Please take a look at Articles on self-defense/conflict/violence for introductions to the references found in the bibliography page.

Please take a look at my bibliography if you do not see a proper reference to a post.

Please take a look at my Notable Quotes

Hey, Attention on Deck!

Hey, NOTHING here is PERSONAL, get over it - Teach Me and I will Learn!


When you begin to feel like you are a tough guy, a warrior, a master of the martial arts or that you have lived a tough life, just take a moment and get some perspective with the following:


I've stopped knives that were coming to disembowel me

I've clawed for my gun while bullets ripped past me

I've dodged as someone tried to put an ax in my skull

I've fought screaming steel and left rubber on the road to avoid death

I've clawed broken glass out of my body after their opening attack failed

I've spit blood and body parts and broke strangle holds before gouging eyes

I've charged into fires, fought through blizzards and run from tornados

I've survived being hunted by gangs, killers and contract killers

The streets were my home, I hunted in the night and was hunted in turn


Please don't brag to me that you're a survivor because someone hit you. And don't tell me how 'tough' you are because of your training. As much as I've been through I know people who have survived much, much worse. - Marc MacYoung

WARNING, CAVEAT AND NOTE

The postings on this blog are my interpretation of readings, studies and experiences therefore errors and omissions are mine and mine alone. The content surrounding the extracts of books, see bibliography on this blog site, are also mine and mine alone therefore errors and omissions are also mine and mine alone and therefore why I highly recommended one read, study, research and fact find the material for clarity. My effort here is self-clarity toward a fuller understanding of the subject matter. See the bibliography for information on the books. Please make note that this article/post is my personal analysis of the subject and the information used was chosen or picked by me. It is not an analysis piece because it lacks complete and comprehensive research, it was not adequately and completely investigated and it is not balanced, i.e., it is my personal view without the views of others including subject experts, etc. Look at this as “Infotainment rather then expert research.” This is an opinion/editorial article/post meant to persuade the reader to think, decide and accept or reject my premise. It is an attempt to cause change or reinforce attitudes, beliefs and values as they apply to martial arts and/or self-defense. It is merely a commentary on the subject in the particular article presented.


Note: I will endevor to provide a bibliography and italicize any direct quotes from the materials I use for this blog. If there are mistakes, errors, and/or omissions, I take full responsibility for them as they are mine and mine alone. If you find any mistakes, errors, and/or omissions please comment and let me know along with the correct information and/or sources.



“What you are reading right now is a blog. It’s written and posted by me, because I want to. I get no financial remuneration for writing it. I don’t have to meet anyone’s criteria in order to post it. Not only I don’t have an employer or publisher, but I’m not even constrained by having to please an audience. If people won’t like it, they won’t read it, but I won’t lose anything by it. Provided I don’t break any laws (libel, incitement to violence, etc.), I can post whatever I want. This means that I can write openly and honestly, however controversial my opinions may be. It also means that I could write total bullshit; there is no quality control. I could be biased. I could be insane. I could be trolling. … not all sources are equivalent, and all sources have their pros and cons. These needs to be taken into account when evaluating information, and all information should be evaluated.” - God’s Bastard, Sourcing Sources (this applies to this and other blogs by me as well; if you follow the idea's, advice or information you are on your own, don't come crying to me, it is all on you do do the work to make sure it works for you!)



“You should prepare yourself to dedicate at least five or six years to your training and practice to understand the philosophy and physiokinetics of martial arts and karate so that you can understand the true spirit of everything and dedicate your mind, body and spirit to the discipline of the art.” - cejames (note: you are on your own, make sure you get expert hands-on guidance in all things martial and self-defense)



“All I say is by way of discourse, and nothing by way of advice. I should not speak so boldly if it were my due to be believed.” - Montaigne


I am not a leading authority on any one discipline that I write about and teach, it is my hope and wish that with all the subjects I have studied it provides me an advantage point that I offer in as clear and cohesive writings as possible in introducing the matters in my materials. I hope to serve as one who inspires direction in the practitioner so they can go on to discover greater teachers and professionals that will build on this fundamental foundation. Find the authorities and synthesize a wholehearted and holistic concept, perception and belief that will not drive your practices but rather inspire them to evolve, grow and prosper. My efforts are born of those who are more experienced and knowledgable than I. I hope you find that path! See the bibliography I provide for an initial list of experts, professionals and masters of the subjects.

Exposure

Caveat: This post is mine and mine alone. I the author of this blog assure you, the reader, that any of the opinions expressed here are my own and are a result of the way in which my meandering mind interprets a particular situation and or concept. The views expressed here are solely those of the author in his private capacity and do not in any way represent the views of other martial arts and/or conflict/violence professionals or authors of source materials. It should be quite obvious that the sources I used herein have not approved, endorsed, embraced, friended, liked, tweeted or authorized this post.

Self-defense is about exposure. You must expose yourself to the many facets that make up the system of self-protection through self-defense in order to achieve a higher level of security necessary to remain safe from violence. 

First, you need to learn about violence. Most of us are never exposed to “Real Violence.” We tend to be exposed to a vary narrow part of the whole that is violence. Education on violence can be achieved academically, to begin. That academic knowledge is necessary to achieve proper exposure to violence in self-defense that is physical in nature, not just academic. 

