tallgeese

How have I missed this? Great idea, and a solid way to look ahead LP. For starters, I can only speak to where I'm from. Of all the Use of Force incidents last year where I work (again, your mileage will vary) we had one, let me say that again ONE documented UoF where multiple attackers were involved on a cop. That's not saying that there weren't times where officer presence or a pointed weapon didn't change the outcome, but at the end of the day our guys only dealt with multiple attackers on one occasion. Now, from a non-LEO side (ie. victims we go to see), I'll have to pull the stats for mob action (3+ attackers) and see what it tells us. Off the top of my head, most of those that occurred that I had a hand in investigating occurred at a house party or bar parking lot. Rarely at someone's home who was minding their own business. That takes us to the realm of home invasion. When the offender just decides to come into your home unwelcome and hurt you or your family and take your stuff. We have a lot of these, some stemming from domestic issues (pretty common) but far more seem to be generated off the drug related incidents. So, I will NEVER way never, but if you stay out of bars, don't do the wild house party thing, and refuse to sell drugs regularly out of your home, you're going to drastically reduce the likelihood that you're a victim of a home invasion or mob action. What I would do, LP is check the local statistic of where you're calling home and find out how may mob actions and home invasions you've had in your jurisdiction in the last few years. Police departments have to keep these numbers. Again, keep in mind that often there are contributing factors behind many of these numbers. The whole concept of the flash mob might be slowly changing this assumption; however, we'll have to see how the numbers work out over time. Now, let's look at the one percent of the time your home will be randomly selected for a home invasion. One of two things is the case, either: a) the invader has a personal beef with you (not so random but you get the idea), or b) it's a money run for narcotics. For starters, my first line of defense is rather simple. A locked door and well lit exterior. Most times random thugs will look for simple. Unlocked is simple, locked is harder. It's an amazing deterrent. Not to mention when people start kicking in your door it: a) gives you plenty of warning, and b) rises (in IL at least) to a reason to use deadly force against the invader. Now we get to the meat and potatoes of what we're talking about. LP, you're absolutely right, a team of SWAT trained ninja's aren't going to raid your home. It's either a disgruntled friend (term used loosely), or a strung out junkie looking for cash and pawn-able goods. Either is not bringing back up. One to two is the norm. Again, I'll never say never, but let's play the percentages. The firearm you pick should be one you're comfortable with and has adequate ability to let you put rounds on target in the dark. For that reason, whatever you go with and a shot gun is a great option), I highly recommend a light of some sort. I don't run a gun without one any more. Most of these things happen at night, that means most of your lights are out, you need to be able to identify a target. A weapon mounted light lets you do that and keep both hands on your weapon. This is a bonus for obvious reasons.

That hasn't been my experience with BJJ at all. We've spent plenty of block working from the feet. We've also spent plenty of time jumping guard. Of course, being a ground based art, you'll spend most of the time already on the mat. But I haven't run into too many BJJ classes that never work from standing. I do disagree about the value of MMA in teaching us things. I think it's opened a lot of eyes in regard to training methods primarily and the value of cross training. Sure it's not real combat, but it's a snap shot of one aspect of it that's as free form as we can safety make it. As to grappling seeming to be a bad idea...yeah, probably, but that doesn't mean it won't happen. Why pretend it won't. However, we overstate the idea that someone will curb stomp us while applying a submission. Just putting someone down does not mean I have to become involved in a ground fight with them. I might take top position, do a bit of grinding while watching from a dominate position for a second friend. Positional dominance is the most important aspect of BJJ for street level conflict: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jQyqt4DKhRo Here's a brief video we cut in my home work out area for another thread that talks about the concept as it relates to what we're talking about. Karate has very good tools for conflict for sure. What it has going against it is out dated training methods (see the Karate without Kata thread for the full on debate about this). What training in other arts have that make them appeal right now those seeking self-defense is more realistic training methods. Renzo Gracie in his book "Mastering Jiu Jitsu" makes a pretty good argument as to why arts like BJJ performed better in early mma venues than traditional arts (granted, it's written by a grappler, but his argument has merit especially when stacked up against scientific learning theory) His thesis is that fighters out of arts that can train live, at nearly 100 percent when they choose with minimal risk of injury (so that the "too lethal" movements are removed, ie eye gouges ect.) actually have an edge in real conflict over those arts who train such things because they can actually apply their tactics under live conditions. Other arts are theoretical in nature in regard to what their weapons do (again, the eye gouge, throat strikes, ect) while BJJ, MMA, ect. know EXACTLY what their tactic will produce. People see this and, even if they can't put it in those words, perceive that karate is lesser in value in street level combat than arts with more "live" training.

