"When girls sense hesitation they get all weirded out and think you're a freak."

The Four Basic Truths of Violent Assault

By Rory A. Miller

I responded to an incident between two inmates. The first inmate was brushing his teeth. The second inmate came up from behind and struck the first on the right side of his head. The tooth brusher tried to turn, but was pressed into the corner, punched again and again with hard rights until he eventually curled into a fetal ball. Blood splashed (not smeared) onto the wall at shoulder height. Do you train for this? Do you respect the power of a sudden attack and a constant barrage?

The attacker broke several bones in his hand and did not know it. Not just the metacarpals of a boxer's fracture either. Also, one of his fingers became deformed. Something he did not realize during the attack. He just kept hitting. He only started complaining of the pain several hours later. Do you ever teach that pain alone will stop a committed attacker? That if you break a bone, it is over? I told the attacker that he was lucky- if the other guy had fallen or hit his head on the wall and suffered more serious injury, he could be looking at some heavier charges. He said, "Nah, I held his head with my other hand so it wouldn't hit the wall. I know how you guys trump up charges and if I'd let him hit the wall you'd try to get me for attempted murder."

Do you and your students realize how rational and how planned a sudden assault can be? It is only sudden for the defender. For the attacker, far too often, it is part of his plan. Do you understand that there is a sub-group of human beings who can savagely beat another human being all the while coolly thinking of their eventual court case? Assaults happen closer, faster, more suddenly, and with more power than most people can understand.

Closer: Most self-defense drills are practiced at an optimum distance where the attacker must take at least a half step to contact. This gives techniques like blocks enough time to have an effect. You rarely have this time or this distance in an assault. Give some thought as to how your technique will work if there is no room to turn or step. Remember that the attacker always chooses the range and location and will pick a place and position that hampers your movements.

Faster: When your martial arts students spar, use a stop watch and count how many blows are thrown in a minute. Even in professional boxing the number is not that impressive. Use the stop watch again, this time counting how many blows you can land on a heavy bag in a single second. Six to eight times per second is reasonable for a decent martial artist. An assault is comparable to that number. Because the threat chooses a time when the victim is off-guard, he can attack all-out with no thought of defense. A competent martial artist, who is used to the more cautious timing of sparring, is completely unprepared for this kind of speed. You can strike ten times a second, but you can’t block ten times a second. More suddenly: An assault is based on the threat’s assessment of his chances. If he cannot use surprise, he often will not attack. Some experts say that there is always some intuitive warning. Possibly, but if the warning was noted and heeded, the attack would have been prevented. When the attack happens, it is always a surprise.

More power: There is a built-in problem with all training - you want to recycle your partners. If you or your students hit as hard as they can every time they hit, you will quickly run out of students. The average criminal does not hit as hard as a good boxer or karateka can hit, but they do hit harder than the average boxer (because of gloves) or karateka has ever felt. More often than not, the first strike in an ambush lands cleanly. Fighting with a concussion is much more different than sparring.

Responses to the Four Basic Truths

There are specific ways to train in order to deal with these truths about assault. You must get used to working from a position of disadvantage. Put yourself and your students in the worst positions you can imagine (face down, under a bench, blindfolded to simulate blood in the eyes or with one arm tied in your belt) and start the training from there. No do-overs. Work from the position you find yourself in. There is no “right” move anyway, just moves that did work or did not work that one time.

Contact-response training: Condition (as in operant conditioning) for a quick, effective response to any unexpected aggressive touch. When properly trained, a counter-attack will kick in before the chemical cocktail of stress hormones does. Contact-response training allows the expected victim to perform one technique at 100% and may give the initiative to the victim instead of the assailant. What is occuring is that through operant conditioning, you can get to near-reflex speed. If that occurs, and the student is trained to counter-attack, the first response will not have the 80% degradation caused by stress hormones therefore the first response can be at 100% skill which can turn the tables.

Train to “flip the switch.” Have your students practice going from friendly, distracted or any other emotion to full-on assault in an instant. Make them play music, converse, fold clothes, write or pour tea as an armored assailant attacks. The key is that the distraction must be natural and relaxed, not the jerky half-preparation of someone who expects an attack. When slow motion training, use realistic time-framing. Do not let the students pretend that “Monkey plucks jade lotus and presents to golden Buddha” is one move and do not let them pretend that a spinning kick is just as fast as a jab.

