Sometimes You Can Only Hope

We had a zany, older gal contact us for some information regarding a self defense product. She felt that she was being “tailed” or “shadowed” by some ne’er -do-well. Her primary concern was that “no one would get hurt”. Hmm, what was I going to recommend to this lady to deter a criminal and not cause any physical pain or harm to occur in doing so?

We discussed pepper spray but she was afraid to use that since it might be affected by the wind and spray her or her friend (even though we have gel and foam formulas with no-cross contamination). She never let me finish my discussion on either a stun gun (cruel and inhumane), or a short telescopic baton (too brutal and too hard to operate).

I was getting a little frustrated at my loss of time with her but kept things polite. Finally she asked about our personal alarms and after much discussion decided that she would talk to her husband and decide if these would be a viable alternative to the other deterrents we’d discussed.

Maybe a month passed and with it, my memory of this lady along with her many concerns and fears. Lo and behold – a check arrived in the mail one day from this lady, requesting two of our best personal alarms with a flashing light feature. I laughed a bit thinking of our phone conversation as I sent them to her and life went on until yesterday.

Several months after all of this had transpired, the FedEx man was beating on the door and my Rottie was getting ready to open it for him! She hates men in uniform (odd for a female huh?). I accepted the small box and opened it – not knowing what it contained. Guess what? It was the two personal alarms from my old pal, along with a note from her husband that she had to send them back because they were too loud and she was afraid after testing one – that it might damage a person’s hearing. It “affected her entire body so strongly at a visceral level” (her words) that they scared her from using them. ARRRGHHH! This was a nutty and unexpected surprise. This lady was so afraid of being hurt that she felt that a deterrent device was needed, but so paralyzed by her fear of “hurt” – that it extended beyond herself to thieves, rapists, killers – you name it?!!

I am looking at the box with a sarcastic smile as I type this post – unbelievable eh? I suppose that fear freezes some folks up completely and others are galvanized into instantaneous action – and survive! I wish her well always – possessing so much love – may a hair on her head never be harmed.

Would You Rely On Your Lighter for Self Defense?

Cruising through the various martial arts forums and noticed this odd post asking if a lighter was a good self defense tool let’s listen in on the banter? (Their typos and grammar haven’t been changed)

“my brother and I were out walking the other night and he started asking me about how to use pens and keys and things for self defense. eventually I told him that just about anything can be used, even a lighter. I had my friends on me (I don’t smoke) and I had my hands in my pockets, so I put a few feet between him and myself, and said try and grab me. as he moved I pulled out the lighter and just flicked a spark, he was surprised enough for me to get behind him and place the butt of the lighter in his neck for a kind of psudo choke

now, it dosn’t sound like a sure thing that you could bet on. but in a pinch, what would you say? having it in your pocket keeps it out of sight, I know someone will say that it will take to long to get out of your pocket, but I find it fine, and if you take a small shift backwards when doing it to buy a little more time I think it could work. I don’t know if I wound consider using it in my hand as a kind of brass knuckles, that might be a little illegal. also, the use of it to strike weak points, however much you believe in that. any thoughts on using a lighter’s flash as a distraction?” What’s wrong with a kubotan buddy? They’re far more deadly than a Bic lighter.

Response:

“maybe..if the person your fighting is inexperiance then it might catch him off guard. I think it would just be easier to just hit him. But by the time they figure out its just a lighter, it wouldn’t give you that much time.”

Response:

“Hell no. Get this crap off the forum. You flick your lighter in a street fight, and your gonna get wasted. Period.”

Response:

“You cant be serious? Dont play with toys on the street! You wouldnt even have time to grab it let alone think about it.”

Well this guy took a solid pasting for about a dozen or so replies. Finally an avid poster stepped up and made nice. He apologized for the previous “gruff remarks” and went on to politely tell him the same darn thing!!??

Here’s the deal, a wicked street fight only takes a few seconds – up to perhaps a minute if there’s a bit of grappling involved before a trained fighter hands you your ass – but good! Trust me I’ve been in tons of street fights as a young man and a young martial artist – I’ve watched several times more than those, by just being in the right place at the right time. Watching is great fun if it doesn’t get too brutal. I don’t mind witnessing two men settle their differences but I draw the line at extreme brutality – except in the case of saving a life.

