The Four Pillars of Self Defense

The Four Pillars of Self Defense are Distance, Momentum, Position and Balance.
Every possible situation you may find your self in, these four factors remain constant.

Distance is how far you are from a threat. your proximity to target effects your options, from escaping to engaging. This also impacts the type of tactics you would employ at a given distance be it a few paces away or in a clinch.

Momentum is the product of the mass and velocity of an object (p = mv). Like velocity, momentum is a vector quantity, possessing a direction as well as a magnitude. In self defense terms, you increase momentum by taking ground and continually attacking and injuring your target. Increasing intensity while you gain the advantage. The person with the momentum wins. Good street fighters know this and will take the opportunity to get the first shot in and consequently follow it up with more and more vicious and ruthless attacks. In module 1 of the SDTS we show you how to establish a safe distance and determine in an instant if you're going to be attacked. Then we train you to take advantage of this opportunity, gain momentum and win.

Position is where you are in relation to your target. You both could be standing, or one on the ground and the other standing (either at close range or far range- we detail this in SDTS Module 3). you could both be on the ground, either he's on top or you're on top. You're in the guard, half guard or mount or he has your back or you have his back.

Balance: maintain yours and break his. If he is off balance he will not be able to strike, stab or even shoot. If you're target can't plant hiss feet and generate force, he can't create power. Plus when you are driving him and pushing him back in the real world he will eventually stumble, trip and fall, or at least run into something. If he's off balance, he's all but useless.
In the SDTS you learn to do this by taking ground and training combat convulsive attacks that cause maximum injury to your target and minimum if injury to yourself.

In order for you to survive and win in combat you must control the four pillars of self defense.


Train Honestly,
Damian Ross, CEO The Self Defense Company

www.selfdefensecompany.com Corporate Center
www.theselfdefenseco.com World's Most Lethal Self Defense
www.legaluseofforce.com Police Combatives Training
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Do 1,000 of Something...Anything!!!

Jack Lalane was famous for his feats of fitness. Even in his 60's he was still doing things men 1/3 his age could only dream of doing. One of these feats was the 1,000 push up-1,000 pull up challenge. He did this in 82 minutes when he was 45 years old.

Drilling for wrestling and judo that magic number again is 1,000. 1,000 of a single throw or take down done in one sitting with a partner alternating sets of 25 or 50 was key to developing muscle memory and recall.

The whole point is to reach a place where you didn't think about the movement. Where you were too tired to care and you just stop thinking about it. You reach a point where your mind gets out of the way of your body and let's your body perform the movement efficiently.

Technically, we're all lazy. Our bodies want to perform an action as efficiently and effortlessly as possible. however, our conscious mind works against us. Anxiety over whether you are doing the move correctly, being self conscious about mistakes you're making will literally short circuit your body and create wasted movement and undue stress that inhibits performance.

We've all been there, trying to learn something new, worried about making a mistake and what we look like in front of our peers and our self. But you need to get past those anxieties to really start the learning process and the easiest and simplest way to do that is to fatigue your mind through physical exertion.

The more experienced you are the less time it takes to reach that point of "not caring". In the beginning, it may take several hundred reps to reach that point and you may only get a handful of good techniques out of 1,000 reps. But once your body figures out what to do, it remembers and the next time you may triple that number until it becomes easier to get to that sweet spot.

Once your body figures it out you can repeat it with new tasks so the process grows shorter each time. Some people call it "knowing your body". Athletic people have the ability to get to this point sooner than others. They naturally understand the letting go process because they can manage the anxiety of learning. Most children can do this easier than adults because they don't have all the mental baggage grown ups carry. Most kids simply "don't care" what they look like until that day comes when they do. To get to that point, you must trick yourself into not caring through physical exhaustion.

Start with something simple, like a horizontal Edge of Hand from Module 1 of The Self Defense Training System. Do this 1,000 times and note when you stop thinking about it and just do it. Then the next time you do 1,000, note the number when you stop thinking about it and then compare the two, I'll bet you dollars to donuts the second number is significantly lower than the first. Once you can get that number below 15 or 20, it's time to work on another technique.

You need only do this with your core techniques (edge of hand, chin jab, tiger claw/ heel of hand and whatever other main techniques you feel fit your tool box best). After that you train to apply those core techniques to any situation and guess what...you're done.

How many techniques in your main tool box? You only have room for about 6. That doesn't mean you can't recall dozens, it's just that five or six is all you can commit to instinct and train to be convulsive.


Train Honestly,
Damian Ross, CEO The Self Defense Company

www.selfdefensecompany.com Corporate Center
www.theselfdefenseco.com World's Most Lethal Self Defense
www.legaluseofforce.com Police Combatives Training
www.familysafeprogram.com Keep Your Family Safe
www.teachselfdefense.com Turn Your Passion into Profits
www.60minuteselfdefense.com Self Defense for Everyone
www.myselfdefenseresource.com Free Resource Material
FREE Training Forum http://theselfdefenseco.madmooseforum.com/

Bad Neighbors and Bullies

I received this email from a member of the SDC Community about a potentially dangerous and frustrating situation.

It starts:
I just wanted to share with you.
I've spent my life doing the very same thing that you teach. I've worked in nightclubs as a bouncer, I have a PI license and have done a lot of security work.

Even after care surveillance and success. And being rewarded admirably for my works. Then something happened at home.....

My neighbor being in the very next apartment, after first meeting him. Seemed to be a cut above with his law school and former being an LEO [law enforcement officer] in the coastguard.

He showed me his unlabeled bottle of steroids, with needles that he used to "shoot up".

He seemed to have "two personalities". He would want to play fight, and then get serious. After being attacked 10 or more times. With my neighbors and kids watching. I had no choice but to call the Sheriff.

