Still alive... after a thousand years

Not me. I'm alive, obviously, or you wouldn't be reading this. These last years have been... sort of interesting. I've managed to hold to some of my MA practice by the tips of my nails, though.

But... Okay, some background first. There are games that've been with humankind for, literally, thousands of years. Board games. Such games were not played as we understand the word today. The same way martial arts were not a kindergarden, games were something else. Something that was expected to be useful; a good game IS, but they were expected to be.

So... Westerners have Chess. And it's become a certain badge of intellect, and comfortably shelved away once the kid is boeyond that stage. Next to a dusty guitar. But if you look into the history of the variants of Chess, you'll find some interesting ideas. Check Shogi and prisoners, and think... "Hmm... Mercenaries?" Or the wider board ones. Or...

Then check Go, find how it's shaped the history of Asia, of artificial intelligence. The same AI that helps (or doesn't) your packets reach you. Or your internet search. Or...

There's another game, about as old as the oldest of chess variants. But cultivated by a people who had not much use for writing. Some, just not quite as much. Vikings.

It's an interesting game because you don't need six different kinds of elaborately carved pieces. Two colors of pebbles will do, a single on of those pebbles slightly larger, or redder, or with some peculiar shape.

Tafl.

And it's interesting for another reason. It's assymetrical. The attacher has twice your pieces. And you have to protect a single one of them, have it run away. It's, actually, a self-defense scenario. You can think of several scenes where, whichever player you are, the parallels with real life are downright chilling. And the advantage of the abstract nature of it is that you can make your brain work without having it go into denial: "this would never happen", "there's no way I can flee that!"... and so on and so forth.

Game on. Take care.

The Shadow does!

I saw someone's shadow tonight, approaching, and it helped avoiding some injury...

No, no night attack. Someone was approaching a street corner without looking where she went. Light as I am, I still think the impact would have toppled her, and she might have gotten hurt. But I saw her shadow approaching.

Some meters earlier, a discarded flexible steel pipe had pinged my attention ("That could hurt"), sometime later, a bo st... sorry, a discarded broom staff next to a container (and they say training with bo is not useful!), and they I reached a hood that collects discarded furniture on Tuesdays...

And yet you'll find those who tell you awareness is paranoid, or weapons defense useless, or...

Well, awareness did save someone from injury (either her or me... or both; doesn't matter). Awareness means I didn't step unto the pipe and sprained my ankle. Maybe someday being wary of rubbish will save me a headache. I don't know.

But it's basic. And it's the kind of skill that can lead to many smiles. The grateful parent when you ask if the teary kid is okay, the bank note someone dropped without noticing, the person you help with the trash because you realize she's overwelmed and the blasted container won't open properly...

But no, let's stick our noses into our mobiles and text everyone how paranoid those people into self defense are. Never mind the approaching truck.

Take care.

You're an object

At least, you're someone's object. And that reaction you're having right now? Emotional.

We assume, daily, that we're important. That we're not simple widgets. That we matter. Check Eric Flint's 1632 to see how unusual that mindset is.

And it's false. We other people continuously. These days, we live in gatherings far beyond what the human brain can grasp. Multi-million cities and metro areas, electronic relationships, mobility... And yet the mantra "every person is important" remains uncontested.

Despite proof to the contrary. Photoshopping top models to make them even thinner? Othering, both them and their admirers. Selling coffee that endangers lifestyles half way through the world? Othering. Buying it? Too. Almost every single "progressive cause" comes from a response to othering. Terrorism requires othering. So does a certain "progressive" mindset: He's white, ergo he's... (fill in the pet peeve) "All men are rapists". "Bring back our girls"? Othering.

What!? Yes. If someone in your family was kidnapped, would you forget about it when the hashtag faded? Or a friend's child. A coworker's? These events are used to trigger a certain tribal mindset: "we're one and we're good because we all care about this".

How you deal with it is your own choice. BUT if you're not aware of it you'll keep finding people you'll label as enemies when they simply don't care enough about you. That way lies madness (and blog posts and hashtags).

Take care.

