The Garrison Fighting Knife, an interesting combat knife for soldiers & PMC's
Its rare to see something that is unusual in the cutlery world these days, but every now & again something pops up that is a bit ‘different’. The Garrison Fighting Knife is a purpose designed knife which has a very specific use, & that to be a weapon. The GFK really has no utility use, it’s a focussed design that is aimed at the specific task of defeating an attacker.
Craig Garrison- designer of the GFK
The design of the GFK is pretty unique though. At first glance it’s very outlandish, with quite a few people that I’ve shown it to thinking it to be some fantasy knife or prop from Star Trek. The GFK is designed to pull off some very useful techniques however, & it’s unusual looks shouldn’t stop you from looking a bit deeper.
James Loriaga compared the GFK to the gypsy scissors in his review, & I have to admit that when I first saw the GFK (& without having read Loriaga’s review) the first thing that came to my mind wasn’t a Klingon baatleth, but the gypsy scissors.
The GFK’s unique shape makes it very easy to trap an incoming attacking limb. Off the low abdominal thrust/cut, or a high forehand cut/thrust it traps the limb in it’s sharpened jaws as you pallasut, & rip back after the pallasut & you take the opponents weapon right out of their grip. Against a backhand line you can trap the opponents limb in the jaws & just tear back. It's a weapon that allows you the ability to effectively ‘de-fang the snake’. Having two tips it makes for a fearsome thrust, & the ability to cause substantial wounds.
Now, this knife design isn’t without a couple of caveats. As a knife for civilians to carry is IS a very aggressive design that will raise a few eyebrows if seen, & I would hazard a guess that if you were searched by law enforcement- even in a place where you could lawfully carry a defensive weapons- you may find a negative attitude towards the knife. Using a knife in self defence in places where you can lawfully carry & use a firearm in self defence very often sees you getting a harder time in court defending your actions than if you’d defended yourself with a firearm. I recall Dennis Martin in his column in Fighting Arts International back in the early 90's making a comment that you’ll have less hassle in court explaining a knife called a ‘mariner’ than one called a ‘ninja fang of death’- the moral of the story being that in the battle of perception v’s reality, perception very often wins. The GFK is a very aggressive & unusual looking knife, & that could work against you. The strange thing about this is, that because the GFK is so effective at stripping an attackers weapon you are actually less likely to need to use lethal force! If you’re attacking me with a weapon & I have the opportunity to draw & engage you, (with enough training) I have a pretty good chance of disarming you & getting you into a ‘position of negotiation’ where-upon it’s up to you if I need to go further. It’s fearsome appearance could also be a strength, as I think a normal mugger might find it quite a psychological blow to see the GFK drawn & displayed.
If you’re a PMC or a member of the military that doesn’t have to worry about issues like this (or the previous points don’t phase you), then the GFK would be an excellent close combat weapon. It is very rugged in its build, & I really think you’d have to be doing something stupid with it to break it- & remember, it really is a purpose driven fighting knife so it isn’t really at home doing fieldwork. The model that Craig kindly sent me to play with was a black coated model, with a cord wrapped grip. My only criticism of its fit & finish is that I would have liked to have seen a better edge on it. As a purpose built fighting knife as opposed to a working knife I wouldn’t draw it to open boxes or do any field tasks. The edge on the knife is what I would consider more of a tough ‘working edge’, & on a purpose driven fighting knife I like it to be screaming sharp. I don’t think it would take a great deal of work for someone to touch the edge up & get it really sharp, I just happen to be pretty cack handed when it comes to sharpening.
The model Craig sent me didn’t come with a sheath, but I understand that Craig now has a specially designed sheath system for the GFK made in kydex; though I can’t comment on it as I haven’t actually used it.
So if you’re looking for a purpose driven fighting knife that is genuinely ‘a bit different’ & provides some interesting capabilities that also make for interesting training; then the GFK might just be for you. You can get the GFK from Craig Garrison via www.garrisonfightingknives.com, where training drones are also available.
Why train in Asian Blade systems in the UK?
The reasoning behind my study of edged weapons & skill-at-arms
I would like to make it VERY clear that I do not condone illegal carrying of a weapon in any way- & I do a great deal of work discouraging young people from carrying weapons & becoming involved in violence. I am a strong supporter of the Police, & offer free training to serving police officers in all of my classes; obey the law & don't make their jobs any harder than they already are!
I interact with practitioners of traditional martial arts all the time. My ‘mother art’ is ITF TaeKwon-Do. I still love it, but just as you love your mother but don’t want to stay with her for the rest of your life, I love TKD but feel I have gotten everything from it that I personally can & I need to move on. I respect that different people look for different things from martial arts. Some people want an ‘Art’ & love practising forms & trying to perfect their body movement & technique, & look to inner development to make themselves a better person. Some people are looking for a competitive sport, & they love pushing themselves & excelling as they pit themselves physically & mentally against other people. Some people are just wanting a hobby, & want a bit of both. Personally I’m looking for the ‘method’ not the ‘Art’, I’m interested in combatives! I find the study of actual combat fascinating. It’s a chess game on a grand scale, its life on the edge where a mistake means the grave.
