The fundemental part in a puzzle

Learning martial arts has been a teaching in structure and systems. No matter which style there was always an assumption for what you did and why.

With the blocks you assumed certain attacks, the attacks you assumed certain situations and the stances you took, enforced these assumptions.

Never did I question these assumptions, since they were "golden rules", and each system/style had it's own. Sometimes they would fit each other and at other times these would fill out voids.

By time I started to teach these techniques, I was using the same assumptions that were taught to me. But my teaching was moving from martial artist to more non-marital artist. People having their daily work in areas were physical confrontation was more a norm. They questioned my assumptions, moving my understanding of what is self-defense, and how can I teach people who need it for daily self-defense.


A lot of people working in areas of physical confrontation don't want to spend hours and hours doing techniques that have to be worked on for years, to be able to do self-defense. And waiting for a "black belt" isn't the goal. I started to look into how to minimize repetitions so my students could learn effective techniques that could easily be utilized; looking at how to do techniques that depending on natural movements. I also started looking into who else had been thinking about this, and what have they done. But it was a puzzle, each time I thought I had a piece in place, 2 or 3 more areas had a space to be filled. There was always areas with something missing or just some kind of information just "hanging out there".


This search brought me to Tony Blauer (Coach Blauer), reading it on the internet, buying his Highgear, the CD's and DVD's. It sounded good and had some possibilities. What I didn't realize was that reading and doing are 2 different things, something I usually told my students, but really experienced/woke me up the first time I participated in the PDR cert. with Tom Acuri.


It blew my mind. I thought I was working on a puzzle piece by piece, but found that I was working around one major piece: PDR/SPEAR - startle/flinch. Suddenly I found myself having old pieces of the puzzle falling into place while others just materialized by themselves.

The concepts of P.D.R/S.P.E.A.R just filled in a void, not pushing my knowledge away, but filling out many gaps. The Cycle of Behavior helping on fear management on too the physical drills(and the usaged of startle/flinch) giving a fundamental understanding and reference for future training.

The drills in themselves being small puzzles that can be taken apart and put together to fit the scenario you need to practice. Emphasizing Coach Blauers statement "The Scenario dictates all".


In every real life scenario the BG has to come to you, making what I think the encroachment drill the key drill to all drills. Where it's possible to think or act(or practice) tactical, protective and primal on all parts of the drill, and at the same time change angles of the encroachment or just letting the BG change his intent(on the drill or meanwhile doing the drill), gives many variations just based on 1 drill. Even two(or more) BG can encroach and still use the encroachment drill. Even on the technical side many variations can be practice, be it tactical, protective or primal, distance and CQF also are refined using a BG as the sharpening tool. Of course encroachment isn't enough, but the attack when the BG encroaches can differ depending on the scenario, given us other drills, like the bear hug drill or under lateral. And by putting the encroachment drill in front of the other drills, they come to life. And in that sense they become close to reality, and given us students the possibility to practice real self-defense based on real approaches or encroachments if you want :-)

With this Coach Blauer has helped me get back to where self-defense counts; for people who need techniques and principles that work for them. And I now can see my puzzle given sense, and looking forward to many good hours with Coach Blauers PDR/SPEAR.

Resistance

Working with Coach Blauers PDR /SPEAR it is essential that natural resistance is part of it. Resistance as in doing what a BG would probably do, so you can learn how to react towards it.

To work without resistance, is building up a technique and understanding of it without acknowledging the fact that any BG is a thinking being and will do things on his own, and in reaction to what you might be doing.

There is a sound empowerment to isolate techniques /drills to practice single areas or just for understanding how things work. But one has to remember that these are not self defence techniques and are not meant to be used 'as is' in a physical confrontation.

Practising without resistance will not give you the edge within a real confrontation, since the resistance brings a new dimension into the equation. Typically the resistance isn't something that stands alone, but is usually backed up by a frustration or aggression, heightening the confrontations complexity and intensity. Not know (or have learned) to handled this kind of resistance you will be using important energy (mental and physical) in an area were you have no or little experience. Energy which could have been used to get out of the situation, and not just try and cope with the resistance.

So work with resistance, when your technique or drill is in place, and you'll be working towards learning how to handle the real thing!

Close Quarter Combat

Close quarter combat = fighting in close with another person(s). Usually meaning that elbows and knees are able to reach the opponent. Thus given multiple possibilities for targets and tools (terms used as in Coach Blauers terminology).

This range is an intense range, were large movements will be moving around and into the opponent, are in contrast to movements that are inside and direct/fast contact. Even if a hook is fast and hard, a direct elbow (which is on the inside) will connect before the hook, and be very hard.

For CQC tools to be efficient tools/targets fit have to have the lowest highest efficient level.
Let’s say that the opponents head is in front of you, and you right elbow is up, but behind your own shoulder. The elbow is effective and ready. But compared to your left hand that is up and open, the palm heel strike will be more ready. Thus given it the most effective tactic (term used as in Coach Blauers terminology)

Viewing the CQC as a tactic, were your tools come into play, give a more principle way of handling a defence situation. Thus not locking yourself to a style, but opening up to the possiblities of how a physical confrontation might evolve.

Todays blog is written based on my participation at Coach Blauers PDR seminars.

The why, what and how?

Questions are a natural part of life and as we grow up we learn the different social rules of asking and listening. Through asking and listening it's possible to get information and understanding. But the usability of this information really depends on how good the asking and the listening is, which again is based on your personal experience.

When learning something new like a new move or a new style, we are building up a new experience/foundation/set-of-truths. In these cases we build experience by ourselves or have a mentor/teacher/coach to help us. In this sense we are building our understanding on our own experience or on somebody else’s experience.

