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

I ADMIT, there is a perverse and counter-intuitive relationship in all of my Fighting Arts (Self Defense For Women; Escape and Evasion For Children; COMET-Kids (for teens); Self Defense For Seniors and Bully-Be-Gone classes) programs I conduct out of the local community college and school sites.  By perverse and counter intuitive, I mean that I know for a fact that 98% of successful self defense for women, teens, children and seniors is prevention and awareness; yet in my classes about 98% is hands-on Fighting Arts , leaving almost no time for crucial Techniques Of Avoidance.  You could say, then, with little argument from me, that I am not really teaching the True Secrets To Survival.

WHY?  AVOIDANCE AINT SEXY.  Nobody, it is apparent, wants to waste his or her time sitting and listening to a litany of axioms about awareness, assessment, anticipation, avoidance and a Shakespearian drama full of other principles when they could be on their feet, blocking, punching and falling to the mat and grappling.  Women and children are the first to walk out of my trainings, which is ironic, really, since avoidance and prevention are their best bets for life preservation.

TECHNIQUES OF AVOIDANCE

INSTEAD of a litany of avoidance techniques and principles, I am going to limit my list of Avoidance Techniques to just a few critical skills and elements that can influence an attacker to eliminate you as a target and move on to another victim.  As cold and heartless as the concept of the Bad Guy moving on to another victim instead or yourself sounds, it is still Survival of the Fittest.  It has been for eons and will continue to be long after I am gone.

1. Look Like a Tough Target.  Get fit and stay fit.  See my previous two postings on a Fighting Arts-Specific Workout Program.  Develop confidence and/or act confident when you are in public.  Stride and look around.  Develop an appropriate Assertive Personality, which means to communicate to a potential attacker that you are aware of him without purposely antagonizing him with challenging and profane language.  Send he primary message that you are not a Free Lunch or easy mark!  Avoid the Passive and Aggressive Personalities.  Peruse some of my other postings for more tips on being a Tough Target.
2. EYE CONTACT is terribly important for successfully avoiding an attack.  I am going to move past this issue for now, but I will return to it at the end of this posting with some crucial details.
3. CONTROL YOUR SPACE.  A bad guy will test you by moving in and out of your PSZ (Personal Safe Zone).  A good rule of thumb is to never allow another person inside your PSZ without your permission.  Anyone violating your PSZ is showing Spatial Disrespect and it is hard for me to come up with a reason why a bad guy would do that unless it is a Prelim To An Attack.  Stop the BG with good verbal directions and by taking a diagonal step (J-Step) with your hands palms out and up near your chest and moving them back and forth (Compliance Position, but we are preparing for a Surprise Palm Heel Strike, if the need arises).
4. VERBAL DIRECTIONS.  What you say and how you say it are crucial.  Be firm yet relatively polite with an inflexible no at the onset of testing.  Upon his or her refusal (Spatial Disrespect), though, your hands go into a Fighting Position, your power leg drops back as you J-Step away.  “Get back. Get back now!”
5. BREATHE DON’T FREEZE!  Remember to inhale through your nose and exhale through your mouth to initiate your Fight or Flight Response.  I actually teach a CAT Technique (Combat Adrenal Technique) where the person exaggerates his or her exhalations through the mouth so they are loud enough for any attacker in hiding to hear.  The dual benefit is that the Good Guy (student) adrenalizes him or herself instead of freezing with fear and the potential attacker doesn’t attack because attackers are basically cowards who would rather attack a meek, quiet, shy person than an individual who is pumped up, striding and making loud noises.

EYE CONTACT

FROM a Bad Guy’s prospective, the ideal victim is a girl, boy, man or woman who presents minimum eye contact. The less the better.  One might think, then, that, from the Good Guy’s prospective, the more direct eye contact the better.  Not quite.  The truth is  somewhere in between. 

