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The fastest way to ingrain the TFT System into your subconscious is to follow a specific path of instruction. Now there are two ways to accomplish this.
Injuring the Groin – Part 1 covered the myths and misconceptions of strikes to the groin. I appreciated all the responses to that blog and now want to focus on illustrating real injury to the groin.
To do so I have 3 different videos that clearly show the effects of a groin strike as well as some graphic pics of male anatomy showing the results of strikes to the groin.
I don’t show this graphic material to be gratuitous but to educate and ( at the risk of offending some people) I feel strongly that you cant sugarcoat this information.
As always, please leave your thoughts and comments below.
Tim Larkin
Founder, Target Focus Training
PS: Some of you are asking me to increase the size of the videos. This may easily be accomplished after you start the video by sliding your mouse on the video and clicking the full screen icon at the far right of the timeline bar (it’s a little icon with arrows pointing out at a 45 degree angle). This allows you to view the blog video in a full screen mode.
PPS: Don’t forget our Thanksgiving sale that’s currently in progress. You can check it out here.
“I am an instructor in the art of Shaolin Kempo. When I train with my Master he makes it very clear that what we train in Kempo may look pretty at times but is also a good, solid self-defense system. There are a lot of techniques that are utilized in our system, and as instructors we are taught to use pieces of them to deal with real situations.
“However, we don’t do this with students until they reach a certain rank. I want those I teach to be able to use what they learn to really defend themselves. At the same time I don’t want to confuse them or sabotage their training.
“Judging by what I’ve seen on your website I’d very much like to try it out and perhaps incorporate it into my current training for my own benefit before adding any element of TFT to my teaching.
“Do you think it would be beneficial or harmful for me to add TFT to my training?”
Chris Ranck-Buhr answers:
[Before I get to your excellent question, a quick note on the title: I purposely chose the most outrageous one possible. I know that's not what you're asking (you're not trying to "fix" Kempo) but I have trained people who admitted that they were looking to do just that -- to find that ineffable thing they felt was missing in their training and figure out how to get the same results we do.]
The reason the various schools, styles and systems exist at all is because of a focus on technique over results.
“From what I understand, it is physiologically impossible to access complex motor movements under the adrenaline dump of the fight or flight response. Apparently, this is why “trained” fighters’ martial arts techniques don’t work when they are attacked. The techniques are too complex; gross motor movements would be more effective. My concern with the TFT training is that I would not be able to ”hit” a specific target during a confrontation while experiencing the physiological reaction induced by the fight or flight response (that is, I wouldn’t have the fine motor coordination required to execute the TFT techniques).
My question: Does TFT address how to manage the defender’s fight or flight response?”
——- Lou,
While there’s nothing anyone can do about the biological facts of fear — the kickoff of the fight or flight response — there is a great deal we can do to prevent it from blossoming into panic.
The number one way to mitigate the response is by training to have something to do once it’s on.
You’ll often hear professionally trained survivors of bad situations say something to the effect of,
The other day I posted this video on my Facebook page and got some interesting responses to it. First off, watch the video for yourself:
I posted this video because it showed excellent examples of strikes that cause injury… as well as punches and kicks that are ineffective. That alone was all I wanted people to comment on and learn from this video.
Most, however, focused on the fact the video showed security guards using excessive force against drunken thugs.
I got loads of private messages as well as comments to this effect. In fact, others reposted the video on their FB pages, decrying the fact this was outrageous behavior on the part of security and explaining how it would never fly in their country.
The general point they drove home was this type of response would land security personnel in their country in jail for excessive force. There were calls for better training for supermarket security personnel (really?).
I found this outcry humorous due to the fact that this was CCTV footage from Siberia… yes, Siberia. That part of the world has quite a “different” view on “excessive force”. As one of my Russian friends noted, he thought the security personnel were rather “restrained” in their response. Gee, maybe the world isn’t so black-and-white when it comes to violence like so many well meaning North American’s wish it were. read this entry »
“As to methods there may be a million and then some, but principles are few. The man who grasps principles can successfully select his own methods. The man who tries methods, ignoring principles, is sure to have trouble.” -Ralph Waldo Emerson
This past week I’ve been working on new Military and Law Enforcement training curriculums as we get ready to announce some long-requested seminar dates exclusively for these clients.
While putting together my notes I’ve read through literally hundreds of case studies and ‘after-action’ reports.
And I’m shocked by how apt the above Emerson quote is when it comes to how the military and LEO’s are trained to deal with kill-or-be-killed violence (reread the Emerson quote again before continuing).