Get you and your students used to being hit and get used to being touched, especially on the face. For various reasons face contact between adults is loaded with connotations. Accidental face contact almost always results in both students freezing and can cause an outpouring of emotional sludge. Criminals use this by starting with an open-hand attack to the face (called a “bitch slap”) that has paralyzing psychological effects.

Teach common sensitivity. Students must respond to what is happening, not to their expectations or fears. The point is that students in self-defense training often pretend that things that are there (such as weapons on the wall or exits) aren't and that's a bad habit. This isn't about sparring, but about training for violent assault. It's one of the most important things to learn to keep from being stuck trying to make a "dojo solution" work.

Forbid giving up. Winning is a habit. Fighting is a habit. Put your students in positions where they are completely immobilized and helpless and set the expectation to keep fighting.

The Flaw in the Drill

In the end, a martial artist is training to injure, cripple or kill another human being. In any drill where students are not regularly hospitalized there is a DELIBERATE flaw, a deliberate break from the needs of reality introduced in the name of safety. In every drill you teach, you must consciously know what that flaw is and make your students aware of it.

A child on a farm sees a plane fly by overhead and dreams of a faraway place A traveler on the plane sees the farmhouse and dreams of home

- Carl Burns

And if there were a contest, and he had to compete in measuring the shadows with the prisoners who had never moved out of the den, while his sight was still weak, and before his eyes had become steady (and the time which would be needed to acquire this new habit of sight might be very considerable), would he not be ridiculous? Men would say of him that up he went and down he came without his eyes; and that it was better not even to think of ascending; and if any one tried to loose another and lead him up to the light, let them only catch the offender, and they would put him to death.

-Socrates (Plato The Republic Book VII)

Waves appear to be born, and to die.
But if we look more deeply, we see that the waves,
Although coming and going, are also water,
Which is always there.
Notions like high and low, birth and death,
Can be applied to waves,
But water is free of such distinctions.

Enlightenment for the wave
Is the moment the wave realizes that it is water.

- Thich Nhat Hahn

When men dream, each has his own world.
When they are awake, they have a common world.
- Heraclitus

I Have Come to Shine
I have come to pull you by your ear, and bring you to myself.
I will make you selfless, I will make you fearless,
then I will place you in the heart and the soul of the king of Souls.

I have come like a breeze of Spring to you, oh, field of flowers, so I can keep you by my side, and hold you tight.
I have come to shine on you, as you walk this path.
Like the prayer of lovers, I will help you reach the roof of the heavens.
I have come to take back that kiss
that you stole from me.

You are my catch, my game, my prey, my hunt.
You have escaped my trap so far, but run toward that trap once again. Run, run, or I will chase you there.

Remember what the lion said to the deer. "You are so beautiful, you are so lovely run in front of me,so I can catch you and tear you to pieces."

Be like the deer, accept the wounds
like a shield of a warrior. Don't listen to anything but the whooshing of the arrows heading toward you.

From the dust of the Earth to a human being
there are a thousand steps
I have been with you through these steps,
I have held your hand and walked by your side.
You may think that I have left you on the side of the road.
Don't complain, don't become mad, and don't open the lid of the pot.

Boil happily and be patient. Remember what you are being prepared for.

You are a lion's cub, hidden inside a deer's body, with one strike I will wipe that illusion
and rid you of it.

You are my ball, and you roll because of the strike of my polo mallet. Just remember, it is me who is chasing you even though it is me who is helping you run.

- Rumi, from Hush - Don't Say Anything to God - Passionate Poems of Rumi by Shahram Shiva

Your path lies before you. In each moment it is revealed. There is nowhere to go. There is nothing to do. Sit still and be patient; the secret freedom of your heart's true longing will unravel by itself.

- Jon Bernie

Ten years spent mastering Tai Mai Shu kung fu may keep you fit, flexible, and graceful. But just invest ten minutes reading these four tips and you may well save your life if violence ever does erupt.

These are simple ideas, but not common. They are easily implemented and don't require an arsenal of secret weapons to work. Since most people don't plan to be attacked, these ideas don't occur to them until they are remembering the event later and thinking, "GEE! If only I had ... "

TIP #1 - USE YOUR HEAD

First, stay calm and think as the situation develops. As soon as the adrenaline kicks in, everything will seem to happen in slow motion. If you are calm, if you do not panic, your mind will process thoughts so rapidly that it will seem like you have hours to make a decision about how to react.

Second, the human skull is an awesomely powerful weapon. Bashing your forehead into the goon's nose once is tremendously more effective than slamming your fist into his nose twice.
Similarly, ladies, if you are grabbed, bear-hug style from behind, don't waste your time trying to step on his toes, or elbowing his ribs, or kicking your heel up into his groin. It is highly unlikely any of hose moves will do anything besides anger your attacker.

