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.

The Nature of Violence - Bad Habits

This is really one small part of a larger area of concern for me, one that I hope to flesh out in upcoming posts.

As martial artists, we have some bad habits.  A biggie is that we very rarely practice any technique from an inferior position, one where we're off balanced, have received a surprise attack or some sort of a shock.  Sure we practice a grab from behind, or a bear hug, but we still kind of know what's coming.  And our opponent very rarely really tries to knock us down or bowl us over.

I read some of Rory Miller's work and he made a simple but important point.

He said "Fights are painful, unfair, dynamic, chaotic, cluttered, and you don't get into them, as a good guy, unless you start out losing."


I agree with Mr. Miller on the whole statement, but the last part is very important. "Unless you start out losing."

In all your experience, how many times are you aware of someone being attacked in a face to face encounter?  The criminal element almost always initiates an attack using the element of surprise.  This is why it's important to work on awareness skills just as much as raw technique.  Criminals very rarely target martial artists (or anyone else) who are paying attention. 

So, how much time are you spending on defending from a losing position?  The reality of the situation is that if you get in a real fight, the initial flurry of attacks will have caught you off guard.  If you were aware of your surroundings, chances are you wouldn't have been attacked in the first place.


We have a bad habit, as martial artists, of sort of skipping over this reality in favour of fantasy-land thinking that we'll always be aware of our surroundings so we'll just drill what we're used to doing, a face to face anticipated attack.  That is not reality.  In real life violent encounters, you've already been hit, knocked off balance, or had a weapon used on you.  Your attacker may be one or many.  


We need to train for that reality.  We need to mentally prepare for the ugly, upsetting, painful, disorienting nature of a real attack.  We need to learn to fight back from that position, and get away.  No easy task, but definitely something we need to think about.


Food for thought.


Train realistically, and safely.

It's better to be judged by 12 than carried by 6 - A rant

Most people, especially martial artists, have heard the expression "It's better to be judged by 12 than carried by 6".  What this means is that it's better to survive an encounter and be tried in a court of law than to lose you life and be carried by 6 pall bearers.

I heard it again last week.  Then I heard it in a women's self defense setting not long after.  In fact, I've heard it said in a variety of reality based self defense seminars, in traditional martial arts clubs, and even on t.v.

"It's better to be judged by 12 than carried by 6"

Well, yes it is.  So why a rant?  

Because most people who say it are being irresponsible.  Most people use it as a blanket statement to avoid answering legitimate questions over the reasonable use of force in self defense.  In one 'reality-based' women's self defense seminar, the statement was used when someone was hesitant to throat stomp their attacker after throwing multiple strikes to the face and legs. The attack on her was a wrist grab.  Instead of answering the question, the instructor fell back on the good old 12/6 response.  That was irresponsible and misleading. 

Women in the class would either come out thinking any amount of force is fine in self defense, or would still question what is reasonable, which could translate into hesitation in an actual encounter.  Actually, neither outcome would be desirable.

This is but one of the examples.  In a life and death situation, when your own life is in imminent danger, the statement hold up.   If you can't get away, fight with everything you've got.  Let the chips fall where they may afterwards.  

The problem is that the statement is rarely examined or broken down.  And usually it's used as an 'out' for an irresponsible instructor, or by one that doesn't have a clue about the law.  Sadly, these 'teachers' are often providing instruction to impressionable beginners who believe they are qualified to provide accurate and responsible direction.

In my Mind the Gap series, I talked about how your motivation, goal, or desired outcome in an attack should be to get away.  The question of using force was the subject of one of the posts.  Basically you can use as much force as you need to in order to negate the threat enough to allow you to get away.  

Knowing that, be cautious of any instructor who tells you "It's better to be judged by 12 than carried by 6" when you have questions or concerns.

In truth, this is but one part in a larger rant I have on the state of women's self defense instruction,  but that's a post for another day.

Train responsibly.

Welcome new readers and followers of my blog.

Pride? Ego? What's my problem?

