Tactical Awareness

Tactical Awareness

Self Defense Article #3

Wow, you won the violent confrontation at the park.  You have talked it through with your partner and a couple of close friends.  You feel good about the results.  You took time to learn the physical skills you need to protect yourself.  You went out and purchased the tools that gave you tactical advantage.  You share your interest with your partner and she has joined you in your exploration of self defense. 

The next aspect you can work on is creating what is often called a tactical mindset.  Part of that is the winning attitude you have already created.  Another part is being able to look at situations and assess the tactical position you are in and how to gain advantage. 

To start with let’s talk about what is called the Color Code of Awareness.  This is a five color code to indicate your level of awareness and state of alertness. 

1)      White – This is the level of alertness often associated with being in a safe place, like your home.  You are relaxed.  There are no threats, no unknowns.  You are safe with your family watching TV or doing something fun and interesting with the ones you love.  This is the ONLY time you should find yourself at this level of awareness, it has no other place. 

2)      Yellow – You are out for a walk with the dog, or taking your kids to school.  You are shopping at the local supermarket.  You feel relatively safe in environments that you are familiar with.  You are relaxed but alert to everything and everyone around you.  When you are driving you know where the vehicles are on all sides.  You are paying attention. 

3)      Orange – A potential threat has appeared.  It could be the guy driving really fast and coming up on your rear bumper.  It could be the 4 punks on the corner wearing gang colors.  Anything that could be a potential threat needs extra attention and evaluation.  You are watching and listening, you are aware of the smallest changes.  You have tuned in and are ready for action if it becomes necessary. 

4)      Red – A threat is present.  The punks on the corner have spotted you and are moving your way.  The vehicle that was coming up fast behind you does not appear to be slowing down.  Action is required.  The action depends entirely on the circumstances you are in.  That is why you continue to study and practice.  You have run through scenarios in your mind so you can react quickly, you already have several options available to you so you don’t freeze up in a situation.  You do whatever you need to do to protect yourself. 

5)      Black – This is where you never want to be.  Too late.  You freeze up.  You were in white when a threat presented itself, you couldn’t respond fast enough and you do nothing.  You just became a victim.  NEVER allow yourself to go to black. 

How do you get to black?  Well one way is to be in white, unaware, too relaxed.  A threat appears and you need to be in red to deal with it affectively.  You can’t get there fast enough.  It is very difficult to jump from white to red.  Too much space in between.  You can jump two levels, but not three.  So you can be walking around in yellow and move to red to deal with an immediate threat.  You can jump one level at a time very easily, two is workable but not three.  What can happen is you don’t respond at all or you jump to black and just loose it. 

Being tactically aware is a vital survival skill.  As I have already indicated if you are not in the right mindset you cannot respond fast enough to a threat. 

Always be aware of your surroundings.  Where you are, who else is there.  Where your avenues of escape are, what safe areas are nearby, what areas you want to avoid.  What weapons are available to you.   These are all things to consider. 

Here are some of the things I do to stay safe.

·         I always stop for a moment before I enter a building.  I stop at the front door of the bank and take a look to make sure I’m not walking into a robbery or something.  I stop near the front of a restaurant to see who is there and what the atmosphere is. 

·         When driving I am aware of who and what is around me at all times.  I look as far ahead as I can to see what is happening with traffic.  I try not to drive in the middle lane so I don’t get blocked in at a red light.  I always have enough distance in front of my vehicle when stopped to pull out and go around the guy in front of me.   Make sure you can see his tires in contact with the pavement.  That will give you enough room to move. 

·         A safe following distance is 3 seconds between you and the car in front of you while moving.  Just pick and spot on the road and when the vehicle in front of you passes it start counting.  You should get to three before you reach the same spot.  This is the best way to judge distance as it doesn’t matter how fast you are going, just count to three. 

That should be enough to think about for now.  Until next time, be alert, be safe.

Raven, Spirit Warriors

Response, what to do during an attack

Mitigation, Preparation, Response and Recovery.   Whether it is emergency planning or self defense, these four phases of planning can be used to assist you in making sure you are covered and ready to survive a critical incident.  In our last article we covered these phases.  In this one I would like to look at the Response aspect in more detail. 

