I was up in north Austin today, and on my way home needed to make a couple stops.
1. to get gas
2. to get lunch
A little win, a little FAIL.
Pumping gas. Keeping my eyes open, watching around. See the restaurants across the street and ask Siri to dig up some nutritional information. I’m a little distracted by my search, and obstructed by my big truck.
Suddenly, as if from out of nowhere (because this is how it always happens, you know), a person comes around the front of my truck. I didn’t see them until they cleared the truck… the angle of approach and everything. But it happened in an instant.
I was happy that, a moment later, I put my extended hand up to say “stop” and verbally said, “Can you stop right there?” He did, asked me if I knew where to find some place. I didn’t recognize what he was asking for, but it didn’t matter because I really wasn’t paying attention nor trying to process his specific request — I wanted him to go away and not come any closer. I just said “Sorry, I don’t know”. I had a firm enough look on my face, not mean, but not welcoming either. He turned around and went back to the car where his friends were waiting. It appears he was legit lost, but it doesn’t matter.
Win. My reaction was precisely what I wanted. No thinking, just getting them to stop their advance and keep their distance. All good.
The funny part is I always default in my head to “can you stop right there?”. What I want to say is “can you back up?” because it escalates better to “Back up!” then “BACK THE FUCK UP!”. But for whatever reason when I practice this my brain always wants them to stop, not back up. Will have to work even harder to overcome what is obviously ingrained. 🙂
I also want to rewatch SouthNarc’s Managing Unknown Contacts (MUC) DVD. Just because.
Unfortunately my win gets negated by a FAIL.
I finish pumping gas. Go across the street to McDonald’s (shut up… I know). I go inside. I order. As soon as I’m done ordering and turning to my left to go to the drink dispenser, I hear a “hey, what’s your tattoo say?”… there’s a guy that was literally right behind me. I had no idea. I never heard him come in, no idea he was there, but he was way too close for comfort. Awareness FAIL.
*sigh*
What’s the take home? Well, in part it’s back to my dry fire curriculum change up… focusing more on defensive skills and (re)actions than pure shooting fundamentals. Perhaps some of the dry fire shouldn’t be just shooting skills, but also MUC drills, some first aid stuff, and other non-shooting things. Hrm.
The bigger take home? Shit happens in an instant. It will take you by surprise. It will happen before you even realize it’s happening. It’s up to you — and only you — to take care of yourself. Great if you can have a team of friends to improve your odds, but sometimes we go solo or go in a group that’s got more sheep than dogs. Just remember that things will happen faster than you imagined, faster than you expected.
Stuff From Hsoi 
That MUC stuff works well when applied. Have you had the pleasure of taking any of Craig’s classes or just the DVDs? Last weekend I (basically) took ECQC for the third time. I’ll hopefully have a review on my blog sometime this coming week.
You mentioned you extended hand in the first incident: was it really fully extended? Since I had all of this stuff beaten (literally) into my head a week ago that seems like a potential tactical blunder. Hands should be raised but in a compressed position to better protect your head if things should go to swinging.
Either way I’m glad to hear it worked out in the first case and that the second was purely a learning experience and it didn’t go badly.
A couple years ago Tom Givens did a “Combined Skills” course with SouthNarc. Unfortunately that’s the only direct course I’ve taken with Craig, but it was great. I’d love to take his true ECQC class. The DVD’s have been useful tho as refreshers… all the material was gone over in class, this just helps me remember what I forgot. 🙂
My hand wasn’t fully extended (i.e. elbows locked), but it was out. That is, it was clearly a “stop” motion not a “I surrender”. Both involve putting up an open hand, but whether the hand is pushed out or pulled in makes all the difference in what message is conveyed. It worked to convey the point, but still provided me with a “fence”.
We try to live in “condition yellow” but we’re human… we’ll drift in and out of yellow, white, orange.
“… there’s a guy that was literally right behind me. I had no idea . . . ”
When I was in high school in the early 90’s, we had a kid who was heavy into Ninjitsu. He had a habit of playfully sneaking up on people, and the got very adept at it. I made a concerted effort to catch him in the act, but rarely did. He knew exactly how to stand & move with you to avoid detection, even those backward glances to “check your six” were ineffective.
Reminds me of Napoleon Dynamite: “At Rex Kwan Do, we use the buddy system. No more flying solo. You need somebody watching your back at all times!”
The sad part was, I’m sure this guy was making no effort to sneak around. I was just so focused into ensuring my order was correct. As I think about it, my hearing loss is playing into it… there was enough residual noise, I had to really look at the lady behind the counter and focus on her hard to ensure I was hearing her.
This is what I get for a lifetime of loud music, guns, motorcycles…. but mostly music.
Do you have a link for the “Managing Unknown Contacts” DVD? I searched for it online but didn’t come up with anything.
Do you have a link for the “Managing Unknown Contacts” DVD? I searched online but couldn’t come up with anything.
It was hard to find his stuff in the first place. Craig didn’t sell it off his own website http://www.shivworks.com/ and the website/3rd party he did sell it through I think is gone.
So I don’t know what to say. Maybe email him directly through his website and see if the “Practical Unarmed Combat” DVD is still available??
Will do. Thanks!
One thing that has always stuck with me about being surprised by someone.
I saw an interview of WWII German fighter ace Günther Rall.
He said that 19 out of every 20 planes that he shot down; the pilot of that plane wasn’t even aware they were flying in the same sky. ie. the first indication something was wrong was that his wings just got shot off.
Don’t get your wings shot off.