Nate R. writes:
I’ve been to multiple TFT self-defense seminars. One aspect of training that wasn’t covered in any of the seminars I attended was darkness. Violence: muggings, rape, murder, etc., often happen in darkness. If the aim of TFT is to ready those who spend money and time on it to learn to be better at violence than the untrained and violent, doesn’t it stand to reason that those said patrons should learn to execute violence in darkness? Please understand, that, in a way, I owe TFT my life, and in no way do I mean to diminish it’s superb instructors. I just see an inconsistency and wish to most respectively address it.
Chris Ranck-Buhr responds:
Nate,
The issue is, of course, limited or no vision—if you can only make out vague outlines or none at all, how can you acquire targets? Of course, the other guy has the same limitations, but if you’ve spent time on the mats manipulating the human machine you have an advantage he probably lacks…
One of the goals of our training methodology is to build a generic target map of the human machine, so that regardless of how it’s shaped or oriented you can always identify at least one target for injury.
A nice side effect of this is that the map is relational—that is, if you know where one target is, you know where others are. As an obvious example, if you can see his knee you know where his groin is. Likewise from any one target to another—shoulder to groin, knee to neck, etc., etc. An extreme example is that, with enough mat time, a hand on you in total darkness means you can approximate well enough where the side of the neck or groin is. The inverse relationship is true—get your hand on any one part & you can wreck any other.
The more mat time spent rolling around with the Object of Interest (the human machine) the better your target map will be, and the better your results in low- or no-light environments.
Practicing this means going even slower than you would in a well-lit training environment—the problem for training is less about actually getting targets (easy enough) and more about not injuring your reaction partner. In low- or no-light it’s much, much harder to not smack the crap out of each other since it’s easy to swing your forearm as hard as you can to intersect the side of the neck of a hazy silhouette and less easy to tell exactly when you’ll make contact. So, slow, slow, and then slower than that.
In ongoing training we have the luxury of time and control over the training environment such that we do practice low-light sessions as well as with eyes closed—though for that remember that you’ll need his hand on you or your hand on him to make it work.
In the time & facility constraints of a two-day seminar we just don’t have the option for this… though now that you’ve brought it up I’m going to see if we can work this into future Advanced Seminars.
Hope this makes sense & helps.
Regards,
Chris Ranck-Buhr
Master Instructor
Target Focus Training
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Sorry I can’t be of more help.
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Without knowing the specifics of Gail’s condition I can only give theoretical response but I recently went to TFT training and I think even a person with limited physical resources and/or outright disabilities can find value in what TFT teaches. There are people who paint and write books and music often with no more than a couple of toes on one foot.
Certainly someone in a wheel chair or in need of a walker is at a disadvantage, but learning what they can do is better than thinking they can do nothing. Even just learning how to fall on an attacker is better than nothing. And of course understanding how to chose targets of opportunity…the eyes, the groin, the clavacal… perhaps even simple joint breaks…all could be possible. And certainly the person would have an element of surprise when the predator finds a thumb in their eye socket.
Gail can also get:
1. Understanding of violence and the will to use it.
2. A knowledge of physics, biology, and target mapping.
3. Mental confidence through knowledge that the predator might not have.
A gun can be of some help but there are a lot of former police officers on permanent disabilty who trusted too much in their own gun.
Gail has one advantage many if not most people don’t have, the interest in facing the problem of asocial violence and wanting to learn what she can do about it for herself.
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While I understand, and to a point agree with, Mr. Ireland’s comments, I perceieved Gail’s statement as a bona fide certainty she is physically unable to perform any necessary actions to defend herself without the use of other tools.
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Since most people in the dark would reach around at eye level to find ojbects, the standard technique was to keep your back straight while squatting to keep yourself under eye level and below the reachings of your aggressors. Then you would reach out and search with your arms at chest or waist level and when you found someone you’d hold on to them and pull them into your strikes.