There are so many incidents to choose from to illustrate my point but here’s the ‘Reader’s Digest™’ version of 2 such events… read this entry »
In Target Focus Training, we make you train slow, or, at least not as fast as you could go if you went full-bore.
In order to understand why we do this, we need to look at what’s required to achieve our goal of injuring an attacker.
Debilitating injury is the result of an interrelated chain of factors:
You have to drive your entire mass through a target and follow all the way through with your full force and effort.
A shorthand way of stating this is:
Penetrate & rotate through a target at speed.
So that’s what it takes to crush a throat, gouge an eye, rupture a kidney or break a knee. All well and good until you try to figure out how to train for that.
If you keep it all as is, your ‘training’ is actually maiming. Every training regimen has to remove one or more of those elements in order to train without putting the practitioners in the hospital. (At least on a daily basis.)
So if you’re going to go fast when you train, you have to lose something else. But what?
Take away the follow-through.
Almost no one goes here. You still have bodyweight on a target at speed–train like this & even without the follow-through someone’s going to lose an eye.
Take away the target.
This is a typical padded-up sparring session. If we make the target indistinct, we can run around and hit each other pretty hard–but the minute it all lines up right, someone’s screwed. You’re also training to cause generic, non-specific trauma: bumps, bruises, lacerations, etc., and not the kind that results in a reliable state-change in the man.
Take away the bodyweight.
This is a slap-fight. You’re swatting at targets… but without your mass, there’s nothing to compress the tissue, and effect the kind of volume change that breaks, tears, and ruptures anatomy. Some targets, like the eyes, throat and groin can still be injured practicing like this, which is why they’ll almost always end up ‘off limits’ for safety.
The problem is that the result you’re really gunning for is only ever going to occur through accident–when all the elements are present at speed. In other words, if you remove anything else other than speed, you’re not training to get the results you need in violence.
And the funny part is that speed is the one thing everyone walks in the door with. It’s the only thing on the list that you don’t have to train.
The other elements… yes. No one walks in with good targeting, or the ability to control their mass such that they can drive it like a battering ram while maintaining balance, or the proper mechanics to really sink it with complete follow through. These things have to be learned.
And once you learn them, you just add the speed–which you already had to begin with–and you end up with injury, any time, every time.
One of the key features of the sociopath is that he sees everyone as essentially the same–a piece of meat to be butchered. Sociopaths look at everyone this way, regardless of personality, skill, or ability.
A big strong guy with a black belt looks the same to him as a sleeping little girl. The sociopath understands that both their skulls open the same way, their eyes yield to equal pressure, and they both die when their throats are cut.
The sociopath disregards the things that set them apart; he will not interface with their personalities, or the big strong guy’s black belt-level skill, or his massive muscles. He will only concentrate on the things that they are both susceptible to.
In order to use violence successfully, in order to have an equal chance of survival, so must you. Don’t get caught in the sucker’s game of interfacing at higher levels, of showing respect for the person, his skills or physical power. Go straight for the meat.
The Four Levels of Interaction
As a person – social This is trying to change behavior, mood, or motivation. This is where most people would like to keep the situation.
As a skill-set – anti-social
This is trying to out-wrestle him, or out-technique him in a 90 mph (144+ kph) chess game. This is a duel in which the most skilled practitioner will typically win. It is ‘civilized violence’ and seen as ‘fighting fair.’
As an animal (via strength, speed, stamina) – anti-social This is pitting your strength against his, trying to out-maneuver or outlast him, going blow for blow – this typically looks pretty brutal and ugly. A lot of struggle where the best specimen prevails. This is seen as brutish, desperate and decidedly ‘uncivilized.’
As a piece of meat – asocial This is regarding him as a physical object beholden to the natural laws of the universe. Paying no heed to the person, the skill, or the ability. This is seen as almost universally ‘bad’–people who do this naturally are classified as ‘evil’ in a social setting. This is interfacing with him as a thing that can be broken down and rendered nonfunctional.
It’s interesting to note that these four levels correspond to different ranges and comfort zones.
Interfacing with the person can be done from across the street, a distance from trouble where most people feel safe (they can always take off running if it gets out of hand).
Interfacing with his skill-set is almost always done at a pace away, with the contestants circling to get a feel for the other guy’s skill level, feinting and parrying and otherwise dancing around. It’s all about giving yourself enough room to see what he’s doing and try to counter it.
Interfacing with his physical abilities is done skin-to-skin, but that’s as deep as it goes.
Interfacing with the frailties of the flesh is done beneath the skin–true injury is about disregarding the sanctity of the body and simply destroying it.
What-ifs, Buts and Maybes
The kinds of questions people ask during training can tell you a lot about where their head is at and at which level they’re stuck on. The important thing to note is that none of their worries have any impact on injury whatsoever.
