  Distractions weaken the Bad Guy’s motor actions by changing his mental process.  Change his mental channel from channel 6 (what he intends to do, what he is attempting to do) to, say, channel 34 (what you are doing, which is totally unexpected).  This fragments his physical being from his mental process, therefore weakening him.  As a PPCT Instructor Trainer, I teach officers to distract the Bad Guy by focusing his attention to one’s upper body and then attacking him low.  I call this Invoking Singularity of Focus by getting the subject to expect either no counterattack or to expect one high.  When the low counterattack comes, then, the Bad Guy is more often stunned, weakened and even temporarily frozen in surprise!
2. Preemptive Attack:  I call this using the Principle of First Touch as a Trigger To Explode into the Attacker.  The great Self Defense Guru Bob Pierce calls this principle the Preemptive Attack.  Either way, combining the elements of Distraction with this Explosive Action is the Great Equalizer.  As Pierce says, “Hitting first is the great equalizer for a weaker opponent—“

For years I have been teaching students to set the Bad Guy up with a series of meticulously contrived actions designed to give the weaker “victim” that temporary edge that can make the difference between getting bullied and humiliated, beaten, injured, raped or killed and ending the fight quickly and going on with your day.  This reaction sequence basically consists of::  Being aware of oneself, one’s environment, etc.; threat recognition – assessing danger and cascading signs of an imminent attack; a pre-determined survival strategy – having a plan of action based on one’s assessment of the threat, distance, time available, etc.  Breathe Don’t Freeze and Take an “Athletic Stance” and tell the Bad Guy to stop where he is. 

Once a Bad Guy enters a “victim’s space and makes contact (First Touch), however, the “victim” invokes a distraction by doing what the Bad Guy expects (Channel 6), eg:  pulls away and/or begs to be let go.  This builds the confidence and feeds into the fantasies of the Bad Guy, who pulls the weaker victim toward him.  This is when the “victim” attacks first, hopefully driving the attacker backwards and on his heels.  Once this attack begins, the “victim” must not give up his or her edge.  Attack Open and Vital Targets as they open up.  Never Lock-In on only one or two targets.  Create an Overwhelming and Continuous Attack, sustaining one’s counterassault to whatever level it requires to end the fight.

One of the key differences between a victim and a warrior-survivor (I profile these in my classes) is that the victim almost always harbors thoughts of injury, death, humiliation and of “paralyzing sorrow (they are frozen, in other words, in thoughts of their fear, their helplessness) but the Survivor (Warrior)

·         Converts fear into determined action.

·         Thinks only of how to survive and/or prevail against the attacker.

·         Concerns self with hitting open targets and escaping.

And that brings me to my final points about the Silver Bullet.  While there is no such thing is self defense against a larger, meaner and stronger attacker, there are Equalizers.  If you distract the Bad Guy, change his channels, so to speak, and then explode into him when he least expects it, you will be following up with a sustained attack on vulnerable targets, one after the other, you will also be concentrating on hitting targets, one after the other as they open up, and you will not be focusing on what can be debilitating fear. 

So, in a situation when your child is facing a much larger bully, or your daughter is facing a dangerous sexual predator think of this:  Your son/daughter holds out both hands, palms out, in a “Surrender Posture.”  “Please,” I don’t want any trouble,” he or she pleads, hands waving.  As the attacker confidently strides forward and touches this “forward barrier,” the intended-victim drives a strong palm-heel strike into the attacker’s nose, and the other hand pistons forward and the predator is back on his heels and the intended victim takes the fight to the stunned bad Guy.

By Hammer

NEVER BE ABDUCTED Part IV

Training Your Child To Survive Abduction Attempts

By Hammer

This is for all you wonderful Safety Coaches (parents) everywhere who are teaching your children survival skills against sexual predators/kidnappers:  By all means keep teaching your kids crucial skills and techniques to recognize, evade and escape from these miscreants, but please don’t stop until you have taught them what to do if they are  abducted.

In another post I will talk about exactly how to teach your child these necessary skills in a non-frightening way (in other words, make it fun, non-threatening), but, in this limited venue, let’s concentrate for now and what skills/techniques you need to teach:

So, Your Child IS Abducted.  Now What?

1. ATTITUDE.  Once again, the Survival Psyche, or Attitude (Is Everything) I have spoken about in so many postings is critical.  Keep instilling in your child the psyche to never, ever give up.  One of the results of this type of survival sensitivity is that attitude is often communicated intrinsically, meaning, because of this attitude your child gives off an aura of confidence and readiness that often prevents him from being a victim in the first place.  If abducted, however, this attitude forms the foundation that supports the things he/she has to do to escape.
2. BREATHE AND BELIEVE:  Without training, or, even with the proper training, 9 out of 10 children will stop breathing and thinking when snatched.  Whatever skills they were taught are immediately forgotten due to the ensuing mental freeze (oxygenated blood fails to reach the brain), creating the ideal victim for the monster (think of a frozen rabbit, a deer in the headlights).  Simplistic as it sounds, go through Breathing Drills with your children at the start of every self defense move. 
3. INVOKE THE ELEMENT OF SURPRISE:  When the Bad Guy gets the child in his car he assumes that he has his prey right where he wants him/her.  Away from the public initial crime scene, isolated in a car, away from public view, and on the way to an even more isolated secondary crime scene where he will have infinity to do what he wants to the child.  This phenomenon will give your child at least a sliver of hope to escape with the following moves:

