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“DEFENSIVE POLICY of the US – does not alter PACIFIC POLICY of the US. Be as pacific as you please but don’t let the other guy catch you unprepared.” – Lt. General Bullard, 1911
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I’ve received some great questions from you folks! So I thought I’d pick 2 that are representative of many of the emails we see here at the office. Look to the end of this letter to see how to DIRECTLY contact me with your questions. Look forward to hearing from you.
OK here’s the first one:
Brian from Alaska writes:
Mr. Larkin: In reference to the person questioning your program’s use of learning anatomical targets, all I can say is that there are way too many “armchair experts”. As a Critical Care Registered Nurse with dan ranking in 6 styles, I think I am qualified to say that many people have absolutely NO IDEA what the implications of striking certain targets are. To simply say “hit them here and they will fall down” is absurd! I have knocked out a fellow Hapkidoist by striking his radial nerve hard with a palm strike. Causing a vagal reaction such as that has also happened when I have held pressure against the femoral artery both while sparring and in my role as a nurse to stop bleeding. So called “experts” practice and teach techniques that they do not understand fully in respect to the ramifications.
I believe in your system and to anyone who questions the validity of it I say…meet me on the mat!
My Answer:
Thanks Brian! Many people have written in regarding the TFT Mastery Program and its curriculum. The fact that we have our Mastery students study anatomy texts and relevant medical trauma texts has been applauded by many, like you, who have to use this knowledge to protect themselves on a daily basis.
Accurately targeting the 73 anatomically weak areas of the human body is THE gold standard of creating objective injuries on any human – regardless of the size and physical strength of the person targeted.
An ominous validation of this approach was recently written about in a major magazine. It seems a well-known and incredibly violent prison gang was requiring its ‘members’ to study human anatomy to better target their selected victims. To paraphrase the leader of this prison gang ‘when you only get 3 stabs with a sharpened toothbrush before the guards break it up you need to make every stab count!’ Pretty brutal stuff but then… effective violence is not a politically correct subject.
Richard M. writes:
Dear Mr. Larkin et al.;
I got your tape (just the basic one) and “workbook” recently and must say I was impressed with the ideas, and consider myself better off for having read/viewed them.
Having said this, and believing it would be true for almost everyone else who might view them, I hope you might go into more depth re. what would likely be a lethal situation and what would not. Below you mention a male on female attack scenario, yet – while I am no expert – I have heard statistics that females fighting back – with strictly non-lethal methods, mainly talking with confidence or screaming, or confidently pushing an attacker away – are much more likely to get out of an attack by male attackers than those choosing not to. Most women would be terrified of killing another human being (as would perhaps most men) and might avoid your type of training as such.
Perhaps some non-lethal yet disabling strikes along with a means of threat interpretation would be more viable in such a situation, or is it your understanding that the strong mindset (and resulting posture/language) gained by having trained in your methods would send the correct message that the woman is not to be messed with, and therefore save her from attack? Maybe this is dealt with in the other tapes?
I would honestly respectfully suggest that your scenario on your tape of a drugged out attacker likely to kill for money (vs. a non homicidal robber) is more of a minority situation than a majority situation, and suspect that this determination could be narrowed down a bit via the observation of certain signs, which, when in effect, would more easily justify the use of your lethal methodology (like a throat strike) in the mind of the person being attacked, which would make your tapes perhaps more marketable and less likely to invite legal action if interpreted incorrectly by potential viewers. Perhaps a discussion of drugs or serious psychosis would be a good addition? You are doing solid work, it would be a shame if some misinterpretation or over-jealous lawyer were to destroy it for lack of disclaimers or more in-depth discussion.
Anyway, just some thoughts, please correct me if I’m wrong. I would look forward to hearing from you if you were inclined to respond.
Thanks again
My Answer:
Richard’s email is typical of many I get from readers who seem to miss the point of what TFT is designed for – ASOCIAL criminal violence. We would all like to believe that we can probably get away from having to use violence if we just ‘resist’ but do no ‘harm’. The world is FULL of systems and trainers who will train you in the above methods. There are next to NONE who will teach you how to use violence against a determined asocial criminal who, if not stopped, will maim, cripple, or kill you.
The liability issues are not present at the POINT OF VIOLENCE the only thing that counts is SURVIVAL and in order to insure your survival you must INJURE the other guy! That is the only guaranteed way to change things in your favor where you can determine the outcome of the situation. We clearly define the rare occasions where violence is the appropriate response.
In fact, Target Focus Training receives much better insurance rates BECAUSE we clearly define this issue and the fact that TFT gives you the full information on not only how to properly create traumas in the human body but also clearly states the RESULTS of those traumas on the human body. This reinforces our main message that violence is rarely the answer in most circumstances.
As to the stats on using less than lethal or solely aggressive verbal strategies to deal with asocial violence those fall outside the focus of this newsletter and Target Focus Training in general. We are here to discuss asocial violence and how to use violence to survive these situations. Other subjects in the criminal justice arena or self-defense literature can better serve people with concerns OTHER than survival.
Until next time,
Tim Larkin Master
Close-Combat Instructor
Creator of Target Focus(TM) Training
PS. If you didn’t see my note earlier: I know many of you still have questions about the Target Focus Training system. To help answer these, I recently took 12 key concepts and discussed each in depth in 5 to 10 minute segments, then had these transcribed. Each is available on our website. You can hear or see these now by clicking this link: http://tinyurl.com/9z73r. Let me know what you think.