Instead, start trying to bash his face with the back of your head.

All you have to do is connect once or twice with your attacker's face or collarbone and you have delivered some serious damage.

TIP #2 - ALWAYS HAVE A TOOL HANDY

Always, always, always have something easily and quickly accessible to use as a weapon. Note that I did not say, "have a weapon accessible" which is not always practical or advisable.
I mean, if someone surprises you, there should be something instantly accessible to aid in your defense.

It can be a pen,
a set of keys,
a can of vegetables,
an umbrella --
A N Y T H I N G.

If you remember this one absurdly simple rule about weapons fighting, you will see the potential weapon hidden in virtually everything around you AND be able to use it more effectively:
Anything you find that is hard and fast should be aimed at smashing against something made of bone, and anything with a point to it should be aimed at stabbing into soft tissue.

For example, if you found a blunt stick or a can of vegetables you would target bone: Aim this kind of weapon at the face, the skull, hip, shin, elbow, or kneecap.

However, anything hard or blunt would be less effective to use against, say, an attacker's abdomen.

Conversely, something with a point -- a knife or pen for example -- is much more effective when targeting something soft, like the throat, the eyes, crotch, armpit, or belly. If you do strike at something hard, like the kneecap, chances are the point will bounce off without doing any real damage.

Hard goes to bone, Point goes to soft tissue --

It's as simple as that. Remember this rule, and you will never be without an effective weapon again.

TIP #3 - MOVE ALONG A TRIANGLE (a bit of theory)

There is one tip about self-defense that is so important that entire martial arts systems are based upon it.

The tip? Don't get hit!

I mention that, because moving along a triangle goes a long way toward achieving the goal of not getting hit.

One of the most dangerous mistakes the average person makes during a fight is to move in straight lines. They will move in a straight line, either forward and backward, or side to side.
This is also the mistake that will cause the Tai Mai Shu black belt to get his or her butt whooped in very short order out on the street.

Imagine a vertical dividing line along your body, dividing your body into left and right halves. The aggressor is probably going to attack some point along or around that line: your face, your throat, your heart, your groin.

Moving in a straight line backward or forward will change the distance you are from your attacker, but it does not move your centerline out of the attack path.

Moving laterally (left or right) will change the location of your centerline, but it does not change the distance between you and your attacker.

Your attacker has mentally committed to striking at a particular target. His brain has sent the signal to his fist that your face, your throat, your heart, or your groin (the target he intends to hit) is located at a particular distance out there in a particular direction. When you change the target's coordinates, it spoils the effectiveness of the attack.

Your goal is to move that line of your body out of the path of the attack AND change the distance of the target from your attacker.

Your attacker may be able to recover from a change in target location or a change in target distance alone, but changing both factors is your best bet. Then, even if it does connect, the strength of the attack will be greatly diminished.

Moving along an imaginary triangle changes BOTH.

* * *
*
* * *
Imagine standing with both feet on the pointed end of a triangle and facing the bad guy. The other two points of the triangle can either be in front of you or behind you.

Each of the other triangle points are only about one medium-large step away from where you are now. One point is found one step forward and to the left. Then there's another point one step forward and to the right. Behind you one point of the triangle is one step backward and to the left. The other point is one step backward and to the right.

All you have to do is step one foot onto either of the two available triangle points in front of you or behind you. What have you done to the distance to and the location of the attacker's original target?

Bingo! You have changed BOTH your direction, and your distance.

Simply bring your other foot up, and you are now at the starting point of another triangle. Use this concept every time you move and you will continue to confuse your attacker.

TIP #4 - ALWAYS ADVANCE WHEN YOU SHOULD RETREAT

During a fight, as during a game of chess, the experienced player is already planning the second or third move before the first one is ever completed. In fact, many of the experienced fighters' moves are used solely to get the opponent to react in a predetermined manner.

Fight you own instinct and do not back up.


Your instinct is wrong!

For example, imagine I am throwing a flurry of jabs at you. In my mind, I "know" exactly what you are going to do: backpedal to escape my vicious attack.

In fact, I am counting upon you backpedaling into that corner behind you, then I'll pound you into a liquid, right? How surprised am I going to be when you step forward, along your trusty triangle, and not backward?

I would be very surprised because you are not "supposed" to step into a savage attack; You are "supposed" to step away from it.