Two personal REAL scenarios:

1) I sit at a bar stool with my friend and his wife. He is on the end and next to the dance floor, she’s in the middle and I’m on the 3rd seat in. My friend leans across in front of his wife and says “see the guy behind you – he’s really po’ed and acting like he wants to fight me”. I mumble “ok” or something and begin checking the crowd out. Then, I notice a silvery flash out of the corner of my eye, then my mind became “one with” discernment and finally – action! My right hand shot out and caught the guy’s wrist in the middle of a “Major League Pitcher” type of follow through. The 2 oz shot glass rockets out of his hand and crashes into the dance floor, effectively stopping the band and halting all activity. I stood up on the rungs of my stool and still holding his wrist, jump down to his level while bending his wrist back and leveraging his elbow in my other hand. He slams to the floor like a pancake and has to be partially revived and brought up to speed on what just happened to him – meanwhile the Police have arrived and are starting to cuff him. Not one word was uttered to me by the club owner, police or the guy’s friends. Start to finish took about 3 to 4 seconds and I never had a conscious thought or a full look at what was happening. That’s “trained” awareness.

2) I’m sitting with an out-of-town pal and his 3 friends at a nice club, large table and chairs and having a great discussion. I’m sitting with my face toward the back door (since the parking lot is in back and the back door gets 90% of the traffic. Unbeknownst to me, one of his friends (#6) showed up a bit later than me and parked his Harley in the front of the club and used the front door. My friend and me were the only ones out of 5 people who didn’t see him come in and order a drink. They were acting happy as jaybirds and laughing over just about anything. This was a set-up, since the new arrival was going to grab my friend through the railing and scare the crap out of him. Now I only know my friend – the rest of the guests are in MY town – not from it – making any one of them suspect to a small degree of “horseplay” with him – and they sure don’t know me. The bar level is up two stairs from the rest of the club – which made it very easy for him to get behind us and grab my pal – through the spokes that hold up a handrail which is mostly a decorative and partially a safety enhancement. Well, out of the blue a large arm reaches through the rails and quickly yells my friend’s name. The next thing I know is that I had snatched his wrist, pulled him crashing face-first, down and into the handrail, had transferred his arm from my right hand (the snatcher…lol) and then placed deeply – anchored – under my left armpit. I was now face to face with this intruder and the right hand was now chambered to inflict 1 or 2 full throttle strokes to the terrified, bearded face – smashed tightly up against the hand rail and arm all trapped inside it. I was just squeezing off the first shot to the face when my friend literally hugged me with both hands and was screaming “it’s alright, it’s alright – he’s ok!!” I released him immediately and he took a knee for a second. He finally got up and started apologizing and trying to introduce himself – explain affiliations etc.. So, ok dude “just a reaction, sorry I didn’t know you man!” Followed with “it’s ok, it was my fault bla, bla, bla.” Start of his attack to my releasing him from a certain knockout and subsequent nose reconstruction – about 2 – 3 seconds! That’s really fast!

So why do I bring this up? Because you don’t have time to flick your Bic or whatever to distract an aware, trained fighter. You’ll be in the ambulance or asleep on the floor when playing your little games. There are a lot of trained martial artists out on the streets and many super-tough streetfighters. You’re only going to have a split second – and they can react in a split second with devastating results as well. So how about if we use our lighters for igniting fires and if we must fight – the best diversion is a strong punch in the face, a violent takedown, or maybe a swift and accurate punt in the groin. You always know your groin shots land hard if the top of your foot (under the laces) is very sore later on!

Find Out Who to Steer Clear Of

Have you ever wondered if there are registered sex offenders in your neighborhood? Maybe some of you have wondered why the neighborhood kids keep hanging around with that older man down the street? I wouldn’t allow that behavior in my children while growing up but noticed that a lady we know has a young son who runs around with a small crew of kids. They are about 12 – 14 yrs. old and always running afoul of the police for petty thefts, smoking pot and caching weapons such as baseball bats, multiple pocket knives, a B-B pistol and one old sword. These boys all flock to one older fellow’s home and spend hrs. there at a time. My first thought was “why”? The lady in question extolled his virtues and how much the youngsters loved coming to see him.

