Martial Arts

Distract and Diffuse

/ hsoi

Another good article from the Force Science News about distractions and aggressive subjects.

While the article is aimed towards law enforcement, what it discusses is useful to anyone that might find themselves in a self-defense situation (read: everyone). Sure those of us that take self-defense seriously spend a lot of time on skills such as marksmanship and empty-hand fighting, but those tend to only come into play when you hit condition red (or black). You should spend your life in code yellow, but when you find yourself in condition orange or red, you need to take other actions.

Most of the actions you should take towards the aggressor should be ones intended to distract and/or diffuse the situation. You want to deescalate things. Increasing the level of force is undesirable, so you must do everything within your power to bring things down. Note that one of the requirements to obtain a Concealed Handgun License in the state of Texas is taking at least 10 hours of classroom study, which includes discussions of nonviolent dispute resolution techniques. InSights Training Center’s Street & Vehicle Tactics course in large part is all about psychology and avoiding potential problems in the first place, or if you get into them how to deescalate.

The FSN article contains some good suggestions on how to distract and diffuse a situation. Worth a read. There is also a follow-up article that contains a lot of reader-submitted techniques.

Memorization, Precision, Smoothness

/ hsoi / 2 Comments

I’ve heard Master Harmon say this before, but he brought it up again in yesterday’s seminar, and it struck me deeper than it has in the past. I figure this is because there’s a growing harmony in the various aspects of my life, and it’s great when things flow and harmonize this way. Let me explain.

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Kuk Sool Won Seminar 2009

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The annual Kuk Sool Won seminar rolled through my school tonight.

Topic: dan bong.

Dan bong is one of my favorite weapons, so I was looking forward to this seminar. I can’t cover everything, because there’s just no way to type it all up. But I did want to give an overview of the event and what I took from it.

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Mixed Martial Arts Serendipity

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Of course, in my world “mixed martial arts” combines something other than the “muay thai, wrestling, bjj” formula. 🙂

As I’ve mentioned before here and here, when it comes to shooting I need to back off my speed and improve my accuracy. At the dojang today we were emphasizing a similar thing: smoothness of movement. As the saying goes, “slow is smooth, smooth is fast”. I’ve been working on my handgun presentation, the “punch” I refer to in my AT-4 class writeup, and that’s all about slowing down, being smooth.

So it was nice that my work today at the dojang was also about backing off speed a bit and improving correctness and accuracy. It’s always a great thing in my book when different things in my life end up with overlaps like this. It’s a signal to me that I need to work on it in those realms, but also what else can I apply it to? How about just general living? To slow down a bit. Cruise on my motorcycle at 55 MPH… sure the speed limit is 70, but go at 55 and get techniques right and enjoy the scenery going by. Don’t rush around to various things, just mellow out with the kids around the house. Whatever.

Slow down. Smooth things out. Do things correctly. No one cares about the first one to get the wrong answer. All those things that I keep telling myself. Gotta work on them more. Heck, it’s worth it for me to remember Tao Te Ching #48.

The Three D’s

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More self-defense acronyms: Detect, Defuse, Defend. From Tony Blauer, well, actually from Tony Torres.

What I like about this article is while the concepts of Detect, Defuse, Defend seem simple, Mr. Torres looks deeper into them and provides an improved explanation: one that involves being active and taking action, proactive not reactive. Another one of those mindset things.

Verbal commands

/ hsoi

A nice article about verbal commands. (h/t to Robb Allen) I’ve touched on this before, and the article provides some good “checkpoints” for the sorts of commands to use.

One of the commands I’ve been taught was “STOP! DON’T MOVE!”. There’s a great deal of utility in this. Using those “checkpoints” it’s clear, causes hesitation, provides direction, and it can alert witnesses. It’s good for the situation… if you have to draw your gun and point it at someone, it’s a very appropriate command.

Another command I’ve heard to use is “POLICE! CALL THE POLICE!”. Let it be known I’m not recommending this because there’s potential risk for problem (e.g., impersonating an officer). But if the shit hit the fan and you’re in a self-defense situation, especially one where you’re in civilian clothing and have to draw a gun to shoot, it may be useful. It’s important to look at the phrase as a whole and in parts. It starts with “POLICE!”, which is where you risk getting into trouble but if you need to draw a gun and yell this you’ve probably got bigger problems to begin with. You can see why it can be useful to say this, but then maybe it won’t be because if you “identified” yourself as police, could you end up drawing fire? Maybe, maybe not. Maybe any other good guys on the scene would avoid you and/or support you, bad guys might avoid you too but also might turn on you. You just can’t know. But then you follow with “CALL THE POLICE!” which changes the totality of the delivered message, that there’s an emergency and someone that hears this needs to call the police now!  I see a lot of advantages in this command, and disadvantages too. You just have to weigh it to know if it’s right. In terms of the checkpoints, ambiguity? sorta. hesitation? certainly. direction? no not really, tho “call the police” is a direction it’s a plea hoping for someone to call. alert witnesses? I think so.

One thing I’ll state about commands. Don’t cuss. STOP MOTHERFUCKER! DON’T YOU FUCKING MOVE OR I’LL FUCKING KILL YOU YOU PIECE OF SHIT!!  No… that doesn’t go over very well. I mean, when the pressure is on it might fly out of your mouth and if it does it does. But if you can avoid it, avoid it. It keeps the message from being simple and direct. It also may look worse, should what you say/said become an issue.

And folks, don’t be afraid to practice your commands. If you’re doing dry fire for defensive purposes, throw your commands in. Just like all the things we practice, you figure it out beforehand and practice it enough so that when it comes time to use it, you just fall into it and do it.