Just do it

I don't follow professional sport. Some of the European league soccer as it deals with local teams, because you can't really avoid it, but that's it. Apparently, though, Nike's put itself in some trouble. And then...

“I’m Gonna Fuckin’ Kill You” --Nike's head of global marketing

The guy just landed his corporation and his personal self in a lot of trouble. He assaulted someone in a public venue, threatened him deadly... Way to go. I wouldn't be all that surprised if he changed jobs soon. Also, that he felt empowered to perform such doesn't speak well at all of Nike's culture.

However, the event gets a passing remark later:

Telling someone in anger that you’re going to kill him is really fucking weird. Part of adulthood is learning that it’s never an appropriate response to tell someone you’re going to kill him or her.

True. But I feel the article is trying to say "there are better ways than verbal violence to solve things, we must speak these things like adults...", where quite a set of society (using the term widely) would read "there are better ways than verbal violence... and who's the idiot that gives warning."

Be aware that when something like this happens, there's a modern Western midclass way of dealing with it... and there are a bunch of others. Modern. Western. Midclass. That's a lot of subsets that HAVE to come along. If your opponent is not ANY ONE of those, you can get skewered.

And I'm not saying you shouldn't try. I'm ust saying you absolutely need to be aware.

Take care.

Knowledge that kills

Ignorance kills. So does knowledge.

I heard this morning a guy with door experience tell an anecdote. He'd had to face a guy with a folded blade in his hand and managed to defuse it with a "in the time you open that I'll realign your face. Be a nice guy and close it."

From now on I'm guessing. I'm guessing he wasn't bluffing, but believing what he said. Certain kinds of knife are not much known, here. Yet?

An assisted blade from a good source costs 35€ at the local Amazon. The legality of assisteds hasn't been explored in Spain, with a Weapons Code that predates their invention. A good "flipper" blade is about as fast. A BAD thumbhole folder is just as fast, since it becomes, basically, a gravity knife.

And on and on.

Is your reaction faster than that? In bad light?

What other things are you so sure about?

Take care.

Mistranslations... still there

We've known for a while, those who wanted to hear, that a lot of problems with "traditional" Western understanding of martial arts (very specially karate, but also kendo, Chinese systems...) was a matter of translation, of trying to explain very intimate sensations to people with a different language paradigm. As long as this has been known, it's annoying that it's still there.

For example, Jesse Enkamp's article on the Pinan kata. Or the translation of the 20 precepts of Shotokan. Check both versions.

We've had people fluent in Chinese in most of the West for decades. And yet, no "traditional" karateka thought of digging into that source? Respect to tradition, my ass! Then we have the Nijû kun... My fight with that meaning of sente's been boiling for a while. As a recap, there are two mistakes: one, that sente is no "first strike" but more similar to initiative; the other that if you never have the initiative in an assault, you die. No ifs, no buts. And the way it's become almost a religious mantra (you'll find woodcarvings of that precept far more often than any of the others) is disgusting and dangerous.

But it's not the only one. "Do not think you have to win. Think that you do not have to lose." Bullshit. Wiki translates the second part as "Think, rather, of not losing", which is completely different. The difference between "I will NOT lose!" [ie, I'll reach home safe and sound] and "No one's asking me to lose, after all".

The list of precepts is not wrong. The translations are. The interpretations are a damn disgrace. The blind obedience to that all is sickening.

We have people labelling themselves as "warriors", "fighters", and yet they get all huffy when you point to them that, well, they're demostrably wrong and, even more, wrong in such a way that it cripples them.

We should do skeet shooting with photographs of several scores of MA pioneers.

Take care.

Teenage-level socialization monkeys

I think I've written before about my friends with kid. Watching him grow, I've sort of realized (some more) how basic some... social interactions are. Tantrums, negotiation... Then, something else happened.

You see, that couple was in contact with a team of nurses (registered nurses; early training in Spain and specialization in the UK) to supplement some treatment they were not comfortable with the level the government provided. New tests indicated a glitch in normality (not, according to the MDs, a problem; just something unusual that, not so long ago, wouldn't have been noticed). The whole team of RNs freaked out, lashed away to distance from their customers and cut all ties after a cursory internet search (in two hours they did all that, plus a meeting and dinner). One of the parents is a teacher; if one of her pupils did that kind of research for a high school job, he'd spend the whole semester making up for it.