1. GIVE YOUR CHILD PERMISSION TO BE “BAD.”  All of the escape moves are performed with extreme suddenness and power (see the S.N.E.A.K Attack strategy in the last post) against an adult.  Your child must not hesitate to act because of any social mores he or she may have inculcated in the past.

Ø      Escape Strategies To Avoid Being Placed in the Vehicle: 

·   As he opens the door he will loosen his grip.  This is the time to wiggle, kick, head butt and try the Drop, Lock and Roll that I have advocated in previous postings (latch on to his legs with hands, spin and lock your ankles around his feet, slide to the ground on your back and spin around).

·   As he tries to force you into the car feet first, place your feet against the seat and drive backwards as hard as you can.  This surprise move may loosen the Bad Guy’s grip, giving you an opening.  Another move designed to delay entry could be to grab hold of the metal seat belt fastener at the top of the door, or grab hold of the post that should be right in front of you.

·   Improvised Weapons:  Teach your child that anything he or she has in his/her hands can be used against the Bad Guy.  Cell phones, plastic water bottles, wallets, backpacks, rocks, sticks, et al. have been wielded as a means to escape the Bad Guy’s clutches.

·   Okay.  You are Inside the Car.  What now?

Ø      Surprise move number 1.  Invoke the Expected by Doing the Unexpected.  In other words, do what the Bad Guy expects.  Start sobbing and slide over and hug the Bad Guy. Ahh, I really have him now, he will think.  Now, jump into his arms your face against his and bite him, gouge his eyes, reach and grab the keys from the ignition and toss them into the back seat, start screaming and making a scene.  The last thing the Bad Guy wants to do is drive on a public road with a child latched on to him screaming in desperation.  This would be a perfect time – as his hands go to his eyes to protect them from further damage (or, in an instinctive move that almost all of us perform when our eyes are attacked) – to quickly slide back to the passenger door, unlock it, and escape (a skills that a Safety Coach can easily teach during scenario training using a family car, etc.).

Ø      Scenario Training:  Teach your child escape and evasion skills through scenarios.  One of which could be escaping from the trunk of an abductor’s car:  this is a very scary subject, but it can be taught in a fun way.  Show your child how to kick out the taillights (without doing it, of course) and how to stick an object through the opening(s) to draw a motorist’s attention.

By Hammer

In the first two Never Be Abducted postings, I appealed to parents to become their child’s Safety Coaches and instill their child with the mentality and attitude to prevent and/or successfully resist deadly (sexual) predators and kidnappers.  Given the profile of the predator (“If you want to know what the animal will do today, learn what the animal did yesterday and the day before—“), which I went into in the first posting, an equation consisting of the right Mental Conditioning and Attitude, a cluster of Escape and Evasion Tactics combined with the abductor’s tendency to break off an attack when faced with any signs of awareness, aggression, “craziness,” and/or “instantaneous countermeasure that will either delay the abductor in the initial crime scene or draw attention to his intent” will prevent or overcome over 98% of abduction attempts.

Bold statement?  Empty boast?  Hardly.

It is crucial to know – as your child’s Safety Coach – that the Chicken Hawk (cowardly abductor) relies on several behavioral staples in the child he picks as his prey:

• Silence.
• Timidity.
• Fear (he or she will often abide by the command “Never tell your parents about this or I will hurt you and I will kill them!” and he or she will therefore – if he or she survives – keep the abduction and/or actions of the predator confidential).
• Confidentiality.
• Immobility (the attack will shock the child and he or she will  freeze in place, allowing the predator to scoop him or her up and quickly abduct that child..
• Invisibility (No public awareness of the abduction taking place).

BUT WHAT IF MY CHILD IS GRABBED?

