Who Fight? What Fight? Where Fight? When Fight? How Fight and Why Fight? (Or, How I learned to wrestle with my preconceived notions) What Is Your Perception, Your Preconceived Idea of Your First or Next Fight? (Or, How we learned to wrestle with our preconceived notions about fighting.) (This is by far one of … Continue reading The Perceptions of Your Fight
When someone is on top of you, beating the snot out of your face, you are not thinking about “why” he is doing it. Not the psychology of why. Not then. But when? But later in the “drawing room,” it might at least be interesting? In my courses, in the “genesis chapters” of them, if … Continue reading Not Now…While Being Beaten in the Face
“Guns stolen from cars! This is outrageous.” – civilian “How can police be this stupid to abandon their guns unprotected in a car?” – civilian “I’m wondering why you would ever leave a gun in the car if you’re not there?” – civilian “I never leave my gun in the car.” – civilian “My gun … Continue reading Where’s Your Gun, Rambo? In the Car?
Play it again Sam… “You must remember this. A stick is just a stick. A stick is not a sword. The fundamental things in FMA, changed as time….goes….by…” Filipino stick training. Filipino martial arts. When it comes to the FMA stick, it’s kind of schizophrenic. As usual I write about things as they “come up.” … Continue reading Hey, You Can’t Grab That Stick! It’s a Machete!
See something interesting about this photo from a gun magazine? Anyone? Can you spot it? Two guys. Apparently a fight has started. But some readers and viewers haven’t spotted it yet? The bad guy is…unarmed. No knife. No gun. Your eyes may glaze over the fact because we see the likes of it so often. … Continue reading The “Mister Freeze” Finish – and Are You Training to Shoot Unarmed People?
Tomahawk, hatchet, axe, Pick a noun. Tomahawk sounds cooler. The last few years, my Facebook and Youtube pages have been peppered with various superstar guys doing/teaching theee….Tomahawk! Or Axe! I absorb the clips with some amazement, confusion, trepidation and distaste. Am I seeing an audition for Flash Dance or real-life, “Axe Combatives?” The fad goes … Continue reading Kathump! A Painful Look at Tomahawk and Axe Training.
Frigid to Red Hot Fighting – Fighting Cold from Red Hot No, fighting cold is not about being mugged in Alaska or just a concern for the 10th Mountain Division. “Shooting cold” is a term thrown around here and there by smart people in the gun training business, but also relates the ambush in hand, … Continue reading Frigid to Red Hot Fighting – Cold Shooting? Cold Fighting?
Knives have personalities. The generic look. The generic history. Military look. Kitchen look. Slashing look. Stabbers. Think of some more! Even the personality of the person carrying or holding the knife changes the…personality of the knife. The personal attachment look. What is the personality of your knife? I think there are several factors in knife … Continue reading Personality of the Knife
Trauma and drama. Years ago in a seminar in Kentucky, USA, an attendee, someone with zero martial or martial arts experience, just a regular guy attending a gun and knife seminar, asked… “Someone confronts me over something. Maybe there will be a fight. It’s – you know- getting tense. If I pull my knife to…to … Continue reading Escalation! “I PULL, THEN HE PULLS!”
In this age of widespread interest in de-escalation and verbal skills to defuse any and all encounters, this is a tale about how convoluted and difficult a quick, on-the-spot verbal solution might be. It’s a short story from a case I worked on. A driver pulled his truck up into a handicapped parking space to … Continue reading Words Fail…The Mysteries of De-Escalation.