It’s a beautiful night.  You and your significant other are out for a walk under the stars.  You talk and hold hands, everything is so wonderful.  Wait!  What is that uneasy feeling you just got in your stomach? 

Was that someone moving in the dark over to your right?  Are there two of them? 

Being aware of your surroundings you spot your escape route.  You analyze your physical readiness, assess your environment for weapons of opportunity, barriers, concealment, cover, anything that you can use to give you tactical advantage. 

You reach into your pocket and feel the high intensity 2000 lumen flashlight that you carry.  With the other hand you remove your tactical folding knife from your belt.  Your adrenaline starts to kick in so you change your breathing to the tactical breathing you learned in self defense class last week. 

You start moving toward the parking lot where there are lights and other people around.  You tell your partner to get her pepper spray out of her purse and to take her kubotan out.  You tell her what you have observed and she replies she has already made them.  She is just as prepared as you are because she attended the class as well and knows she can kick butt if she needs to. 

The perps move in closer.  They think they are being stealthy and are going to surprise you.  Boy, are they in for a lesson.  You step away from your partner, moving about 6 feet to the rear and side.  You keep moving towards the lights when a third perp you didn’t see steps out from behind a tree and blocks your way.  Startled,  you blind him with your light, kick his shin and knee him in the groin, you break his nose with your flashlight and smash his collar bone with the butt end of your knife then sweep his leg so he falls groaning on the ground.

Your partner has engaged perp number 2.  You look over just in time to see him put his hands up in the air and scrunch his face up as he gets hit with a full blast of pepper spray, right in the eyes.  She knows that may not be enough so she smashes her kubotan down onto his nose, shattering it, then drives her shin up between his legs.  You hear a forced exhale of breath as he bends forward just in time to meet her knee, straight to the solar plexus.  Vision gone.  Breath gone.  Mobility hindered. 

Perp number 3 isn’t that stupid, he looks at his friends and takes off the other way. 

Wow, you are shaking, breathing is fast and you are in shock.  Did that just happen?  You can’t remember exactly what you did, but it appears to have worked.  Your partner is on her knees, she is crying, adrenaline is pumping.  You need to move, breathe deep, in through the nose, out through the mouth, nice and slow, there you go.  Control you responses, breathe, breathe. 

You won.  You didn’t just survive, you dominated them.  Surviving is not enough.  Surviving often means you made it through something where at one point you were a victim.  You are never a victim when it comes to self defense.  You either win or you lose.  Some people say there are no winners in a fight.  That can be true when you are talking about fighting another person for ego gratification or some other insignificant reason.  In a life and death situation you are absolutely a winner.  

In self defense there is no second place, no consolation prize or metal.  There is only one acceptable outcome.  Your attitude has to be one of perseverance, dominance and control.  If for one second you give up or doubt yourself you could lose.  Losing on the street may mean losing your life.

Mental preparation, creating a tactical mindset, never accepting defeat; these are all necessary attributes that will help you to prevail in a violent confrontation.  

A battle is won before it begins.  If you utilize the four phases of emergency planning as described previously, if you train right and practice what you train, you will have a much better chance of winning. 

Besides, in any aspect of life, who wants to be a loser?  Not me.

In our next article we will look at how you can create a winning attitude and what a tactical mindset is.  The physical skills are only a small aspect of learning how to protect yourself.  They are the easiest.  The rest is where you really have to work at it. 

Until next time, be safe, be smart. 

Tradition or Evolution?

Tradition or Evolution?  

I do not believe it necessarily has to be one or the other.  I believe there is a prominence of one or the other in most martial arts so the question is which are you most interested in?

The answer for me is evolution.

I started my martial studies in 1981.  I have studied traditional martial arts from China, Japan, Korea and The Philippines.   I have studied modern combat systems in the military and law enforcement.  I delved into Russian Martial Arts which is vast in it's richness and can be traditional and cultural or very modern and scientifically based.

I have never been a traditional person, meaning that the old ways are of interest to me but they do not define my studies or me in any way.  I am open minded in my spirituality, not religious.  I have no particular political affiliations but recognize what works as being of value.

