Low-Light Training

In my last post on training blindfolded, I touched on the use of low light training to improve your ability to prepare, and survive, a violent encounter.

Making training as realistic as possible is never easy.  Short of ‘surprise attacking’ training partners outside of the dojo, it can be tough to create, or recreate, the elements present in a real attack. (not everyone has a Cato…)

Training in low light conditions is one of the best ways to mimic many of the dynamic and challenging aspects of responding to an unanticipated or unscripted attack.

Most real attacks contain an element of surprise.  Very few perpetrators make their intentions fully known.  No attack, outside those of testosterone and booze fuelled acts of bravado, start with two people squaring off with each other.

Knowing this, we need to develop methods of training to respond to these ‘advantage-to-attacker’ scenarios. 

Dealing with spontaneous attacks:

Frankly, if someone manages to take you completely by surprise and undetected, there’s not much anyone can do, other than fighting back after the attack lands, assuming you’re in a condition to do so.

In most situations, and if you work on awareness as part of your training, there will be some hint that an attack is coming.  Unlike the blindfolded training discussed in my last article, you will most detect some of the cues, such as a flash of movement. 

The challenge, then, is how best to respond to these cues.  In ‘standard’ training as I’ll call it, your attacker is standing fact to face with you.  When he/she attacks, you often know what attack is coming in advance.  Even if you don’t, you may have enough time to identify exactly what type of attack is coming at you.

In a spontaneous attack, however, you don’t have these luxuries.  Your goal should be just to recognize that an attack is coming your way.  The loftier goal should be to be aware enough that you’ve extricated yourself from potentially dangerous situations before they ever got that far, but this isn’t always realistic.

Knowing that very few criminals are looking for a fair fight should impact our training.  Responding to a flash of movement is problematic in a well-lit dojo or training hall.  This is where low-light training can prove invaluable. 

Slowly reducing the light gives you an opportunity to gradually respond to less than ideal situations.  The darker it gets, the more you have to utilize and develop “universal” techniques.  It is much easier to come up with a response to an attack you’ve identified in advance than it is to respond to blurry or hard to see movements.

Low-light training allows you to gradually acclimatize, and inoculate yourself, to some of the conditions you may face in a real violent encounter.  While it is unlikely that you will be completely blinded, it is more than likely that your sight will be somewhat compromised.  Remember too, that getting hit in the nose will cause your eyes to tear up uncontrollably, reducing your ability to see. 

Low-light training has many of the same benefits of blindfold training, without the complete loss of one of your senses.  You must combine ‘feel’ with visual cues.  You will find, just as with blind folded training, that movement and balance must be mastered to be successful.

Universal Techniques:

There’s no such thing of course, but low-light training will illustrate the need for developing strategies, and techniques, that will give you the greatest chance for weathering the initial attack.

If you’ve read this blog for a while, you’ll know the value I put into what I call ‘crashing’ in on your attacker, while protecting your most valuable asset, your head.  Protecting your knockout button on your chin/jaw and those all-important eyes are extremely important. 

This applies mostly to striking attacks, but this same movement pattern can be very effective against most grabs as well.  Practicing crashing into your opponent in lit conditions first is a good idea too, to gauge distance and timing (and so you don’t hurt them when the lights go down).

For low-light training, I recommend your opponent wear headgear as the likelihood of you making contact is quite high when crashing in.

Experiment in low-light training and you’ll realize the need for this ‘universal’ technique or concept.  It’s easy to misread or misjudge an incoming attack when the light is very low.  Get tagged a few times and you’ll realize the need to cover up while getting into a position to better respond/defend/attack.  If you do get hit, don’t let that stop you from responding.  One of the biggest predictors of success is your willingness to fight back, regardless of the quality of your technique.  Once you’ve survived or successfully countered the initial attack, move into your response.

If you have access to strobe lights, add them to low-light training as well.  The rapid flashing distorts your ability to track motion and judge distance and timing.  Similar to blind folded and low-light training, you’ll have to rely on all your senses to respond.  Again, when you can’t judge speed and distance, you’ll need the “universal” technique to avoid being clobbered.

If you can, add in loud noises as well.  A recording of a jack hammer or even loud music will do the trick.  This added distraction further hinders your ability to make sense of things easily, just as the stress of a real attack can do.

When you train in low-light conditions, you’ll discover that this type of combat will provide you will valuable tools to prepare yourself for real violence.  It’s a form of stress inoculation as well, which is always good.  Low-light training will trigger the ‘been there, done that’ center of your brain, allowing for a faster and more effective response to a real attack.