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TODAY, THERE WOULD BE LAW SUITS AND THE DOJO CLOSED DOWN. HOWEVER, EVEN AS I GLORIFY THE ‘OLD DAYS’ IT WAS EVEN OBVIOUS THEN THAT WE WERE DOING SOME EXTREME STUFF THAT WAS NOT VERY SAFE. THAT SAID, YOU ARE CORRECT CHRIS, ONCE TOUCHED IT IS AN INTUITIVE RESPONSE THAT REACTS TO THE THREAT AND IF YOU KNOW WHAT PART IS TOUCHING YOU, EVEN FROM BEHIND THERE SEEMS TO BE A SUBCONSCIOUS REACTION AND YOUR BRAIN KNOWS WHERE THE TARGETS ARE. THAT IS WHY IF SOMEONE HAD A GUN ON YOU FROM THE REAR AND YOU CANNOT FEEL IT IN YOUR BACK, YOU ARE DEAD MEAT IF YOU TRY SOMETHING. ONLY WHEN YOU FEEL THE WEAPON WHETHER ARM, GUN OR KNIFE WILL YOU BE CLOSE ENOUGH TO EFFECTIVELY STRIKE. SO, THE BOTTOM LINE IS….TRAINING IN THE DARK …IN MY OPINION….DOES NOTHING TO ADD EFFECTIVENESS IT ONLY INCREASES THE RISK OF INJURY..AND AS YOU STATED CHRIS, THE OTHER GUY HAS THE SAME DISADVANTAGE OR PUT ANOTHR WAY…WE HAVE THE ADVANTAGE DUE TO THE TFT PRINCIPLES, THAT HE DOES NOT HAVE….
RAY MIRABILE
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2 weeks ago I had a nagging uneasy feeling that I was not prepared for a violent encounter that may have happened in my car, I figured that the seat belt and lack of mobility would be a huge problem, so I got together with my training partner and we hashed it out and I was expecting this session to be some new never before done in my life experience, but you know what I learnt? breaking a neck outside a car and breaking a neck inside a car is pretty much the same thing. Violence is violence no matter the orientation, and the way we practice always reinforces that idea. So if you do believe that breaking a neck in the dark is any different than in the light then I advise you to go hash it out on the mats, but I guarantee you’ll probably get so bored from always having to be so cautious with your partner that you’ll just flip the lights back on so you cant start throwing him around the room.
Kester
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What Chris says is true.. If you know where one part of the body is there is a map to all the rest of the targets. In Kenpo it is known as the complimentary angle of attack i.e. if you strike the forearm, you have a roadmap that leads to the neck from there you should be able to discern where the eyes, nose, filtrum etc. are. Have your training partner put their hands on you while you are either blindfolded or have your eyes shut. With their hands on you feel their arms and simply follow the appendage to the next target. Do it slow and relaxed. Do this exercise from all dfferent angles of attack, in front, from behind, with one arm grabbing the lapel then the opposite arm, both hands until you know just by feel what arm is holding you and from which direction you are being grabbed. After a small amount of time you will be somewhat amazed at how many angles of attack you are in control of!!!
Aloha, your friend in TFT Bam Bam
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Get on the mats with low or no light, eyes closed, blindfolded, whatever, and figure it out. I also note that you will need to go really, really slow to keep mistakes from becoming training accidents.
We don’t have the time to explore this in a basic seminar, but everyone can make the time to roll around with it back at home.
As Kester notes, if there’s ever anything you’re concerned about, grab a partner (or partners) and train it until you’re bored with it.
Hope this helps.
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I’m very aware that many people who responded on the blog have monstrously more experience than I. I’m learning a lot from the eclectic input and very much appreciate it.
Due to a unique set of circumstances, training partners are in short supply for me. However, I’m planning on attending more TFT seminars in 2013 and look forward to it, believe me.
As for training in the dark, I see your point, Chris: Find one target, and given enough fractions of a second, know where there lies another, even in the dark – after enough logged practice time, of course.
Ultimately, my hope for all who experience TFT is that they have as perfect and as safe an experience as were mine. And any training methodologies and techniques that may be adopted by TFT in the future will, you can trust, be constructed by the most meritorious minds, and thus will not be merely efficacious, but safe as well.
Again, thank you so much. To me, it’s worth a great deal to know my voice is heard by those for whom I have highest respect and honest admiration.
Nate Rogers
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Use your hands to determine where the target is in relation to you and put force into it. With a clear enough visual map or visualization skill, the holograms are etched in your mind, even if your eyes see nothing but blackness.
This however is a skill that is essentially a fine motor skill. Advanced and requires some time to acquire and be proficient in. But no more than people who went blind had to adapt to the use of their ears and finger touch sense while reading books.
If blind people can read those little etches on books through touch alone, i’m pretty sure you can find macroscale targets on another human body. This is, however, not a skill beginners can simply acquire. Not unless you’ve routinely stopped using your eyes in training before.
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