INJURY IS THE ONLY GOAL OF VIOLENCE
In a violent conflict, the ONLY thing that means anything is causing an injury. Causing trauma puts you in control. That is why injury is the most fundamental and important concept in violence. It is the common thread woven through the fabric of every violent encounter. To be successful in violent conflict, you need to […]
SELF PROTECTION LESSON: MOVE WITH THE INJURED MAN
If we are accurate and correct—if we hit a square-inch of important anatomy with enough force to break it—we inflict a debilitating injury. One major self protection lesson is that when it comes to blunt force trauma, injured people move in response to their injury. Neurologically, organisms move away from negative stimuli—broken ribs and a […]
SELF DEFENSE FACT: FIGHTING IS HARD. HURTING PEOPLE IS EASY.
Going toe-to-toe, blow-for-blow with someone who is bigger, faster and stronger is an incredibly iffy proposition. Unless you have the conditioning to go the distance (to outlast the struggle and have the ability to “take a punch” or twenty), the physical strength to overpower him, and enough fighting skill to bob, weave, block, counter and […]
SELF DEFENSE TRAINING VS. MMA TRAINING
Asking about self defense training and MMA training, R. R. writes in: “My concern is facing someone who is trained in MMA or some reality-based system. I’ve already had an altercation with a MMA guy and even though he didn’t beat me up he still got an ankle lock while I was standing and it […]
BUT I DON’T WANT TO KILL ANYONE!
I was recently reading an article on personal self defense in which the author was speaking of violence as though you could pick and choose the level of seriousness of the interaction. If he’s a little more serious, then so are you—and if he wants to kill you, well, that’s the only time you’re going […]
SELF PROTECTION: NATURE OR NURTURE?
I was recently asked how I go about helping the passive and meek develop the intent to cause injury. This opens up an interesting debate about whether self protection is nature or nurture… Is intent innate, or can it be taught and learned? There’s evidence for both sides. The most unlikely people become human demolition […]
LEARNING SELF-DEFENSE IS NOT ENOUGH
The biggest problem with learning self-defense is that it says nothing about what has to happen to the other guy. Or, to be blunt, it says nothing about what you have to do to the other guy. Or the fact that it’s probably what he wants to do to you too. Think about it this […]
SELF-DEFENSE FACT: INJURY IS WHAT WORKS IN VIOLENCE
It’s a universal self-defense fact that if something works in violence, it works because of injury. (Or capitulation, but we’ll get to that in a minute.) What happens if someone gets hit by a truck? Well, more often than not, they get killed. The faster the truck is going, the more likely that outcome. The […]
NAILING DOWN INTENT
In isolating what makes violence effective, you can clearly see that debilitating injury is key. It changes everything in your favor and converts that awful, scary man into an injured man, helpless to keep you from causing further harm. Cause injury is the result of penetration (body weight in motion) and rotation (the complete follow-through) through […]
FORGET FIGHTING. DELIVER AN INJURY.
To be invincible in hand-to-hand combat and be able to deliver an injury, you need to have at least a passable fluency in all the various forms it can take: Boxing. Kick boxing. Ground fighting. Stick fighting. Knife defense. Gun disarms. I have no doubt I’m missing some here. Once you get all those covered, […]