I was asking himself at the time, "Here is my next door neighbor". What kind of liability is going to happen if I use my martial arts training. Am I going to be sued ? And my next door neighbor at that. I could no longer use my street smarts and self defense training that I could have at work. Just what was I to do. Little did I know that this sense of "superiority was very prevalent with steroid users".

And as a Brother, Martial Artist. What to do at home, with the addict ??
Being that you'd never believe he's the same person that you first met.-Henry

END

First of all let's answer your question, martial arts or self defense training does not preclude you from defending yourself. The only time it becomes an issue is if an opposing attorney uses that to paint you as a violent person. Beyond that you have the right to protect yourself based on your local laws.

Contacting the local police was a good move from a legal perspective. It establishes a history of violence and immediately sets you up as the good guy. second, if this man is an attorney and a member of the coast guard who uses drugs and engages in felonious behavior he will be disbarred and tossed out of the Coast Guard. He has a lot to lose. But that doesn't guarantee he will stop his behavior or escalate it.

This is the crappy part. If you are going to continue to live in the same community you need to manage him. Given your experience, I know you already know this, but for the sake of the people reading it, I'll post it.

You can't be alone with this guy, ever. Now that you have drawn you line in the sand and we have established this guy as a loose canon, he can never be alone with you unless you are prepared to do what it takes to survive. He has already demonstrated sociopath type behavior, so it his possible he can go from friend to foe in a blink of an eye.

You are also going to have to be on alert when you come home. Until you are locked in your apartment, you need to stay aware. Hallways, parking lots, tree lines and doorways are good ambush spots. It's unfortunate that you can't relax until you're in your home, but now there is a real threat happening.

your best option is to move. Hey, I know it may sound cowardly, but it is far from the truth. Living your life, waiting to be attacked by an identified threat is not fun. I have dealt with bad neighbors and crappy co-workers an unlike something that happens in the street, you must face it every day. Sure, you would like nothing better than to toss the pain in the ass the beating of his life...but you can't. Unless you are physically threatened, you have to wait and the waiting is really the most painful part.

Years ago I had a neighbor who was literally insane and a passive aggressive son of a bitch. He would get pissed when people parked on the public road, in front of his house. One time I parked my car there and he parked his truck on my bumper and left it out of gear so when I pulled away, his truck would roll behind me. At first I thought he made a mistake and being the good neighbor I took his keys along with a note and put them in his mailbox. As time went on, he said something to my friend's girlfriend and then I put it together. Did I confront him, yes I did. Did I make sure he knew how I felt, absolutely. I even went as far as to try to get him to make an aggressive move towards me, but he didn't bite.

I had to deal with the SOB until the day I moved. Remember, every decision is based on that risk-reward equation. Is that scumbag worth it? The stakes are higher when it's your neighbor and coworker. Hell, its not like no one knows who you are.

At the end of the day, you did the right thing.

Steps to take for dealing with asshole coworkers and insane neighbors.
1. Let them know. Tell them in a polite, matter of fact way that they're behavior is causing and issue. If you want to avoid confrontation, do this when they are not engaging in the behavior. For example, your neighbor uses bad language in front of your kids or drives his car too fast down your street you could say something like "The other day you guys were using some pretty rough language and my kids were outside, can you try to avoid doing that?" Listen, if the guy is a dick he's going to be a dick, if he wants to be a good neighbor he's going to apologize.
2. Call the police. After a two conversations, if he's not going to stop the behavior tell him, "Look, I've asked you a few times and really, it hasn't stopped. So I'm going to file a complaint. I tried to be polite, but now it's out of my hands."
3. Build your case through audio and video recordings. Remember, it's not who's right, it's what you can prove. If you have audio and video of the guy breaking your fence or letting his dog poop on your lawn, it will be pretty compelling evidence when you are defending your actions in court.

You have to make a choice: take crap or not to take crap. You are not required by law to take anyone's bullshit. You are allowed to defend your home, yourself and your loved ones. You are not defenseless. It just takes a little effort on your part.


Neighbors Resolving their Differences

Train Honestly,
Damian Ross, CEO The Self Defense Company

www.selfdefensecompany.com Corporate Center
www.theselfdefenseco.com World's Most Lethal Self Defense
www.legaluseofforce.com Police Combatives Training
www.familysafeprogram.com Keep Your Family Safe
www.teachselfdefense.com Turn Your Passion into Profits
www.60minuteselfdefense.com Self Defense for Everyone
www.myselfdefenseresource.com Free Resource Material
FREE Training Forum http://theselfdefenseco.madmooseforum.com/

Rules of Self Defense (Revisited)

The Rules of Self Defense

The rules define the game. Judo rules, create the sport of Judo, MMA rules create the MMA the sport and martial arts have a style and etiquette all their own, based on their culture of origin. These rules are designed to balance entertainment with participant safety or pay homage to their native land. While technically in self defense there are "no rules ", there does exist a specific set of tactical factors to which you must abide.

The “Rules” of Self Defense

1. Your techniques must be simple, gross motor skills.
When you experience fight or flight stress, millions of years of evolution kick in and prepare you for battle. You will experience dozens of perceptual changes from tunnel vision to loss of hearing, your heart rate increases and your blood will flow from your extremities to your vital organs and major muscle groups. There is no amount of mediation or stress inoculation that will reverse these effects. Your only choice is to train to operate within those conditions. You will only to be able to perform gross movements of the legs and arms. Finite skills that involve subtle movement of the fingers, wrist, small precise movements and tactics that require cognitive planning and strategy will be impossible. You'll only be able to perform a handful (3 to 5) of simple skills. LtCol Grossman’s Book “On Combat” gives an excellent analysis of this physiological and psychological experience.

2. You will be attacked when you are vulnerable.
Injured, tired and older or distracted, criminals, like predators, choose targets of opportunity. If you appear weak, you will be a target. The most effective defensive tactics enable you to perform under any possible physical restriction. This includes the use of weapons. The rule is simple, if you can leave your home, you better be able to protect yourself. Methods that require athleticism and coordination are not recommended. Instead you need techniques that are simple and easy to perform.