Look at this scenario. You've just stepped forward along the triangle. While your attacker is busy trying to adjust his thinking to handle this unexpected event you are now inside his defenses. You now have access to his unprotected ribs, armpit, neck, head, abdomen, flank, and knee -- Suddenly YOU have a virtual smorgasbord of targets.

That's when you slip back to using tip #2:

Smash anything HARD against something made of bone,
Strike anything you have with a point at something soft.

All of these tips are simple common sense. If you are smart you'll never have to use them because SMART people never put themselves in situations which may become violent.
As I see it, the goal of your self-defense training is to have the ability to utterly destroy another person, but the foresight to avoid situations where you might have to demonstrate that ability.

“There were no more than 12,000 crusaders that, in July 1099 after a three year campaign, got to camp under the walls of Jerusalem. Their emotion in sighting the sacred city changed into surprise when the presiding Muslim garrison declared to be ready fot an armistice. That garrison wasn’t Turkish but Arab, because the previous year Jerusalem had been retaken from the Selgiuchi by the Fatimidi, who had never confronted the Franchi. But they didn’t accept the offer perhaps because they thought a non-violent negotiation would have ruined their triumph. Therefore they demanded unconditional surrender.

The defenders, about 1000 men, resisted for 40 days. Then they surrendered. A witness present, Raimondo de Agiles, famous for his zeal described the scene as they were beheaded, killed by harrow or thrown from the towers. Others were tortured for days and days and then torched. The streets were strewn with heads, chopped hands and feet.”

"Those marvelous things lasted until the total consummation of the 70 000 citizens of Jerusalem, including the Jews, who were crowded and burned inside the synagogues.
Then the crusaders gathered in the grotto of the Santa Sepolcro that had hosted the remains of Christ, who had come into the world to preach “misericordia”, there they cried joyfully feeling worthy of him.”

--From vol. 7, pg. 112 of Storia D’Italia by MontanelliOn the first crusade year 1099

1852 Frederick Douglass, a former slave and a leader in the fight against slavery wrote:

What, to the American slave, is your 4th of July?

I answer: a day that reveals to him, more than all other days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim.

To him, your celebration is a sham; your boasted liberty, an unholy license; your national greatness, swelling vanity; your sounds of rejoicing are empty and heartless; your denunciations of tyrants, brass fronted impudence; your shouts of liberty and equality, hollow mockery; your prayers and hymns, your sermons and thanksgivings, with all your religious parade, and solemnity, are, to him, mere bombast, fraud, deception, impiety, and hypocrisy—a thin veil to cover up crimes which would disgrace a nation of savages.

There is not a nation on the earth guilty of practices, more shocking and bloody, than are the people of these United States, at this very hour.

Go where you may, search where you will, roam through all the monarchies and despotisms of the old world, travel through South America, search out every abuse, and when you have found the last, lay your facts by the side of the everyday practices of this nation, and you will say with me, that, for revolting barbarity and shameless hypocrisy, America reigns without a rival.

Nutritional Stunner

I was struck by the tight relationship between diabetes and soda drinks described in a recent media report of a medical study. It was found the likelihood of diabetes increased by 73% with the consumption of just one soda drink a day. Apparently this is one study in which products like Coke or Pepsi don’t stand out; the large quantity of various sugars in all soda drinks, including the natural products, levels the playing field in the diabetes game. You may already know diabetes is the fastest growing disease in the country and, in the most pessimistic estimates, will result in 1 out of 2 to 3 persons’ affliction with it in only a few years if the current lifestyle of eating/snacking and exercise continues.

Believe me, you do not want to be in that game. Most who are, die, because they feel so discouraged by the presence and persistence—everywhere in their body—of this disease, that they just don’t take good enough care of themselves to survive. And up until the time they die, the cause labeled “kidney failure” or “heart disease” or “stroke” that is really a side effect of the diabetes, their life turns in its spin offs—surprises of fatigue, difficulties with weight, onsets of metabolically driven depression and, I think for many the most heavy is the feeling they are outside the freedom and sweetness of life looking in. Although all this—and much, much, much more—doesn’t have to be so in diabetes, I can tell you that for every 50 persons I have met with it maybe 1 is flourishing free of this basement description. Develop a love affair with good water and leave sodas with your past!

Matt.13

[44] Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto treasure hid in a field;
the which when a man hath found,
he hideth, and for joy thereof goeth and selleth all that he hath,
and buyeth that field.

For the error bred in the bone
Of each woman and each man
Craves what it cannot have,
Not universal love
But to be loved alone.

~ W. H. Auden ~