Avoiding Eye Contact, or looking away triggers the predatory instinct in the Bad Guy.  Read Lt. Colonel David Grossman’s On Killing to learn more, but, the fact is, by trying to ignore the Bad Guy with the hopes he will simply go away, you will invoke this Predator Prey Principle and will actually invite a far more violent attack than you could have ever anticipated with “good” eye contact.  Direct Eye Contact, or staring down the potential attacker, is much better, but in too many instances direct eye contact was taken as a challenge and the Bad Guy (abductor, sexual predator, date rapist, criminal) responded by attacking.

MY PREFERRED EYE CONTACT training paradigm has always been the Triangle or Soft Eyes (Chinese Model) Approach.  I teach my Triangle Method to both law enforcement and civilians, advocating that they draw an imaginary triangle, the tip of which touches the potential attacker’s nose and the base of which extends from the person’s left bicep to his or her right bicep.  That way my students are not locked into the subject’s eyes, yet the student will be able to see any movements of the subject’s arms and hands.  A potential victim can become a real victim if he or she ignores the subject’s hands.  Remember:  a subject’s hands are what can kill or injure, not his or her eyes!

FINALLY, our eyes, or perceptual senses, are the origin of an amazing sensory cycle where we first perceive a threat, then analyze and evaluate that threat, before formulating a strategic response so we can initiate a motor response that can save our butts.  Avoiding eye contact, then, can have catastrophic consequences because, when the attack does come to us, we experience what is known as a Catastrophe Event, meaning simply that, because we were not able to perceive, analyze and formulate a strategy, more likely than not we will freeze in place, panic, go into shock, or any number of reactions that not only invite a violent and merciless attack, but, when the attack comes, disable us from fighting back effectively and saving ourselves.

By Hammer

I AM ASKED about the role of fitness in self defense and subject control almost every time I conduct a law enforcement (subject control) or citizen (self defense) training.  Truth is, I believe there are  several issues more important than fitness; and I think I have discussed many of these in past blogs, including, but not limited to:

• Willingness to fight (even over the ability to fight).
• Heart.  The true fighting spirit.  Courage, in other words.
• The Survival Psyche, or mind-set.  What many call Mental Conditioning or Spinal Tuning one’s mind and Central Nervous System to be aware of potential danger, to assess potential attackers and oneself and to anticipate - have a plan of action, and - this is crucial - to be (willing and) able to carry out this plan with “SPEED.”
• S.P.E.E.D.  The ability to improvise under survival stress by doing the unexpected (Surprise),acting decisively and quickly (Speed) while delivering strikes and countermeasures with Power and Explosiveness in order to allow one to Escape and Evade the attack by using Distance.

 The SPEED Fitness Program

I forget who said fatigue makes cowards of us all, but the words ring true to anyone who has been in a serious fight or critical incident and has hit The Wall.  You feel drained, weak, ready to give up.  Too many of us do give up.  This is where Survival Fitness can save your life.  A Survival or Fighting-Specific Fitness or Training Program can and will build up what I call a Heavy Survival Envelope that one can keep pushing so that in a life or death (fighting) situation, he or she will be able to call on crucial life preserving energy reserves in order to stay in the fight longer and with a higher level of confidence. 

DO NOT under value confidence.  The higher one’s confidence, the less chance one has of going into a semi-debilitating state of SNS activation.  Confidence also overcomes the energy sapping phenomenon of fear, and, subsequently one will be able to perform survival motor skills quicker and with more power (S.P.E.E.D.).