To speed up learning, understanding and getting by we use assumptions. It's a way of life: we assume that if the car started yesterday it will start today, if it rains we assume that the roads get wet, hitting somebody hurts or learning from an expert(assumption; they know what they're "talking about" and understand the how's and why's.)

Another way of learning is to simplify the amount of variables of what are your learning. In martial arts this would be classical basic techniques that only take into consideration 1 movement from the badguy/uke/opponent. This could be a straight punch, and from there building up to more complex punche(s). But to practice the straight punch you have some assumptions; stance, pre-movements, fixation of impact, follow through. If you did the straight punch without these assumptions the punch would be too complex for most people to learn to defend against.

When moving along from basic towards more advanced techniques or scenarios, you need to move your assumptions and basic ideas with you so they follow suit. And if your interested in self defense the complexity has to move into this realm hand in hand with assumptions.

To ensure what your doing is in the realm of self defense it is important to ask why am I doing this? To what means? Is this really what is going to happen?

Use the questions to make your assumptions based on reality, and keep asking not for the sake of asking but for the sake of your life.

Startle/Flinch reaction - the second it starts

Nothing happens by it self. There is always a story/a prelude before the physical part of the confrontation, not that the victim always can see it, but it's there.

The second an attack starts, if it is introduced faster than expected the body reacts with a startle/flinch reaction. A reaction coined by Tony Blauer, that states that "An individual who is confronted by a physical threat will have an autonomic response, startle-flinch that is part of the unconscious self-defense mechanism. This occurs long before the cognitive identification process which allows a victim to process the available information and make a conscious decision that results in the fight or flight response."(citet from tonyblauer.com)

Richard Schmidt states that it takes 300-500 repetitions before a new movement is learned, but the 10 fold (3000-5000) to learn a new movement that has to replace the old. 3000- 5000 repetitions take time, which could be used to learn 10 new movements for the same number of repetions. In theory you'll learn more by not using your time to change movements. In some cases it would be nessecary, but in those cases were a movement has the poetenial to work for you, why not use it, as with the startle/flinch which puts the body into natural protective state.

Using the startle/flinch as your base will give you a double edge; Using your time more effective and starting your defence as soon as possible!

Motivation - why defend yourself

To defend yourself is a choice. This choice could be based on a whish to be able to handle yourself in a certain situation at work or just a vague feeling of wanting to be secure.

This is a concious choice and a choice that is done before a physical confrontation has started. But there are many people who havn't done this choice, and still were able to defend themselves. Under the confrontation they" decided" that they were going to defend themselves and did. This wasn't nescesary a concious thought, but a motivation to get through it, was there.

And the motivation is the key for succes, much larger and deeper than just wanting to defend yourself. Some poeple know what is most important for them , and this becon of light brings them through life, while others have to take a minute to find this becon.

Take a piece of paper, or open your note pad (on your computer) and write down the 5 most important things in your life. If it is oinly 2 or 4, that's fine. Then give them numbers from 1 to 5 ( or 3 if there was only three), were 1 is most important. If this doesn't ring well for you, give it a new shott after a couple of days, and maybe you have to do it again. But along the line you should be seeing a patern that will indicate were your number 1 is.

Number 1 is the most important for you, and for some it will be your children og your work. Remember to be specific; if you've choosen your children, choose the one that is most important for you, if its your job, choose why, and what about your job that is most important.

By making your choice the single most inportant becone, there will be no doubt, and when you need the motivation this becon will stand clear and strong!

Rising to the occasion

One modern myth is the people will rise to the occasion when in a physical confrontation. And inside this you'll also to the correct "technique" and say the correct things!

Let’s take a step back and look into what happens when a physical confrontation starts. Without looking into the different types of confrontations and in what context they are, the following stands true for any kind of confrontation:

• Getting aware that a confrontation is starting or has started
• A “this isn’t happening to me”/holey shit / flinch-startle moment
• Primal responses kick into action
• The body prepares/starts a fight-flight-submit or posture response
• Adrenalin kicks in and only gross motor skills are easily accessed.
• Visual and audio perception cannot be relied upon.
• Mental thought processor “tunnel” towards the threat, perceiving and focusing on everything that could be/is a threat

There are situations were some of the processes get bypassed, and they will be handled on later articles.

A physical confrontation is a person to person experience, and since most people will try every possible means to avoid this, a denial of a confrontation will get you ambushed by your own bodily reaction to what is happening. Putting yourself into a situation that it seems like a surprise that it really did happen, and even in some cases were some people turn their backs towards the threat.

Not acknowledging the fact that you are already in a confrontation is missing out on valuable time and possibilities.

Even if you are aware of the confrontation your body will respond with your primary response type, narrowing it down to fight-flight-posture-submit response. Utterly narrowing your possibilities you will only have gross motor skills available and pre-practiced /defined/blueprint skills. Not to mention you might be under influence of alcohol or might have your arms full of groceries; the scenario.

Getting back to “rising to the occasion”, you’ll be doing something but would it be what you expect? Would you be able to react In a confrontation with a person bent on harming you or one of your loved ones? How do you know you will rise to the occasion, without even knowing how you will react.

It’s like driving a car and everyday you drive the same way. One day it rains, the other has a snow storm, and even if you have taken into consideration the weather you could find yourself skidding out of the road. If you have tried driving on a driving course were the roads were slippery, you would prepare your self emotionally and physically for what happens, and by that increasing your chances for you to get the car back on track.

But it really boils done to: do you want to be prepared or take your chances?