3. Your assailant is armed.
Criminals will stack the odds in their favor. Career criminals who know that using a weapon carries a heavier sentence, may try to strong arm you instead of using a weapon during the first contact. After you survive the first attack and offer some resistance, he may then decide to use a weapon. According to the 2005 study by the Bureau of justice http://bjs.ojp.usdoj.gov/index.cfm?ty=tp&tid=70 in approximately 70% of violent crime arrests there was a weapon present. This very real possibility demands that you dispatch of your threat as quickly as possible.

Another scenario is an attack under in low light. In a dark parking lot, how can you tell if that punch isn't a stab? Therefore you must assume every attack is a weapon attack. Methods that require you to first identify the weapon and then shift gears to use a different set of techniques have an extremely low success rate. Hick’s Law proves this as fact. Hick’s Law describes the time it takes for a person to make a decision as a result of the possible choices he or she has. The more choices you have, the slower your reaction time. You need one common denominator reaction for a multitude of assaults.

4. Your attacker is larger and stronger than you.
In the street, intimidation is a big factor. Larger people with bad intent will choose smaller, weaker victims. Nothing has changed since grammar school. Knowing this, methods that require you to overpower your enemy should be avoided. While grappling is a worth while endeavor, it is not a primary form of defense since it requires a great deal of skill, power and endurance to subdue a much larger attacker. Striking is and always will be the preferred and most efficient means of first line, empty hand defense. Weapons of course trump all empty hand defenses.

5. Your assailant will have friends.
Criminals need an edge. It could be a weapon, it could be size or it could be accomplices. Most times you won't even know it's a multiple attacker scenario until it's too late. Smart street fighters will have friends waiting in the background. The idea of having different tactics for single and multiple attackers is ludicrous for two reasons. First, every attack is a multiple attacker scenario regardless of what you see initially. Second, you can only fight what ‘s directly in front of you. Once you engage, your mind will only allow you to focus on one act, one target and one direction. (See Rule number 1) To ensure a high success rate you must train to eliminate the first target as fast as possible and move forward from there. This includes maintaining a forward drive and taking ground. Besides keeping your primary target off balance, moving forward will make you a moving target to the other threats. This is why it is extremely critical that you train in a way that keeps you moving forward. Practicing defensive tactics while you’re standing toe to toe is ill-advised.

6. You must consider every environment.
Attacks happen where you work and live. Through the course of your day and depending on the season, your environment is constantly changing from icy parking lot to carpeted floor. You can’t move 10 feet in any direction without running into a wall, a piece of furniture or a change of elevation. Sliding foot work that looks good in the gym or dojo is impractical under real world conditions. Even your footwork must be “pre-programmed” to handle any terrain.

7. You must use techniques that cause maximum injury to your attacker and minimum injury to you.
This is the name of the game. The person who wins is the one with the least amount of injury. From weapons to empty hand, everything thing you do must cause more damage to your target at a faster rate than you ‘re being injured.

8. Your attacker has intent on killing or injuring you.
Anyone who is willing to threaten you or use force on you has no regard for your safety. In order to maximize your survivability you must assume this to be true and react accordingly. That means doing whatever you need to survive without any regard for your attacker’s safety. Anything less will leave you vulnerable.

What makes a good self defense system?
An effective means of self defense only needs to consider the factors of distance, position, momentum and balance. Distance: where you are in relation to the target. Position: how you are and your target is situated. Momentum: increase yours by injuring him and moving through him. Injuring him more and more with each attack until he can no longer counter attack. Finally, balance, maintain yours, and disrupt his.
The techniques must attack his most vital areas, consist of gross motor movements and cause the maximum damage to your target and minimum damage to yourself.

These criteria for self defense are purely tactical. There’s no mention of style or system. These are common denominator, common sense factors. Along with good fitness, the right system and an "assume the worst and hope for the best" attitude. You will be able to survive and win most any situation.
Train Honestly,
Damian Ross, CEO The Self Defense Company

www.selfdefensecompany.com Corporate Center
www.theselfdefenseco.com World's Most Lethal Self Defense
www.legaluseofforce.com Police Combatives Training
www.familysafeprogram.com Keep Your Family Safe
www.teachselfdefense.com Turn Your Passion into Profits
www.60minuteselfdefense.com Self Defense for Everyone
www.myselfdefenseresource.com Free Resource Material
FREE Training Forum http://theselfdefenseco.madmooseforum.com/

Say Good Bye to an Icon

RIP Jack LaLanne


In case you didn't know, Jack LaLanne died at the age of 96.

Jack LaLanne, the father of the modern fitness movement died Sunday, January 23, 2011 at his home in Morro Bay, Calif. He was 96. The cause of death was respiratory failure due to pneumonia. LaLanne spent more than 70 years preaching the power of strength training and healthy eating—long before either was popular.

In 1936, he opened the nation's first health club, a gym that doubled as both a juice bar and health food store, and became the prototype for future fitness spas. He reached the at-home crowd, too, hosting The Jack LaLanne Show, a TV workout program, from 1981 to 1983.

"People thought I was a charlatan and a nut," he once told The New York Times. "The doctors were against me—they said that working out with weights would give people heart attacks and they would lose their sex drive."

When LaLanne was 40, he wanted to prove that he wasn't past his prime, so he swam the nearly 2-mile length of the Golden Gate Bridge without surfacing, breathing with the aid of two air tanks that weighed 140 pounds. At age 60, he swam 1.23 miles from San Francisco's Alcatraz Island to Fisherman's Wharf while handcuffed, with his legs shackled, and towing a 1,000-pound boat. Even as he entered his 90s, LaLanne began every day with a two-hour workout: weight lifting, and then swimming against an artificial current or in place, restrained by a belt.

The following are some of Jack Lalanne's notable fitness achievements.