A person committed to developing speed, power, explosiveness, the ability to escape and evade by gaining distance should rely on a regimen that includes:

• Nutrition involving a mixture of carbs (slow burning), fats, proteins and proper hydration (water).  Proteins are a group of amino acids that maintain and build muscle used as energy sources during time of (survival) stress.  Proteins also increase mental performance.  Fats are a primary source of energy for the body and a transporter of amino acids.  In future blogs, I will get into more detail regarding nutrition, hydration and their role in the Fighting Arts.
• The 3 Energy Systems:  Our bodies rely primarily on three fuel or energy systems to perform high-intensity acts, such as fighting for one’s life. 
  1. The ATP/PC System.  The Adenosine Triphosphate/Phosphocreatine consists of small energy bundles that are stored in our muscles.  This system is what we primarily rely on when we are involved in high (survival) stress activities such as survival (self defense) fighting.  When the ATP/PC System is engaged, one is able to perform at 100% of his/her maximum output for only 10 to 15 seconds, tops.  After 10-15 seconds, a person fighting for his or her life can expect as much as a 45-50% decrease in maximum output. 
  2. The Lactic Acid and Aerobic Energy Systems.  Once the ATP/PC Energy system is depleted, the fighter relies on an the Lactic Acid System, which provides an intermediate energy system that can last from 15 seconds up to 90-seconds, where the fighter will be able to fight at about 35% of max.output.  The Aerobic Energy System is the final dominant system and it provides another several minutes of fuel, but the fighter will now be struggling to fight at 30% of maximum output.

• A Fighting-Specific Program. 

Ø       Mix a Combination of Cardiovascular and Respiratory Exercises (Aerobic) into your program.  More on this in the next blog, but, in the program I use and also suggest for my readers uses exercises that build our Fast Tic Nerves which are so crucial for the speed, power and explosiveness needed for survival fighting. 

1.        Work sprints, variables and fartlecking into your routine.  Spin Routines on the bike.  Speed routines instead of an easy running pace, such as my old LSD (Long, slow distance) regimens when I ran marathons.

2.        Cross-Train your aerobics.  Running, biking, hills, flats, etc.

Ø       Develop an Anaerobic Weight Lifting Routine.  Strength conditioning is crucial to the fighting arts.  Strength, power, speed, confidence.  Also, don’t discount the fact that one looks more formidable after only a few months of this type of program.  In the next blog I will get into some specifics about my program and others I know.  A couple more things:  By building one’s explosiveness, one will feel - as I do - untapped power surging through his or her veins, arteries, muscles, limbs.  Not only that, one will be able to withstand more strikes and blows in a fight without sustaining serious, debilitating injury or trauma.  I suggest a weight lifting cycle featuring a complimentary series of strength and power exercises with little rest in between to develop that (SPEED) speed, power and explosiveness so critical to self defense.  More about this cycle in my next posting.

Ø       BE A ROCK.  No kidding, folks, tune in for the next blog and I will turn you on to the fighting-specific type of program for which you may have been forever searching.  I will say it again:  I kid you not.  I have been in scores, maybe hundreds of fights and, although I would admit that I have never been a great fighter, I am virtually unstoppable.  Hit me, kick me, drive a two-by-four as hard as you can across my chest (Okay.  Hit me in the head and I slow down considerably), and I keep on coming.  It is all in your mind, your heart and your Fighting Arts-Specific Fitness Program.

Next Blog:  Details and specifics about my Survival Fitness Program.

Harry Hammer

SSPEED -A Dynamic Self Defense Equation Against Bullies and Other Predators.

IF YOU have been following my posts, you are familiar with my Tough Target Techniques for avoiding (evading) an attack by a bully, or, in the case of women, a stalker/ predator.  The important thing is, if possible, to evade the attacker without having to fight.  Preparation, Planning, Practice and Prevention - The 4 P’s of the Fighting Arts - comprise about 95 to 98% of successful self defense. 

OF COURSE, we all know that is not always possible.  Predators (for the sake of this post, I will restrict “predators” to bullies and male attackers of girls and women) almost always “tune up” for attacks through Verbal Testing.  Michael Pace, a highly respected self defense expert, agrees, noting that “the preliminary for an attack is The Interview - the threats, questions, insults and/or the ‘woofing—”  Most attacks start off with a “verbal assault because the predator wants to find out what he or she is up against - an easy target or someone who will give him or her a real fight.  A Target Person (TP) who ignores these threats, insults, or questions”will open the door for an immediate physical attack.”