 Preparation, Prevention, Practice and Parental Coaching (the 4 P’s of Counter-Abduction Techniques, or C.A.T.) discourages all but about two to three  percent of these miscreants.  That still leaves too many predators and too many children who come together in situations where the child is isolated and alone and the Bad Guy perceives he has all the time in the world.  What now to do?  Here are a few tactical suggestions to teach your child:

1. Always be aware of your environment and adults in the area.  Aware of escape routes, people and places toward which you can run, and aware of barricades that can buy you time.
2. Be aware of and use “weapons” in the environment.  Sticks, stones, other objects.
3. Teach Your Child To Always Keep Moving.  Peruse past postings where I discussed games you can play with your child to teach him/her how to move.  The abductor wants your child to freeze like a deer in the headlights.  Teach your child to always move diagonally, never straight back!  Your child will be harder to catch this way.
4. Always move with your eyes on the adult.  When your child turns and runs it triggers the Predator-Prey Principle and your child is easier to catch. 
5. Teach your child to Drop and Roll away from the larger, less agile adult.  Always try to buy time.  If knocked to the ground, the child should know how to Crabwalk away and, once again, if cornered, use his or her feet to prevent the adult from bending over and scooping him/her up.
6. Teach your child that when the abductor does catch him/her, that his face will be close enough for him/her to Gouge the eyes, head butt the nose, and/or drive his or her fingers or ridge hand hard into the throat.
7. Teach your child to understand how to use whatever objects he/she has in possession as an Improvised Weapon.  Many kids have survived by using Cell Phones, DVD cases, books, magazines, keys, flashlights, water bottles, wallets, back packs, fistfuls of change and other objects to ward off bullies and predators.  There will be more on this in the next blog, but, briefly, let me say this about wielding improvised weapons:

IMPROVISED “SNEAK” ATTACKS:

Almost anything in your child’s possession can be effectively used as a weapon if the proper element of surprise is used.   The great Sensei Michael Pace advocates the S.N.E.A.K Principle:

Surprise.  Hold the “weapon” in such a way that the predator never would expect that the child is going to use it to attack.  In other words, a cell phone is just a cell phone until it is driven into the Bad Guy’s throat.

Non-Aggressive.  Until the instant the cell phone is used, it is being held in a low profile, normal way.

Explode the improvised weapon into the vulnerable target with everything in your child’s power.  A cell phone exploded into an adult’s Adam’s Apple, for instance, only requires about 5 pounds of direct force to knock the pervert out of business (if held and used the right way, of course).

Aggressive.  Give your child permission to be aggressive.  By this I mean to never stop hitting the potential abductor until your child is able to escape the scene.

Knock-Out.  Knock the Bad Guy Out so he cannot pursue you.

In the next post I will finish the Never Be Abducted series with what you can teach your child to do if ever he or she is abducted.  How to escape from the car before he can take your child to the deadly, isolated and pre-selected (final) secondary crime scene.

Hammer

The bad news for parents is the child abductor is out there.  Out there in big numbers.  The good news is, with the help of you, the parent actively working as their Safety Coach, the great majority of children (96%) can stop the Chicken Hawk – the cowardly child molester – in his tracks, or at least cause him to break off his attack and drive off empty-handed.

This I say boldly because I know the Chicken Hawk from too many years working the streets as a state parole agent.  The Chicken Hawk is cowardly on one hand but extremely dangerous on the other.  Dangerous because he chooses only prey who are smaller, weaker, and, if possible, more frightened than he.  He is deadly because he possesses no soul.  He is a total psychopath with absolutely no concern for the feelings, the safety, even the life of a small, beautiful child.  His only thought is of and for himself.

The Chicken Hawk is a cold blooded sociopath who chooses his prey methodically,.  calculatingly.  This is a game to him and he has the unnerving patience to play the game for months, tracking, profiling and abducting just one chosen victim.  Even when he attacks, it is rarely rash and impulsive.  Even then he has a set up where he can test his prey, set the prey up by gaining his or her trust, and, then and only then, when the child is ready, does he strike, catching the child off guard and hitting the kid with blinding speed, carrying him or her off before the child can make a move.

The moment that every Chicken Hawk lives for and prepares months for is that instant when he sees the shock hit the child, witnesses the paralysis that freezes the child’s entire body just before he tosses the child into his car or van and drives away from the initial crime scene and heads to the isolated secondary scene.  A house, apartment, section of woods or lonely grove minutes or hours away.

You might be thinking, Um, Thanks, Hammer.  Thanks for all the Bad News.  What can I possibly teach my child to stop this type of predator in his tracks?  To which I reply – Plenty.  You can teach them plenty.  And most of the strategies are based on the hated Chicken Hawk’s personality profile:

The Chicken Hawk

• He is not looking for a fight. 
• He is looking for a mild, meek, compliant child.
• He abducts through intimdation in most cases, not physical force.
• He does not want to physically harm, injure or kill the child in the initial crime scene. 
• He is a coward, an opportunist waiting for the moment the child is alone, weak, distracted.
• The Chicken Hawk has a pre-planned scenario or script.  The longer the script is allowed to play out by the child, the bolder, more confident he becomes.
• Speed and Invisibility are the Chicken Hawk’s greatest friends.  He needs to get the child out of that child’s milieu and into his as quickly as possible and with as little notice by witnesses as possible.
• The Ideal Abduction Scenario is:  A lone child in an isolated area who acts “normal,” is quiet, un-aggressive, who can be snatched quickly without drawing attention.
• The Worst Case Scenario (where the potential kidnapper will most likely break off his attack and go elsewhere) is:  The intended victim is with another child(ren).  When that child spots the Chicken Hawk he makes direct eye contact, moves to gain distance, screams or makes noise otherwise, points at the Bad Guy, demands to know “What do you want?  Get Back!” and uses barricades (tables, chairs, benches, garbage cans, trees, picnic tables, cars, et al.) to create distance as well as a barrier.
• The last type of child the abductor will profile and choose as a victim is a kid who Acts Crazy.  “Crazy” children can scare off a potential abductor for any one of a zillion reasons, but the fact is they are unpredictable, possibly dangerous, and have unlimited potential to screw up any kind of predetermined abduction plans (Note:  I am not saying your child has to BE crazy.  He/she just needs to ACT crazy, like rolling on the ground as if his/her shirt is on fire, screaming, pointing, grabbing a branch off the ground and wielkding it like a weapon).

