“But what if he [INSERT AWFUL THING HERE]?”

This question tells me a lot about a person’s frame of mind, and how they see themselves in violence. They’ve chosen second place, victimhood, with a wait-and-see attitude that makes them perfect prey for the best predators out there.

Now, this is not a conscious choice — they’re not “wrong” in an absolute sense — and it really speaks to how little violence we are subjected to across a lifetime. The average experience is zero to a mere handful of incidents, not nearly enough to draw operational conclusions. Our collective lack of experience shows what a nice bubble-reality we’ve created here in the First World.

Don’t get me wrong — it is nice — it just leaves us woefully unprepared when the rare, “black-swan” event of real violence intrudes.

A lot of time and money is spent figuring out how successful people think. In business, for example, it can be shown that there are modes of thought that routinely lead to ruin; closer to what we’re up to we can look at professional sports where the winners envision themselves doing the thing they wish to do, pushing away or minimizing doubt and worry, and then act purely to achieve that imagined goal.

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What Is Strength?

There are varying definitions available, but in the global sense, strength is the ability to do work. More specific to our discussion here, strength could be defined as the ability of the neuromuscular system to create force. In strength-coaching circles, strength is classified as one of the many “motor abilities” that permit high-level human movement. Some other motor abilities include aerobic endurance, mobility, ability, coordination, quickness, speed, and power.

When developing physical preparation programs for athletes, strength coaches try to think in terms of which motor qualities are already sufficiently-developed, and which ones need further improvement in order to improve the athlete’s overall performance capacity. When working with “everyday folks,” I take the very same approach — I’m looking to see which motor qualities, if further developed, would improve my client’s performance, relative to his or her specific needs. In the process of conducting such a “needs assessment,” the need for improved strength usually presents itself, for at least three reasons:

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Target Focus Training is a “principle-based” system, meaning that instead of starting with moves or techniques we seek to identify and understand the elements at work in every successful use of violence.

Once you know why the winners win and the losers lose it becomes a simple thing to discard useless movement and technique and replace them with action that makes winning the most likely outcome. Instead of doing what’s popular or cool or fun to train — or even what seems to make sense from a sane, socialized perspective — we seek to do what the untrained victorious do, to physically emulate those who spend no time on the mats and yet win in spite of that lack.

The reason an imprisoned sociopath wins is the same as a highly trained military operator… or really anyone who comes out on top in physical violence. Not because of hate or rage or training or practice, but because of debilitating injury. Period.

Before we can discuss the principles that underlie game-changing/game-winning injury, we must cover some baseline assumptions for how to make the choice to “pull the trigger” on physical violence, in other words, first principles to drive the decision-making process and initial contact.

The essential problem is one of variability in the amount of force used, or the fact that half-measures expose you to greater risk. read this entry »

For my first post here at Target Focus Training I thought I’d share my responses to 7 fitness-related questions that I’m commonly asked when people learn that I’m a fitness “expert.”

These questions reflect several common misconceptions that many people hold about fitness and the process of acquiring it. My hope is that my responses clear up some of your own questions and perhaps inspire some additional inquiry of your own.

If you’d like your own question in a future blog post, please send it to [email protected]!

1) “What do you think of that new “Insanity” workout?

This was recently asked of me by an employee at the Apple Store when he learned that I’m a fitness coach. I told him that sane workouts are a far better alternative. One of the most limiting attitudes people hold regarding fitness is the idea that the more it hurts the better it must be. While discomfort is the often unavoidable outcome of getting out of your comfort zone, it shouldn’t be a barometer for assessing the value of a workout.

Instead, focus on your performance: if you own your own business, you know that you get paid on what you produce, not how much work it took to produce it. Try thinking this way in the gym and you’ll be much better off.

2) “Am I too old to do this stuff?”

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