The one thing I find puzzles most of my friends who are practitioners of TKD & other traditional martial arts is why I spend so much of my time studying the use of weapons. I know several high ranking martial artists who actually find it quite uncomfortable. I had a conversation with an Instructor who I hold in the highest regard (& who I consider a friend) & admire greatly for his ability in his art, where he said that he wasn’t interested in learning any skill-at-arms, or some of the other things that I have added into my own interpretation of TKD from my cross training in other arts. Some people just can’t understand why I study edged weapons. Some people say things like “Why bother? You’re not allowed to carry a knife in the UK”, or “I’m only interested in unarmed martial arts, why do I need to learn weapons skills?” I’m writing this to try to explain why I study the edged weapons arts.
First off, I have absolutely no ghoulish wish to carve someone up with a blade. Both Jim Keating & I find a great deal of the edged weapons material we’re seeing on DVD these days very distasteful. I think this is because both Jim & I are unusual in that we have both ‘been there & done that’ & understand how terrible the scene is when a weapon has to be used, & what it actually does in the real world. The reason I train in bladearts has to do with something I keep harping on about constantly- conceptual thinking. The reason I train in knife methods is….EVERYTHING IS TO BE FOUND IN THE BLADEARTS!
So, what do I mean by that I hear you ask? Ok, when I learn bladearts almost anything I pick up can be used as a defensive tool if I use the concepts I’ve been taught. I can pick up a bottle & use it as an impact tool by using front grip knife methods. If I pick up a plastic Coke bottle & hold it just like I would if I was drinking from it I can use it as an impact tool in the same way that I would use a knife doing ‘Drawpoint’ reverse grip knife. Now, Jim Keating’s Drawpoint system can be used in many ways. Drawpoint as I’ve already said is a system based around the use of the knife in a reverse grip. The wonderful thing about Drawpoint is that is is meant to be conceptual, & used with anything from empty hands upwards. In Tactical Edge we use the Drawpoint ‘Rotary Pick’ as a very effective unarmed technique that will shut down your ability in ‘cognitive thought’ in a blink! If I put a simple pen in my hand it becomes even more effective, as the pen becomes a ‘force multiplier’ & focuses the impact down more efficiently. Because Drawpoint is a thrust oriented system it is perfect for objects that can be used as impact tools. Now, if I take my ComTech Stinger & hold it in a hammerfist grip I can do my Drawpoint drills & techniques to
great effect with it. I gave a Stinger to a very high ranking traditional martial artist a little while back. I was surprised when he turned around & made a ‘middle knuckle fist’ & said “here’s mine” (meaning the Stinger). Now I would like so see most people make a ‘middle knuckle fist’ & then slam it into someone’s skull. It’s not going to be much fun. Yet I could do it all day with a Stinger. One of the things that makes human beings what we are is our ability to make & use tools. Using a tool makes things easier. This is where we need to remember we’re talking about defensive COMBAT here, we’re trying to defeat an opponent who is genuinely trying to harm us, & using a tool makes this much easier, & is less likely to result in us harming ourselves! Armed self defence beats unarmed self defence every day of the week. If you look down your nose at defensive tools then I suggest you go back to running around naked, eating raw food that you catch with your bare hands, & generally acting like an animal! I'm not talking about carrying an illegal weapon here, or even utilising an improvised weapon if the situation doesn't warrant it, but if the attack is serious enough & your safety is seriously threatened then having the ability to pick something up & use it as a force multiplier could save your life.
Lets take our ‘basic defensive defensive flow drill’, also known as ‘Banda Banda’. This is a simple bladearts drill where your partner feeds a sequence of high forehand, high backhand, mid forehand, mid backhand, mid thrust & downward attack. You defend by ‘defanging the snake’ with a series of opening & closing actions; so your fist defence sees you ‘closing’ your arms so you catch the back of the opponents hand with your active (or live) hand & push it against the blade so it cuts deeper into their inner wrist. On the backhand feed you do the opposite. On the mid lines you do the same except it’s ‘tips down’ rather than the ‘tips up’ you were doing on the high line. The final action on the downward attack is a ‘roofing action’ where you use an ‘opening action’ so your active hand/arm pressures against their arm as you cut up against their brachial artery. The sequence goes close – open (high) – close – open –(mid cuts) close – open (mid thrust into roof). Now if I put my training knife down & pick up a plastic bottle each of the cuts becomes an impact weapon attack to a bone, a pretty sure disarm of a weapon & a good entry! If I take out my flashlight it will similarly effect a good disarm, or will be a very effective limb destruction & entry against an unarmed attack along these ‘universal lines’.