1954 Age 40: Swam the length of the San Francisco Golden Gate Bridge underwater with 140 pounds of equipment, including two air tanks¦ an undisputed world record.

1955 Age 41: Swam, handcuffed, from Alcatraz to Fisherman's Wharf in San Francisco, CA.

1956 Age 42: Set a world record of 1,033 pushups in 23 minutes on You Asked for It, a TV Show with Art Baker.

1957 Age 43: Swam the treacherous Golden Gate Channel, towing a 2,500-pound cabin cruiser. This involved fighting the cold, swift ocean currents that made the 1 mile swim a 6 ½ mile test of strength and endurance.

1958 Age 44: Maneuvered a paddleboard 30 miles, 9-½ hours non-stop from Farallon Islands to the San Francisco shore.

1959 Age 45: Completed 1,000 pushups and 1,000 chin-ups in 1 hours and 22 minutes and The Jack LaLanne Show goes nationwide

1974 Age 60: Swam from Alcatraz Island to Fisherman's Wharf, for a second time handcuffed, shackled and towing a 1,000-pound boat.

1975 Age 61: Swam the length of the Golden Gate Bridge, underwater, for a second time handcuffed, shackled and towing a 1,000-pound boat.

1976 Age 62: Commemorating the Spirit of ˜76, swam 1 mile in Long Beach Harbor, handcuffed, shackled and towing 13 boats (representing the 13 original colonies) containing 76 people.

1979 Age 65: Towed 65 boats filled with 6,500-pounds of Louisiana Pacific wood pulp while handcuffed and shackled in Lake Ashinoko, near Tokyo, Japan.

1980 Age 66: Towed 10 boats in North Miami, Florida filled with 77 people for over a mile in less than 1 hour.

1984 Age 70: Handcuffed, shackled and fighting strong winds and currents, towed 70 boats with 70 people from the Queen's Way Bridge in the Long Beach Harbor to the Queen Mary, 1½ miles.

Lalanne was also married to the same woman (Elaine) for over 50 years! Yes, her name is Elaine Lalanne.

If you notice something about Jack. Most of his accomplishments happened when he was in his 40's and beyond. Nowadays, this is not so uncommon, but in the 50's and 60's it was literally unheard of. As a child I remember looking at him on TV thinking that guy is in his 60's and my dad in his 40's couldn't keep up with him.

Jack to me was more about fitness, he was about living life to the fullest. So many people physically peak in high school and then once they start working and start a family, physically, they're done. They're too. Too tired, too busy, too upset, too injured, too sick. Before you know it, they're 52 years old looking at 60 thinking, I'm about to be old.

My dad died at 66 from a massive heart attack. He was about 200 pounds overweight. Eat, drank and physically pushed himself. He was the kind of guy who would do nothing all week and then go out and do 12 hours worth of yard work and be shot for two weeks. My dad was a slave to his body. Sleep apnea, high blood pressure pills, and a heart condition, he would miss work frequently and was not able to participate in coaching like he did 10 years ago. My dad was a prisoner trapped in his body.

His story is not uncommon. How many people do you know who are stuck physically and mentally. If you live an 80 year old life and your best memories are from your teens and early 20's. You've got 60 years to be miserable. 60 years of excuses, 60 years of reasons why not, 60 years of being unsatisfied with the way you look and feel. 60 years of avoiding a mirror, 60 years of avoiding conflict, 60 years of being half the person you used to be. What kind of life is that?

Jack Lalanne represents what we all should strive for: living life to the fullest. At 42 I'm in better cardiovascular fitness than I was at my competitive peak. I'm also on my way to being stronger. I look at people in their 20's and 30's who are out of shape, tired and unhappy.

Listen, if you're not happy with yourself, you're not going to be happy. The money won't matter (it helps a little, but it doesn't really help), the toys won't matter. This is why marriages fail and people have mid-life crisis. When you hit your forties something happens, you start to evaluate. One of two things happen, you get really happy or really sad.

At the end of the day we want to look good, feel good and be able to provide for and protect the people around us. Jack Lalanne understood this. He was a man among men and today I'm sad but I owe a little something to the guy in the sating jumpsuit.

Train Honestly,
Damian Ross, CEO The Self Defense Company

www.selfdefensecompany.com Corporate Center
www.theselfdefenseco.com World's Most Lethal Self Defense
www.legaluseofforce.com Police Combatives Training
www.familysafeprogram.com Keep Your Family Safe
www.teachselfdefense.com Turn Your Passion into Profits
www.60minuteselfdefense.com Self Defense for Everyone
www.myselfdefenseresource.com Free Resource Material
FREE Training Forum http://theselfdefenseco.madmooseforum.com/

The Truth About Knife Defense Part 2: You Can't Fight Mother Nature

The previous blog we spoke about why knife defenses fail and I demonstrated a Self Defense Training System tactic that was an empty hand defense without using he environment and without using a weapon. It is a given that leaving the scene, using a weapon or items in your environment are your first options. In the Self Defense Training Systemwe step you through how to train to accomplish this. In this instance we're talking about facing a dynamic knife attack when you have nothing at your disposal and no escape.

That being said, this happens without fail, people who agree with me on the self defense subject up until the "controlling the weapon" issue. This tells me that they really don't have a full grasp of the tactics and principles that make the SDTS successful. In module 1 we tell you, you have to assume your attacker is armed, even if you don't see a weapon. Which, according to the Uniformed Police Use of Force report, is true about 75% of the time. We tell you to always attack the man. We tell you you need to injure your target as fast as possible. The same principle holds true in all aspects of self defense.

But yet, the compulsion to go after that weapon is so strong. People still feel the need to want to try to control it. They get all warm and fuzzy knowing that the weapon is tucked away some place safe, not getting into any trouble. Now if you happen to have the advantage and the weapon arm falls in your grip, OK so be it. But the split second you decide to chase the knife in a dynamic situation, you are making a grave mistake. NOTE: This is not a STATIC situation where the knife is being pressed against you or used to threaten you in extreme close range, like in a mugging or threatening situation.

