self defense

Visualization for self-defense

/ hsoi / 1 Comment

There’s been much said on the notion of “creative visualization” and how it can help improve performance. That said, we can and should use visualization techniques to help us in self-defense training.

Visualize yourself in self-defense situations and how you will respond and perform. There’s not really any right or wrong answer, except perhaps to say if you die it’s wrong and if you live it’s right, but even that isn’t necessarily so cut and dry. Certainly you should be visualizing yourself coming out a winner. Trouble is, often this creative visualization can get a little too creative and enter into the realm of fantasy, especially if you have unrealistic expectations or assessments of your skill level and ability. False bravado is not useful here. This is why visualization can only be a tool, reality-based training is certainly necessary.

Nevertheless, visualization is useful. What can help is to have a situation or a context that you did not come up with, thus you didn’t create something “perfect for your success”. The folks at Teddy Tactical have a fantastic archive of scenarios. There’s also a tremendous amount of other articles and information there, but really check out the scenarios. Read through them. Think how you would act.

Furthermore, take the advice of Tom Givens of Rangemaster. Every day look in your local police blotter. See what crimes were committed. Ask yourself what you would do in a similar situation. Furthermore, what could you have done to avoid the situation in the first place? You may be surprised to find that the answers to these scenarios often never involve drawing a gun, shooting a gun, or getting into any sort of fight or confrontation.

The goal of this visualization is to make yourself a playbook of sorts. That you may find yourself in a situation and instead of having to figure it out as you go along, risking precious time, risking making potentially costly mistakes, now you’ve got yourself a plan. You already know what to do so you can just do it. It’s easier to work with the familiar and known instead of the unfamiliar and unknown, especially in a pressure situation.

More Useful Acronyms

/ hsoi

Previously I’ve mentioned some self-defense acronyms and the 3 D’s, and here’s a few more courtesy of John Farnam:

ADEE – Avoid, Disengage, Escape, Evade

AOJP – Ability, Opportunity, Jeopardy, Preclusion

BUIS – Back-Up Iron Sights

DOA – Dead On Arrival

DRT – Dead Right There

IBD – Israeli Battle Dressing

VBC – Victim By Choice

VCA – Violent Criminal Actor

More unpossibleness

/ hsoi / 1 Comment

Some guy wanders into the Holocaust Museum and starts shooting, wounds a guard but two other guards shoot back and wound the guy. He’s taken into custody. (h/t to SayUncle)

But how could this happen? Washington D.C. has such strict gun laws, they should have stopped this nutjob! Why didn’t the laws work?! Oh that’s right, criminals and nutjobs don’t obey the law.

So there you are, family vacationing, going on a museum tour, then some wacko loses it and starts killing people. Bad things can happen at any time without any warning and where you probably least expect or want it to happen. This is why it’s good to be prepared, always. It’s no guarantee, but the more you can do to have the odds in your favor, why would you do anything less? And why would anyone (private citizens, elected officials, etc.) want to restrict your ability to do so?

Shocknife

/ hsoi / 1 Comment

In the discussion on Blueguns, Dan Cosgrove pointed me to a product called the Shocknife. I just spent some time on their website and then Googling about it, so I thought I’d offer up my opinion on it.

Continue reading →

Cell phones as defensive weapons

/ hsoi

Davis has a good posting about how you can use your cell phone as a defensive weapon.

But of course, it’s not quite what you think. 🙂  Quite a good strategy for what he’s getting at however. It reminds me of those gadgets you can keep in a pocket. You are entering some situation you don’t want to deal with, slip your hand in the pocket and press a button on the gadget. In a couple minutes the gadget will go off, like a cell phone ring or a pager or some such thing and then oh, I’ve got to take this, sorry, gotta end the conversation with you or I need to leave the room to take the call or whatever. Amusing.

Still tho, there is potentially a bit of serious self-defense application here. The key point is being aware of your surroundings.

Guns in bars and restaurants

/ hsoi

Courtesy of Brillianter, I find a useful business card.

