Self Defense Lifesavers

[IOM Combat]

This post was originally published as an article in a dedicated KarateForums.com Articles section, which is no longer online. After the section was closed, this article was most to the most appropriate forum in our community.

 

... or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb.

 

 

 

How I Started Worrying

 

I was lying flat on my back in a field having been rugby tackled by one of my closest friends when I realized for certain that all the hard training I had put in and all that I knew wouldn't help much in a real situation. After a couple of years training in Tae Kwon Do I realized that I had never considered what I was doing or why. That evening I dusted myself, mentally and physically, and started looking (with the aid of rugby playing friends) for a new path.

 

Now a couple of years later I find it ironic that, having avoided "traditional" martial arts for the sake of self defense, I find my self defense becoming more and more like the arts I started in.

 

Self defense was something with a different principle to anything I'd done before. It was something that I realized I would need because a situation forced it onto me, rather than something I would choose. It needed to be simple and something I thought (to be honest) I could pull off after a couple of pints. The final point for me was that it would also need to be something that didn't just work after a ten minute explanation to my training partner of how they should react and what I would be doing. Two odd years ago these were the criteria by which I judged that which I considered self defense. Though a little simplistic these principles are still the basis for what I look for.

 

What follows is a discussion of self defense as I now understand it and a more detailed analysis of a few of the key principles and techniques that I would use if it came to the crunch. The main areas in particular will be avoidance, control and application of my "bomb" technique for when there is no other option.

 

Keep Your Ear to the Ground

 

Before discussing the martial aspects of self defense, I feel it is important to mention the principle of avoidance. When it comes down to it, in a self defense situation you have everything to lose and (as a general rule) nothing to gain. Therefore there is no reason to be in the situation and we should be doing what we can to avoid it.

 

While I am not suggesting we lock ourselves in padded rooms or never have a pint or two on a night out, a little common sense often wouldn't go astray. I've met people who insist they need training when all they need to do is to stop downing fifteen pints on a Friday night and groping every woman that comes their way.

 

Most people don't act in this way, however they often aren't alert or aware of the situations. While at university we had a path leading through a short grassy area with trees up to the halls of residence. About one hundred yards long, it was nicknamed "Sniper Alley" because people were always being attacked there. Yet, because it was a five minute walk round along the road, people always insisted on using it as a shortcut.

 

Call it target hardening, avoidance, or common sense; most people can improve their safety simply by paying attention and thinking about what they're doing.

 

The Best (De)Fence Creates a Strong Offense

 

The principle of avoidance is one that neatly joins on to the keystone of my self defense methods, the fence. For a detailed discussion of the fence see the book of the same name by Geoff Thompson, but for now I shall be discussing my understanding of it and my personal applications.

 

For me the fence is about one thing, control of your opponent through manipulating their psychology. This is done through psychological, verbal and physical methods.

 

Psychological fences are generally the subtlest and their main focus is to dissuade an opponent from making an attack. Ideally they give an opponent a reason not to attack you, which is stronger than their reason to attack you, or at least makes them afraid, overconfident, angry, etc. and so giving you the advantage. Alteration of body language can be used to mirror your opponent and calm them down or to help pre-empt what they may do. Sobriety (or appearance of) and being part of a group are all covered by this in that they weaken your opponent mentally, either to the extent they back down or just enough to give you an advantage.

 

A general appearance of alertness and awareness will often dissuade the opportunistic attacker. Psychological fences can also work against us if we appear drunk, alone, weak, etc., encouraging the enemy to make the move. We can use this to our advantage as a lead up to the "sucker punch" but this is a risky business at best and needs to be kept as simple as possible. The psychological level is one of the hardest facets of the fence to control because it works best on such a subconscious battleground and therefore has to be wielded carefully, as it may easily backfire.

