Make YOUR art work on the street, self defense secrets:Chapter 3: FEAR To understand how to combat FEAR in self defense we use the same principle we used in understanding how to combat an attack. We need to understand how fear works. Once we understand the structure of fear we can work out how to undermine that structure.
The kind of fear we're likely to encounter in a self-defence situation is very structured and when we attack its foundations it's quickly toppled. Consider this ..... You're faced with an assailant whose body-language tells you he intends to strike you. He's holding a knife in his hand. Nasty! A knife ..... Oh, my God ..... This's it! Your moment of truth's arrived. In less than a minute you could be dead! YOU LOOK AT THE WEAPON. You can't take your eyes off it. You immediately conjure up in your mind the sight and feel of it ripping into you. You begin to sweat. Your legs feel weak. The adrenalin in your system begins to consume you. You're mesmerised. By this stage you're dead meat! You've done exactly what your assailant expected you to do. He only has to deliver the blow and that's it! What chance do you have? BUCKLEY'S! However ........................ self defense - Make YOUR art work on the street Chapter 5: The Relationship Between Fear and Confidence There's not much question that in the area of self-defence FEAR IS IN INVERSE PROPORTION TO CONFIDENCE. In other words, the more fear ..... the less confidence and the less fear ..... the more confidence. Conversely, the less confidence ..... the more fear and the more confidence ..... the less fear. As obvious as this appears, the relationship between the two is of vital importance in understanding what's required in preparing yourself to meet a full-on attack. If you lack confidence your level of fear is high and if you remember FEAR is the ONLY thing the attacker has going for him. By building up a high degree of GENUINE confidence you'll be taking away your assailant's REAL weapon. His real weapon is not the knife or whatever he's attempting to use to strike you. That's nothing more than an extension of his arm or in the case of a kick with a steel-capped boot an extension of his foot. No ..... his REAL weapon is FEAR. Take this away from him and you've effectively, disarmed him. Another important thing to realise is that CONFIDENCE COMES FROM KNOWLEDGE.! If fear's in inverse proportion to confidence and confidence comes from knowledge it follows that, in this context, FEAR IS ALSO IN INVERSE PROPORTION TO KNOWLEDGE. The more you know about your ability to defend yourself successfully the less fear you'll experience. Remember, your attacker NEEDS you to be afraid of him. If you're not afraid of him and you know exactly what to do to counter his attack AND you know exactly where to strike him to put him out of action WHAT HAS HE GOT GOING FOR HIM? Absolutely NOTHING! He's under the impression that HE has the whip-hand. Nothing could be further from the truth. He thinks his weapon gives him the advantage when it doesn't. He thinks you're a helpless victim when you're not. What a dummy! My money's on YOU! The key to all of this of course is ............. Making YOUR art WORK! Chapter 7: Fight Fire with Fire To ensure your assailant's unable to continue his attempt to attack you, once you've thwarted his initial attack you need to put him out of action VERY QUICKLY. This means YOU have to become an ATTACKER (albeit a COUNTER-attacker). As soon as you've completed your response to his initial attack such as blocking, parrying or moving out of the way YOU MUST ATTACK HIM! This is of VITAL IMPORTANCE, as he must NOT be allowed to make a second attempt to attack you. You must attack him FULL-ON! It's of little use being half-hearted about your attack, as you'll be unlikely to dissuade him from making another attack on you and this time you'll be facing someone who's forewarned that you're able to defend yourself thereby making him more cautious as he attacks you. You'll have lost the huge advantage you had in the element of surprise. This of course makes him a much more dangerous adversary. In fact, it's often best for YOU to make the first move. When you KNOW your assailant's unlikely to back off ..... MAKE A CONSCIOUS DECISION TO ATTACK HIM! Decide on the attack you'll use and as soon as he comes within range of your strike ATTACK with as much force as you need to put him out of action. GO IN HARD! Do NOT hesitate. He'll be caught off guard and YOU'LL be in control of the situation instead of HIM. This is VITALLY IMPORTANT as he who has control wins. If you miss your opportunity to attack first, you're going to have to be VERY quick with your defensive actions as you'll be reacting to a full-on attack. Why put this pressure on yourself? What can you possibly gain from waiting for HIM to make the first move? You've already worked out that he's not going to back off. Get in first. He won't be expecting it and you'll totally confuse him for the time you need to put him out of action.