But they were adult pros. The don't fall into such elementary mistakes, do they?

The other was at a training group. The instructor couldn't come for a couple of days. So the 3rd senpai decided to push for a roll call in social media. No queries, no questions. Roll call, military style. Not even asking if any of his senpai was coming or if it was the right way to do things. I knew he was rigid, this way is the True Way [TM], but I didn't know he rolled this way. Live and learn.

Neither event is any more complex than a kindergarten brawl. Adults or no, professionals or no. But it does look that "adulthood" sort of blinds people to the fact that they can fall in this kind of behaviour, too. Which reinforces Rory's assertions about how often (very little) the human rational part is in charge.

Now, imagine all that under violence.

Take care.

Don't bring a ... to a gunfight

The sentence is usually parsed "don't bring a knife to a gunfight", but it's not a matter of the specific weapon. In certain ways, also, it can be reversed: don't bring a gun to a knifefight. Every weapon has an optimal range, and below 7m (Tueller dixit), it's easier to reach with a knife, which is also a simpler weapon that kills more reliably than a gun (below 1/3 of hits at around 1.5 m, according to the FBI, plus lesser lethality per hit). Not that you're going to to see the Marines turn their backs to the rifle and become spear throwers.

Every situation has the most adequate weapon. Recognizing that is part of the overarching common theme. The most important weapon you have is between your ears. If you focus in the physical weapon, you go into a talisman thinking mindset that might work for a while (you'll be more confident, and muggers try not to attack confident people, just in case)... until it meets someone who calls your bluff. And who doesn't warn you about it. He does have both weapons: the one in his mind is going to control the situation...

The one in his hand, your life (I suggest you mute it; it's distracting).

Same kind of weapon, already out, but those high school punks didn't even get to point it. The predator met the wannabe, the yappy dog with delusions of wolf. Oops.

Don't bring less than your best to a survival fight. Beware of idiocy turning a stunt into a survival fight while you jerk off.

Take care.

Imperfection and profession

I was doing some cooking and something came to me. I had to slice some onions. I like to waste as little as possible, so I try to use as many layers as possible, and cut as close to the base and the tip as possible. This costs me some extra effort and time.

Something a professional won't do. He won't mind if he rips an extra layer or three while cleaning the skin, or waste a couple of extra slices from each extreme. Instead, he'll slice fast, clean, maybe not quite as regularly as the book says... But he'll have the onion cut in time, the oil ready at the right temperature. He might not spread the onion around the oil, and yet he'll manage to have all bits cooked alike.

The violence professional is the same. Doing several hundreds of reps is the focus of the martial artist. Lots of reps, just the right way. A professional doesn't need as much perfection, he needs adequate performance at just the right moment. Clear mind, good ingrained reflexes.

And then, some people get the worst from both worlds and train barely adequate performance without the proper mind focus. And you get shitty mechanics without focus, that gets worse when it performs under pressure.

Take care.

Mindset

We were doing some basic kali, this week. Snake disarms. Very basic, since kali is not our thing, just a way to get familiar with weapons and their effects.

But I come from classic Japanese fencing. The kali meme of "a stick is a sword is a stick"? I lean towards the sharp, pointy thingie. And yet, it seems I have something that should be more easy to grasp to people who lean "stick". Ie, pommel strikes.

What I'm finding in what little kali I've done is that people tend to strike with the "mono uchi", the last part of the sword when used for slashing. They forget pommel, they forget thrusts... The stick becomes a light baseball bat (or worse; a baseball bat does have a nice pommel, after all).

Now...the point of weapons is to get better offensive options. While it's true that, say, an F-18 isn't much good for a police restrain and yet a useful thing, it's not much good if you take a weapon and discard most of its uses. It would be like getting that F-18 and using it ONLY for dropping dumb bombs. What's the use of its radar, its cannon, its fly by wire? Get another weapon, if you only want that!