Take Punyo Sumbrada. The first movement is beautiful, the attacker feed a high forehand attack which the defender ‘chases’ with their live hand & uses to snatch them violently forward as they bring the attackers hand across their knife which is being concealed at belt level. Imagine I substituted the knife for my Flashlight. If I did the same movement it would take the attacker off balance & rip his weapons hand across the sharp bezel of my flashlight; considerably weakening his grip making him easier to disarm, & re-setting his ooda loop allowing me an entry to counter attack. The same thing could be done with me driving my Stinger into his hand. The same movement can lead me into an opportunity to perform a strip of returning blade if unarmed.
Now, looking at western bladecraft lets take the ‘in quartata’ movement from our Bowie curriculum. For those not familiar with it in your minds eye visualise two people faced off with a knife or sword in their lead hand, both in a right lead with left leg at the rear- got it, yes? Ok, now imagine the attacker lunges forwards with the thrust, the defender steps the REAR foot past their front foot rotating them counter clockwise. At the same time they twist their shoulders blade-ing themselves side on. This means that the thrust has entered the space where they were a moment before, but they are no longer occupying that space & the attackers thrust has gone past them. The defender has at the same time performed a thrust of their own in a palm down descending line to the attackers neck. This a beautiful & effective classical counter to a thrusting attack. It uses distance deceptively, along with effective & efficient body movement. Now this can be used just as effectively in an unarmed mode. In the majority of eastern martial arts when you watch people sparring you’ll see them evade to the side by pushing off the rear foot & zoning at 45 degree’s (that’s if they’re doing it properly & not backing off blocking as their opponent attacks). This isn’t wrong, & we use this movement in bladecraft too. But the in quartata is so much more efficient than that, with a slight shift of a single foot & body angling the attacker has missed & you’ve caught them with the beginning of a vicious counter attack. We can use this concept & movement with impact tools, improvised tools & unarmed. Picture the bad guy throwing a straight right, I in quartata so his punch misses & I end up on an inside line with an eye spear re-setting his ooda loop at the same time as his punching wrist is seized. If he throws a secondary punch with the left I can use a pass through to easily & now he’s trapped. Throw in a foot pin & a straight thrust into the pelvis & he’s dumped. Where does this unarmed sequence come from? Knife! The blade version is almost identical, he thrusts for me, I in quartata & thrust to his vision area & cut across his brow which will bleed heavily into the eyes denying vision. I then pass his knife hand down & defang the snake then thrust for the hip joint which along with my footpin drives the attacker to the ground.
I’ve not even gone anywhere near the skills & applications that can be developed from studying ‘heaven six’. This particular drill is absolute conceptual gold dust. Jim Keating always says “everything is heaven six”!
Have a look around the room you’re in. I can almost guarantee that there are at least a dozen objects around you that would make effective improvised defensive tools. The mug next to me can be used as an effective impact weapon using knife methods. The TV remote control can be an effective thrusting & butting weapon. The table lamp next to me could be utilised to deliver Bowie style snap cuts & would make for a very unpleasant experience if I thrust it with it’s bulb into your vision area! The list could go on, but you get the idea. Remember, self defence ISN’T a duel, it’s NOT meant to be fair! If you have to use unarmed combatives then there is always a chance you’ll break knuckles, fingers, hand bones, wrists etc; any of which may slow you down enough that you lose the encounter. I'm DEFINITELY not suggesting that you should use an improvised tool in some silly push me-shove you altercation, & I am NOT condoning picking up a bottle in the pub & smacking someone with it- I spent many years trying prevent that sort of thing. What I'm saying is that if you are facing a situation which is truely life threatening having the ability to use an improvised defensive tool could save your life. Think of something like a home invasion, or an armed attacker. If you have some sort of physical imparement an improvised defensive tool could also save your hide. I have psioritic arthritis, & at times this flares up very badly & my hands are very swollen & painful; to the point where I wouldn't be able to strike someone effectively. Under those circumstances I would consider using some sort of tool.
Now, lets leave the combative side of things alone & look at the MAIN reason I explore bladecraft & weapons training & teach it to my students. There is NOTHING that I have found in the years I have spent exploring the martial arts that comes even close to weapons drills for attribute building. Weapons training quite simply turbo-charges your normal unarmed martial arts! First off almost every practitioner of traditional martial arts I have met has got left/right bias to a fairly substantial degree. Training in double weapons reduces this left/right bias & makes you far more able with your weaker side. This is vital for good close quarter self defence skills. How many times have you done self defence with someone & they are great when you do the attack with one hand, but when you do it the other way around they’re rubbish?
The weapons drills from the South East Asian martial arts build co-ordination in a manner superior to anything found in the normal unarmed martial arts, & the training method is hugely time efficient; you’re improving timing, co-ordination, distancing & spatial awareness, body control & sensitivity- ALL AT THE SAME TIME! All of this is a massive advantage, & makes for a better & more skilful martial artist. You may have absolutely no interest in the actual defensive application of the knife or stick, but the training will honestly improve your normal game no end!