Parents:  As your child’s Safety Coach, here is your assignment.  Accepting what I have written in the above passages, what can you teach your child in the way of preventive measures to maximize his or her chances of escaping and evading an abduction attempt?

In Part II I will delve specifically into several Escape and Evasion Strategies for your child, like:

• Improvised Weapons.
• The Element of Surprise.
• Waiting For the Best Time To Counterattack.
• Delaying the Bad Guy in the Initial Crime Scene.
• Simple, effective strikes and gouges against vulnerable, primary targets.
• Escape and Evasion tactics that REALLY WORK at the initial crime scene, just outside the Bad Guy’s Car and Inside the Car!

By Hammer

I Dont’ Know if I have any steady readers, but, if you happen to be one, you have noticed that I haven’t been posting in a while.  For the last couple months I’ve been on The Road conducting back-to-back-to back PPCT (Pressure Point Control Tactics) Instructor Certification Trainings for law enforcement officers

 from State College, Pa. to Bryan, Texas, to Charlotte, North Carolina and, now, Reading, Pa.  While I am sure my global positioning is not why you are reading this, I thought maybe you would be interested in some SSPS - Super Secret Police Shit -  which I shared with some of my classes in Spontaneous Knife Defense (SKD), Ground Avoidance and Ground Escapes (GAGE), Defensive Tactics (DT) Violent Patient Management (VPM) and others.  Who knows?  Might save your butt some starless night in any one of a number of attack situations.

EDGED WEAPONS

My SKD program is simple and  realistic.  There are plenty of sexier trainings out there, folks, but edged weapon attacks are grisly, heart-freezing events, and, if the attacker has a plan and knows what he (or, she) is doing, you had better do something - like right the heck now -  otherwise fear will immobilize you.  I’ve been there and if you don’t respond immediately, you will be cemented to the ground.  And, trust me, epoxied to the deck is not where you want to be when the Bad Guy has a knife.

First, a few things about an edged weapons (knife) attack:

Ø       Almost every attack will be preceded with a distraction.   A distraction can be almost anything, including asking a question that will cause you to look away or to “go into your brain” to think of your reply.  A handshake, or just extending one hand toward you while flicking a razor in a blur into your wrist or forearm to cause a gush of blood designed to freeze you.  A harsh psychological wound. 

Ø       The intent of every edged weapon attacker are twofold:  (1)  To close the distance and (2) to penetrate a vital organ (heart, stomach, sub clavian (inside the clavicles, under the armpit), radial and carotid arteries). 

Ø       The Bad Guy/Gal - at least the dangerously skilled knife fighters - has a definite strategy aimed at, in my estimation, playing a merciless cat and mouse game with his or her victim.  The attack can begin with several maddening Flick Attacks, directed to the wrists and forearms to cause superficial wounds and bleeding to psychologically freeze the victim and/.or to cause him or her to grab the bleeding wound with his or her free hand, thereby opening him/her up for the next attack, usually a series of lightning fast slashes followed by a thrust or three, delivered like a punch into the vital target.  The Thrust of all the knife strokes is the most deadly.

Ø       The thing to remember here, though, is it all started with the element of surprise and a flick, which, while painful , is relatively benign.  Surprise plus speed equals the Freeze Factor equals serious injury or death.  The key is to Do Something ASAP and to Reverse The Elements on the Bad Guy.  Once uncertainty and fear takes over and the heart rate spikes from 80 BPM to well over 220, our Sympathetic Nervous System will flood our Central Nervous System with stress hormones and we will freeze in abject fear.

SOME SIMPLE SURVIVAL STRATEGIES

1.       THE 4 A’S.  Always be aware, assess our surroundings and others in the surroundings, anticipate, meaning have some idea in your mind what you would do if you were approached and/or attacked, and take action immediately when your gut instincts tell you something is wrong.

2.       BY “TAKE ACTION,” I mean one or more of the following acts designed to kick start your motor skills and break the Freeze/Fear Factor:

Ø       Breathe Don’t Freeze.  Our brain needs oxygenated blood in order to do what it has to do.

Ø       Disengage Quickly:  Remember:  the attacker must close the distance before he can use the weapon.  Distance Is Our Friend. 