Know exactly what you're going to do. Know exactly where you're going to strike him. As soon as your target......... moves, HIT IT imagine this: You're walking alone one day minding your own business when all of a sudden you notice someone spring at you out of the corner of your eye! You turn just in time to see a man, much larger than yourself, lunging at you with a knife in his hand! Oh my God! What do you do? Do you panic? Do you HOPE your martial arts skills will come to you and give this guy a whoopin' he won't forget?? Most people, martial artists and non-martial artists alike, will panic in this situation. That's the absolute worse thing you can do! So, how do you deal with this situation? Well, if you are familiar with the writings of Allen Graham in his book "Beyond the Martial Arts," then you will know precisely what to do. Your mind will be trained AS WELL AS your body! You will know how to put your martial arts skills to use in the REAL world! On the other hand, if you haven't had the chance to read "Beyond the Martial Arts," then it's uncertain what you would do. You might THINK that you could handle the situation. After all, you learned how to kick and punch effectively in your martial arts classes... right?? Well, don't be so certain of yourself. Many a martial artists has died in the streets of the REAL world because of a lack of the ability to handle a dangerous situation at the MENTAL level. Don't let this be you! Chapter 8: Taking Control As soon as you're threatened, you must TAKE CONTROL! Never let your assailant have control of the situation. While he has control, he knows what he's doing and his level of confidence is high. He'll also have a good idea of what you'll be doing. HE is calling all the shots. He has everything going for him. By taking control away from him you REVERSE THE ROLES. Suddenly, he's unsure of what's happening. He is, for the moment, confused and has to react to what YOU'RE doing. This gives YOU the huge advantage he thought HE had. YOU become the attacker! Unless he's an expert in self-defence, as well as an aggressor, he's in BIG TROUBLE. Just think of the psychological effect upon your attacker. Here he is with what he thought was a helpless victim when suddenly his prey explodes into action and tears into him. Before he's aware of what's happening, he's carrying an injury that makes it impossible to carry out his original intention. Do NOT signal your move. Wait until the target area on him has come into range and then STRIKE! No warning ..... just go for it. The result will AMAZE you. Don't stop until he is down and out of action. Chapter 11: The Fear of Making a Mistake The fear of making a mistake is the greatest mistake of all. It's a cancer that eats away at your confidence and grossly inhibits your ability to act as soon as you have the opportunity. Even after you've learnt how to defend yourself by using the best methods available and have proven yourself extremely competent at using them, if you're afraid of making a mistake it'll prevent you from being decisive and taking control. You may as well face your assailant wearing leg-irons and handcuffs. By training against REALISTIC attacks of a nature likely to be encountered in the real world and not simply those forms of attack you encounter when sparring against others using a particular style of martial art, you'll recognise instantly and in plenty of time what your assailant's next move will be. Remember, your attacker's TELLING you what he's going to do. His body-language is a dead give-away. All you have to do is train against these forms of attack often enough to be able to read the signs he's giving you. As you train, make sure you gradually build up the intensity to FULL-ON attacks! You'll find you're able to read the signs of what attack's coming in plenty of time to take the appropriate action. This'll give you CONFIDENCE in your ability to do the right thing and you won't even consider the possibility of making a mistake. It's a good idea to begin learning the giveaway signs of a new attack by asking your training partner to do some attacks in ultra-slow motion. Watch his movements right from the time he begins to confront you. Watch what he does with his striking arm. Take particular notice of that arm, as it's the one that means business. Work out in slow-motion the best time to make your first move. Practice it at this level until you get it right and then gradually build up the intensity until you can do it confidently full-on. If you can handle it full-on in training against a variety of attackers, including some large and powerful ones, you'll be able to do the same in a real situation.
Here's a list of all the chapters:
1. THE PSYCHOLOGY OF SELF-DEFENCE 2. THE ESSENTIALS OF A SUCCESSFUL ATTACK 3. FEAR 4. TIMING 5. THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN FEAR AND CONFIDENCE 6. BODY-LANGUAGE AND DECISIVENESS 7. FIGHT FIRE WITH FIRE 8. TAKING CONTROL 9. HOW DO YOU KNOW HOW SERIOUS AN ATTACK YOU ARE FACING? 10. WEAPONS 11. THE FEAR OF MAKING A MISTAKE 12. MORE ON TIMING 13. THINK POSITIVE! 14. VISUALISATION 15. DISABLING YOUR ASSAILANT 16. YOUR OWN LEVEL OF INTENSITY 17. THE SIZE OF YOUR ASSAILANT 18. YOUR OWN BODY-LANGUAGE 19. YOUR SELF-IMAGE 20. NON-STRIKING ATTACKS 21. BIG GUYS versus LITTLE GUYS 22. THREATS 23. MEN versus WOMEN 24. ARE YOU LEARNING HOW TO FIGHT OR ARE YOU LEARNING HOW TO DEFEND YOURSELF?
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