Why is chasing the weapon a bad idea?

You can't fight mother nature.

No matter how much you train and prepare your body and your mind are programmed to act a specific way under stress and there's nothing you can do about it.

Instead of responding with urban legend, martial arts myth, Hollywood movies and dojo speculation, I will let science, real life examples and fact prove my point.

No matter how intense your training, it's not real life. Your training only begins to scratch the surface of what you will experience. The government spends billions on trying to create realistic training stress and they still can't predict if the training was accurate until the situation is live. Unfortunately neither will you.

So instead of training for the training exercise, you must train for what is really going to happen to you and operate within those parameters.

You don't need a behavioral psych degree from Johns Hopkins to understand how the mind works under stress and you don't need to be a combat war vet either. All you need to do is some reading. There are several books you should check out if you haven't already: Grossman's "On Combat" and "On Killing", Applegate's "Kill or Get Killed", Debecker's "Gift of Fear" and Strong's "Strong on Defense".

Grossman really get's into the science of it. In "On Combat" he offers a list of what you will experience when you are fighting for your life:

Perceptual Distortions in Combat

Diminished sound (auditory exclusion)
Intensified sounds
Tunnel vision
Automatic pilot ("scared speechless")
Heightened visual clarity
Slow motion time or Fast motion time
Temporary paralysis
Memory loss for parts of the event
Memory loss for some of the subject's actions
Dissociation (detachment)
Intrusive distracting thoughts
Memory distortions

You may experience some or all of these effects. In addition to the above, you will lose control of your finite motor skills. This means you will only be able to perform gross motor movements and simple, primary thought functions. This is why troops are trained to operate their weapon in a manner that enables them to function under fire. The simple act of acquiring a target, firing, reloading, clearing misfires and maintaining position becomes extremely difficult (and that's with extensive, focused training). Yet martial artists will learn many, many different self defense techniques with far less time and intensity in training and are expected to recall them under stress.

Plus, you never know what you're mind is going to hook into. A popular example is the California Highway Patrol. On range they were told to collect their shells after they emptied their firearms. So every time their gun was empty, officers would bend down and pick up the brass. What happened next was completely unexpected and deadly. When the officers were under fire and their firearm was empty, they would leave safe cover and bend down to collect the brass shells on the ground and put them in their pockets. Without any rhyme or reason, they would leave the safety of their position because they were programed to in their training. While a reasonable person would know not to pick up the shells, the stressed person followed their training.

One thing can be deduced from these observations:
1. Complex locking motions are impossible to perform under stress. The finite movements of performing a wrist or an arm lock will be reinterpreted under stress ad a gross movement. The result is a movement void of any effectiveness.
2. You never know what you are going to hook into. Chances are, you're compulsion to control the weapon will override your priority of injuring your attacker.

This problem is solved by training to hit with power, take ground on your assault, keep your attacker off balance and focus on attacking high percentage targets on the body.

Personal Note: I love the internet and for every 10 positive comments I receive, I always get some misguided chuckle head. This one is from "GS" who commented that in the SDTS defense I should have abandoned the strikes to the back of the attacker's neck to stomping his knee. Why on earth I would abandon a sure knock out strike for a tertiary target like the knee is beyond me. Also, when you are attacking someone, taking ground and your legs are busy doing something like moving and keeping your balance. He also commented that the heel of hand strike was "weak." The only response I have to this comment is: you're a moron.

What has worked since Cane hit Abel with a rock.

The only logical proven solution is to attack the man and cause as much injury as possible as fast as possible. Since you'll only be able to do one simple act, make it a damn good one. You must attack as soon as possible. Every second you wait, increases your chances of failure and incurring more injury.

You can't reason with self defense.

Martial artists like to take a self defense situation and inject it full of reasoning. "Do this because he does that." To you, this seems reasonable and logical. Unfortunately when you're placed in a situation, in fact, most of the decisions you make during your life are not based on reason at all, but are based on coping.

When you view a situation as an observer, you use reason and logic. It's like watching a pro football game or a fight. "Why doesn't he pass it to that guy?" or "why doesn't he just punch him?". When you're an objective observer you can see the field and weigh all of the options. However, when we are placed in that situation we use coping skills instead of reasoning skills. As you may have guessed, coping has little to do with reason and logic.

The study on Coping vs. Reasoning (ENHANCEMENT OF COPING THROUGH BLURRING 1 Manfred KOCHEN The University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, U.S.A.
Study is HERE

"What is imprecise about the situations of real life is how they are perceived,
interpreted and evaluated. The situation of the fleeing patron of a burning,
crowded theater could be objectively measured by others with great precision. To
him [the person in the fire], the situation is vaguely threatening: he may not know exactly where the fire is or how serious it is; he may not know exactly how to get to the nearest exit, or the effect of his fleeing behavior upon all the others, or theirs upon him. He is unlikely to resort to reasoning in this situation, partly because he is not certain that reasoning will help him survive. (This is not to say that: he ought not to stay cool and resort to reasoning.) Yet many people can cope with such situations, and not necessarily only those with superior reasoning or precise thinking abilities."

In survival mode you're going to act instinctively not reasonably. You will not react the way you think you will react. While the reasonable mind will logically provide a solution, your coping mechanism will prevent you from performing those actions. All martial arts based self defense systems are based on reasoning skills. "Control the weapon", "De-fang the snake" and "control the chaos" are nice tag lines and good notions, but in the heat of battle you can only fight what;s directly in front of you and you can only perform one action. Don't "de-fang the snake", "kill the snake".

The only plausible solution is to program yourself to react in a way that gives you the highest percentage of success. In order to do this you must resist the temptation in training to let reasoning creep into your solutions. Martial artists and other experts love to provide "reason based solutions" for coping based reality. It sounds good in class and makes everyone feel warm and fuzzy. Plus they look cool twisting some poor volunteer around in pain.