Ø       Move Diagonally:  Most victims try to disengage by moving straight back.  Fact - an attacker can easily out run you moving forward as you run backwards.  Plus, you will most likely trip, and, if you don’t trip, you will definitely be off-balance when the attacker does catch you.  Use a neat J-Step or simply move diagonally.

Ø       USE BARRICADES IN THE ENVIRONMENT TO GAIN TIME AND SPACE ADVANTAGES:  This requires you to be alerts and aware of your surroundings.  Sadly, most of us are oblivious as to what surrounds us that can save our lives.  Use a chair, table, car, garbage can, door, desk, pole, et al. to make it hard for the attacker to get to us directly.  Doing this might short circuit the attacker’s thought process, also. 

Ø       THROW AN OBJECT(S) THE ATTACKER’S FEET, ET AL.  Throw whatever you have in your hands or near you at the attacker (this is a great strategy if you have distance on your side.  If the attack is spontaneous and at close quarters, we will have to rely on our personal weapons to save our lives (another blog perhaps)  I have delayed and eventually escaped an attack long enough to draw a firearm by throwing chair - one after the other - at an edged weapon attacker’s (sharpened screwdriver) feet.

Ø       A WOUNDED ATTACKER IS NO ATTACKER AT ALL:  I know this is easier said than done, but I know several people - none skilled martial artists or known warriors, but each and every one of them possessing that Warrior Mental Attitude filled with determination and grit - that understood my above Fighting Arts Premise and have turned the element of surprise against the Bad Guy and, immediately upon suspecting that the person in front of them - going by understanding body language and by trusting their gut instincts - had an edged weapon and was about to attack = have struck like a cobra BEFORE the attack even begun, both short-circuiting and fracturing the attacker’s plans and confidence.

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NEXT POSTING:  Strategies to prevent being taken to the ground.  Strategies to recover, even if taken to the ground.

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BY HAMMER

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Guess I have preached a lot about the element of surprise in many of my posts. There’s a good reason for that, of course. people close their eyes, hold their breath and either pray the attacker goes away, or flail away pathetically at the attacker.

More likely than not, the Bad Guy will try to distract you before he attacks you. He wants to attack you as your thoughts are fragmented and you are looking away at either your watch (”You know what time it is, Lady?”) or a peripheral object (”Excuse me, Lady, you know where the bus stops?”). Next step is he will grab you and grab you quickly and expect you to freeze. I advocate a state of readiness when you know the man is approaching you and that gut feeling hits you that something is not right. Prepare a good verbal response, prepare a good physical response and will yourself to carry it out.

HERE IS THE ALL-IMPORTANT HOW-TO-WIN PART. RULE 1: Take what the Bad Guy gives you. If he grabs both your hands or grabs one hand with both his hands, you know that he has given you everything! He cannot punch or block with either hand, so every target is open. If he grabs you with one hand, over half of his targets are open and you can anticipate he will slap or punch with that hand.

· Let’s say the Bad Guy is a belligerent drunk, a-hole who suddenly transitions from a desultory conversation into a full scale attack where he closes the distance, grabs you and pulls you in. Take what the moron has opened up for you, I say, so, act compliant and even allow your arms to rest near his chest and pretend you are hugging him. Now, turn the surprise on him and quickly drive both hands through the open space around his armpits, lock your hands behind him, and dive in. I guarantee the attacker will be surprised, his thought process fragmented, and he will be weakened. You can headbutt his nose several times, probably breaking it. Simultaneously, you can knee him in his groin by driving it straight up like you are in a marching band. Quickly follow up with other strikes. Now, disengage, escape and get help.

o The Bad Guy has encroached on your PSZ (Personal Safe Zone) despite your protests and now he is in the process of intimidating you. Your instincts are throbbing, telling you something bad is about to go down, and, as much as you would love to ignore them you know you cannot. You also believe that if you tried to turn and run, he would be on you quickly and things would get much worse quickly. Here is what I would love you to do: Adopt what I call the Praying Mantis Stance by forming a steeple with your fingers in front of your chin (looks like you are begging him for mercy) and ask him to let you go, which he most likely will not do (Hey, if he does, then go). This should invoke a false sense of security in him and cause him to relax his guard. When this happens, drive your right arm and elbow as hard as you can into his face, making sure to pivot your hips and use your body weight. The elbow is our strongest striking area on our body. It is very hard, very durable and a good strike with it can be a dead bang knockout blow. To perform this knockout strike from the Praying Mantis Stance, imagine taking your “prayerful hands” and driving them toward your left shoulder and allowing that elbow to rotate from next to your floating rib cage horizontally through the attacker’s face. Perform this move in slow motion by yourself using an imaginary or real target or with a partner either holding a pillow (target) or making his or her shoulder as a target. Practice the shoulder strike in slow motion, also, making sure that you rotate your hips and shoulders but only hitting your partner’s face with a very light touch drill. Of course, practicing this strike under the supervision of a good instructor using strike pads and Red Man Gear would be ideal.

