The journey of self-defense is filled with dead ends, loops, and wrong turns that could cause you to back track years of training. Here are a few of them: MARTIAL ARTS:Martial Arts for Self-Defense Traditional Martial Arts vs. “Real” Fighting Mixed Martial Arts Grappling Lies, Damned Lies and Martial Arts Myths CULTS: Cults in the … [Read more…]
The 5 D’s of Self-Defense provide a framework for understanding and conveying all self-defense tips, advice, and concepts along with the emotional states that accompany them. What you do in response to an assault is driven in part by your emotional state, not just by what you know. Your emotional state is conditioned by your … [Read more…]
The Five Stages of Violent Crime is an internationally recognized system to identify if — and determine when and if — you are being set up for a crime or violence. It is used by police, military and firearms instructors around the world as a training and teaching tool. Also the system is taught internationally in self … [Read more…]
“If you want to make peace, you don’t talk to your friends. You talk to your enemies. “ – Moshe Dayan Although it is not popular idea (especially among ‘urban warriors,’ people obsessed with winning and anyone who wants to believe they can say and do anything without repercussions), the raw truth is: Sometimes you just gotta take your … [Read more…]
There are three natural strategies for dealing with predators: Hide, run and fight. There are two more for dealing with your own species: Posture and Submit. Both occasionally work cross species. The three natural strategies mimic the Freeze-Flight-Fight. Freezing is natural. We evolved in a world where predators key on motion. It is a form … [Read more…]
“You don’t control the monkey dance, it controls you.” – Rory Miller In his excellent book Meditations on Violence, Rory Miller coined a term describing behavioral patterns that lead to violence. He called it “The Monkey Dance.” We cannot say enough about Rory’s book anyway, but that is nothing in comparison to how important the monkey dance … [Read more…]
“Train for what happens most and you’ll be able to handle most of what happens” – MM We are constantly contacted by people who ask simple questions that have no simple answers. In fact, these questions often have no truthful answer at all. An example of such a question is: What kind of martial arts training should I … [Read more…]
“What you think you know … will kill you” – An old survival maxim The above quote is common among safety experts. But it applies in spades to avoiding crime and violence. The problem is, most of what you think you know about crime is probably wrong. Or to quote Will Rogers “It ain’t that people are ignorant, it’s just … [Read more…]
In some ways this all comes close to the Intent-Means-Opportunity triangle. An immediate threat has to have all three. Most of the time, you are the resource, the source of intent. the threat is his or her own means and the terrain and your behaviors supply the opportunity. But that’s kind of simplistic. Social and … [Read more…]
Let’s start with the fact that there’s a difference between fear management and danger management. I’m talking in extremes here, but it’s to communicate an idea. Let’s say you’re terrified of vampires. No amount of rational explanation that vampires don’t exist and aren’t a danger is going to help. That’s because ‘terror’ comes from a deeper … [Read more…]