14 Jan 2012
See this extract from my blog for how a couple of our students handled themselves in bad situations. They’re interesting stories that highlight nicely 2 sides of the self defence gig:
The first was a good job by one of our students in Miami after only 4 lessons from out lady in Napoli, Sara:
I arrived in miami and was waiting for the shuttle to the rental car lot when a guy tried to grab my bookbag and run i held on and he tried to push me up against the bus stop walls. I clapped his ears which caused him to stagger i pushed him away and he ran off
Lessons from this:
Be very aggressive, simple and direct with an extremely debilitating attack that screws the guy’s brain. A lot of attackers are on something and very fired up so an old fashioned punch in the gub doesn’t always do much good. This sort of attack is to be recommended, as is training people to respond under pressure so they can handle crap like this.
N.B. don’t allow students to make any contact with ears when training this, too dangerous.
The next took place in an unspecified overseas country. Nic (not real name) takes up the story:
I was at a bar the other night with my friends and all of a sudden i saw a guy know talking to another guy..it was a heated argument and before you knew it there was a fight. We managed to break them up and took the guy i know into the bar’s kitchen. He was so mad he grabbed a screw driver and tried to go out and stab the other guy. Immediately I locked his elbow and applied pressure to his thumb and he released it, just like we did at training ! I managed to talk him out of it, he went outside and the other guy was there calling him a cunt etc..This time my friend was holding a glass..I knew i had to do something because i was really close to him so I called another friend who grabbed him and started pushing him back and I did the same movement as before to get him to release the glass though i was a bit gentle this time because I didn’t wanna apply too much pressure and break the glass. I don’t know if that was the right thing to do, but that was the first thing that came in my mind! In the end, I managed to talk him out of it again and sent him on his way. No blood was shed, no one was injured or stubbed! Thank you Stewart for teaching me all these things, how to keep calm and how to handle situations! Darren keep up the good work, i’m waiting for you guys to visit !
Lessons: a bit of a contrast to the first story. Here Nic did a really good job in restraining his friends and getting the weapons neutralised without anybody getting hurt. Sometimes you need to be able to do this: it can be easier just to beat the crap out of everybody, and Nic is a useful guy, but you don’t want to do that with your mates after they have had a couple of beers so a truly comprehensive system will pay attention to “non-lethal” force and realistic techniques thereof.
Nic took a bit of a risk with that disarm against a glass but the alternative was to do something that could have done his elbow in pretty badly and what you did worked so you made the right choice.
Nic, we will gladly visit one day, just don’t take us out drinking with your mates.
14 Jan 2012
See this extract from my blog for how a couple of our students handled themselves in bad situations. They’re interesting stories that highlight nicely 2 sides of the self defence gig:
The first was a good job by one of our students in Miami after only 4 lessons from out lady in Napoli, Sara:
I arrived in miami and was waiting for the shuttle to the rental car lot when a guy tried to grab my bookbag and run i held on and he tried to push me up against the bus stop walls. I clapped his ears which caused him to stagger i pushed him away and he ran off
Lessons from this:
Be very aggressive, simple and direct with an extremely debilitating attack that screws the guy’s brain. A lot of attackers are on something and very fired up so an old fashioned punch in the gub doesn’t always do much good. This sort of attack is to be recommended, as is training people to respond under pressure so they can handle crap like this.
N.B. don’t allow students to make any contact with ears when training this, too dangerous.
The next took place in an unspecified overseas country. Nic (not real name) takes up the story:
I was at a bar the other night with my friends and all of a sudden i saw a guy know talking to another guy..it was a heated argument and before you knew it there was a fight. We managed to break them up and took the guy i know into the bar’s kitchen. He was so mad he grabbed a screw driver and tried to go out and stab the other guy. Immediately I locked his elbow and applied pressure to his thumb and he released it, just like we did at training ! I managed to talk him out of it, he went outside and the other guy was there calling him a cunt etc..This time my friend was holding a glass..I knew i had to do something because i was really close to him so I called another friend who grabbed him and started pushing him back and I did the same movement as before to get him to release the glass though i was a bit gentle this time because I didn’t wanna apply too much pressure and break the glass. I don’t know if that was the right thing to do, but that was the first thing that came in my mind! In the end, I managed to talk him out of it again and sent him on his way. No blood was shed, no one was injured or stubbed! Thank you Stewart for teaching me all these things, how to keep calm and how to handle situations! Darren keep up the good work, i’m waiting for you guys to visit !
Lessons: a bit of a contrast to the first story. Here Nic did a really good job in restraining his friends and getting the weapons neutralised without anybody getting hurt. Sometimes you need to be able to do this: it can be easier just to beat the crap out of everybody, and Nic is a useful guy, but you don’t want to do that with your mates after they have had a couple of beers so a truly comprehensive system will pay attention to “non-lethal” force and realistic techniques thereof.
Nic took a bit of a risk with that disarm against a glass but the alternative was to do something that could have done his elbow in pretty badly and what you did worked so you made the right choice.
Nic, we will gladly visit one day, just don’t take us out drinking with your mates.