You will not likely ever be attacked in ‘ideal’ conditions, so make sure that not all your training is done in one.

Give low-light training a try.  Let me know your results.

Train safely and with an open mind.  Good luck.

Jedi mind tricks, ninja mind control and the mysterious lumbering ox...

Perception is an interesting thing.  We are constantly monitoring the world around us, both consciously and unconsciously/subconciously.  We perceive threats, make assumptions and choose our behaviours as a result of that which we perceive to be true.

Can you alter the perceptions of those around you in a potentially volatile situation?  Can you increase your chances of being successful if you are forced to fight by mentally ‘un-preparing’ your opponent?

I believe that you can.

We each carry ourselves in a certain way.  A big part of avoiding a violent encounter is how you act and move.  Walking with confidence, looking around, and simply paying attention to the world around you is one of the most important and effective methods to avoiding being targeted for violence.

Have you ever met someone and they seemed quite intimidating, either by their size or by the way they carried themselves?  You thought “Yikes, I wouldn’t want to tangle with them!”  Now, have you ever gotten to know that person only to discover that they are a teddy bear, not intimidating at all?  Your perception of them has changed by getting to know them.  They haven’t changed, it’s your view of them that has been altered.

In many situations, you can manipulate other people’s perceptions of you.  Not quite ninja mind control, but it can be done.  I’ve seen small people seem much larger because they carried themselves with a high degree of confidence.  I’ve seen big people that seemed small and meek by the way they acted and moved.

You will actually appear to be more of an impressive force simply by believing that you are.  Similar to chest-puffing and strutting in the animal world, you can look like a potential victim or an in-charge individual not to be trifled with.  This takes a bit of work, but it’s actually pretty easy.

So, what’s with the ox reference?

Well, it’s not the secret sixth animal of kung fu, if that’s what you’re wondering.

Other than awareness and confidence, you can manipulate the perceptions of others in a more subtle way. 

He is not the threat you think he is...

One of the important lessons that I learned early on in my career was that it is pretty easy to ‘jack’ someone up, making a bad situation worse.  I also learned that while it was possible to calm people down through the use of words, it’s also possible to affect the outcome of a charged situation through the strategic use of body language.  I discovered I could alter other people’s perception of what level of threat I might present to them.  Not just a physical threat, but as a threat to their goals (whatever they might be).  I’m referring mainly to dealing with people that did not want the police to be dealing with them, but this can just as easily be translated to anyone that is in a position where they are dealing with conflict or crisis and cannot simply walk away.  Police, military, security, ambulance personnel, and health care providers all fit the bill, to name a few.

I learned that I had the ability to control time.  I could slow things down by the way I walked and talked and acted.  How did I do it?  By becoming the ‘lumbering ox’. 

I’m a fairly big guy, so any strategy I used had to take into account that fact that I was physically bigger than a lot of people I dealt with.  Sometimes sheer size is an advantage, but sometimes it can illicit hostility or what I sometimes call the “little man” syndrome.  Some people simply wanted to ‘test’ the big guy.  Add that to an already emotionally charged situation, and sometimes it resulted in a situation escalating rapidly, which is what I did not want.

So I learned to slow down.  I moved a bit slower, made my movements more deliberate and talked a little bit slower.  Not so much that it appeared I was being obtuse or insulting towards an individual, but everything I did was just that little bit less rushed.  The key was making it imperceptible to others. 

The more I worked on it, the more I could see that my demeanour caused the people I was dealing with to calm down.  I appeared less threatening to those often ‘full of testosterone’ individuals. 

It must be understood that this style or strategy cannot be applied to all situations.  In fact, there are many instances where you have to ramp up and take immediate and decisive action to avoid a situation from getting much, much worse.  This strategy is for those times when a situation is emotionally charged but has not hit a tipping point.  Those times when a situation can go either way, depending on what is said and done.

The key to being the lumbering ox, as I call it, is to remain ready to react even if it didn’t look like I was.  So even though I might lean against a car, giving the impression that physical conflict was the last thing on my radar (no pun intended), I was actually primed to respond instantly if needed. 

Another advantage of my deliberately slow actions, speech and relaxed movement was that I was perceived as being slower than I was.  This is an important part of the process.  When my words and body language were unsuccessful in resolving a situation and the other person forced a violent encounter, they tended to underestimate my level or awareness.  They did not anticipate any readiness on my part.  They were so confident that their attack would be successful, and that the lumbering ox would be too slow to react, that without realizing it, they telegraphed their intentions and their attack.