So if you’re a martial artist who doesn’t practice any skill-at-arms I hope I’ve explained in a way you can relate to why I personally look towards the bladearts for my personal exploration & development these days; & why I encourage others to as well. If you’re a practitioner of RBSD you MUST explore some good skill-at-arms material. If you are looking to be truly proficient at weapons defence beyond a very basic level then you MUST truly understand how weapons are used & the lines they travel & what they are capable of doing. You must have some skill-at-arms skills, as there are some situations where an unarmed approach will be near to suicide regardless of how many stripes you have on your belt. If you are a ‘general’ martial artist then weapons skills & the drills from the SE Asian arts will improve your skill levels massively, & as well as that they’re really good fun too!
Defensive Mental Conditioning- the missing link in RBSD training
Article by Mark Davies, copyrighted Oct 2009.
Percentages & the wonders of adrenaline
Most often when people are learning a martial art or self defence programme there is a vital missing part of the jigsaw. We spend a great deal of time developing our physical skills, which IS very important; but combat is 80% mental & is only 20% physical. Without the physical skills you’re truly stuffed, but without mental conditioning (unless you’re a natural ‘two percenter’) you will be unable to use those physical skills.
Firstly, we need to take into account what happens to you when you have 20 stone of beer swilling skin-head monster with ‘cut here’ tattooed across his throat & ‘Belsen was a gas’ across his forehead bearing down on you & slavering in your face as he tells you he’s going to rip your head of & shit down the hole in your neck. When this happens you will be scared, most people don’t have a great deal of interpersonal conflict & aggression in their lives, so when it happens it’s a real shock to the system. When this happens you will experience adrenal stress. Adrenaline floods the system, it causes muscle tremor so you shake. It affects the brain functions & cortical perception, so you start to hyperventilate, experience tunnel vision & auditory exclusion. You feel weak & drained, you may lose control of bodily functions. If you don’t keep control you’ll be paralysed as you experience ‘hypervigilence’.
As heart rate increases under hormonally induced stress there are consequences that you need to address. As a rough guide when BPM’s reach around 115BPM your fine motor skills will be severely impaired. Your hands will have a noticeable tremor, & your legs may be shaking. You won’t be able to thread a needle or play duelling banjos. However, from around 115 – 145BPM your complex motor skills are rocking & rolling. The majority of our combatives in Tactical Edge use complex motor skills. Above 145BPM our complex motor skills start to deteriorate, & at around 175BPM they are marginal at best, & we’re really into the area of gross motor skills. We don’t want to be restricted to gross motor skills, as they involve one or two muscle groups at a time, so it’s grab, push, pull, run & that’s about it. If we get into the situation where BPM goes above around 215, then it’s likely that the forebrain will switch off & we’re basically operating on the same level as your dog! Higher than this & hypervigilance is likely & we’ll find ourselves frozen up.
Now, this is a great deal to have to fight through. Lets now think about human beings & society. Research basically shows us that society is made up of three groups. 98% of the human race are made up of what we’ll refer to as ‘sheep’. The other 2% are comprised of ‘sheepdogs’ & ‘wolves’. The 98% that we’ll call ‘sheep’ have an inbuilt fear of interpersonal conflict, & find it difficult to use violence easily; & if they do use a high degree of violence against another human being they suffer psychologically for it (PTSD for instance). When you say this to most people they don’t believe it, but think about it this way for a moment. How many times EVERY SINGLE DAY do you have someone rub you up the wrong way, cut you up when you’re driving or do something stupid, bump into you, skip the queue, say something annoying, eyeball you, upset you, etc etc etc? If people didn’t have an inbuilt fear of interpersonal conflict the streets outside would be a bloodbath as we’d be smashing each other up left right & centre! This fear of interpersonal conflict is actually most often a phobic level reaction. A good example of this could be the 9-11 hijackings. You had a plane load of people being totally controlled by a few terrorists armed with box cutters. The passengers could have easily overpowered the hijackers, but in two instances out of three they didn’t. The way David Grossman puts it is that if he took a room full of 100 people & dropped some snakes in the middle around, 70 of the folks would have a true full scale phobic reaction & lose control of themselves. The remaining 30 would either try to help the others, catch the snakes, or film the proceedings to put on you tube. That is because roughly 70% of people have a phobia of snakes (normally thought of as the most common phobia). If he took another group of 100 people & put them in a room, & ran in the room with a machete & started hacking at people 98 out of the hundred would totally lose it & have a phobic scale reaction, only two of the 100 people would not totally freak out, & what they do depends on whether they are sheepdogs or wolves. Think about it for a second, if there are a hundred folks in a room they could manage to subdue a lone maniac. Granted a few would get hurt, but the bad guy would get flattened. So, what about the 2%?
The remaining 2% are our sheepdogs & wolves. The wolves prey on the sheep, the sheepdogs protect the sheep. The wolves are the sociopaths & violent criminals of society. They have the ability to use violence without any psychological problems, they can hurt another person or get into a violent altercation without a problem, & they don’t suffer from their subconscious punishing them for maiming or killing another human being. They don’t suffer PTSD. They have the ability to use violence, but they have no moral inhibitions or control. Sheepdogs have the same ability to use violence, but they have a strong moral code that ensures that they will only use violence when it’s absolutely needed & it’s for the right reasons. Your wolves tend to be the sociopaths & criminals. Your sheepdogs tend to find their way into things like Special Forces units, police SWAT teams; jobs where they can put their ability to surgically use force to protect other people.