The other day I saw a family friend that I only get to see once or twice a year. Each time he sees me, he asks about my training.  He in genuinely interested in the martial arts and my ongoing journey and progress.  He doesn't train in the martial arts but he asks thoughtful questions and has an open mind.

Around three years before I began this blog, I had decided to try to throw away ego, pride and pre-conceived ideas on the martial arts.  I essentially started over.  My first real Sensei, the man who inspired me and put me on my path in the martial arts, agreed to take me on as a student.  He had retired from the business side of the martial arts but was willing to train me.  I put aside my belts from other martial arts.  I've held, and I guess I still hold, several belts of various colors in various arts.  I've yet to earn a black belt in any art, in case you're curious, but I've gotten pretty close in a few.

It was liberating to don a white belt again.  Just the look of it reminded me of what I was doing, and why I was starting over.  For the first two years, I was lucky enough to be a private student of my Sensei.  The training was intense and challenging.  I was a lucky lad, indeed.  For two years, I wore a white belt and never gave it another thought.  We never talked about grading, and quite frankly, I don't think it really crossed my mind.  It wasn't until my Sensei decided to take on a couple of select students that belt color and gradings were introduced.

I don't put a lot of weight on belt color.  Some martial arts clubs will promote students to black belt in a year, some take ten.  There's lots of good things about the colored belt system, but they don't tell the entire story.  I've posted on the topic several times previously, you can read the posts below:

Coloured Belt System - The Good
Coloured Belt System - The Bad
The 'No-belt' test
Bad Business, Fake Black Belts and the Internet

The point?

As a lead in to the conversation, the family friend said "You're a black belt, right?"  When I said no, he said I must at least be brown then.  He had, as it turned out, been told by a well meaning family member that I was a black belt, that family member assuming that I must have been as I've been training for as long as they remembered, at least a couple decades.  Neither knew, or could know, about my decision to start over or the specifics of my history in different arts.  They just knew I train.

What hit me about this conversation was that I found myself starting to explain the reasons that I wasn't a black belt, almost feeling a need to justify why I wasn't.  I realized that the issue of justifying why I was, or wasn't something, was all in my head.  It was my issue.  My belt color made no difference to the family friend.  It was a passing assumption that didn't require any explanation by me whatsoever.  It was also not any part of the subsequent martial arts conversation.

It was in that moment that I realized that I'm not completely free from all things ego and pride related.  It caught me a bit off guard.  My Sensei is the most talented martial artist that I've ever met.  I've 'road tested' my Jiu Jitsu with success on several occasions.  I know what I know and I'm confident that the instruction I receive is truly world class.  So why did I feel a need to provide an answer to a question that wasn't even really asked?

Clearly I've still got a ways to go letting go of ego and pride on my journey. Has anyone else suffered from an ego 'glitch' like I did?

Thanks for reading.  Back to some introspection for me...

Blog Update

I just wanted to welcome the new readers who have signed up to follow this blog over the last several weeks.  Welcome and I hope you enjoy it.  And to all my followers and visitors, thanks for taking the time to read the blog.

I've added a few new blogs to the links section as well.  I recommend you check them out.  There so many great blogs out there, and I hope to add some more links in the near future to the ones which continually impress.

Cheers.

The things that matter.

A close friend of mine lost a family member a few days ago.  Sometimes it takes a sad event to remind us of what's really important.  Health, family and friends.  We should never lose sight of this.

As for martial arts training,  your priorities should remain the same.  Train to stay healthy and to protect those you care about.  And remember, the point of learning how to defend yourself is to make sure you return safely to those you love.

My friend's loss reminded me to let go of all those little things that bug me but don't really matter, and to focus in on the things that count.  A great lesson, and one that I hope I can retain without needing another sad event to remind me.

Remember what and who is important to you.  It's for them that we train.

Train with clarity and a proper spirit.

Mind the Gap - Part V - The Law - a follow up

It was fairly challenging to write a single post that would capture how the law looks at self defense.  The content applied to the laws of several countries, and as such, hit mainly on the commonalities of the law and advice to keep you, the reader, safe and in a strong legal position.