· BACKHAND ELBOW HOOK STRIKE: Going back to the above scenario, you have fooled the attacker with the deceptive Praying Mantis Stance and have drilled him on his chin with a good horizontal elbow. Chances are, though, he will still be up. Groggy, but up. Since you are in position with your right hand touching the top of your left shoulder and your sharp elbow poised near his face, drive that (right) elbow as hard as you can back toward his face (a gorgeous Backward Elbow Strike) and drive the sharp point into his jaw, cheek or chin. Thing is, he will have recoiled from the original strike and his face will have turned that way.

· DESCENDING DROP-ELBOW STRIKE: Remember: Always think in terms of follow-up and multiplicity, which is what we are about to do now. You have hurt him with your two elbow strikes and instinctively his head has dropped toward his chest. If that is what this Bad Guy has given you, then take it and beat him into submission with it, I always say. As his head drops, the back of his head and the top of his spine becomes a tantalizing target. Form a loose fist and hold it above your right ear (if you are a left-hander, then it would be your left ear and your left fist) and drive your strong elbow straight down into that target, throwing your weight behind the strike.

· ASCENDING KNEE STRIKE: In my perfect (training) world, the Bad Guy is almost out on his feet and after delivering the descending elbow, you grab his head with both hands and push it toward the ground while driving your strong-side knee hard straight up into his face, By holding it with your hands, you have created counter pressure to make the knee strike twice as powerful and effective.

· ROLL THE BAD GUY AWAY AND ESCAPE, IF IT IS SAFE TO DO SO,

THE HAMMER

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

MY ORIGINAL TITLE for this posting was something like “When Predators Attack,” and what you are about to read does apply to predators, but from time our actions can influence ordinary people - humans like you and me - to become aggressive and sometimes even attack violently.  I have also learned that our words and actions can often delay or even completely eliminate the possibility of an attack, which, of course, is why I am writing this.

Under The Influence

According to George Thompson, founder of Verbal Judo, Inc., it is axiomatic that the person you are dealing with is under the influence of elements and conditions you may or may not be aware of.  These conditions create a condition of temporary mental in-balance, that, if I wished to deescalate that person, I really needed to take into consideration.  My philosophy was that I needed to think and act for that person as if it were 12-hours in the future and that person was no longer under the influence of:

• Humiliation (Humiliation is the only one of these influences that cross every single culture).
• Embarrassment
• Shame.
• Guilt.
• Hatred of Authority.
• Misinformation.
• Drugs and/or alcohol.
• Rage.
• Anger.
• Fear.
• Cultural Insensitivity.
• Racism.
• Ignorance.
• Pain.
• Suicidal ideation.
• Disrespect ( A Trigger For Many People from many variegated cultures)
• Peer Pressure.
• The Audience.

There are many more influences, but in this limited posting, I need to move on.  The important thing about the other person being under the influence is what may trigger an attack in one person (who is brain damaged and takes your neutral words and interprets them as racist or humiliating, for example) may have no impact on another person, or vice versa.  Understanding this should influence you to treat others with respect (we need to show respect whether we feel respect or not), to empathize, and to keep our body language non-threatening.

JACA

Gavin DeBecker proposed in his seminal work The Gift Of Fear that the factors within this acronym spelled out the reason most people attack other people.  My experience bears this out.  When I teach my Advanced De-Escalation Techniques course I use JACA as a paradigm for not only learning why others might attack us, but as a model on how to prevent being attacked.

Justification.

Alternatives.

Consequences, and

Ability.

Briefly put, DeBecker proposed that a person needed one or all of the above conditions to attack.  The more of the conditions that exist is any situation, the more the chance of an attack.  So it goes that, if you really piss someone off by humiliating him in front of an audience, from whom he hopes to maintain a semblance of respect, you have presented that individual with massive justification to open up a can of Whup Ass on you.

Add to that the fact that the temporarily brain damaged person perceives that he has no options or alternatives to a violent attack, and I guarantee aggression is what is coming.  Unless, of course, the person perceives that the consequences for an assault would be greater than the rush he would get from kicking you ass.  For many people, the fear of the consequences will delay or stop an immediate assault. However, my thought is that once a person feels he is justified and he has exhausted all alternatives to violence, any fears of consequences dissolve, especially if the final factor exists.  Ability.

If the temporarily brain damaged stranger, co-worker, student, patient, supervisor, or whoever has been triggered by the sense of justification, the exhaustion of all pro-social alternatives to violence, has begun to disregard the consequences of an assault, the only thing that can stop him is the perception that he does not have the ability to successfully carry out this attack!  Of course, this is why I think it is important to have at least a fundamental set of skills or abilities that you can attain through one of my Violent Patient Management, Disruptive Student Management, Sexual Harassment Assault and Rape Prevention programs.