This outlook on life as a whole is also my perspective in martial arts.  I recognize traditional ways as having value in learning how skills were developed and what their application can be.  History is moderately interesting but I am more interested in learning from history so we can move forward and not repeat mistakes or keep going around in circles.  When something no longer works or no longer serves a purpose it is time to let it go.

Lets use a martial example here.  I think Okinawan weapons are kind of cool.  The Tonfa, Sai and Nunchucks.  It is interesting how farm implements became weapons when the government put controls on martial studies and confiscated weapons and punished those who used them.  It has some historical significance in understanding the bigger picture.  Do I have any interest in learning to be proficient with these weapons and spending hours practicing?  No, not at all.

What weapons do I train with?  Short stick or baton, short bladed edged weapons,read knife, and firearms.  Why, you may ask?  Because they are the modern weapons that I have access to and can have available to me if I ever need to use weapons in protecting myself.  Some of you may argue that a firearm is not a martial arts weapon, I disagree, there is another article here on this blog discussing that topic so that is all I will say here.

In martial arts class do you wear funny outfits and speak a foreign language?  Why?

Do you train in bare feet?  Why?  This one is an interesting one in modern North American society.  Why do people train in bare feet?  Where are you ever going to fight someone in bare feet?  Unless you are in your bathroom or at the beach that is very unlikely.  Some people think it is to toughen your feet, I guess it does that but the more probable reason is simply that in Japan and Korea you do not wear shoes inside. Interesting huh?  It has little or nothing to do with practicing martial arts, it is simply a cultural thing of no shoes in the house.

What about a Gi?  Why do you wear a Gi?  It has nothing to do with martial arts it is simply the style of clothing worn in the past in some societies.

I look at many martial arts and ask "Why" when I see people doing a particular move or technique.  It is disheartening when the answer is " I don't know, that's just the way we do it."  Really?  Is that a satisfactory answer?  I do not think so.

In many Japanese and Korean styles the front punch is taught with a chamber position by the hip as the starting place.  Why?  Have you ever wondered?  Most people do not and many teachers do not have an explanation. No, That's just the way I learned it, is not a satisfactory answer.

As I said, tradition does have it's place, but when does it start to hinder forward movement?  I believe everything we learn in martial arts should be challenged and verified.  I believe a scientific approach can validate what is useful and eliminate what is not.   Using current understanding of anatomy and physiology, psychology, physics and math will help us to deepen our understanding and expand our knowledge and skills. Most of this knowledge was not available 100 or 200 years ago when many arts were being created.  What worked then in that country, in that time, may no longer be the most appropriate or useful way to train and practice.

I still see people doing ballistic stretching.  If you have any understanding of exercise science you will understand how detrimental that can be.   Over stretching in martial arts is common.  The effects are loose joints that get injured, overextended elbows and knees, hip problems and rotator cuff tears are all common in martial arts schools where the teachers are not properly educated and rely on the old ways as a valid method.

Tradition has it's place.  I think one of the big issues however is that people get stuck in tradition and do not ask why, or how and then get stuck themselves.  It is interesting to know the origins of a martial art, where and how it all got started but we also need to adapt and advance the art to meet the needs of people today in the modern world, in our own society and culture.

I encourage you to be brave.  To stop and ask why, how can we use this, how can we improve this?  Isn't that what the originator of the art did?  They saw what was available, maybe studied the old ways and then modified it and modernized it to meet their own needs and the needs of the people around them.  Why then would we not continue to do the same thing?

There is so much more that could be discussed here.  My purpose however is to simply initiate thought and to encourage you as a martial artist to question what you are being taught.  To encourage you to educate yourself in modern methods of training and base your choices on the highest level of knowledge you can attain.

There are some wonderful teachers and programs available to an open minded seeker, do not limit yourself to a tradition or one way of thought out of misunderstanding or some distorted sense of loyalty.  It is up to you to learn the best that you can from the best teachers you can find.

As you expand your awareness, knowledge and skills you will naturally evolve, which to me is the primary purpose of existence ,the evolution of self and my martial studies.
...the evolution continues...
Enjoy the journey.