So why have I spent all this time writing all the preceding blurb, when this was meant to be about defensive mental conditioning? If you happen to be part of the 98% (& whether you want to kid yourself or not, you WILL probably fall into this category regardless of your blackbelt in hoo flung-dung or tournament wins- many guys refuse to believe this because ego & self image get in the way) you are not psychologically equipped to aggressively attack another human being!
Lets Face Facts
The majority of people who get smacked in the teeth & say “I never saw it coming, he hit me from no-where” actually did see it, they simply didn’t do anything about it! There are a few factors here. Many people don’t know when it’s ‘ok to do something’, they don’t know when to make a move. They are faced with a very intimidating person & an experience that is out-with the norm. They are very frightened & adrenal stress hits hard. They just don’t know what to do, the stress increases & they tunnel vision out. Their forebrain isn’t functioning properly & they miss the pre contact indicators that show that a blow is coming……..booooom.
A lot of RBSD instructors push the pre-emptive strike as the holy grain & the ‘be all & end all’ of self defence. The problem is we have to face facts. The majority of people simply can’t bring themselves to hit someone pre-emptively. They aren’t psychologically equipped to do it. Couple that to them not knowing ‘when it’s ok to do something’ & the adrenal stress, & it becomes very unlikely that they’ll manage a pre-emptive strike. The pre-emptive strike IS a tactic that we should all train, but most people need defensive mental conditioning training to manage to use it. Even many of the trouble makers & thugs out there find the initial strike difficult to make. This is why often we see the person looking away from their victims eyes, or turning away & performing a sucker punch type movement, or ambushing the person from behind; even they find it difficult to use violence while they can see into the face of their victim. They have to truly work themselves up into an absolute frenzy before they can lash out; the true Wolf will calmly walk up to you & look into your eyes while he slides a knife into your belly, no rage, no hysterics, no fuss. When it comes to the application of normal reactive initial combatives we need the ability to go aggressively on the attack. There truly is no such thing as self defence, if you are in a purely defensive mode then the adversary has the initiative, & it is only a matter of time before you are overwhelmed. Even if we are the sort of person who can drive in with an aggressive pre-emptive strike, we can’t always use one. If we are being viewed by a CCTV camera we will end up as the ‘bad guy’ (it happened to me, I had someone moving towards me telling me that he was going to stab me, so I pre-emptively struck him with a single blow. I ended up charged with assault. The charges were dropped, but I was told by a police officer who had seen the recording that it really was a case of perception v’s reality; the recording just looked like someone was walking up to me & I flattened him) & have the stress of being charged by the police, treated as the criminal, & possibly dragged into court. For most decent people this would feel like a nightmare & would be a miserable time in their life! If there are many witnesses it can be similarly unwise to use a pre-emptive strike. Witnesses are notoriously unreliable in their recollections. Research shows that witnesses very often embellish their recollections with many things that never actually happened. So once again, you can end up as the bad guy. I teach my students pre-emptive striking, but I constantly emphasise that they have to use them in the correct situations. It is very easy to use the old “but it’s better to be judged by twelve that carried by six” line, but it doesn’t feel quite so cut & dried when you’re sitting in the police cell until Monday!
So we need to be able to develop the mindset that allows us to ‘switch on’ & go immediately into a mental state that enables us to use whatever force it takes to beat the attacker regardless of how intimidating they are. We need to be able to switch on the mindset that allows us to keep fighting even if we’re injured, rather than believing that we’re finished & succumbing to our injuries. Developing that ability to ‘switch on’ is vital, because if you’re not a naturally aggressive person or one of the ‘two percenters’ your physical self defence training may disappear & leave you as if you’d never had a days training in your life. I have seen this happen to very experienced martial artists from 1st Dan right up to 6th Dan in various martial arts. They have maybe had a few drinks, then someone starts on them & rather than a blistering display of their particular art we see them swinging like they’ve never had a days training, & rolling around on the floor cuddling with another man. Remember, defensive combat is 80% mental. The person who wants to win the most has a massive advantage over their adversary & is very likely to be the winner regardless of the skill level of their opponent.
Developing the Edge
Visualisation is a massively powerful training tool. Your imagination is an amazing thing. It can even influence the innermost workings of your body. An example of this can be found in the case of a young man in the USA who was diagnosed with a inoperable & terminal brain tumour. He was a massive sci-fi fan, & every night he would lie down in his room & imagine that his tumour was like the death star in Star Wars, & that his own body was sending waves of spacecraft to destroy it. In his head he used his imagination to create a storyline, & he made it as detailed as he could. When he went back for his next scan the doctors were stunned to see that the tumour was disappearing. He beat the cancer & is alive today many years later due to his mental conditioning. If you think about it what is the world around you? As far as your mind is concerned it is a number of electrical impulses zipping around the various parts of your brain. What is your imagination? It’s a series of electrical impulses zipping around the various parts of your brain. Your imagination & ability to visualise can be incredibly powerful.