THE 3 P’S

The great Tony Blauer,  of SPEAR System fame, offers that all attacks have the Three P’s in common:  All attacks occur in the Present, they are all Passionate, and, when it comes down to it, they are all Personal.  “Tell me something I don’t know,” you might be muttering as you read that, but it does have significance relative to understanding how to deter or delay any kind of physical attack.

WHAT WE CAN LEARN FROM THE 3-P’S AND JACA

• Be Nice.  De-escalating a Bad Guy, I always say, is an unnatural act.  The more angry you feel, the nicer you must become.  The other person may be trying to trigger you into justifying an assault.  Especially in front of an audience, Refuse To Justify.
• Give Good Alternatives To Violence:  All people like to be in control of their own fate.  Nine out of 10 aggressive people will become cooperative if you explain to them what it is you wish them to do, ask instead of demand, and if you give them viable alternatives.  That is a fact.
• Remind the person about the consequences of violence.
• Make the person believe you have the ability to ward off any attack.  How do you do that?
  1. Mirror Calm.
  2. Mirror Confidence.
  3. Control Your Personal Space.
  4. Establish Command Presence (more on how you can create and establish Command Presence and garner the other person’s respect by how you deport yourself in a future Blog).
• Redirect the person’s anger “out of the present.”
• Use the “Rule Of Minus-One” to reduce tension.  Often, by simply talking slower, using “softer” terms, and lowering the intensity of your (body language and spoken language) presence at least one degree below that of the other person/environment, etc., you can reverse the aggression in the environment.  Another element of “Minus-1″ is that you allow time to elapse, also a huge reductive factor.
• Professional Over Personal Face.  Do not take verbal attacks personally. Hard to do, but, believe me, necessary.  If you are an authority figure, deflect the verbal arrows, take a deep breath and follow-up only with professional language and actions.

By Hammer

 Self examination, they say, is a wonderful thing.  I’ve done my share; and I invite you to take a minute or three and ask yourself the same essential question I asked myself a few years back after I had nearly taken a thug apart after he threatened me and drove his index finger into my chest:  Am I a violent person.

Introspection rarely goes well for me.  I know I have some sort of ADD thing going; but when it comes to violence, I am all ears.  I was raised by decent, hard-working parents, people who abhorred violence in any of its forms.  People who had been hurt by violence in their youth and from time to time after.  I remembered my mother praising me several times because I was a good boy, a child who would never hurt another soul.

So, it was with some discomfort that I came to the conclusion that not only am I a violent person, but, more importantly, when the opportunity arises, I Am Violence,  And, it is not that I betrayed my mother’s belief in me.  I served in the Marines, completed college and graduate school with honors, and retired after 36 years as a peace officer with the Pennsylvania Board of Probation and Parole, earning several meritorious awards and distinctions along the way.  Not bragging, but, point is, as counter-intuitive as it sounds, one can be a gainfully employed member of society, a person who loves and cares for his family and others, but be Spinal Tuned For Unhesitant and Automatic Violence when faced with Pure Evil, a predator with no respect for society, one who seeks weak victims.

Characteristics Of Violence Personified

• Spinal Tuned for Violence.  Meaning, my first countermeasure against an aggressor does not occur to me as the threat begins to unravel.  I have visualized what I would do far ahead of time and I am always observing the environment and people around me, looking for subtle changes, etc.  I often ask myself “What if?”  What would I do if this or that person does that?  I am planning my moves in my mind as the suspicious person approaches, and I am seeking out Primary and Secondary Targets I will destroy.  When the person passes by harmlessly, I dismiss those thoughts of violence and move on. 
• First Touch Is A Trigger.  I know that the non-violent person (Joe or Jane Citizen) will almost always freeze when first touched by an aggressor (9 out of 10).  The predator also knows this and it is that look of frozen fear that turns him on so.  I am Violence because Violence is exactly what I need to be when I am faced with Evil.  I use the persona of violence, first of all, to discourage being grabbed in the first place, but, if touched, I will counterattack with blinding speed.
• Explosiveness.  When you enjoy something, or, in this case, are something, you wrap yourself in it totally.  You let it permeate you.  Like art.  So, when I am violence, I explode into the counterattack.
• Give and Take.  A trainer of mine once told me:  Hammer, everyone has a (fight) plan, until they get hit, that is.  And he was right.  John Hall, the founder of Kid Escape, Bully Escape and Date Escape, says that self defense is not an injury-free sport.  Point is, if you find yourself in a knife fight, expect to get cut.  In a gun fight, expect to get shot.  And, in a fist fight, not only expect to be hit, but wrap yourself up in it.  Take a deep breath and keep firing away.  Self Defense and the Street Attack for a predator are mostly posturing and the psychology of intimidation.  Turn the tables and communicate “Hey, punk, is that all you got?” even though the punch might have shook your world.  Refuse to quit!
• Take It To the Next Level:  I want to be the one firing the first flurry of shots into the Bad Guy’s vulnerable targets, but fights don’t always work out like that.  So, here is an idea that I guarntee will change the psychology of the exchange.  You get hit in the nose or mouth and blood is sripping down your face.  You have two choices:  Get scared and shrink with fear, or allow adrenaline to get you fired, make you twice as strong (Adrenaline Dump).  Now, do what a famous warrior-friend of mine did.  Reach up and scoop up some of the blood and put it in your mouth.  Taste it.  Say:  “Hmm, First Blood, huh?  Well, now it’s my turn—”