Don't believe the hype.

Techniques like joint locks and submissions give you a false sense of power and confidence because they feel empowering. When you can cause controllable pain over another human being it gives you a real boost. I'll admit, it's cool getting someone to tap with a finger lock or pass out with a strangle, but in reality those methods are inefficient and improbable. While joint locks are appealing and look bad ass, they are improbable and a handful are only successful after a subject is under control. Submissions do work, there is no doubt about that, but they should be viewed as secondary techniques since they require more time in training and should only be used when striking is not an option. Depending on your position, most strangles can still be replaced with a strike.

The more you know, the worse off you will be.

Ever heard of the Hick-Hymen Law?

The Hick-Hyman Law, named after British psychologist William Edmund Hick and Ray Hyman, describes the time it takes for a person to make a decision as a result of the possible choices he or she has. The Hick-Hyman Law assesses cognitive information capacity in choice reaction experiments. The amount of time taken to process a certain amount of bits in the Hick-Hyman Law is known as the rate of gain of information. Given n equally probable choices, the average reaction time T required to choose among them is approximately

T = b \cdot \log_{2}(n + 1)

Translation: the more choices you have the slower you're reaction time. If you have several choices, it will take you that much longer that if you had a single choice.

When you have multiple self defenses to recall for a multitude of situations you will freeze. Single minded, simple solutions will give you the fastest reaction time. In the quick and the dead world of self defense, it's better to be fast than accurate. Any counter attack you provide creates an opportunity for another attack. Chain a few together and you have the momentum. Gain the momentum and you can cause injury. Cause more injury and you will win the day.

Now, while most experts will agree with what I have to say, their actions are contradictory because they still let reasoning and conscience fears creep into a situation that is devoid of reasoning and common sense.

Proven defensive tactics must be:

1. Extremely simple with limited options
2. Based on distance, position, balance and momentum
3. Inflict maximum damage on your target and minimum damage to yourself

Getting cut with a knife will not kill you.

You will get cut, it's a fact. Most martial artists will say that before they teach their twisty-wristy technique. These are the same guys who will comment, "look the knife nicked him in the leg".

In response I would like to offer medical fact and a quote from Grossman's "On Combat" to your keen observations.

"Your resolve to succeed must include the possibility of losing some blood. You can loose a half-gallon of blood and your body will continue to mechanically function. Ceasing to fight before that much blood is lost is due to a lack of will, not lack of hydraulics."

Did you get that boys and girls, you can loose a half gallon of blood before you start to seize up.

So let;s recap the facts as we know them:
1. You can not perform finite motor skills under stress, this includes small circular motions or precision type movements (read: trapping or catching the weapon!!!!)
2. Your mind will hook into one single act. Your best bet is to ensure that act is the most productive act possible. Injuring your attacker trumps chasing the weapon.
3. You will not die instantly from any stab wound, even less from a superficial stab wound.

Some people get it, others don't or aren't ready too. Personally, I've spent years and thousands of hours of training on methods that just didn't work. And before you say "well you weren't training the right way or you weren't good enough." I think 3 black belts, several national championships, being all state in two sports and a division 1 college athlete will qualify me for having the skill, the will, the determination and the hand eye coordination to perform physical acts under stress. Plus my coaching and instruction reads like a who's who list (you can see that list a the bottom of the page HERE).

When I started this in 1989, all I wanted was the truth. It would be very easy for me to offer up what everyone offers, the right dialogue with warmed over martial arts. I'm sure the people offering other solutions really believe what they are saying, but they get caught up in reasoning and let the solutions satisfy the conscience of the people watching, from a distance and far removed from the real life situation, these methods appear to work. But in the crucible of reality they fail miserably.

I didn't let ego and time invested determine what works. I prefer science and fact. Hey, I was one of those guys. I knew tons of self defense techniques, I knew over 30 katas, I competed in everything from point fighting, kick boxing to grappling. But when I reflected my own real life experiences against my training I realized there was a huge disconnect. What I did in my real life was more like MMA. I found myself "fighting" with people. This took a lot of time and energy. There had to be a better way.

The other observation I made was that when I witnessed tough, accomplished martial artists use force in the real world...it looked the same. One strike and grappling. No wrist locks, no fancy breathing and mind control. Just destroy what's in front of you. Any other "hold" was performed when the subject was pinned down by other team members OR when the subject was knocked unconscious.

I also love the story of Gichin Funikoshi in "Karate-Do". In it, he recalled his only real life self defense situation when he was about to get mugged. He didn't even punch the guy, he simply grabbed his testicles and squeezed until the guy fell down. Not only did I find the passage revealing, I found it honest and right on point. For all that training, he just grabbed his nuts.

The problems I found with all methods of self defense was that the situations never happened the way I was trained or told they were going to happen. I found myself looking and waiting for the right opportunity to strike. This almost got me killed. Thank God I wasn't alone.

Which brings us to MARTIAL ART'S FATAL FLAW.

There is one major problem with all technique-based self defense systems. This flaw will get you beaten and left for dead. The flaw is not in what you train, but more in how you train. The flaw is training to wait. Waiting is the biggest mistake you can ever make. When you train you wait for him to grab you, you wait for him to show the weapon, you wait for him to punch, you wait for him to make an aggressive mood towards you. You wait, you're finished.

This training trains you to hesitate. Does he have a weapon, does he have friends? What does he want? Listen, and listen good, once someone attacks you your chance of survival decreases dramatically. Speed beats accuracy.

You need to system that takes all of these possibilities into account with every move you make. This way, it doesn't matter what he does. It doesn't matter if he has a weapon, it doesn't matter if he has friends, none of that will matter. It can't. The only decision you need to make is GO or NO GO.