S.S.P.E.E.D TO THE

RESCUE:

MICHAEL PACE calls it “Faked Compliance,” and I call it Feeding the Beast.  Call it what you like, but by faking compliance we are feeding the beast’s expectations.  He is verbally accosting the victim and his/her Tough Target words and body language have not deterred him, so when he grabs the TP (Target Person), he is relaxed, overconfident and certain that the TP is a “free lunch,” or an easy target. 

WHAT FOLLOWS is the SSPEED Counterattack Plan:

1. The Predator grabs the TP by the collar & shakes the “victim.”
2. Upon First Touch (by the Bad Guy) the TP raises both hands higher than the attacker’s, palms out, shaking them side to side in a “please don’t hurt me,” gesture and even says “please don’t hurt me!”  This is Faked Compliance or Feeding The Beast’s Expectation at its best.
3. The Bad Guy - expectations fulfilled - gains confidence in his assault’s inevitable success -moves closer, determined to throttle the victim.
4. At this point - which is First Touch by the attacker- the Target Person (TP) should Explode forward, driving both hands from their “Compliant Position” into the Bully/Predator’s face, striking hard and often quickly (Speed), connecting unexpectedly (Surprise) using quick Palm Heel Strikes to the most painful, vulnerable targets - the nose, eyes, mouth - and/or, combining the very hard heel of each hand with slashing fingertips and nails (to be used for Deadly Attacks only/attacks by bullies are not usually lethal in nature) strikes to the chin and/or nose followed up with eye strikes and gouges.
5. Palm Heel Strikes are ideal for quick (speed) surprise strikes to the face because one can hit from wherever the hands are without changing one’s hand position, plus, the heel of the palm provides a hard and powerful striking area which is both easy with which to strike and a injury-friendly area, even for a novice fighter.
6. If the attacker has grabbed the TP with both hands, there is no earthly way he or she can block these strikes.  Even if  there is one hand free to block, though,  I say go ahead and rain the bully with a storm of strikes - one strike will never ever do the job - until the threat is over.  And, as the bully lets go to protect his vital targets, I guarantee other targets will open.  I say, do it.  Hit them and hit them hard.

S.S.P.E.E.D:  Breaking It Down:

Speed:     Although Power is important in knocking out an attacker, getting to a target first is essential to winning.  There are aspects to speed that I will address is another posting, in this scenario, speed is manifested by striking with the hands exactly where the Bully sees them in the Compliant/Begging For Mercy Position.  In other words, strike from that position without telegraphing the punch by drawing back either hand, which would effectivelt destroy the element of surprise.   

Surprise: The element of surprise is the key to a successful counterattack.  The TP has set up the bully by using the “Compliant Position” and the predator has “taken the bait.”  In my Self Defense classes, the Palm Heel Strikes are Stunning Techniques, and Stuns are described as the “stimulation of overwhelming sensory input that is sudden, intense and unexpected–”  Simply put, this means that the delivering a cluster of speedy strikes to open, vulnerable targets will weaken a bully/predator through a devastating series of Mental Stuns that effectively weakens the attacker, destroys his or her (false) confidence and opens up vulnerable targets.                 

Power:  More on how to create and sustain pure Power in one’s techniques in the next posting.

Explode:  Explosiveness differs from Power in many important ways.  Look for another posting

Escape :  I will address crucial E & E strategies in another posting, also.

Dynamic:  I had to come up with a concept to complete my catchy “SSPEED” acronym.  Being Dynamic, though, means, once a TP is approached, accosted verbally, and set up for an attack, he or she must be Willing (being willing is as imporatnt as, maybe more important than, being able) to carry out the SSPEED Plan of Action with 110% commitment.