John Coles left the following comments on my post on the law.  I've decided to respond to his concerns and comments in this post.  John's comments are in italics and I'll follow in bolded regular text.


"When you defend yourself against another person, you are assaulting that person. The law is based on assuming that is an illegal act, but then provides a defence against that act - self defence.


Most laws regarding assaults include the following elements - (1) the deliberate application of force to another, (2) directly or indirectly, (3) without their consent.  Self defense techniques therefore do fit John's point.  You are assaulting the person, but self defense is an area in law that justifies that use of force, exempting you from criminal liability, as long as it was reasonable.


Your point #2 needs clarification. You can use as much force as necessary to defend yourself - but no more. The law is about proportionality. However, humans have evolved to over react. In evolutionary terms, if you entire destroy the threat or do enough simply to nullify it, they are one and the same. For evolution, make sure and ensure the survival of the species - over react and destroy the threat outofsight. This then brings evolved behavioural patterns into conflict with modern law.


You can use as much force as necessary to defend yourself - but no more.  I stand by my comment as it is correct.  Perhaps for clarification, I could have said that you can use the minimum amount of force as is necessary to defend yourself.  I didn't choose this wording as I feared it could confuse the matter as the minimum amount of force will vary for each situation and for each person, based on the totality of the circumstances.  


From an evolutionary perspective, there may be a more basic animal reaction in some, but I doubt that most people would resort to shooting someone in the head if they shoved them to ensure the survival of the species.  I don't necessarily disagree with John's point, but I'm referring to getting out of a dangerous situation intact, where there is a degree of evolved thought.


Pre-emptive 'attacks' to defend oneself. You have a legal problem there. You assaulted another person. You need to find a defence. Given the legal system is based on legislated law and precedent, you need to find a legistlated law or precedent that supports your case. Given the person did not attack you, that often becomes problematic. How many women have been jailed for killing their abusers when their abusers were not actually attacking them at the time?

You may have a problem with pre-emptive attacks, you may not.  Yes, you've completed the essential components of how an assault is defined.  There is a fairly significant body of case law, or precedent which supports some pre-emptive action.  There are a couple of areas that need to be factored in to the discussion.  When did the assault begin?  If someone is advancing on you with the intent and ability to hurt you, in my opinion, the assault has begun.  You also must understand that each situation would be examined on a case by case basis, which must factor in all the circumstances of the event.  Who are you?  What did you perceive?  Who was your attacker?  Where were you?  Were there weapons?  Drugs?  Alcohol?  The list goes on and on.  

You will have to explain yourself, but again, you are likely going to be successful if your only motivation was to get away to safety, not to hurt or punish your opponent.

As for the domestic abuser comments. There have been women who have been sent to jail for killing their abusers when they weren't actively being attacked, but there are also ones who have been found not guilty due to the history and all the circumstances surrounding the abuse and the individuals.


Here is a question that may intrigue. If you punch someone in the street, that is an assault and you'll be arrested for it. Why is it any different when you do it in a class or a tournament? Why is it any different when a football player (Aussie Rules of course) punches an opposing football player? Why aren't F1 drivers arrested for assault when they attack each other, or soccer players, basketball players, etc. when they engage in fisticuffs in their sports?


The answer is important for the teaching of marital arts."


Sports violence is an interesting side issue.  The reason that a certain degree of violence is tolerated in martial arts or sports is due to the issue of consent.  One of the elements of proving an assault is that the force applied was without the other person's consent.  If two sports players basically 'agree' to fight, it's sometimes ok.  Having said that, there's an important caveat.  The law states that you cannot consent to major or serious injury.  That's why sports figures who seriously injure the other player often face criminal charges, especially if it's a 'sneak attack'. 


It is an interesting area in law, and martial artists should understand how it applies to their study.


I thank John for his comments on my post.  I welcome any other questions or comments on the topic.


Also, please be advised that John has just launched a new blog on The School of Jan de Jong.  Check it out.