 

The verbal fence is much more simple and is utilized through the use of your voice to shout and draw attention, distract through conversation or simply shock. This is a short term solution and is best used as a lead up to a technique. For example, asking a question to make the opponent think about something else while you make your move. If you think your opponent is likely to be dissuaded by groups of watchers, it can also be used viably that way. If in this situation "fire" is often the best thing to shout as people are generally more likely to run over than if you shout "help" or "rape". Although they may not be willing to directly intervene (as is often the case in our society) their presence may provide you with an advantage. Sometimes just going "a bit nuts" and screaming blue murder will unnerve an opponent enough to escape the situation.

 

The final branch of the fence is the physical. I personally consider this to be more in the area of stance work, but due to the cross over I will cover it here. This covers such things as holding the hands up in front of the body, pushing someone back, etc. It will generally be on a much more conscious level, both with regard to your moves and your opponents' reaction. The major drawback of this type of fence is that your opponent will be expecting something physical and it will lower, if not remove, the element of surprise from anything you may be planning. I would personally recommend the physical fence if all else fails but it should always be heavily trained leading into "last resort" techniques.

 

To sum, the fence for me is used ideally to attack your opponent psychologically, either in order to dissuade or, if that fails to control them and set up my technique. It is not about a fixed stance and it a not a set technique, it is a principle of control.

 

It's Not What You do, it's the Way that You do it

 

We are now going to assume that attempts to dissuade have failed. We are in a scenario where we have little or no doubt that something is going to happen. What follows is a discussion of the general principles and the specific technique that I personally will fall back on. The criteria is unchanged, it has to be simple, effective and multi functional. They also have a great deal of scope for higher level understanding and application, leading to a more complex system of self defense. To start with I will cover a few of the major basic principles which should be applied to all techniques, followed by a discussion of the techniques and how they can be applied, together with specific ways of improving them.

 

However, before discussing the techniques we must first cover a couple of basics on how the body moves and should be placed in order to get the most from them. We must also be wary of having too much of a fixed method of performing them, with each technique being identical to the last, even when performed by different people. What matters is that it works for the role we have in mind and that it can be adapted for varied situations.

 

The stance we should assume again has several principles. While they are not all essential the more we have in effect the better the chances of it working. All you are doing is stacking the odds in your favor. Both feet should be pointing towards the opponent and in the direction the energy wants to go. When we walk we want the energy to go forward and we don't turn our back foot out to the side, so why should we when punching? The knees should be slightly bent and the body weight lowered, enabling us to have better control over our own movements and more ability to react and resist outside forces. The body should also be turned 45 degrees on to the opponent both lowering the number of target zones they have available and "softening" the angles at which they are likely to strike your body. The hands should be wherever they are necessary. This means that if you want to hold someone away both hands are in front of you, if you want to line someone up for a strike one is in front of the other to act as a trigger.

 

The hardest thing for the stance is to make it look natural. It is your physical representation of the fence and must send physical signals to match the psychological ones already targeted at an opponent. Even on a subliminal level people will pick up on any mis-match between the two and this can negate the effect you are trying to create. You don't want a possible opponent to know you are ready for their attack and you want them surprised if you make a move. Another factor for the stance is that it should never be completely stationary. This is for two main reasons. The first is that if an opponent is used to seeing your body in motion he will not react as well when it moves to attack, provided that the movement is similar. This is due to the fact that humans are not good at spotting what is happening, only changes in what is happening. This is particularly valid for hand and arm movements. The second is that it is easier to move something/change the direction of an object that is already in motion than it is to move a stationary object. This can be critical if an opponent moves or attacks when we are not expecting it and our "natural" reactions kick in.

 

The first principle to apply to our self defense strategy is that of Body Alarm Reaction (BAR). As I understand it this is the natural reaction of a body as it tries to assimilate a high stress situation. In order to create this our intent is to create a situation where our opponent is unsure/surprised/shocked, giving us a window of opportunity when they are unable to react. We also want to train in such a way that we can become used to BAR where possible, increasing our chances of reacting when necessary. I feel that while an understanding of BAR is highly useful when causing verbal or psychological shock, when it comes to the physical side, considering the intent is to finish the encounter as quickly and with as little risk as possible, we have to make sure it doesn't become and end instead of the means. If the focus of an individual is not to disable an attacker, but is to restrain (for example police or doormen) this principle is of exceptional scope and practicality. However, even for the purpose discussed within the scope of this essay BAR is an area that, if understood and applied properly, can enhance a technique and actions significantly.