HARRY HAMMER

HOPEFULLY,  a bully’s intended victim (Target Child) can avoid fighting through the strategies I advocated in my last posting.  In the great majority of instances, projecting self confidence, being assertive and vocal, breathing tactically, appropriate body language (especially the hands) and some old fashioned confident eye contact can and will discourage approximately 95% of these would-be thugs.  However, there are those bullies who are so determined to attack that the target-child is going to get grabbed, grappled with or even punched no matter what he or she does.  For instance, even though a thug might catch the vibes that the kid he thought was a sissy is not intimidated in the least, and, as a matter of fact, is quite willing to fight back, he may still attack because of an “audience” and/or the fact that he has bragged that he is going to beat the target-child up and simply cannot back down.

THREAT RECOGNITION

Step 1 is recognizing an imminent attack.  There exist what I call Signatures of Danger that occur just before any attack.  A few of them could be:

·         Gut Feelings:  Invariably the target-child (TC) will sense a punch coming.  Always obey your instincts.

·         Boxer Stance:  Strong leg drops back, strong hand becomes a fist, usually poised behind rear leg, strong shoulder drops.

·         Sprinter Stance: Bully will lean and move forward, will dip his head just before he charges.

·         Increased Body Tension:

                                                  S.P.E.E.D.

STEP 2 is to use SPEED to avoid a serious fight at the least and to temporarily disable the bully (never permanently injure) the bully.

·         Speed.  Your first move should be fast.  Very fast.  Speed is borne out of preparation (have a plan before the bully even approaches/more likely you have been approached by this or another bully before), confidence and determination. 

·         Power.  Whatever your move, speed must be backed up by power.  I will give an example or two later in this post and the next.

·         Escape.  Depending on the setting, your goal should be to escape the bully.  Especially in school where there may be a zero-tolerance policy regarding violence.

·         Evasion.  You may not be able to escape, but evading a major fight through tactics involving distraction, misdirection and balance displacement will allow the TC to deflect the attack long enough to tire out the bully and/or allow help to arrive.  I will discuss this more in my next posting.  In many instances, I advocate tactical movement, quickly grappling the bully, and then footsweeping him to the ground in order to escape.

·         (Go) Dynamic:  My SPEED System has escape and evasion as its main objective, however, when all else fails, we are going Dynamic on the bully.  In short, Dynamic strategies include the use of personal weapons, such as the head (butt), Palm Heels, elbows, hammer fists, knees and feet versus the bully’s vulnerable targets (nose, chin, torso, inner and outer thighs and lower shin areas).  In the next and future postings I will show how to Go Dynamic in serious fighting scenarios, not only for children, but for teenagers, adults, women and seniors.

 SPEED IN  ACTION

THE FIGHTING ARTS are tough to describe in a post.  Self defense after all is dynamic and is impossible to script.  However, S.P.E.E.D as a bully countermeasure will sketch out different than in a Self Defense For Women scenario, which, by the way, might have life or death implications.  One common bully-scenario looks like the following (this is realistic & repetitive, believe me):

The bully has a child, much smaller than he, up against a wall in the Boy’s Room.  He is poking a finger into the kid’s chest - hard - and belittling the boy.  Words have had little effect and the Target-Child (TC) cannot move.  Suddenly, unexpectedly, the TC moves his right hand to a spot just above the larger boy’s left elbow and powerfully pulls that arm toward his center and then past, as if he is opening a door.  The bully is thrown off balance and the TC quickly steps “through the door,” says “I’m late for class.  See you later.” And is out the door.

If the bully is somehow prepared for the maneuver, or is too strong to be swung off balance, the TC uses the bully’s size and strength against him, “rotating around the pole,” as I call it.  The intended-victim grabs the arm above the elbow and uses the strong arm to allow him (the TC) to rotate to a position behind the bully.  My SPEED program teaches the TC to quickly “get out of Dodge,” if he can, but, if he cannot escape or evade further entanglement, I advocate “going Dynamic” by driving a foot downward into the bully’s tibial (at the top of the calf), which should cause the bully’s legs to collapse.  The TC can enhance either or both of the above SPEED moves with a quick, powerful Front Kick to the bully’s lower shin, a dynamic distraction technique that almost always drop the thug.

