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.

The Art of Observation

Blog Article/Post Caveat (Read First Please: Click the Link)

"The action or process of observing [employing our sensory system] something or someone carefully or in order to gain information. To take in a remark, statement, or comment based on something one has seen, heard, or noticed. AND Observation is the active acquisition of information from a primary source. In living beings, observation employs the senses."

To observe, one must be aware. To be aware, one must have attained knowledge through experience both academic and reality-based. To have knowledge also requires one understand the knowledge. To understand knowledge one must be aware and observe that which goes on around them through their sensory system. 

The art of observation to become a belief that is our reality requires us to assimilate as much as our sensory systems can see, hear, touch, taste and smell while creatively encoding through experiencing the observed stimuli. 

To observe is to have referential knowledge or memories stored in the mind. 
  1. Preparation: to expose ourselves to the greatest amount of knowledge available on any given subject, i.e., an academic experience. 
  2. Experience: to use our skills to assimilate experiences tactically and psychological in the real-world. To practice what we have learned using all our senses. 
  3. Reflection: to take experiences and share them with other like minds in an exchange of knowledge and experiences to cause a creative process to achieve synthesis of both current and possible new theories and idea's. 
  4. Demonstration: to take our results and test them with participation of other like minds to vet out the new experiences. 
Observation skills are truly an art for one who is skilled in observation doe not merely "see" but takes an active role in "looking," to observe that which is unfamiliar, to the changes in situations and environments and self and to note details to understand and explain that which is observed. To train observation skills:
  1. place various objects on a table, or on the ground and note what they are. Have students view the objects for two minutes, then cover them and ask each to list the objects. Increase the number of objects and/or reduce the time for observation and observation skills will be improved. 
  2. in subsequent sessions using twenty items, remove or move their positions for subsequent viewing and then ask the students to note the changes that have taken place. Introduce greater difficulty by moving or removing a greater number of articles. 
  3. next, pull up video’s of certain situations involving conflict and violence for the students to observe and when the video ends discuss what was observed and how one would use that information to avoid, deescalate or apply methods of self-protection for self-defense. (fieldcraft)
  4. when a certain efficiency and accuracy are developed then take the group into a public area, have them note objects in the area, and then convene outside the sight of the area and have each present what they observed. 
  5. as a more advanced observational skill, when students have come to understand certain traits, concepts and aspects of the martial art and self-protection to use that knowledge to observe a public area and present the observations in this light to evaluate with other like minded students and teachers. 
“What is fieldcraft in karate’s self-protection for self-defense? The skills involved in living, traveling, moving, or making observations in the field, especially while remaining undetected. Karate’s fieldcraft is the skills involved in the observation and detection of traits or tells of the people and environment that trigger our self-protection skills for self-defense in order to avoid, deescalate or act in a timely, appropriate and most efficient and advantageous way. “ - cejames

NOTE: Observation Principles

Kinesics: involves people's conscious and subconscious body language. Humans give off signals through their postures, gestures, and expressions that communicate their current emotions and possible future intentions. The ability to pick up those signals is critical to PROACTIVELY identify threats. 

Biometric Cues: the uncontrollable and automatic biological responses of the human body to stress. The physiological responses are key to understanding a person's emotional state and changes. 

Proxemics: allows us to understand groups of people, group dynamics, by observing interpersonal distance and identify an individual's relationships and intentions based on how they use the space around them. It allows us to understand an individual's behavior as it relates to the surrounding people. It helps us understand group dynamics. 

Geographic’s: involves reading the4 relationship between people and their environment. It helps us to understand and identify who is familiar or unfamiliar with the area they are in and how people move around their surroundings. Human behavior is predictable, threat profiles help us to anticipate where people will go and what they will do in certain areas. 

Iconography: allows us to understand the SYMBOLS people use to communicate their beliefs and affiliations. Gangs, groups and individuals use iconography as a symbol of group unity, for rapid recognition of other members, and to communicate their beliefs to the larger social community. Observing these symbols, particularly the increased presence or even sudden absence of them, can be key to a threat profiler's situational awareness. 

Atmospherics: focuses on the collective attitudes, moods, and behaviors in a given situation or place. Threat profiling can read the social and emotional atmosphere of an environment and pick up on the changes or shifts in that atmosphere that often signal that something significant has changes or that something is about to occur. Understanding that collective atmosphere can key threat profiles onto those individuals whose attitude, emotions, and behavior DO NOT FIT the given situation - those individuals are anomalies. 

These six observation tells or skills capture the most significant aspects of human behavior in simple terms that aid practitioners in establishing baselines and identify anomalies. 

OODA: OBSERVATION

The standard retort to that is to look and see through awareness and then the individual is pretty much left to figure out on their own what that awareness is and how it must be used. To see you have to have concepts to translate stimuli into something usable in this sense, self-protection of aggression and violence. Concepts are those encoded, trained, things in our mind gathered by a variety of means such as, "words both spoken and written and recorded; thoughts, idea's, theories, etc., from academics coupled with training and experiences that come from the intent and concepts that are aggressions and violence. In short, a whole lot of things that are often left to 'assumptions and assumed understanding' because most teachers don't really know how to articulate and teach such things so the sound bites are left to suggest and influence. 

If you DO NOT HAVE a solid foundation of knowledge and understanding that are the very concepts of your efforts to handle self-protection then you are NOT seeing and therefore not OBSERVING and then UNABLE to trigger that concept so that you actually can ORIENT on the situation(s). 

This is just example and very, very basic with the hopes one understands a lot of research, study and applicable practice in training are required to achieve successes in self-protection... in short, learn the 'rest of the story!'

Observation done properly, completely and comprehensively means you now have the awareness to trigger orientation on stimuli at a distance and with enough time to take actions toward avoidance, etc.


For reference and sources and professionals go here: Bibliography (Click the link)
Van Horne, Patrick. "Left of Bang: How the Marine Corps Combat Hunter Program." Black Irish Entertainment LLC. June 13, 2014.    


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