 

An understanding of the differences between pre-emptive and reactive techniques is also essential for someone to understand self defense. Ideally we will know when we are about to be attacked and make a pre-emptive strike on the opponent. This has a number of bonuses. An attack is less likely to be expected if pre-emptive and the opponent will have less time to prepare and protect against it and will suffer a higher level of BAR. It also means we are less likely to be struck or injured as we are not blocking/defending first we are just striking. On the down side it will look worse to the casual observer. However we can't always pre-empt and sometimes we must just react. We must therefore know how to deal with an incoming attack and perform a valid counter attack if needed. Whereas pre-emptive attacks generally will allow for usage of any personal favorite "bomb" techniques (right hook/palm heel/elbow, etc.) and correct setting of distance, reactive techniques are those which have to be used wherever and whenever they are available. This is where a range of drilled techniques that have all been tested, though perhaps not to the same extent as the favorites, come into play, allowing the defender to react with an appropriate technique instead of trying to force an inappropriate one through.

 

Visualization is another key feature, particularly if we wish to add energetic techniques. It also allows us to project better through targets at a simple level and is invaluable during training, particularly solo training. When training it is important to visualize ourselves doing the technique correctly so that we are not merely moving and seeing what comes out, but actually know clearly exactly what and how we are doing something. If we want to guarantee something works "out there" (which is after all the point) we must have both clear training methods to get it right each time while we can and also the intent to get the results we want.

 

For me intent in martial arts can be best explained as letting your body (or subconscious mind) add in all the extras that focus a technique in the correct way. If we want to run faster we don't have to consciously make all the muscles move faster, bring our knees up higher, etc, we just do it subconsciously to fulfill our aims. This doesn't mean that we just leave everything untrained until we need it assuming it will just happen. In the same way sprinters may practice just running with their knees up higher or pushing forward from the blocks instead of up, we drill particular areas and principles through use of clear visualization. We might take waveforms and, removing everything else, focus on making them drop an opponent to the ground or push them back or cause them more pain. That means that when we need to perform a technique we don't have to tell our body's how to do something because they already know. We just tell them what effect we want and they will fill in the gaps from the factors we have already trained in in order to know the effects they will have. This means that it is important that we don't just think "punch", we have to think of the effect which that it will have on our opponent, be it hurt them or move them.

 

Angle of attack is an important factor for all techniques. Although specific points may have preferred striking angles, on a simple level a 45 degree angle projected through the target is best and this will utilize yin/yang theory and therefore quadrant theory, as the force is directed out and through the opposite quadrant. On a simple level for self defense it is also best to direct attacks down and away from your own center. This increases the likelihood of your opponent ending up on the ground where they are less likely to be able to harm you and also means they are less likely to grab you and hold on as they are pushed away, preventing you from making a quick retreat from the situation.

 

Creating a base when striking can also have a considerable effect on the effectiveness of a technique. The simple principle of this is that if an object is less able to move and convert the energy of a strike into that movement (rolling with the technique in effect), there will be an increase in the amount of damage to the target. We have all tried breaking pieces of wood and found it is much harder to when they are able to move, hence we have breaking frames. The risk of creating a base is that we may damage the striking tool. To use the above example again, if you try a break on an unsupported board and fail, the energy is converted into movement. If you fail to break a supported piece the energy is transmitted back into the striking tool and you hurt your hand. Natural bases occur when striking a small target area within a large mass (strikes to the body for example) as the mass itself will create the base. When striking smaller areas (the head, limbs) they will often move more easily. In this case we prevent the movement to create the base. This can be standing on someones foot while pushing them or grabbing the left side of their chin while striking to the right. All that matters when applying this is that the target moves as little as possible as a result of the strike.