This allowed me to react so quickly that the attacker was often confused as to what had happened, unclear how I had turned the tide on them when they were so certain of a quick victory.  I had, to a certain degree, slowed and then sped up time, to my advantage of course.  If enough time had passed during the lead up, I had actually started to make the other person mirror my actions and deportment, slowing them down, without them realizing it.

This lumbering ox method only works in certain situations and it doesn’t always work.  The point of this article is to illustrate that it is possible to alter other people’s perceptions of you by how you act and the image you project. 

In communication, only a very small part of a message is actually communicated through the use of words.  The vast majority of what you are communicating comes from your body language.  So if the way you carry yourself is responsible for the majority of your message, what is it that you want to be saying?

By being aware of your own self, and projecting your thoughts and will, you can control how you appear to the rest of the world.  Knowing this can make you less likely to be labelled or perceived as a victim. 

Food for thought.

Are you looking at me? Am I looking at you? Awareness part II

In part 1 we were talking about specific things to look for as part of awareness training during the day and in high traffic areas.  So what about when the sun goes down?

Night time/low crowd:

The city is a different place at night.  Areas that were teaming with people hours ago now take on a different look.  And with that different look comes different things to look for.

You can easily apply many of the things discussed for day time awareness to night time, but several things in the environment have changed.  With fewer people around, differences from the collective behaviour are more difficult to spot.  While most people are still going somewhere or doing something, there is a much more relaxed sense of purpose, and often people can be just standing around, even trying to figure out what to do next.  It can be more difficult to identify aberrant behaviour.

Obviously, still pay attention to groups or gangs of suspicious looking people.  For individuals though, look for people that are doing one of two things.

1. Staring intently at you, watching everything you are doing.
2. Deliberately not staring at you.  Making a point to keep their heads down.  These people may wear hoods or other items of clothing that may obscure or hide their appearance.  They may stay just out of the reach of street lights.

If the hairs on the back of your neck go up, consider changing your direction, or making erratic walking patterns.  If someone follows or keeps pace with you generally, they could be a threat.  If they follow you after you've made an about face, the chances of them being up to no good is greatly increased.  Seek the safety of a populated area or an open business, anywhere with people.  

Be aware of sharp corners you can’t see around.  Take a wide berth around blind corners.  Watch for alleys or ditches close to where you are walking.  Watch for any area that can't easily be seen by foot or vehicle traffic.  Many attacks, mostly on women, involve being struck from behind and being dragged off the beaten path to an area that is out of the public eye. 

Keep an eye out for clothing that doesn't match the weather, typically more than is needed for the temperature.  This is easier in the warmer weather.

You may find yourself in a situation where someone is deliberately approaching you or engaging you in dialog.  They could ask you something incongruous or they could be deliberately confrontational.  They want your attention fully on them.  If you don't know the person, try to remain aware of what is going on behind you.  Many criminals operate in pairs.  While the first one distracts you, the other sneaks up behind you.  It’s always a good idea to know what’s going on around you, even if you look a bit weird by turning around from time to time when you're walking.

If you’re in a bar, or somewhere similar, try to keep a wall to your back.  Also, keep an exit handy and in sight.  Being able to see who is coming in and out of an establishment is never a bad idea.

And remember, not everyone is out to get you.  And no one action or behaviour means someone is a criminal or has nefarious intent.  This is what awareness is all about.  It’s about being aware of your surroundings, paying attention to patterns or behaviours, being aware of what does and doesn’t fit.

At the start of this post, I mentioned that it’s more important to ‘just be looking’ than knowing what exactly to look for. 

A person in a busy area might have his hood up and be staring at people with no apparent purpose and be continually checking a bulge in his low hanging jacket pocket and be moving somewhat erratically because he is high on drugs and is about to rob someone at gunpoint, or it could be a teenager on lunch listening to music on his earphones bopping away, while checking on his newly purchased iphone or hand held video game system that’s in his pocket.

There’s no definitive list of exactly what to look for, but hopefully I’ve provided some insight into potential danger signs.  And remember, if you are in a dicey situation, watch the hands. Hands are what will attack you 9 times out of 10 and hands are what grab and use weapons.  If someone's hands are kept from view at all times, you should be wondering what they're up to.