I hope, if you choose to do a little introspection , you discover the nucleus of violence somewhere inside.  It is there inside us all.  All you need to do is find a way to allow yourself to permeate that nucleus if and when the need arises.  Maybe, your nucleus is not the same as mine.  In a way, I hope that is true about you.  My nucleus glows dangerously orange, and even throbs every now and then.  Too many years on the mean streets of Brooklyn, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Easton and other sweltering jungles of violence.  Probably seen too many things I can’t forget.

But, the key is to be comfortable with that atavistic part of you.  That violent part of you that you can become in that one moment in the heat of the night when you are all alone and the wolf comes to your door.

Next post:  The Survival Motor Skills you will need to prevail.

Hammer

 Self examination, they say, is a wonderful thing.  I’ve done my share; and I invite you to take a minute or three and ask yourself the same essential question I asked myself a few years back after I had nearly taken a thug apart after he threatened me and drove his index finger into my chest:  Am I a violent person.

Introspection rarely does well for me.  I know I have some sort of ADD thing going; but when it comes to violence, I am all ears.  I was raised my decent, hard-working parents, people who abhorred violence in any of its forms.  People who had been hurt by violence in their youth and from time to time after.  I remembered my mother praising me several times because I was a good boy, a child who would never hurt another soul.

So, it was with some discomfort when I came to the conclusion that not only am I a violent person, but, more importantly, when the opportunity arises, I Am Violence,  And, it is not that I betrayed my mother’s belief in me.  I served in the Marines, completed college and graduate school with honors, and retired after 36 years as a peace officer with the Pennsylvania Board of Probation and Parole, earning several meritorious awards and distinctions along the way.  Mot bragging, but, point is, as counter-intuitive as it sounds, one can be a gainfully employed member of society, a person who loves and cares for his family and others, but be Spinal Tuned For Unhesitant and Automatic Violence when faced with one of the “Two Percenters” who have no respect for society and who walk among us seeking out victims.

Characteristics Of Violence Personified

• Spinal Tuned for Violence.  Meaning, my first countermeasure against an aggressor does not occur to me as the threat begins to unravel.  I have visualized what I would do far ahead of time and I am always observing the environment and people around me, looking for subtle changes, etc.  I often ask myself “What if?”  What would I do if this or that person does that?  I am planning my moves in my mind as the suspicious person approaches, and I am seeking out Primary and Secondary Targets I will destroy.  When the person passes by harmlessly, I dismiss those thoughts of violence and move on. 
• First Touch Is A Trigger.  I know that the non-violent person (Joe or Jane Citizen) will almost always freeze when first touched by an aggressor (9 out of 10).  The predator also knows this and it is that look of frozen fear that turns him on so.  I am Violence because Violence is exactly what I need to be when I am faced with Evil.  I use the persona of violence, first of all, to discourage being grabbed in the first place, but, if touched, I will counterattack with blinding speed.
• Explosiveness.  When you enjoy something, or, in this case, are something, you wrap yourself in it totally.  You let it permeate you.  Like art.  So, when I am violence, I explode into the counterattack.
• Give and Take.  A trainer of mine once told me:  Hammer, everyone has a (fight) plan, until they get hit, that is.  And he was right.  John Hall, the founder of Kid Escape, Bully Escape and Date Escape, says that self defense is not an injury-free sport.  Point is, if you find yourself in a knife fight, expect to get cut.  In a gun fight, expect to get shot.  And, in a fist fight, not only expect to be hit, but wrap yourself up in it.  Take a deep breath and keep firing away.  Self Defense and the Street Attack for a predator are mostly posturing and the psychology of intimidation.  Turn the tables and communicate “Hey, punk, is that all you got?” even though the punch might have shook your world.  Refuse to quit!

I hope, if you choose to do a little introspection that you discover the nucleus of violence somewhere inside.  It is there inside us all.  All you need to do is find a way to allow yourself to permeate that nucleus if and when the need arises.  Maybe, your nucleus is not the same as mine.  In a way, I hope that is true about you.  My nucleus glows dangerously orange, and even throbs every now and then.  Too many years on the mean streets of Brooklyn, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Easton and other sweltering jungles of violence.  Probably seen too many things I can’t forget.

But, the key is to be comfortable with that atavistic part of you.  That violent part of you that you can become in that one moment in the heat of the night when you are all alone and the wolf comes to your door.

Next post:  The Survival Motor Skills you will need to prevail.

Hammer