More SPEED Bully Countermeasures in the next posting by Harry Hammer, plus some Dysamic Fighting Arts, all part of the SPEED System.

Maybe it should be Denial Kills. Matters little because one is synonymous with the other. Sad truth is about 7 out of 10 of the people I train in any one of my self defense (women, seniors, teenagers and children) programs are in a state of denial. Thing is, though, denial is natural. It’s so much easier waltzing through life overlooking the obvious and subtle verbal, non-verbal and environmental Signatures of Danger, especially when in the great majority of cases (97%), blithely overlooking danger signs results in no attacks, not even a hint of a threat.

Problem is, this hard-wired belief that nothing bad will ever happen to me, reinforced by nothing bad ever happening despite this cavalier attitude, can lead to what Use of Force experts call the Catastrophe Effect. Simply stated, a person in this state of denial will go into a state of shock or trauma when their internal belief system is shattered by an unanticipated, spontaneous and violent attack.

In other words, when a person who is in this state of denial, is surprised by a sudden attack, and his or her body is flooded by stress hormones (cortisol), the shock and/or trauma is so overwhelming the bottom falls out.

You see, under normal non-threatening situations, our brain will process information in a circuit that flows smoothly from our perceptual senses to the thalmus area of the brain, which acts like a relay station, transmitting information to the sensory cortex, which is processed and sent to the neo cortex (The Thinking Brain). The neo cortex analyzes the perceptions, cross references it, and then fires a “logical” response back down through the amygdala to the motor portions of the lower brain and finally the spinal cord. However, when we are confronted with a sudden, deadly, and unexpected (surprise) stimulus, the SNS (Sympathetic Nervous System) is triggered and an “emergency” signal is fired from the thalmus directly to the amygdala - our primitive brain - and a response is quickly initiated before the neo cortex has a chance to process the initial threat perception.

The advantage of the thalmus-amygdala circuit is time. It takes about twice as long for a signal to be processed through the thinking brain (neo cortex). However, to the state-of-denial-victim, this becomes a sorry trade-off when his or her survival defense system drops clean out of the bottom. What is left for this victim is the aforementioned state of trauma (Catastrophe Effect) or shock, which usually manifests itself by:

• Holding his or her breath, which makes matters worse since there is no oxygenated blood flowing to the brain, spinal cord, muscles.
• Freezing. This phenomenon goes hand-in-glove with the above action. When first touched by the attacker, the victim stops breathing and freezes in place, and/or he/she
• Startle Response. He or she will convulse into an almost automatic stance where the victim “shrimps up (tries to make him or herself a smaller target, plus gather self into a protective position)” into a crouch with his or her hands open and above or in front of his or her head area. I teach all my students to fight from this Startle Position, but an untrained, traumatized individual usually will freeze in that position, never initiating a countermeasure, and becoming a punching bag for the attacker.
• Mental and Emotional Resignation. I believe attitide is (nearly) everything in successful self defense, but when our surprised-victim spirals from a blase attitude to the vortex of a surprise attack, his or her dominant thought is: “Oh, no! I never thought this could happen to me and I am in serious trouble now.” With that mindset the fight is over before it even begins.

In my next posting - “Surprise Kills, Part II -” we will discuss strategies to not only overcome this Catastophe Effect but to prevail over the spontaneous Ambush Attacker.

HARRY HAMMER

IF YOU have kept up with my postings, you know I have been encouraging parents to become Safety or Courage Coaches to teach their children crucial survival skills against sexual predators and even predatory bullies.  I teach Escape and Evasion Skills for children and their parents, but I readily concede that my efforts would be fruitless without the involvement of supportive and commited parents.