 

The final major principle for me is that of target zones. While pressure points are an exceptional tool, to the newcomer they are an easy way to be bogged down and miss the reason behind why they are doing something. For this reason I prefer to use areas with a concentration of points. The entire area of the head and neck are ideal for this as there are a number of meridians such as the stomach and gall bladder moving through the area. Therefore any strike along the side of the neck, jawline or head is likely to strike a collection of points and have a serious effect.

 

The "Bomb"

 

Assuming we have a correct relaxed stance, etc. my personal favorite technique is the hammer-fist. My choice would be a strike off the right (rear) hand coming down and into the neck at 45 degrees from my opponents left side to his right. This strike works on several basic levels.

 

The hammer-fist is used rather than the knuckles due to its natural resilience. How often do you see someone bang loudly on a door with his or her knuckles? It doesn't happen. This is particularly important when the target may be moving and you may be under high stress, etc. and so may strike the skull or other hard/bony areas, risking damage to the striking surfaces. Also when creating a base while striking we will increase the energy taken back into the striking hand so the increased resilience is useful to prevent damage from that.

 

It is naturally a more relaxed technique and is similar to a throwing motion, meaning that newcomers will have less of a pre-conceived ideal of how it should be performed than, for example, a punch. This motion can easily be enhanced by use of a waveform and this technique is particularly suited to the diagonal waveform movement.

 

Due to the direction the force is directed across the body from left to right and top to bottom (yin/yang and quadrant theory). Depending on the angle the striker is in relation to the opponent it may also strike from front to back or vice-versa.

 

We are also targeting naturally sensitive areas and may strike the stomach, neck, gall bladder or the rear of the neck if the angle of the neck allows it and along the stomach meridian running up the line of the jaw, as well as the gall bladder clusters around the temple, combined with the various points in their vicinity. Strikes to this area will also cause "whiplash" KO effects due to the shaking of the brain from cranial impact. We may also alter the angle of the strike to attack the collarbone that, while not the fight stopper many say, will still easily be broken and will dissuade most attackers.

 

Visualization and intent are also relatively easy for this technique due to its similarity to natural movements and a person may visualize throwing a ball through their opponent or stabbing them with something depending on their preference.

 

The technique also has shock factor, as it is easy to bring it in and strike from outside the opponent's field of vision and is a more natural movement than a punch so your opponent may not register that they are being attacked as quickly. This will increase their natural level of BAR and increase the window for action if the situation is not finished.

 

The strike can also be adapted to become more "spectator friendly". This is done by opening the hand and striking with the palm. This still has the advantages of striking with the hammer-fist but if done correctly it looks more like a friendly slap (if done pre-emptively and with the correct body language) or like a defensive push if done reactively.

 

This technique is also quite adaptive when it comes to range. Due to the natural throwing/whipping action when done correctly it can be used from arms length up to vertical grappling. The targets will naturally change, as will the angle of attack, but the technique will remain otherwise constant.

 

Due to this multi-ranged ability of the hammer-fist it may also be effectively used in limb destruction. A strike to the arms and hands of a threatening opponent may be enough to convince them to deescalate the conflict and, once again, if done using the correct body language, may look like a harmless slap on the arm. This may be combined with knowledge of balance points and pressure points by striking certain areas, for example the inside of the elbow on the heart meridian to force an opponent forwards and down or onto triple-warmer 11 on the back of the arm to take an opponent off balance.

 

The final basic factor for me is that of repetition. The strike may easily be rechambered to strike the same target again or different targets. When striking different targets we can apply knowledge of dermatomes, 5 element theory, etc., when striking the same target we know that this increases the pain/effect level of the strike.

 

These principles are, for me, why this technique is the main individual technique I would use. It works well, it is hard to stop and I can blast into it without much fear of hurting myself. There are other techniques that I would add to this one to cover a variety of situations (namely an elbow strike, an instep kick to the shin and a stomp) and these would combine when necessary. These are the core of my self defense style and each should be analyzed through the same means as the hammer-fist, both individually and in combination.