I used to know hundreds of self defense techniques. Now I know only one and it's based on DISTANCE, POSITION, MOMENTUM and BALANCE.

Some people see the SDTS and get it like I did in 1989. Others will try to cling to their wasted time, money and effort. Martial arts has it's place, it's just not in self defense. Hey, it doesn't matter to me, I know the truth. I've been down that road. It's funny, I know exactly where you are, just by the comments I receive. Some people aren't ready for it. No problem, there are millions who are...I'll talk to them.

Train Honestly,
Damian Ross, CEO The Self Defense Company

www.selfdefensecompany.com Corporate Center
www.theselfdefenseco.com World's Most Lethal Self Defense
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www.familysafeprogram.com Keep Your Family Safe
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www.60minuteselfdefense.com Self Defense for Everyone
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VIDEO: The Truth About Knife Defense

WARNING: THE FOLLOWING POST CONTAINS GRAPHIC IMAGES AND VIDEO
No one wants to get stabbed. The compulsion to avoid being stabbed and shot is completely normal. However, if you find yourself in the most unfortunate position of facing an armed man and you are completely unarmed you can survive and even win, but it's not like you've been lead to believe.

Self defense is like religion. It takes a large group of insecure people and gives them what they need to hear. Self defense and martial arts makes people feel safe and confident. Most people seek out these endeavors because they are scared or think they are insufficient in certain areas. That's OK, we all felt this way at one point or another. Martial arts calms those fears and gives them something tangible to do about it without actually having to do it. Martial arts have been engineered to manage those fears.

Martial arts instructors tell their students "Do this and you won't get hurt." "Do that and you will discourage your attacker without having to hurt him." Now I don't believe they do this with malicious intent, they believe they are telling the truth. It's just that they have been fed misinformation, just like their instructor and their instructor's instructor.

I should know, I used to be one of them.

Look, no one in their right mind wants to get hurt or hurt someone. We want to live our lives and not be bothered. Unfortunately, there are people who don't feel the same way and who don't really care if you live or die if you have something they want. Now you have a choice: hedge your bet and hope nothing ever happens or do something about it.

Because you're even reading this you obviously want to do something about so here goes.

Let's get one thing straight: weapons defense or any self defense for that matter is like going through a wall of flame. You know there will be pain involved, but how much depends on how fast and how hard you go through it. Dancing around the fire will get you burnt to extra crispy. You're best bet is to go through it and charge hard.

The same holds true for self defense. Most people want to avoid the risk of injury and pain of self defense. So they dance around it and provide solutions that make you feel warm and fuzzy. They will show you methods that will appear to work and wrap the attacker up n a neat little package. While this appeals to your natural aversion to pain and violence, it is incredibly and dangerously wrong.

First, it trains you to believe that the self defense scenario will follow a specific pattern. He attacks like this, I do that. He does something else, I do something else. You are trained to think an attack is a finite set of moves when in reality those finite set of moves are infinite. The only thing finite about an assault are the common denominators of any attack: distance, position, momentum and balance. Everything else is secondary. In fact, what the Self Defense Training System tells us is that everything else is almost irrelevant.

Second, there is pain in self defense. Even if you hit him, you're hand will be sore and bones may be broken. Your best bet is to prepare for the inevitable and get ready to endure and inflict pain. Defending against an all out knife assault isn't any different.

If you ask any martial arts instructor about defending against a knife one of the first things he will tell you is "you will get cut." But then he proceeds to show you a technique that has you focusing on controlling the weapon and keeping it away from your body, being very careful not to let the weapon touch you. Like this guy here:

Here is a typical knife defense


A couple of key points you need to take a look at:
1. Expert says that if he get's stabbed in the belly, the fight is probably over.
Ask this guy if the fight was over:

You're body is designed to withstand a lot of punishment. Most knife assault victims, without any training at all, have suffered severe stab wounds and didn't even know they were cut until AFTER the conflict. So the bad news is, you will probably get cut, but the good news is you won't even know it, you won't die instantly and you will still be able to fight. What you need to do is to train aggressively, hit hard, take ground and destroy what ever it is in front of you. In the Self Defense Training System (SDTS) you learn how to hit and cause damage from Module one through Module 12. It is imperative you develop the skill set to do this.

2. The Fancy Wrist Lock.
OK, stop looking at the picture above. I know, it's gross, but the guy actually survived. Anyway, sliding up the elbow and performing a joint lock requires finite motor skills and the HUGE assumption that you're going to be able to identify the attack and react accordingly. t requires your target to remain still and to STOP HIS ATTACK. Hey, if this attacker wanted to gut him from his A-Hole to his appetite, do you think it would look like this?

When you practice with friends in a well lit training facility, these techniques appear to work. The only problem is, you both know what is going to happen. Even if it's a "random" training drill, you still have practiced it enough where your attacker literally knows how to approach you and you know which type of attack is coming next.

In the real world, there's a split second where your mind needs to grasp the reality of the situation (We call this the "OH SHIT!" moment). One second you're thinking about what this guy wants from you and the next "BAM!!!" He's stabbing the crap out of you.

When the attack happens, it's surreal, that's why you need a method of training that puts you on auto-pilot. You need to flip the switch and attack. Methods that teach complicated movements will cause your mind to freeze while systems like the SDTS that teach you a handful of core techniques and train you on how to adapt those methods to different situation work in the crucible of reality.

3. What is this cutesy bullshit of stabbing the guy with his own knife? Are we really taking this seriously. I've seen every one from Bas Ruetten to this guy do this crap. Just knock him the F#$K out!!! That's it. I'm sure, in this particular case, the bad guy isn't going to resist since he was just trying to gut you a split second ago. Especially since the expert HASN'T EVEN HIT HIM YET!!!! I'm sure your attacker is just going to sit there while you fillet his kidneys.

This defense also depends on the presumption that you're going to be attacked with a single thrust. If you think he's going to attack you with a single technique, think again...