SAFETY COACHES (parents) can augment or even replace a good self defense program, and, with what I feel can be life preserving Survival Games, Role Plays, and Dynamic Simulations, can actually transcend any self defense program in value.  Survival Games can enhance a child’s physical reaction time, awareness, threat recognition skills, and his or her overall self confidence.  Games can focus a child’s attention on issues surrounding predators without scaring him/her half to death.  Games can also establish and grow a valuable bond between parent and child and can open a valuable line of communication so that the child will be able to talk about threatening experiences he or she may not have otherwise been able to achieve.  Games are an excellent, fun way for a child to learn these “unnatural” skills.  I can only address a few of these “games” in this limited venue, but let’s look at a few of the best:

• THE COLOR CODED FLOOR:  A good way to teach Tactical Movement.  Chris Pagotto, a Mixed Martial Artist, teaches his kids how to move quickly and tactically by color coding the floor (with training mats) and playfully grappling with his children.  When a child lands on a certain color he/she has only a second or two to move off of that color.  On another color the child may perform a “Crabwalk Escape,” etc.  An imaginative Safety Coach can easily vary this game and teach any number of evasive or fighting skills.
• THE HULA-HOOP SPACE GAME.  Teach your child how to protect or control his/her vital Personal Safety Zone(PSZ).  I let the children in my class play with the hoops for a few minutes then begin the drill.  Each child places one arc of the hoop against his or her back and allows the front side to form a 2′ arc in front.  That is their PSZ, or Hula-Hoop Space.  I the present each child with written Hula-Hoop Rules:  

1. No one is allowed within your Hula-Hoop Space without your permission.
2. With or without this Hula-Hoop, you will always carry your (PSZ) Hula-Hoop Space.
3. No one is allowed to touch your body without your permission because your body is within your Hula-Hoop Space.
4. Your body will warn you whenever a “No” or “Maybe” Person gets too close to your Hula-Hoop Space because your body, which has a Natural Alarm System, will give you “The Creeps.  You will know “The Creeps” because you will feel (I then give the class a list of objective feelings The Creeps will give them).
5. When your Natural Alarm System gives you The Creeps, Trust Your feelings!

• THE WHAT IF GAME.  Teach your child to be a Tough Target Boy or Girl by building a groundwork of tactical thinking through this verbally interactive game.  Try not to make this game too daunting or confrontive.  Remember to be comforting and supportive, even if your child responds with what you believe is an incorrect response.  The goal here is to get your child as prepared to respond as close to automatically (tactical thinking under survival stress is almost impossible to perform for an untrained child) as possible.

“WHAT IF” GAME QUESTIONS (Contact The Hammer, if you would like his insights re the “What If” answers).

• “What if a person whom you know drives up to you as you get off the school bus and tells you your mom has been hurt and she had asked him to pick you up and drive you to the hospital.  What do you do?”

• “What if you are playing with some friends in a park and you have to go to the bathroom.  There is a nice looking man and a well-dressed woman standing outside the restroom.  What do you do?”

• What if you are home alone and a man calls from his cell phone right outside your door and says your father asked him to drop by today to talk about “that business deal.”  What do you do?”

• A man says he is giving away free cookies and is handing out packages from his trunk.  You watch as several kids come in pairs.  The man is friendly and laughs as he gives the kids cookies and they move on unharmed.  He waves at you and smiles.  “Don’t you want some cookies?” he says.  What do you do?”

 In conclusion, there are an endless number of great games you can play with your child.  You are limited only by your imagination.  I will go into more of these in future blogs, including:

• Role Plays.  The Safety Coach as the predator playing any number of provocative roles, teaching the child how to Breathe, Run, Destroy The Environment, Crabwalk, and, in some cases, fight.

• COURAGE RUNS.  Teach your child valuable skills in eye contact, speaking clearly and audibly, walking with confidence through realistic acts in public (ordering food in a fast food restaurant, for eg.).

• DYNAMIC SIMULATIONS:  More on this in a future blog.  The key question to consider here, though, is do you want your child to experience a spontaneous, close quarter, surprise attack by a dangerous predator for his or her first time in a real situation or one that is simulated and free of risk?