There are are a variety of ways to be exposed to violence. Some of it through reality based no-bull type training and practice. Some of it through actual experience, usually those are folks who work as professionals such as Police, Emergency Response Teams, Corrections Officers, Military, Bouncers, Security Professionals and so on. For those of us who are not normally exposed to violence we have to get our exposure in other ways and train our mind-state/mind-set in order to achieve “Actions” that will avoid and preserve our safety and security in the full spectrum of self-defense. 

Mr. Massad Ayoob spells out some of the things one should expose themselves to in order to prepare for the possibility of violence and application of self-defense. One of the “Things” Mr. Ayoob expresses in his book, “Deadly Force: Understanding Your Right to Self-Defense,” he explains how exposure (my term, not his) can actually open the door to court/trial evidence admittance because you, if you end up being prosecuted, can only get evidence admitted if you were exposed to it so that it would apply toward any person who knows or knew what you knew at the time could be expected to reasonably do and so on. 

“Lethal Force (or deadly force; the terms are interchangeable) is the degree of force which a reasonable and prudent person would consider capable of causing death or great bodily harm.” - Massad Ayoob, page 20, “Deadly Force: Understanding Your Right to Self-Defense”

The key here is reasonable and prudent of a person like you with the knowledge you have at the time of the event. Although Mr. Ayoob’s book is about the use of lethal force by the armed citizen it goes into many aspects in explaining levels of force as well as types of forces that you may encounter that would justify your application of a certain level of force. In other words, he goes on to explain in his own way those aspects of self-defense in his own way much like Marc MacYoung and Rory Miller do in their books on violence, force decisions, levels of force, articulation, and so on.

Back to exposure, what made me take on this particular topic is Mr. Ayoob’s explanation that his exposure, or his examples exposure, to a text that has graphics that you acted the way you did because you flashed back to those pictures and text then pictured yourself or your loved ones ending up like that resulted in your level of force necessary to protect and secure your and your families lives, etc. 

Note: I may not be doing the service level to Mr. Ayoob’s book so take my post as a recommendation to get and read his book along with Mr. MacYoung’s and Mr. Miller’s so that you “Get the full and complete picture” of violence and self-defense. 

What it boils down to is if you truly want to learn self-defense you have to expose yourself to everything you can to achieve a fuller understanding of what it is and what it causes and what it is you have to do to achieve SD. It is NOT about the cool kung fu technique you learned in the dojo but about all the “Before’s, During’s and After’s of Violence.” It is about achieving the exposure that will allow your attorney to introduce evidence that you had knowledge of before, during and after the incident so that you can say that you did this because of this and it was appropriate and within the confines of the law as well as the moral and social acceptable standards one can prudently and reasonably expect anyone “With your knowledge” would need to do to survive violence. 

Bibliography:

Ayoob, Massad. “Deadly Force: Understanding Your Right to Self-Defense”Gun Digest Books. Krouse Publications. Wisconsin. 2014.

Addendum quote to clarify: "If we did not know it at the time we took the action for which we are being judged, we are unlikely to be able to use it in our defense in court. Be trained! Training is discoverable, and therefore introducible to educate the jury." - Massad Ayoob,  “Deadly Force: Understanding Your Right to Self-Defense”

Primary Bibliography of Self-Defense:
MacYoung, Marc. "In the Name of Self-Defense: What It Costs. When It’s Worth It." Marc MacYoung. 2014.
Miller, Rory Sgt. "Meditations of Violence: A Comparison of Martial Arts Training & Real World Violence" YMAA Publishing. 2008.

Secondary Bibliography of Self-Defense:
Ayoob, Massad. “Deadly Force: Understanding Your Right to Self-Defense” Gun Digest Books. Krouse Publications. Wisconsin. 2014.
Goleman, Daniel. "Emotional Intelligence: 10th Anniversary Edition [Kindle Edition]." Bantam. January 11, 2012.
Miller, Rory. "ConCom: Conflict Communications A New Paradigm in Conscious Communication." Amazon Digital Services, Inc. 2014. 
Miller, Rory and Kane, Lawrence A. "Scaling Force: Dynamic Decision-making under Threat of Violence." YMAA Publisher. New Hampshire. 2012
Miller, Rory. "Force Decisions: A Citizen's Guide." YMAA Publications. NH. 2012.
Miller, Rory Sgt. "Facing Violence: Preparing for the Unexpected." YMAA Publishing. 2011.
Elgin, Suzette Haden, Ph.D. "More on the Gentle Art of Verbal Self-Defense." Prentice Hall. New Jersey. 1983.
Elgin, Suzette. "The Last Word on the Gentle Art of Verbal Self-Defense" Barnes & Noble. 1995
Morris, Desmond. “Manwatching: A Field Guide to Human Behavior.” Harry N. Abrams. April 1979.
Elgin, Suzette. "The Gentle Art of Verbal Self-Defense" Barnes & Noble. 1993.
Elgin, Suzette. "The Gentle Art of Written Self-Defense" MJF Books. 1997.
Maffetone, Philip Dr. “The Maffetone Method: The Holistic, Low-stress, No-Pain Way to Exceptional Fitness.” McGraw Hill, New York. 2000 and more … see blog bibliography.

My Blog Bibliography

Cornered Cat (Scratching Post): http://www.corneredcat.com/scratching-post/
Kodokan Boston: http://kodokanboston.org
Mario McKenna (Kowakan): http://www.kowakan.com
Wim Demeere’s Blog: http://www.wimsblog.com
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