Of course, the owners/managers of such establishments just will likely continue to have their fingers stuck in their ears and nothing will come of it, but still it’s an interesting way to spread the word and may just open a few closed minds. No harm.

The thing folks have to realize is that folks with concealed handgun licenses are not the sort of folks that go into bars and start shooting. These are the sort of folks that do. Compare and contrast.

Now they’re coming for knives

/ hsoi / 1 Comment

Now they’re wanting to work to ban knives.

More here.

Methinks some folks have never used a knife in their life, apart from maybe buttering their toast, if they think this is a sound thing to do. Like all tools, most are used in good hands by good people for good purposes, but hey… one person fucks it up and that’s enough to take it away from everyone, right? (let’s ban cars then for that matter). Knives are even more handy than guns, as I think most people tend to go through their day cutting at least one thing (food, especially). My Leatherman is quite a handy tool, and the ability to open the blades one-handed is an important feature. If you’re a person that does work with your hands, very often you need to hold, stabilize something with one hand then cut with the other… you must have a folding knife you can open with one hand.

Less police to protect you

/ hsoi

Austin’s facing some budget issues and consequently that is going to mean fewer cops on the street:

[President of Austin’s Police Association, Sgt. Wayne] Vincent said postponing the [cadet] class will keep about 90 new officers off the streets for at least two years.

Ninety new officers off the streets… for the next two years… at least… could be more than two years.

Even if the police were bound to protect you, with less and less police and more and more population, it makes their job a lot harder.

Since the police will now have less chance of being around to protect you, who do you think is around you enough to be able to protect you? Hint: you.

If you don’t want to risk being a victim, take steps to give yourself the mindset and skills to minimize your chances of it happening, and if it does, of ensuring you come out of the altercation intact.

Blueguns

/ hsoi / 11 Comments

Tam’s random gun post mentioned Ring’s Blueguns.

I’ve got one of these that replicates a Springfield XD-9 Service model. The detail is amazing. It’s a direct mold and that’s what makes it so nice. It has the same feel as your carry gun, fits in the same holsters, everything except weight, trigger pull (of course), and perhaps any custom mods you have have done (e.g. sights). In my case, I did have to take the Dremel to it because the grip safety button was molded too… but whereas on the real gun the safety depresses and you never feel it, it’s solid on the bluegun and thus doesn’t depress and is irritating in the hand; a little Dremel work and it was gone and feeling like the real XD would in the hand.

The great thing about such training aids is you can use them for all manner of training that doesn’t require live fire, nor would you want live fire. With this big block of blue plastic in your hand, there’s no mistaking it for a gun (no rules violations). It’s good for working with a partner… you have the bluegun in your concealed holster, you work with a partner in a live scenario, and you can roll right into defensive actions including drawing and pointing the bluegun at them. Safety.

I often use my bluegun at home when I’m practicing mixed combatives and don’t want to risk damage to any real guns while I’m practicing something. I also think it’s a little less bothersome for any neighbor that might see me practicing.

Rings offer a lot of things, not just guns (e.g. replica pepper spray cans, radios, etc.). It’s all meant to help you perform training exercises where you need the realism but not the dangers.

Lessons from NTI

/ hsoi

John Farnam writes on his experience at the National Tactical Invitational.

Some take-home points:

  • Capacity is good.
    • Carry a reload. Even a back-up gun (BUG).
  • Keep moving.
  • Keep your head up, always looking for threats.
  • All situations don’t always require or necessitate using a gun.
  • Practice shooting your handgun at longer distances (e.g. 25 yards, 35 yards, 50 yards)
  • Just because someone has a gun doesn’t mean they’re a threat. Be sure of your target before shooting it.
    • Corollary: be mindful that someone else might see your gun and think you are a threat.
  •  If you get involved in a fight (fists, guns, knives, whatever), expect to get hurt. Keep fighting anyways.
  • Be alert! The sooner you get into the loop, the better choices you are going to make.
  • Hit first and hit fast.
  • There is no substitute to personal competence and practiced weapons skills.
  • Indecisive ditherers have no chance.

Good stuff.