 

Last Tango

 

My final thought is that of the irony of what I consider self defense compared to martial arts. When I started down this path it was in Tae Kwon Do and I was doing things that I was told to do but didn't fully understand why. Kata were hollow movements that we used to win points at competition before the "proper stuff". One and two step techniques looked pretty and worked great against someone who played along. But we all really knew it wouldn't work but didn't mind. I changed my path and went the opposite route looking for individual techniques and principles that I could apply in my own way and people I trusted would look at and understand the reasoning of.

 

However, self defense is not a matter of saying, "when XYZ is learned you will be able to defend yourself", it is an ongoing study. There will always be someone bigger, stronger, more aggressive, etc., so our techniques need to become more effective to deal with them and since we are not about looking good, we are about what works, there is always something we can learn and practice which will improve the effectiveness of what we do.

 

We apply more principles of 5 elements, of energy techniques and waveforms. We study more and train harder and have to find new ways of testing and improving what we know. And in this way what we learn gradually evolves to look more like the standard martial arts we may have broken away from. That which starts as a principle of getting something that will work in as many situations and for as many people as possible becomes something more complex and this is where the "art" joins the "martial". This constant reappraisal and increase of depth isn't due to some paranoia and fear of the outside world; it is just because of the challenge. Martial arts often teach the martial through the arts side and focus on discipline, respect and mental well being (among others) as the means to achieve martial greatness. Self defense for me however concentrates on the martial and the discipline that comes as a result of the skills gained and the training achieved. This is how I feel martial arts originally formed. Evolution is through necessity and the necessity would have been to be able to fight, not to have high moral codes. I feel that the codes were added on as a necessity to balance the combative side and in the same way when teaching self defense we must balance the martial with the mental and while doing this we must make sure that we still keep our focus and intent in mind.

 

As someone who has been lucky enough in the few years I have trained to have had some excellent teachers in their specific areas, it also seems ironic to me that there are so many similarities between the apparently disparate things I have been taught, it's just a matter knowing where, or more properly how, to look at them.

[Patrick]

Thank you for the submission.

[Fish]

I found this really interesting. I'm sure you're right that this is how the ma evolved originally. I think it's really important to understand the underlying principles behind techniques. The trouble is, learning ma in a sports context, can lead you to focus too much on the impressive looking sports applications and need to score points, and then not be able use the simpler, more brutal techniques, in a self defence situation.

[choppingfiend]

Yes, great article...I think every person living in a big city should know some basic self defense moves...you have to know what to do and sometimes ma doesn't get you all the way there.

[orion82698]

Awesome article!

[Du Hast]

Very interesting article. It's almost too much to take in at once. I've read through it a couple of times, and still don't think I have it all.

This may be combined with knowledge of balance points and pressure points by striking certain areas, for example the inside of the elbow on the heart meridian to force an opponent forwards and down or onto triple-warmer 11 on the back of the arm to take an opponent off balance.

I have to admit that I don't have a lot of exposure to terms like these. Do these come from Internal Chinese arts, or from Karate or Ju-Jitsu practice? Or something else?

[Sensei Rick]

the purpose of the teacher is to make students think, and not just regurgitate (sp) what they are told. Your article is one from a great teacher, thank you.

[bushido_man96]

A very nice article. Unfortunately, I think you are correct in the fact that MA and self-defense aren't always looked at in the same light, although they should be.

Martial arts often teach the martial through the arts side and focus on discipline, respect and mental well being (among others) as the means to achieve martial greatness. Self defense for me however concentrates on the martial and the discipline that comes as a result of the skills gained and the training achieved. This is how I feel martial arts originally formed. Evolution is through necessity and the necessity would have been to be able to fight, not to have high moral codes. I feel that the codes were added on as a necessity to balance the combative side and in the same way when teaching self defense we must balance the martial with the mental and while doing this we must make sure that we still keep our focus and intent in mind.

Very well put. I think that this point holds true.