So firstly lets look at ways to learn to be aggressive. Bruce Lee used the phrase “emotional content” in Enter the Dragon & that is exactly what we need when we do our padwork & situational training. I always tell my students that when they’re doing their padwork they need to feel something as they do it. If they’re laughing & chatting away then they’re doing it wrong. Every time they engage the pads you should see a change in their face, you should see that they are really meaning every technique thrown. They need to add in a little pinch of ‘righteous anger’ as they slam the pads with their strikes. Many people have trouble with this, women especially as they are for the most part brought up from an early age not to be aggressive. So when you are doing padwork you need to find something that triggers aggression & anger; so stick a face on the pad! Face it, there is someone out there that you dislike intensely, or maybe someone who has bullied you or physically hurt you. Put their face on the pad; in your imagination imagine that they are there in place of the pad. Every time you engage the pad imagine that the person you are visualising is trying to hurt you. Concentrate on feeling that anger as you hit the pads. Try to make it feel real, & at the end of the pad drill take some deep breaths & relax imagining that you have won the encounter.
Now, it’s not enough just to get a bit angry. Anger is pretty much unfocussed. It’s messy & untidy. Anger is like a housefire, it’s very powerful but uncontrollable. What we want is more like a laser beam. A laser beam is an immense amount of energy focussed down to a tiny point. It can be aimed. It can be switched on & off. It is controllable. So now we need to look at what we call ‘The Mental Trigger’. If we’re just really angry we’re likely to be unfocussed, & we’re likely to make mistakes. Uncontrolled anger clouds judgement, interferes with awareness & is not conducive to good decision making. So set yourself up with a partner with pads or a punchbag. Relax as much as you can & visualise that anger you summoned up last time, visualise it as a fire burning in your centre. Now, visualise yourself squeezing & focussing that fire down to a tiny point. Relax again but hold onto that visualisation & feeling of being calm but with a focussed aggression. Face the pads, & every time you throw a strike imagine you’re pulling a trigger & that laser like focussed aggression is blasting out like a bullet; but after each shot you are calm but holding onto that awareness of the determined & controlled fire inside you. This ability to be mentally determined but calm, & able to go from 0 mph to warp speed at the pull of a trigger, but also able to back down to a state of calm focussed determined aggression is priceless. It means you develop the ability to be aware & mentally relaxed enough to notice what’s going on around you (something you can’t do if you’re throwing a wobbly in anger, or panicking & freezing in fear) which is good tactical awareness, switch on instantly into a state where you can take the fight to the opponent, & then back down again to that state of calm focussed determined aggression so you don’t miss any important developments or go overboard & use totally excessive force in a rage.
Now you need to use that mental trigger when doing situational drills with your partner, adrenal stress conditioning; even sparring. Another useful device for helping you to ‘switch on’ can be found in a form of ‘State Anchoring’. This form of State Anchoring uses visualisation & the use of a physical cue to help you to achieve a particular state of mind. In this case we want a feeling aggression that we can control. Sit yourself down in a quiet place & relax. We need to recall a time in the past when you felt the feeling you’re looking for. The more powerful the example, the stronger the experience- the better the result; so go through past experiences & picks the best one. Try to imagine as much detail as you can, really try to put yourself back in the situation; the more real you make it the more powerful the technique becomes. Now notice how the state peaks & then falls off. Go through the process again, but this time as the feelings peak make a hand gesture (maybe a strong knife hand, or a clenched fist) & say something that you can associate with the feeling (this is just said under your breath, it can be anything you want- “switch on” perhaps) as you visualise an image that goes with it (it could be a burning fire, anything that you can associate with the feeling). This is then run through several times in a row to create a strong State Anchor. Test the anchor by firing it; make the gesture, say the phrase or word, picture the image. The desired feeling should be achieved within 15 seconds or so. With practice you should be able to use the Anchor with just one of the three assists (the gesture OR the phrase OR the image). If it doesn’t kick in then you need to go back & use a different experience. Choose an experience where there are not a pile of mixed emotions & feelings, it has to be relatively pure & strong. The Anchor needs periodically ‘recharged’ to keep it really effective.
Visualisation for survival
Visualisation can also be a valuable tool to help us survive when things go wrong. For instance, some people crumble if they are hurt. I’ve seen martial artists who are technically exceptional, who have got physical strikes that are like small nuclear devices; but if they get hit during sparring they immediately crumple, or they spend the rest of the fight backing off intimidated by their opponent. Dennis Martin made the point in his excellent column in the old Fighting Arts International magazine that people with relatively minor gunshot or knife wounds have died because we are conditioned by what we have seen on TV or in films that if we get shot/stabbed we are finished. They curl up & give up. But other people with far worse wounds have survived because they are determined not to give up, they tell themselves they need to hang in their for their family; they keep fighting & because of that they live!
