Violence is about injuring people. Period.

It isn't pretty. In violent conflict there are no rules. No part of the body is out of bounds and there are no gloves to soften the blows. Violence isn't like the choreographed dance moves you see on TV shows and movies. Each side doesn't take turns to swing and parry. One side strikes and the other side gets injured. And usually, the side that causes the first serious injury wins.

When you know how to use violence as a survival tool, you'll be the one doing the striking, the one causing the injuries.

There's nothing artistic about violence; it's an instinctive survival tool, like swimming. Once you've learned the basics, you're set for life. You don't walk around every day wondering what you'd do if you fell into a swimming pool: "Let's see, first I'd tread water, then I'd follow that up with a couple of neat butterfly strokes..." You know that if you fall in, you'll swim, and get out of the water.

An Olympic swimmer who trains every day will always be able to swim faster, further and with more grace than the average person who learned as a kid and only ever gets wet in the shower. But under normal conditions neither of them will drown. You swim so that you don't die. Violence is the same - a simple, utilitarian life skill. And as in swimming, the only arbiter of success is survival. If you make it out alive, you did the right thing.

Serious violent conflict rarely lasts more than five seconds. It doesn't take much to put even the biggest man down and five seconds is more than enough time to cause serious injury. On the other hand, that means you don't have the luxury of time to think or take up a fancy kung-fu stance. You get time only to act, cause an effect and continue to act.

You don't have time to be defensive in violence. If you're backing off or trying to block blows, you're not putting him down. If you're on the defensive, you're seconds from losing. And he's free to put the knife in you again while you're trying to block the previous stab.

In the end, you don't "win" in violent conflict-you survive it. It's not competition; it's destruction. The survivor gets to walk away. The other guy doesn't. And far more often than not, the one who's walking away is the one who was doing the violence.

It's only going to work out in your favor if you get in there and injure him. You have to put him down and keep him there. You have to throw out the rules and combine instinct with intellect.

Once you know how to use violence as a survival tool, you're no longer afraid of being mugged or murdered. You'll feel confident that if push comes to shove, you can put a man down and keep him there.

You'll know to survive in violent situations, just like you know how to swim.

All for now,

Tim Larkin
http://www.targetfocustraining.com/

Labels: self protection, striking, Tim Larkin