The ‘Socialist’ The person who is uncomfortable with the whole idea of conflict will ask questions that dance around the issue from across the street, like, “How can I tell if he wants to hurt me?” and such.
The Duelist People trained in martial arts usually get hung up on interfacing with his skill. They’ll ask the most what-ifs, like, “What if he throws a spinning back kick?”, “What if he counters my joint lock?” and “What if he’s holding the knife like this?” They are also overly concerned with blocking–both in doing it and worrying about having it done to them.
The Animal Untrained people who can come to terms with the idea of conflict usually end up fixated on physical attributes. For smaller, less athletic people it manifests as worry about how they’ll fare against bigger, stronger, faster adversaries; big, strong folks have the opposite problem–they typically believe they cannot be defeated by ‘lesser’ beings.
Sociopaths & Butchers Almost no one shows up comfortable with injury as a starting point.
Another interesting thing to note is that progressing through the levels is not linear. Socialists don’t usually walk through the others to arrive at injury. They go one of two ways–either they dig in their heels and cram their heads into the sand and will never, ever cross the street, or they go straight from where they are to injury (though sometimes with a short stop-over at the animal level).
Duelists are another thing entirely. It is often very difficult to wean them off of the idea that they need to respect and/or thwart his skill before they can be effective. If they do move on, it’s usually with a long stop-over at the animal level. His skill bothered them before; now they’ve transferred that worry to his physical abilities. Those who have taken the long walk from skill to animal to injury are typically the most evangelical about the whole process. (As opposed to those who went straight from social to injury. They usually don’t see the whole experience as that big a deal.)
Animals are easier to nudge into interfacing directly with the meat of the matter. They’re pretty close, conceptually, and they just need to be shown how to direct their efforts away from strong points and into the weak ones. (Instead of going strength-to-strength, go strength-to-eyeball.)
If you’re reading this I’m going to assume that you don’t have a problem with violence in a general sense, that you’re not hung up on the social aspects from across the street.
So where are your hang ups? What are you stuck on? Are you worried about what he’ll do if he’s skilled? Or bigger-stronger-faster? Be honest with yourself. You’re letting yourself down if you lie–you’re not going to get any more effective that way.
If the idea of going after a trained Goliath makes you sweat (more than the usual, healthy amount, I mean) then you need buckle down and study up on injury. Seek out photos of sports injuries (for broken joints and twisted, nonfunctioning limbs). Autopsy reports from non-firearm killings–especially where the victim was beaten to death–are illuminating. Troll the internet for videos of prison fights and violent muggings.
Essentially, look for anything where the survivor is interacting with the other person as a piece of meat.
Most of what goes on in martial arts and combat sports works because people quit.
They quit because it hurts, or because they’re exhausted, or because they start to listen to the little voice that’s telling them everything will be a lot better if they’d just give in and give up.
More often than not it’s a combination of all these things, at once; the question gets asked often enough, with each blow, “Why don’t you just quit?” until they hit that personal threshold and just can’t take any more.
Any technique that isn’t about career-ending, crippling injury is about compliance, about making the person submit. Convincing them to quit. This is fine when the outcome isn’t critical, when what happens next is nice and social. It’s great for the ring and the dojo. In fact, without this, sport becomes impossible without sickening ‘accidents’; the dojo runs out of students as they succumb, one by one, to the brutal endpoint of their training.
A Killer Isn’t Going To Quit
Relying on your ability to make people quit, to have a higher pain tolerance, better conditioning and an indomitable will–to outlast your foe while working him to the point where he caves–will get you killed in the place where those things don’t matter.
If your would-be murderer is a quitter at heart, chances are you’ll be fine. But if he isn’t… if he doesn’t care about pain, or how tired he is, and he lacks that little voice that the sane call caution, well, he’s not going to quit. Unless you know how to remove choice from the equation, he’s going to kill you. Even if it takes him a little bit of work to get you there.
If he’s a killer, he knows it’s not about making you quit. He knows it’s not about technique, or speed, or strength. It’s about results.
He won’t waste his time engaging or setting you up. He’ll go straight for those results, breaking you, shutting you down to the point where there’s nothing you can do–not even quit–he’ll remove choice from the equation and treat you like meat to be butchered.
Your only hope is to know how to get those results, too; to know why those results happen so you can make them happen every single time, and get it done first.
Are You Out Of Your League?
Toughness, bravado, ego, superior technique–these things mean nothing in violence.
Going against a killer when the prize is your life is no time to hope for the best with a suitcase full of techniques you don’t fully understand–techniques that you hope will work but can’t articulate why they do.