It’s vitally important that we condition ourselves to keep on fighting even if we get injured by the opponent. If we get injured & stop fighting then we will definitely get even more badly hurt or even killed. We will almost certainly suffer some amount of psychological damage from the incident as well, possibly even PTSD. How can we condition ourselves not to stop when we get injured? Firstly, look at how you train. The old saying “you’ll fight as you train” is very true. If you stop (or allow your students to stop) every time they/you take a whack in the groin or a bit of a dig then you are conditioning for failure- when a solid blow is landed in a real contact you will stop, & then you will get hammered! People have to ensure that they fight through minor injuries & dings. They can get checked out after the situational or sparring match is over. Similarly people should not stop & make a fuss & say “sorry” when they catch their partner with a minor ding. I’ve lost count how many times teaching classes & seminars I’ve seen someone catch their partner in the groin whilst running through a situational, & then stop dead to apologise. At that point I’m usually yelling in their ear to just keep going or else! If you do this in training there is a good chance that you are conditioning yourself to stop if your opponent buckles in a real confrontation, rather than stop when you KNOW the threat is neutralised.
We can use visualisation as a training tool for incident survival as well. This helps us to condition ourselves to keep fighting even when injured. Get yourself relaxed & visualise a place you like, somewhere with good memories or just the sort of place you really like; something like a warm beach or similar is the sort of thing I’m speaking about. Now build up the scene so it becomes as real as possible, so you can feel the ground under your feet, the sun on your skin, the breeze against you. The more detailed you can make it, the more powerful the visualisation will be. Start picturing yourself going through your combatives, imagine performing the most perfect techniques & feel them snapping out with speed & power. This part of the visualisation process will aid you in your technical proficiency & is used by athletes to help perfect their skills. It was used by Special Forces during the ‘Jedi Project’ & improved their shooting proficiency & speed. Next add in a training partner, & run through situationals. Feel yourself doing the perfect movements as you work with your partner; everything you do is absolutely perfect & your partner is completely under your control the whole time. Now, this is where we change the visualisation.
Next get rid of the training partner, & imagine real attackers. They are going for you for real, & you destroy them. Visualise your perfect techniques taking them out of the game. Once again, detail is important so try to ‘feel’ the techniques as they hit home. It may take you several sessions to reach this point without losing focus, but once you can reach this point comfortably we need to change it again. Now dissolve the nice familiar & friendly setting, & visualise a dark alley or bar; or whatever environment you think is apt to your specific needs. Your going to continue with the same visualisation, except in a more realistic setting. Still see perfect techniques, still visualise beating the opponent each time. Next comes the final stage. This is the part where we start visualising for survival. Now visualise the same scenario except the bad guy injures you. You fight through it without stopping. The next bad guy attacks & maybe this time to destroy them. Then the next one catches you, & you fight on without any pause defeating them too. No matter whether you are hit, cut, bludgeoned, stabbed or shot; you keep fighting without pause. After a short period of this take yourself back to the initial comfortable surroundings, visualise yourself cooling down, then sit down & relax. At this point relax yourself & come out of the visualisation. This is a visualisation technique that needs a bit of time devoted to it, you really need to set aside at least 15 – 30 minutes for it. As I’ve already set, you may find it takes you a few sessions to get all the way through it; that’s ok. Not only will you improve your technique, your flow & your survivability; you’ll improve your ability to concentrate & focus too.
This visualisation method can be used for different things. You can go through it & just concentrate on the stage where you’re working your techniques with a training partner if you want to work on a specific skill or movement. It is vitally important to train for the possibility that you will get hurt, & to develop the mental tools to allow you to keep fighting through that injury. A lot of people think that the off ding they take in sparring will be enough, but it’s a totally different sensation being punched in the head with a gloved hand (or kicked with sparring gear on) & punched in the face full tilt with a bare fist. Now imagine if it’s a more serious situation & you get tagged with a weapon or shot! You need to develop the ability to survive the attack, & then keep fighting mentally to survive the injury. Coupling correct training practices like we spoke about earlier (not stopping when you take a minor ding etc) with mental preparation gives you a definite edge.
Mental exercises for awareness
We’ve looked at how we can use mental exercises to increase aggression & learn to control aggression, & we’ve discussed how we can use exercises to improve performance, technique & survivability. Now lets look at the prevention side of things; awareness.