This is what a worse case scenario looks like:



So kids, what did we learn from this video?
10" blade and the victim didn't die instantly. Wait, what? He got stabbed and didn't fall down?!?! (Maybe he's a witch).

Seriously, this is as bad as it gets, you're sitting there one minute thinking how many hours you have left on your shift and then BAM you're getting skewered. No harsh words, no posturing, the bad guy just comes up and starts stabbing you. Looks like the security guard was trying to what...grab the knife. His reaction to control the weapon only leads to him being stabbed over and over again. Good luck with that tactic. Look at it this way, at least if you get stabbed in the body, you'll have an open casket.

Next you have stuff like this:



Now this guy says a lot of correct things, he starts off strong except the "if you get stabbed you will probably die instantly". He's correct with the continue striking but of course he knees the guy in the body which is a lot tougher than hitting him in proven knock out spots. And then what does he do? On his initial contact...HE GRABS THE DAMN KNIFE ARM.

Listen, if you happen to wind up with it OK. The problem is that the split second you search for it, you're done. You can't train like that. When the "fit hits the shan" and you start trying to control the stabbing arm you will be locked into completing that task before you start striking him.
This is important to understand and goes over a lot of people's heads. If in some point you are trained to control the weapon "AS A PRIORITY" you will try to control the weapon until you have control of it. This is how we act under stress. If you chase the weapon the attacker will then do to you what you should be doing to him and that is: BEAT YOU TO A PULP. Great you have two hands on the knife, he has one hand free to destroy you with.

Training is all about developing habits. Tactics are a set of techniques based on a specific set of priorities. Your priority is to disable and injure the attacker as fast as possible.

Plus, the bad guy makes it easy with a "looping" type of attack. I teach assailants to ATTACK PISSED OFF. Keep the assault tight and strong.

What works is simple, avoid the initial attack and then destroy the attacker. This defense from Module 8 of the SDTS actually fits with what the krav maga guy was telling you better than the technique he demonstrated.

The only real, proven method for any knife attack is to ATTACK, INJURE AND DISABLE THE ATTACKER AS FAST AS POSSIBLE. Take a look at this A-HOLE:



*Just a note. I got some responses to this video saying "why don't you kick the knee or why are you hitting his back." First, I'm only hitting his back because I don't want to kill him He's my friend and I've grown attached to him). My strikes are really going for the back of his neck. Second, why in the world would I bother with his knee (a secondary target at best when I'm knocking him out). Sometimes I forget that the clips go out to non SDTS members.

This is an outtake from Module 8 of The Self Defense Training System "Weapons Defensive Tactics" and yes, the A-Hole is me. Which is another truth. This is an outtake from Module 8 of the SDTS and this goes with the knife defense blog post. I should point out that the strikes are to the back of target's neck. His back gets hit because I've grown attached to him over the past few decades. In realty, this is the only type of proven defense to actually work under real world conditions. Evade or PREEMPT the initial attack and then take the target out as fast as possible. Which means attacking his most vulnerable areas as fast as possible. The head and neck are the most obvious choice for two reasons. First, its a target rich environment offer you many places to knock hm cold. Second, it controls his direction, power and ability to use the weapon.

You don't get points for a partially correct answer. A lot of guys have the correct response with an initial evade/strike. But then they go chasing after the knife. WHY BOTHER?!?!?!

If you don't knock the guy out with the first shot, you still have a fight on your hands and even if you do grab the weapon hand/limb, he still can injure you with strikes as well.

If you knock him a little silly or even get him to pause he won't be stabbing you and you will have an opportunity to inflict more damage on him. The more injury he suffers the less dangerous he becomes. If you get him to pause and then go for the knife, you've just given him the opportunity to recover and realize that he's got a fight on his hands.

If he's knocked out, he's not stabbing anyone.

"But what if one of his friends comes along and picks up the knife and stabs you?"

A: Use some common sense. If he had another friend there intent on killing you, don't you think he would have stepped up while you were beating the crap out of his friend?

Also, are you going to sit there and watch while some guy comes along and picks up the weapon...OR are you going to stop hitting him and take the time to chase the weapon if he happens to drop it?

Let me see, he drops the weapon and you're going to stop attacking him, go get the weapon and give him an opportunity to recover and attack you again. I'll take my chances continuing my counter attack. Besides (all you budding budo-lawyers) wouldn't using his weapon against him be an act of murder?!?!?!?! That's a dig, I really don't care.

A weapon, any weapon is only as dangerous as the maniac wielding it and getting cut while you're pummeling someone to a pulp is a 180 degree different than getting stabbed while someone is killing you.

Finally, it's the rhythm of how you train. Self defense has a rhythm. It is 100% all out in a short burst (like a drag car race). There isn't any posturing, there isn't any time. There is only GO and NO GO. Once you decide to act it must be ruthless and brutal. Methods of self defense that feature sparring are counter productive to methods of self defense. Sparring and sporting based systems teach you to size up your target and look for openings while self defense trains you to attack and take whatever you can get. It is a "ready-fire-aim" formula.

If you spend most of your time sparring and grappling you're doing you're undermining your defensive tactics. Self defense trains you to determine intent and then act ruthlessly and viciously without quarter. This is why you should always avoid conflict unless it's absolutely necessary. Because it's not getting him to tap or say uncle, it's you fighting for your life.

Train Honestly,
Damian Ross, CEO The Self Defense Company

www.selfdefensecompany.com Corporate Center
www.theselfdefenseco.com World's Most Lethal Self Defense
www.legaluseofforce.com Police Combatives Training
www.familysafeprogram.com Keep Your Family Safe
www.teachselfdefense.com Turn Your Passion into Profits
www.60minuteselfdefense.com Self Defense for Everyone
www.myselfdefenseresource.com Free Resource Material
FREE Training Forum http://theselfdefenseco.madmooseforum.com/