And always, always, trust your gut.  If a situation doesn’t feel right to you, leave.  More often than not, if you’ve been paying attention, your mind has put together a whole bunch of observations that have resulted in your feeling of unease.  Quite frankly, it doesn’t really matter if you can separate each piece of the puzzle, as long as the end result is you being safe.

Are you looking at me? Am I looking at you? Awareness

Sue over at My Journey to Black Belt made an interesting comment on the state of awareness training, a component referenced in a variety of courses, seminars, martial arts and websites etc.  She said while the importance of awareness in self defense training is mentioned, what to actually look for is often absent.  Too soon do the topics shift the physical skills.   

Instead of paying lip service, she'd like to put some meat on the bones and asked what things, specifically, to look for to stay safe in daily life.  I'm paraphrasing of course, check her article out here. She is planning on putting together a guide on awareness and what of to look for in self defense.

Readers of this blog know that I believe awareness is the single most important part of self defense.  Read about that here and here.  I've also written about how to work on developing these skills. Read that here.  

I've also talked about some of the bad habits we get in training, assuming we'll always be aware of what's going on around us.  Read that article here.

The answer of what specifically to look for, what physical traits, movements, or actions should set off you alarm bells is a bit complex, I’m afraid.  I would like to provide a definitive list of dangers signs that apply universally, but no such list exists; there are just too many variables, not the least of which is who you are and where you are.

First and foremost, before trying to break it down, the number one way to use awareness to avoid danger in day to day life is just to pay attention.  Pure and simple.  Simply paying attention to your surroundings is the biggest part.     

You may not know exactly what to look for, but at least you’re looking.  Easy prey is prey that is clueless, lost in headphones, cell phones or electronic devices, looking down, unaware of the world around them.  Criminals are lazy by nature, so the easier the target is to surprise, the better.  They don’t want you looking at them.  More times than not, they’ll pass on the attentive person and target the one who they can easily approach undetected.

Most attacks involve an element of surprise, regardless of the circumstances.  Even alcohol induced displays of aggression and bravado that leads to bar fights usually include a ‘sucker punch’ or surprise attack.

So, in attempt to provide some insight into what to look for, here goes:

The time and environment play a huge role in awareness training.  Things to watch for in a busy city environment at midday differ significantly from things to look for in a park at night.

Let’s break it down a bit by time of day and location.

Day time/city environment:

Crowed urban areas present unique challenges for awareness training.  In big centers, we are forced into situations where our personal comfort zones regarding personal space are often compromised. 

In crowded situations, you need to look less for specific behaviours, and more for behaviour that is different from that of the masses.  Granted, in these situations, there can be a lot of different things going on, but by and large, most people are purpose driven.  They are going somewhere and doing something.  Anyone who is at odds with this may be worth watching.

The element of surprise is less prevalent in crowded situations.  You may be more likely to be pick pocketed or have a purse snatched, but it is less likely that you will experience violence during the act.

Watch for anyone who doesn’t seem to be doing anything or going anywhere.  Lacking a purpose could indicate trouble.  Could, of course, these are broad stroke generalizations and are meant as things to think about.

Assuming someone isn’t a street person, watch for anyone that is just standing or sitting around.  Watch for whom they are looking at, and what they are looking at.  Does the person’s gaze follow only one gender, are they just looking at people carrying electronics, phones, handbags etc? 

Also look for people exhibiting bizarre behaviour.  If someone is mentally unbalanced or high on drugs, they may be acting out.  Someone suffering a drug induced psychotic break may lash out at real or imagined people or events and you could be caught in the path.  Be especially careful around traffic or on subway platforms so that you aren’t pushed into the path of oncoming traffic.

Outside of the individuals, look for what I call ‘packs’, groups of people the same age, wearing similar styles of clothing, perhaps wearing the same coloured items of clothing.  These packs, usually made up of younger males, could be gang related or they could be using their numbers to intimidate others or hide some criminal acts, such as surrounding a lone person and taking their ipad or laptop or phone etc.  I don’t want to typecast, but we all know these packs when we see them.  They’re walking around, staring everyone down, and refusing to move out of the way on the sidewalk, pants halfway down.  They spit and litter and bother people going about their day.  Enough, I’ve made my point.