If you don’t know, with surety, in your head and in your gut, the result you’re gunning for and why that result occurs, you’re out of your league when it comes to violence.
And in violence there are only two kinds of people: those who know what they’re doing–precisely–and the dead.
Recently I was lucky enough to have a sit-down conversation with some very talented and long-training martial arts enthusiasts. Talk turned to the idea of knock out punches. As the holy grail of any fight–in or out of the ring–I was interested in hearing their perspective on the subject, especially their mechanical understanding of the phenomenon. What it boiled down to was this: “When you hit him on the button, the body just shuts down.”
When I asked for elaboration, it turned out that that one sentence was pretty much the end of it. ‘The button’ was the chin, so the ‘how’ was covered–”hit him on the chin.” (Though this is an awfully thin ‘how’.) The ‘why’ was completely missing. No one had any idea, really. It was just something that sometimes happened, and when it did it was awesome; when it didn’t it meant you were in for a drawn-out scrap.
You can see hours and hours of video on the net of (mostly) young men getting knocked unconscious–and yet, there are almost as many instances (if not more) of people getting hit ‘on the button’ and powering through just fine. Why should that be?
Everyone who trains, whether a martial artist or combat sports practitioner, expects that what they know will work. They’ve been told it works, it worked when it was shown on them, and (hopefully) they were able to make it work in training. So the expectation is there–what you know works. You’d bet your life on it, right?
My question to you is ‘why does it work?’ Seriously. Think about it. Not just right now–spend some time on this. In the end, if you can’t articulate why something works, chances are you can’t make it work every time you need it to. And that’s not something you can bet you life on.
Next week I’ll be back with the answer. In the meantime, really give it some thought: Why does it work?
“In our peacetime tactical training we should use difficult, highly imaginative situations and require clear, concise and simple orders. The more difficult the situation the more simple the order must be. Above all *** Let us Kill everything stereotyped; otherwise it will kill us ***”
I saw a commercial for one of those dance instruction programs that guarantees you’d be able to dance as well as any member of the most popular boy-bands.
The program showed a group of students following the instructor step-by-step to learn some pretty complex moves, choreographed to perfection. The result was that by memorizing the steps and combining the moves you could mimic the formerly difficult routine.
It reminded me of watching a Wushu team practice their show. For those of you that aren’t familiar, Wushu is a Chinese martial art that is delivered via a stage performance. The fights are very elaborate and it takes a great deal of practice to put on a convincing show.
As I watched the team practice it was interesting to note that whenever someone wanted to screw around all they had to do was execute a move different from the routine. Literally you would be watching a fight scene you’d swear was pitting two highly trained fighters in mortal combat when all of a sudden one of the guys would move differently… maybe slap the other guy in the face like the Three Stooges used to do.
Everyone would laugh, then take a break.
But that slap also woke me up out of the dream state I was in as I watched the performance.
I realized that this was exactly the method in which most martial arts or combat sports are instructed.
Especially when they train “self defense”.
Basically there are set patterns you memorize in response to various staged attacks. Memorize those responses and you can look pretty impressive.
But what happens if you vary the attack?
Most students freeze.
Why?
**BECAUSE THEY WERE NEVER TAUGHT TO FIGHT**
Nope, they basically were taught to ‘dance’ and as long as everything went according to the ‘routine’ you could do okay. But we all know things never go exactly as planned.
Fighting is no different — whether you are on the mat at your training center or on the street locked in mortal combat with the other guy(s). The only variation is that when you fight with your training partner you don’t actually maim, cripple or kill. You still target and simulate those exact strikes, just at a pace your partner can handle.
If, however, you’re operating in a ‘training’ mode where you are memorizing a ‘set’ response to an attack, you are learning nothing but a ‘dance’ move.
In TFT such training is viewed as “coordination training” not fighting.
If you don’t know the difference, you can easily fall victim to the “now it’s for real syndrome”. That’s where you face an imminent attack yet hesitate… as your brain tries to accept the fact that “this is for real”.
Contrast this to the well-trained fighter who simply sees all this as merely fighting and proceeds to: 1) find his targets and 2) strike. The only difference to the fighter is the fact he can now strike with full power.
That’s because the well-trained fighter never sees himself as ‘training’ — he’s always fighting.
Understand this concept and you’ll always be prepared… no matter what the situation.
PS: To quickly learn what I’ve covered in this newsletter and the entire TFT system you need to join us at a live training session. In just 2 1/2 days you walk away capable of dismantling any criminal intent on harming you or a loved one. There is a March class in Las Vegas but it is filling up fast!