Awareness is vital. Without awareness you’re like a warship without radar, sooner or later someone’s going to hit you with a large bomb! The sad fact is that the majority of people’s awareness is terrible. Many people who have been attacked say afterwards “it came out of no-where”, “there was no warning”, “I didn’t expect it”, etc. The truth is though that most attacks & assaults have some kind of ‘pre-contact phase’, it’s just some folks don’t recognise it because they’re switched off. Awareness is recognising when someone is following or stalking you. Awareness is noticing the person eyeballing you across the pub. Awareness is noticing the car behind you taking every turn you do. Awareness is noticing the mugger or bag-snatcher’s behaviour. Even worse is where it has been obvious that an attack was going to take place, & the victim doesn’t do anything. When someone is in your face shouting at you & telling you that they’re going to smash your face in, that is a pretty big clue that they mean you no good! So we need to be able to stay aware to recognise when we have the opportunity to catch them off guard with a pre emptive strike, or recognise the pre-contact indicator that gives away their attack allowing you to counter attack & seize the initiative.
Let’s look at increasing general awareness. To be able to spot people watching us, following us, or to recognise criminal behaviour we need to have increased general awareness. A good exercise for this is one I stole from Advanced Driver Training. During training for the Advanced Motorists Exam the trainee does an exercise where they have to keep a verbal commentary going on everything they see around them & ahead of them as they drive, commenting on possible dangers ahead & what they’re going to do to stay safe. We can do a similar thing in our everyday life. As you walk somewhere start keeping an internal dialogue going (don’t do it out loud or people with think you’re insane) commenting on everything you see around you. You need to look for potential ambush points such as alleyways, doorways, parked cars etc; & tell yourself what you’re going to do to avoid any potential problems, & what your ‘action on’ will be if something happens. In your head it should sound something like- “I can see a car up ahead that is parked, engine not running. There’s someone in the drivers seat. I’m going to walk wide so I have time to react & can’t be easily dragged into the car. There is the street corner, I’m walking wide to give me reaction time to anyone around it; hearing footsteps behind me so I’m going to check six in a shop window & make the person pass. Group of youths up ahead outside a shop, they’re quite boisterous but aren’t taking any notice of anyone so I’m going to keep going; but I have my Stinger in my hand already should one of them try anything”. Practising this as you walk or drive everyday will result in you becoming conditioned to maintain this level of awareness automatically. The result being that not only will you be a much harder target & far safer, but you’ll also notice much more of the amazing world around you.
During training make sure you add in pre-contact indicator training when you’re running situationals. I keep telling people that sparring isn’t self defence training. You could be a world sparring champion with phenomenal physical skills, but it isn’t a guarantee that your fantastic sparring skills are going to cross over into self protection. Why? Well, in sparring you are basically facing someone who does pretty much the same as you do. You are fairly comfortable with the techniques you’re going to face, because you do them too. Its actually quite predictable, as the opponent will train pretty much the same way as you do. When the sparring champ faces a tweeker in an alleyway it’s totally different. There is no-one there to tell him when it’s ok to go. The bad guy is going to attack in a totally different way to how a trained martial artist would, & your sparring will probably have conditioned you to not perform certain techniques or go for certain areas. For self defence training we need to use drills.
Drills are repeated short training scenarios that are repeated over & over again to build proficiency in a certain skill. When we do them against street attacks we call them situationals. We start off with the situational being set, with the attack we want to deal with being set, & the students response being set. As the student progresses & becomes more proficient we start allowing them to ‘freelance’ certain parts of their drills, & then eventually to ‘freelance’ their whole response. At first we make them deal with a specific situation & attack, & as they get more experienced we start allowing the bad guy to freelance that as well as part of the training. A major part of training is the incorporation of the pre-contact indicators that the majority of people exhibit just before they attack. This is important as you need to drill your awareness & get used to recognising these cues so you can exploit them. If you don’t have personal experience of these pre-contact indicators do some research. These are things ranging from the classic ‘sucker punch’ line-ups- the opponent looking down to the floor, the opponent turning away whilst saying something like “you’re not worth the trouble”, the opponent throwing something in your face etc…etc….etc. They can be robbery pre-contact indicators like the bad guy coming up & asking the time, so when you look down to your watch they attack you. It needs to include the physical cues that people give you before they attack, like the outward twitch of the non striking hand just before the punch is thrown. Drilling these things in your training makes it (or should make it if you train with some intent) automatic to pick up on them, just like the ‘internal commentary drill’ makes it automatic to notice danger.
Finally, although it isn’t strictly mental conditioning it is still awareness training, don’t forget spending some time looking into non verbal communication & micro expressions. These are things that without good awareness skills you won’t register, but non verbal communication can also give warning of potential trouble. It is a fact that regardless of culture there are universal physical cues for different emotions, thoughts & feelings that leak out of us. Being able to recognise these can be just as useful as being able to recognise pre-contact phases & indicators. Micro expression training is also a useful tool to have in the kit. Is your opponent taking you seriously or is he feeling contempt? There is a universal facial ‘flash’ that is displayed most times before someone commits a deliberate act of violence. These micro expressions last a very short period of time, but being able to read them is a useful skill.
So here are some ideas for training that takes you out-with the normal realm of self defence training. This is the missing part of the puzzle, the mental edge that compliments the physical skills. If you are serious about your defensive skills then set a bit of time aside to develop these mental attributes, they could make the difference between survival & defeat if the worst ever happens to you.
