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The final US 2-day class for 2009
Since we’ve already had questions about the next US class, I know at least some missed the note in the PS of my last email.
The next full, 2-day live training in the US this year is also the LAST for the year in the states. It’s in Dallas, October 17-18, so just around the corner.
Registrations have increased dramatically with everything happening over here (and wait until coverage hits from The Sunday Times and its worldwide circulation).
Jerome Taylor meets the Californian who believes that now is the right time to bring his lethal fighting technique to Britain.
Photo to right: Tim Larkin, left, gets to grips with Jerome Taylor.
“Tim Larkin is not a man who minces words.
“The human body is very susceptible to trauma,” he explains. “Disengaging the brain from the body is what we’re trying to do — you have to stop the brain’s ability to control the body.”
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…And so begins yet another article in the English press about my visit and live training here.
This one I’ve got to say, is pretty good (once you get by the fact I don’t live in California).
I’ve been interviewed it seems like 100 different times since I’ve arrived and the big learning lesson is simply this: no matter how clear I am, the press always find the dramatic and runs with it… often at the expense of the facts.
It’s situations like this one (where I was actually able to demonstrate TFT) that help get the real message across.
But as you’ll see from the comments, few really get it. They’re usually the ones who’ve either been to a TFT training or seen our material. Everyone else is coming from their own background, training and belief… and that’s exactly why criminals prevail today.
Cutting through all the clutter of the tabloids is the fact The Sunday Times of London will cover the training LIVE next weekend (Sept 26-27) and do their own story.
And given their worldwide readership, I expect this will open many eyes.
If you can make it here, I guarantee, it’s a class you aren’t going to want to miss. You can still register here.
On today of all days, I can imagine at least one reason.
In the 14 years that I taught hand-to-hand combat through a university recreation department I got called on the carpet with this, and similar questions, about once every six months. My answer was always the same, and though uneasy, the powers that be were satisfied every time.
On the surface, there is no good reason. Or, more correctly, we don’t like to think we live in a world where there would ever be a good reason for the average citizen to know how to take a life with his or her bare hands. The natural reaction for anyone happening across this information, this training, out of context should be to recoil in horror. It stands in stark contrast to the world we believe we are building and would like to imagine we live in. A world where it would never be necessary for anyone — ourselves or our children — to know how to do this.
But you know better.
There’s the world we think we’re building, but that paradise of love, comfort and all the good things about being social animals really only exists where we can physically reach — the immediate space around us and the confines of our own homes. In those places we live in the world we make on a daily basis, a place where we actively work to do the opposite of acrimony, strife and violence.
But it’s all imaginary.
That’s not to say it’s not real — my own personal and home lives are the exact opposites of the work I do — but it is entirely dependent on me actively keeping it so. And it’s as fragile as a little girl’s tea party with pets and dolls. All it takes is a single person who has chucked the rules and believes in complete opposition as I do and is willing to step across those imaginary boundaries and impose his own physical reality upon me.
None of the imaginary ideas protect you from the physical facts of violence — not fairness, not personal dignity, not how much someone loves you, not even the difference between right and wrong. This is where we become such brilliant victims, when we think these things will protect us from violence. Living well and treating people fairly — being demonstrably good — may work to keep you out of trouble, making violence less likely to start, but it does nothing for you once the trigger is pulled.
I wish we lived in a world where those things did matter in the face of violence. I wish my children had no need or cause to learn how to hurt people. But ignoring it won’t make it go away. Wishing it didn’t exist only makes you a victim when someone who knows the facts picks you as prey. So while I work to build that world we all wish we lived in, I’ll hedge my bet by knowing how to break someone’s neck in case the world of ideas ever fails me.
It is demonstrated, with sickening regularity, that a single person (or small group) who knows how to use violence can wreak great havoc on much larger groups of people who don’t. Having a single person on the other side who knows what to do, how to act, how to meet that threat with an equal threat can change everything. The balance ceases to be one predator among many prey and becomes at least an even chance. Which is far better than most sane, law-abiding citizens ever get in the face of violence.
When confronted with the question, my answer was always the same. It’s easy to dismiss it when it’s just an abstract concept. Breaking someone’s neck is antithetical to everything we hope for. So I made it personal:
“If someone came to kill your mother, wouldn’t you want her to know how?”
It’s not nice, it’s not comfortable, it is the unthinkable. But grudgingly, in the face of the world of ideas parting like fog before the murder’s blade, the answer is yes.
Well the debate in the UK about whether or not citizens of Great Britain should be able to protect themselves with effective self defense training rages on.
The Slough councilman in the piece does his best to label me as an extreme response to what he considers acceptable self defense training (read: ineffective, feel good techniques).
He also makes my point for me that traditional martial arts and self defence training take far too long to become even marginally effective in a kill-or-be-killed criminal assault.
I am never surprised when well meaning people miss the boat when it comes to dealing with asocial predators but this councilman even caused me to pause with his position.
After you watch this please share your thoughts.
And remember: as you go through a live training experience with me I assure you there is nothing gratuitous or extreme about TFT when you consider the threat you are preparing for via the training.
A fabulous 2 days of classes here in the UK!