Now, this man might be an ex-teacher or coach and love the company of young men who he may see as a valuable resource to be nurtured and mentored. He may be all and more than what the youth’s Mom says he is. I wouldn’t believe it until I had checked with the local Police Dept. to be sure that he wasn’t a sex offender or some type of unsavory character. But that’s just me. I’d like to share a resource I found that might be interesting – you may even want to save it in your favorites. This is a website that helps in establishing known sexual predators in your area. All you need to do is enter your address or simply enter your zip code if you live in a large city. You’ll be amazed at what you find out!

So, don’t wonder any longer – know who the hidden predators among us are and where they live. Remember their faces – you’ll want to advise your kids to avoid them. Click here for the National Sex Offender Registry and stay safe.

Agricultural Implements vs Swords

My test and subsequent email to my teacher:

“I wrote this to my son two days ago and thought you might want to hear of my little “test”.

I have been doing karate almost everyday (almost forgot a few sections of katas and had to skip past and do them later with my eyes closed – that’s how I remember – but you have to do them a lot to let them just “pour out of you” like that) and have been suffering very sore back and knees. Yesterday I was thinking about Okinawan weapons and how they really couldn’t be very good against a Samurai with a katana. So – I have all of my stuff out and ready – sword (hair splittingly sharp) and all Okinawan weapons and waiting for Mom to get home and swing the sword at me and see what would transpire.

I was able to easily defend myself with all weapons (at training speed, reduced for “live” blades). Best to worst IMO, were: escrima sticks, (nunchaku – not tested due to lack of control issues but my guess is #2), sais, kama (extreme timing issues to get metal on metal deflections), tonfa (miserable to handle couldn’t find a block that wouldn’t risk a “cut-through” and death) but your Mom said hold them upside down – so I did and they worked much better with the t-handle as a hand protector – but still lame.

We figured that even basic agricultural weapons were better than none, given the plight of the Okinawans during the periods in time when weapons of any kind were forbidden. Plus, we deduced that the sword swinger – unlike Mom – would be closing more distance and swinging at speeds, that were some crazy exponential of the speeds we were using. Plus, it was also realized quickly, that I was able to avoid getting hurt by sheer virtue of years and years of training compared to Mom taking one step and a soft swing (with a mind for pulling it if things went wrong on my end) – whereas a Samurai would keep coming like a Tasmanian Devil. I feel like Angel Cabales is right on: “give my opponent an 18 ft spear or bo and I will use 18 inches of rattan to defeat him.” The baton is a very formidable weapon with several years of training to back up your techniques. Absolutely no room for errors.

My Sensei’s reply:

“First, I think it’s really cool that people like us keep on experimenting with this stuff. The ability of someone with 30 plus years of training is truly a terrible thing to consider. Naturally, your ability weighs heavily when you try primitive weapons against your wife, even when she has a katana in her hands. BUT…..the same thing was true in Okinawa 200-300 years ago. A young hotshot samurai, even trained from childhood, unexpectedly finding himself in a life or death fight with a 30 year karate man with a stout set of kama or sais could have gotten his ass handed to him, and anyone seeing it would have remembered it and talked about it. And that’s how karate got its serious rep.

I recall doing sai training with a 2nd dan when I was a 4th or 5th. We did drills back and forth for a half hour or so, in a room full of other black belts, under the direction of Shihan Joe. First one guy would attack and the other defend, across the room, and then we would trade roles. At the end of the half hour I was dismayed to see that my training partner was badly marked up all over his forearms because his blocks had been off just enough, often enough, for my sais to tag him. I hadn’t been touched. I mention this not to brag, but to point out the difference a decade or so of training makes. If we’d been defending against a sword, he would have died. I wouldn’t have.

Just my observation, and I would NEVER minimize the seriousness of going up against a live blade, particularly something like a katana in trained hands.”

So, another day of testing primitive “weapon on weapon” matchups. And, yes I agree with my Sensei, it was a very scary feeling doing defense against a katana with traditional Okinawan agricultural implements. Your timing and technique (the proper ways to handle and use the weapon) mean everything. When not done at the proper angle – I felt the blade bite into my weapons on several occasions. And as an aside, who really knows their spouse’s intentions when given full license to swing a razor sharp sword at your head and neck! Yikes!