And remember, people who are about to commit a crime are often experiencing stress and adrenaline.  The human body gets bottled up with stress, anxiety and excess energy.  Think of it as a boiling pot with the lid down tight.  It needs to let off steam.  The way humans let this steam is through movement.  The full physiological reasons require far more explanation, but for our purposes, suffice to say we need to burn off nervous energy through movement.  Watch for those individuals that are pacing, or whose legs are tapping incessantly.  People who are working themselves up to commit a crime or attack someone will not be able to remain still.  Watch for twitchy individuals.

Also watch for anyone who continually touches one area of their clothing.  They could have a weapon and most criminals subconsciously feel a need to touch or check their weapon.  This is one of the characteristics of an armed person, this need to continually check that the weapon is still there, and accessible.  If you notice this, the area being checked will most likely be within easy reach, so think midsection.  And also look for unnatural bulges or areas that hang down.  If one pocket or a coat hangs noticeably lower than the other, they could be carrying a gun.  Of course, it could be a can or beer or soda, or a book, or any number of things.

It is normally the combination of several factors that should set you alarm bells off.  This is what awareness training is about.  Noticing odd patterns of behaviour, or in crowded situations, behaviours that are incongruous with the rest of the surroundings and the majority of people is the key.

In Part II I'll talk about night time considerations. 

Awareness - Intent versus ability

Readers of this blog will know that I believe awareness is the single most important part of self defense.

Now, I exist is a slightly more vigilant state than most.  It's not quite paranoia, but I am always scanning my surroundings, scanning for potential threats. Military people, police and security can often be identified just by the way they scan any new bar, restaurant, store, subway car etc, that they are entering.  I am guilty of this.  My buddy called me on this not long ago when we were out at a pub.  He got a kick out of observing me observe others.  He wanted to know what I was looking for.  He understood about exit points, potential weapons and that sort of thing, but wanted to know what I looked for when I scanned people.

That part is a bit trickier.  In the example above, there were several dozen people in a fairly small pub.  It wasn't too crowded but there weren't many empty tables.

So how does someone scan 30 people in a few seconds?  I have, after all, walked out of an establishment based on a five second scan.

There are two things I try to hone in on. One is the overall energy in the place. No matter what you want to call it, if the place has a bad vibe or bad energy, I'll go somewhere else.  I think most people have walked into a place and felt bad energy.  Something about the place just didn't feel right.  I say trust this. Unless you have to be there, leave.  Trust you gut.  Call it your sixth sense if you want.

The second thing I look for is intent.  I scan each person briefly to try to judge their intent.  I can't guess at any one person's ability, so the only sense I can get from a quick look is intent.

If I'm scanning a room, my mind and my eye easily 'rule out' most people as a threat in an instant.  It's those individuals that give off bad energy or intent that I take a second look at.  I could walk into a bar filled with martial arts masters of the highest calibre and would most likely rule them all out as potential threats in a heartbeat, providing they were there with good intentions.  That's the difference between intent and ability.  The masters would have the ability to be a threat were they so inclined, but if they don't have bad intentions, I would skip right past them on my 'threat-o-meter'.

I can usually tell the few people who are in an establishment with bad intentions.  The ones whose energies aren't focused on the positive around them, be it food, company or entertainment.

I might 'flag' a guy standing at a bar.  I might think that he might be threat.  If I had to drill down and explain why, it might be that every time someone walks by, they tense a little bit and stand a bit further back possibly hoping someone will accidentally bump into them.  It might be that they are giving mini 'stare-downs' at those around them.  Or they might fixate on someone not known to them or inappropriately stare at someone's girlfriend or partner.  They might make rude comments to be overheard by others.  They might deliberately stand in someone's way, making the other person ask them to move.  Their eyes may be cloudy or the pupils might be large, a possible indication of an intoxicating substance.  They might clearly be drunk, and loud etc.  There are dozens of little things, that when combined, get my hackles up.  And while clothing and appearance play a role, they are far less reliable indicators than actions and attitude.

It is actually harder to break down all the different things that combine to give you a good or bad feeling about someone than it is to make the overall assessment.

With the exception of certain professions, it isn't even necessary to break it all down to explain it.  Your brain processes all this stuff for you.  The neat part is that it's a skill that can be used and improved by anyone in any walk of life. It can even be fun. Make a game of scanning the room wherever you go. Look for bad energy or intent.  What's the worst that can happen? Nothing.  The best?  Maybe you avoid being present for an unpleasant situation, whether or not the bad intentions ever get aimed at you.

And remember, predators watch for victims that aren't paying attention.  If they see you paying attention, they'll move on to easier prey.

Be safe.  Have fun.