Blog Article/Post Caveat (Read First Please: Click the Link)
Once, a long time ago, my friend and fellow Marine Sergeant Ward H. Adams, a martial artists and Hawaiian and Combat Marine, decided he was going to walk up behind me at my desk, pull me backward and them pummel me about the head and shoulders. He wanted to see what I would do.
Well, first thing was the surprise then the flurry of hits about my head, neck and shoulders while backward in a chair with no balance and no apparent means to get it back but after a few moments I flipped over backward using my legs to get him off me. Not eloquent or even good but it stopped the attack and allowed me to get up regaining my balance, etc.
The lesson I learned was that the next time he tried that I would act at the first hit or pull. Today, as I refect on that and from what I have learned from luminaries on self-defense such as Marc MacYoung and Rory Miller (and a slew of others like Peyton Quinn) by the study of their books I see that lesson a bit differently.
First, my awareness in that environment was sloppy. When Ward walked behind me I should have, at a minimum, kept my eyes on his movement. Granted, we worked together and never once did something like this along with the fact we both trusted one another implicitly therefore an attack was no where near my mind I still should have, at the very least, kept my peripheral vision on what he was up too.
Second, if my awareness had been a bit peaked I could have avoided his move completely because in my peripheral vision would have detected his movement toward me from behind that should have tweaked my spidey-sense where I would get up from my chair and face him as he approached.
Third, even with out that awareness level when I felt him pull me backward I should have reacted even if I didn’t feel any danger from it. I could have then twisted out of the chair before my structure and stability was disrupted, etc. At least I would have been moving before the flurry hit.
Fourth, say I missed that one then when the flurry hit of strikes I should have felt them for what they were, simply an application of pain, not injury. Then I would not have dropped, hopefully, into a OO bounce and acted accordingly. In other words, broke that freeze sooner and stopping the threat sooner. I had the training and skills, not martial arts exactly but Marine stuff anyway, yet I took more time to finally decide to just “Act.”
Fifth, there are so many ways that this cøuld have been avoided it ain’t funny. Knowing what I have come to understand today in lieu of thinking, “Next time he tries this I will simply continue the pull back movement flipping up with my legs type thing” I would instead be aware that he was going to try something again and work my awareness to avoid the confrontation all together.
Lastly, a part of any self-defense training must entail as many possibilities as you can imagine including those you gain from others like the study of the materials from people like I present in the bibliography that follows so you have “Something to work with” in training, practice and applications. That stuff gives you something to work and train with so you have something to break the OO bounce and act.
Finally, then there is the concept that even with that information and training you still have to test it out in an adrenal stress condition realty-based training regimen to see how it reacts, etc. when the adrenal dump hits. None of this existed in my world then and even the Marines didn’t actually tell you that the training was adrenal stress based as they just exposed you to it. I felt that was a mistake because once you understand that concept then you can look for it in all your training and practices (well, when I say all, all that apply because you can’t train all the time under the adrenal stress conditions).
The lessons I learned then changed from the lessons I learned later and the lessons I continue to learn, academically mostly, today. It does result in a bunch of paradigm shifts for sure.
I guess it then depends on whether a person actually listens, then hears and finally accepts the truth of it all, then they can truly practice, train and apply.
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