2/27 Drilled leg reap takedown. Single variant. Single variant to over under pass. Worked on defending the spider guard via torreando pass. Then by lifting single pass. 25 min free roll. Focued on comfort and escape from bad positions.

I agree just about 100%. The farm proved to be far more fertile for story telling than it was in the comic. I'm good with that, different medium and all. But it's been done. I think I was good for it's use this episode as well, but I want to see them move now. I assume that the fashion of that leaving will be more dramatic than the comic version, but I could see it go either way. I had really expected the second half of the season to be the prison. Maybe that's season 3. Which I could see fitting nicely into their established pattern. Season 1- Atlanta, Season 2- the farm, Season 3- prison and the governer story line. Which leads me to my next question. How close are they going to stick to the storyline. The prostetics of losing a hand would be tough week after week on an actor, plus it is much harder to make this work in actuality than in comics.

2/25 Drilled some takedown position. Moved into single variants. 60 min free roll.

Then you missed some great discussion points. Some by sensei8 defending his position on page 1 that were well crafted.

Agreed. I hope it plays out like the comic. I just love that bit. I think it's even more profound with the longer relationship that we've seen those two develop in the show.

ps1, I don't have any stats on what second officers will do when faced with a partner in the guard. I'm not sure LE as a whole has been adequately trained in ground fighting for the time needed to establish that documented stat. That said, I'd agree with your assumption 100 percent. As to the increased of injury to the first officer by the addition of the second, I don't know that either, but I'll agree the potential is there. Those possibilities are why we added that to our ground portion of the curriculum this year. I think that the guard should be taught as a "oh, crap" position in LE as a whole. It does work wonders for a lot of things. Again no hard stats, but more and more dash cam footage is showing up with cops being taken down. The guard is much preferable to other negative options. For us, it's built into a learning progression going from bad to worse and taught after takedown defense work. As for the second man, we've gone to a lateral motion for bring the bad guy off. It seems to work well. It's a good point to bring up here, since we've skirted the topic. LE training in general (not just ground but all aspects) have ignored the fact that we hunt in packs for far too long. So much time is spent training one on one and yet we operate with multiple officers whenever possible. Hence, a whole lot of pulling people in opposite directions occurs. It makes us less efficient and causes more work an injuries on both sides. And we all know how much I hate to do extra work. Every CT program in the country needs to be looking at this and only a handful really are. Even we've just got it added after years of arguing with management over it's inclusion.

2/24 75 min free roll. Work on some modified spider guard from last week.

1/23 Drilled pummels, duck unders, and standing single leg variant. Worked on triangle from mount. 30 min free roll.

I've seen some of this demonstrated, and I think it is a most valuable tool to use. What I would work on in training is that if you are at that point, if you are going to draw your weapon, then there is no question as to what happens next; it gets used. That would be the most important point to get across, I think. We didn't do much rolling in our gear, but did do some. That stuff on the belt can really affect how well you move and work for position, that's for sure. Do you find that people get banged and bruised up more from training with the duty belt on? It would definitely be helpful in excessive force arguements. Reference the highlighted portion; just remember that in law enforcement, you almost always are bringing a weapon to every fight. That said, I still think the idea is a sound tactic. Yes. If there's a way around it, I haven't found it. On the up side, it's always minor discomfort more than anything. Usually on the part of the one wearing the gear. Let's face it, rolling over all that stuff and a red gun is just uncomfortable. That's been the extent of it though and hence we've gotten by with it. For the general population, we've kept the drills fairly static to date. This years evolution will be the first time they have free form work off of the ground. I'll have more insight for you after that. The other work, I've done on my own or with the members of the CT cadre.

Yes, I still very much agree with the vision the founder of my first art had for the system. Combative efficiency was at the core of it, and still is. Hopefully, I continue that thought process. I have it much easier than most because he also believed in cross training, evaluation of new tactics, and testing to see if they worked. It led to an easily evolving personal system for each individual who came thru that martial upbringing. It's made it much easier to continue to see things in the same light.

2/21 1 mile treadmill work legs abs light on the legs today, no squats ore deads due to a tweaked back.

2/20 Rounds of takedown work: pull spider guard, sweep to stand up, shoot double. Drilled modified spider for rounds. To sweep then to inverted. Free roll. Rounds of takedown work. Some eyes closed sensitivity work, then negitive positions. Followed by a frantic race to get to work on time.