Slacking, sorta

/ hsoi

The past couple weeks have been… full? distracting? having other things taking priority? been what they’ve been is all I can say. Some of it documented here, some not. As a result tho, I haven’t been at the dojang as much as I’ve wanted to be. So to my Kuk Sool folk reading this, sorry I haven’t been there… but it’s not from lack of want. 🙂  I did sign up for seminar tho. Dan bong! Looking forward to it.

Thing is, a while ago I made a commitment to practice martial arts every day. Doesn’t matter what it is, just as long as it’s something and done every day. It could be going to the dojang. It could be going to the garage and working on the heavy bag. It could be going on the yard and doing forms. It could be dry fire. It could be just draw practice. It might just be working out some techniques in my head, thinking through self-defense scenarios. Mentally going through all my Kuk Sool curriculum. Freeform development of mixed concepts (e.g. empty hand transition to handguns). Whatever. Doesn’t always have to be intensely physical, could be mental, could be just meditating on some concepts. So long as every day I do something. Going to the dojang is actually a fair part of that, but not going is really bugging me…. such is just life right now. Ebb and flow.

Shoot to wound doesn’t make sense

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I hear about people that say in a self-defense situation you should shoot someone in the leg or the arm, instead of “center of mass”.  There’s many reasons for it, but in the end it’s just not sound reasoning. If someone needs shooting, then they need effective shooting. If they don’t need shooting, they don’t need shooting. So if push comes to shove and you must shoot, you need to shoot at the most effective target (e.g., “center of mass”) and not at some less-effective area like a leg.

I came across this article at Force Science News that discusses the situation in-depth. It approaches it from a police officer standpoint, which is a different situation than a private citizen defending themselves, but it doesn’t take away from the point of the article that shooting to wound doesn’t make sense.

Shooting, relaxing, and having no mind

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I was scheduled to participate in a handgun class today, AT-4 Extreme Pistol. However due to the heavy rains and flooding issues the class has been postponed until tomorrow. Heavy rains, shooting on the move, paper targets… just doesn’t mix well for a safe and productive class. Tomorrow should be better.

Some weeks ago when I was assisting with a class I mentioned to one of the instructors that I was signed up to take AT-4 as a student. He gave me a puzzled look and wondered why I would take the class, saying something to the effect of I shoot better than that and don’t really need the class. While I appreciated the complement, I’m still taking the class. I signed up for it a long time ago, back when I was still unsure of my skills. While I apparently underestimated myself, I know I can still learn a lot by taking the class. Plus it’s good to just take it as a “résumé” builder — the more formal training the better.

I’ve been thinking about how to approach the class. What do I want to get out of it, what do I want to focus on for myself apart from the class curriculum. I think I’m coming back to something I’ve spent a long time trying to improve about myself:

Being relaxed.

Some years ago I injured myself in some way and so I wasn’t sure how I could keep up my empty-hand martial arts training while I healed from the injury. My teacher at the time suggested to me to work on forms and utter relaxation. To use only those muscles that had to be used and nothing more. For instance, if you’re in a horse stance, your leg muscles certainly need to be at work… but all of them? Your quadriceps sure, but your hamstrings not so much so ensure they’re not tight. Certainly in a horse stance your shoulders aren’t involved so why should there be any tension in them? You’d be surprised how much we involve muscles that have no true reason to be involved, and all that does is consume energy and tire us out quicker. The more I worked on being relaxed, while that in and of itself was difficult, the end result was making things a lot easier. Endurance went up merely because I wasn’t wasting energy.

I still have to work on the physical aspects of this. I guess it’s in my genes to be a tense “type A” person, so it’s an effort to relax (ironic eh?). It’s even in little things, like noticing during a workout or even just sitting here right now at the computer as I type this and I furrow my brow. There’s no need. If the brow is furrowed, I’m not relaxed. The more relaxed I am, the better I move, the better I work. Plus, it telegraphs. Can’t have a relaxed poker-face.

So back to the handgun class. I think the key thing I want to focus on is being relaxed. The class is about pushing your skills further, so if I really want to shoot well the more relaxed I am the better I will perform, the faster I can perform. But that’s just the physical side of it. I need to be mentally (and emotionally) relaxed as well.

No Mind. The Japanese would call it mushin. Chinese, wu-hsin. In Kuk Sool’s hyung bup, “mind clear”. I don’t want to have a gazillion things racing through my head. Maybe “front sight front sight front sight” but I don’t even want that. I want my mind to just be. Just let things flow. Be one with the gun, the target, myself, everything. Harmony.

This will be my personal goal for the class. We’ll see how I do. 🙂

Grip work and rain

/ hsoi / 3 Comments

Current weather forecasts are for rain, and lots of it. A very slow moving storm system coming across the area. I’m thankful for it because Texas is in a major drought so all the rain we can get I’m happy for.

The slight bummer? I was going to be at the gun range for a lot of the weekend. Will I still? Depends on a few things. But regardless it made me think about shooting in the rain. Specifically, shooting my polymer-framed Springfield XD in wet conditions. The grip on the XD is kinda slick and if it was wet it’s not going to be the easiest thing to keep hold of.

I do regret not getting the stippling grip modification by Springer Precision. I’ve tried it on a buddy’s XD and it’s awesome. I guess I might have to go the grip-tape or skateboard-tape route, but I know it’s not as good as the stipple job.

The point to think about is shooting in less-than-ideal conditions. When it comes to defensive shooting, you have no control over when and where the situation would occur: low light? cold weather and you have gloves and a heavy coat on? rain? ice? While we all like to practice in nice and dry conditions, every so often we should push ourselves outside our comfort zone and work on the less-than-ideal.