I voted physical because my workout time dominates my own time. However, I think the readying/studying category is actually a close second. I enjoy reading about the arts. Still, not so much on technique, but more on history and strategy.

As instructional content goes, it really well done. The techniques are broken down well and all those small details that often get overlooked are in there. So, on material and production, they are top rate. xo has a good point, partners to work with can be problematic. And I'm no fan of on-line ranking, even for blue belt. However, having grown up in an area that to this day does not have a BJJ school within easy driving distance, I can see where it would have it's uses. I can't say that one should pass up the opportunity to train elsewhere to do GU, but I can see how it would be useful in some areas.

I will nominate this for the best eposide to date.

Tough spot. Cultivating training partners is, without a doubt, the best option. It sounds like you're having problems with this. It's always easier to cultivate from a club rather than build your own. That way they come pre-programmed with the basics of how to learn. Past that, I'm a fan of the heavy bad, the double ended bag, and shadowboxing. These have a handful of advantages over kata to me. First, they are free form, this gets you out of the fixed pattern and into putting weapons to targets while moving. The heavy bad lets you move around it, work your evasion and footwork and hit something really hard. Bonus. The double ended bag give you the same movement and presents and rapidly moving target and it give you the start of something coming back at you. Shadowboxing really lets you tighten your techniques at a speed that lets you do them perfectly and lets you build good muscle memory on them. But, it allows you to mix up routine and attack and defense patterns. If you're into grappling at all, think about building a dummy or buying one. They can be useful if you're getting minimal time to train on the mat. My cut off point is usually 3 times per week. If your attending a grappling class 2-3 times per week that does technique and an hour of open mat, you won't need one. Anything less, they are fantastic. Also, on the grappling front, look into Andre Galvao's book "Drill to Win" it has several solo grappling drills that will help you quite a bit. Lastly, look at using the time to increase your conditioning. Better cardio and a stronger, more durable fighter all begin to effect how you can perform in conflict. Good luck, keep us posted.

First up, I assuming that you're talking about Japanese jiu jitsu, the standing variety. The idea of joint manipulation in kata from a standing position (hence JJJ not BJJ) is the most defensible position. Now, I assume based on the content of the post, that it's really more of a question on how to best learn joint position rather than what art does it better. As another side note, it's probably always going to be best to look at whichever art really focuses on the aspect of combat you're most interested in. For example, lots of arts have some sort of short stick work. Lots of it is good. If you want to be better in that than anything else and really only want to learn that, then it'd be best to find an art that does that as it's primary method of combat (ie. escrima or such). As to best how best to learn joint manipulation, kata vs. direct to technique, I prefer direct to technique. It cuts out a step that takes time and does not immediately transfer to use in combat. Due to this, I think that just about any tactic contained in kata can be taught faster, and this be closer to actual application, by simply working the tactic without an artificial pattern assigned. I argue this to some length in the "Karate without Kata" thread: http://www.karateforums.com/karate-without-kata-vt42353.html While not specific to joint manipulation in kata, it's a discussion that might have some overlap into your question.

I hope they keep up with the old west feel that the last episode ended on. As for Lori, I'd like to see her grow a brain.

2/18 1.25 miles on treadmill abs chest/tris

Welcome to KF!

2/17 am: light jog skill drills on the swiss ball abs legs pm: 60 min free roll Worked on shoulder locking series.

2/16 Drilled ankle pick takedown and single version of same. Moved into rounds of half spider. Rolled into sweep that allowed for leg attacks, but stayed away to focus on the movement. 60 min free roll. Fixed problem I've been having with passing the guard tonight.

and I've no issue with combat preparedness in the right setting either. I just don't think they cancel each other out. Each aspect of the art informs the other. It may be convenient to think improvements in one's kata doesn't influence one's bankai or kumite but that doesn't make it true. That said, life's put too much trouble within range for me to deny that being mindful of going limbic during practice is worth the effort but that's really not too much of a stretch. I kind of do it anyways. ("you get one twitch - make it good") I'll keep those books in mind, although I still haven't picked up my own copy of Nishiyama's book so it'll probably have to wait. It's not my argument that they cancel each other out or that absolutely nothing can be learned from patterns. My point has more to do with time management and training effectiveness. I don't have unlimited training time, nor would I imagine do most people training for sd. Given that, I really have to maximize what I'm doing by picking clubs that work in the most realistic, transferable drilling available.