So, if you're only using slashing techniques, get a slashing weapon. But, oh, that needs edge angle awareness. So, we better keep a stick.

It's weird. the distance our style works best is close striking, almost grappling distance. With any other attack, we try to close there. And yet, most of us try to keep the distance when we have a stick. Why? The moment you've disarmed him, you do not need to get far away[*]. Use that pommel, use your elbow, use "abanico". There are lots of options, faster options, things that can really mess the other guy. But you need to use the whole of the weapon, for that.

The more I think about it (not only this once), the more I believe that we should train with short sword replicas, the more I see rattan leading to tactical laziness.[+]

Take care.

[*] Yes, if you've disarmed him and still carry your own stick, you're in a legal minefield.

[+] Not that swordwork is immune to that. There are a lot of distances available with a katana that are seldom explored. Even a lot of counter to a disarm attempt that try to control down the guy... when you'd started wanting to cut him down and you still have the damn sword!

Acknowledge the gradient

Human brains are impressive. They adapt, they change, they mold themselves. The smallest changes have profound effects.

So, teaching awareness, self defence, the realities of the dangers "out there" should be easy, right?

You wish. If you've been there, you know that.

Rory explains it as a matter of socialization, mostly. Our social brains not wanting to deviate from our group's normal, its perceptions, its consensus. Because realizing certain truths about violence makes you need to change your behaviour, and that might be contrary to your group's interests and its cohesion.

That's a part, but... bear with me for a while.

I'm trying to think in 3D, of late. It touches several projects of mine I'm trying to delay until another one's ready. But my mind stretches that way nonetheless.

Think in 3D? We're humans, We have stereoscopic vision. Of course you think in 3D!

No, you don't. We mostly think in a sort of 2.5D. Height and width, sure (and even the height part is crappy, if you're city-raised). But, depth? Oh, yes, you can perceive distance. But you don't perceive the other side of an object. And you certainly don't perceive the innards. So you dismiss them, likely.

Now, try to think 3D. Try to think how your pen is in the inside. How the bottom of your keyboard is and how it fits the table. How's your oven from behind? Do that continuously.

Do it continuously, 24/7, with every object that crosses your path, every animal, every person.

That's what you're asking of people who don't think in SD terms.

Take care.

Levels of information

This used to be here some years ago, some further explanation on an early 2010 post Marc made me expand. It seems to be still valid, so I'm re-posting it.

Some background:

Text linguistics defines a couple of concepts: thema and rhema. Broadly, the first is the subject we're talking about, with all the information we already know, while the second is what information the text adds to our knowledge.

So, if I say "Ted's cat is sick", the sentence is build so that you already know Ted and his cat. You didn't, however, know it was sick until I told you. However, you might not know Ted had any kind of pet, in which case "Ted has a cat" would be part of the thema for me but part of the rhema for you. If I later say "Ted's asked me to get his cat from the vet because he's busy" you already know that I'm not getting the cat back from a standard health check. "The cat is sick" has gone from rhema to thema. If we are to communicate, my thema and yours have to be at a similar level (you can bridge the gap "Ted has a cat", as long as you know Ted and you know what cats are).

OK, let's assume Albert, Bob and Clara. Albert is a nice guy that has discovered how to let things be the hard way. He's been beaten, he has beaten others, and had some harsh talks, back in the day, with cops that knew he was up to no good. He's since reformed and leads a picket fence life at some unassuming neighborhood far from his old place. Albert is a sage, without much skill at talking but a lot of experience.

Bob is a former jock with a stint in the army, who never saw physical exercise beyond boot camp but has convinced others that his bar fights are the real thing; he's even done some competition in some contact sport or other. He's been doing it for so long that he believes it himself, mostly, and it pays well. Much better than flipping hamburgers, at least. He's a seller.

Clara had a scare many years ago that shook her world. She has no big stars to her violence curriculum, but she's spend every day since thinking about violence, how it happens and when it happens. She enrolled as a reporter for some local newspaper in the state capital and interviewed lots of victims, criminals and cops. She has written a book, "Stay safe", that has quietly become a must read in certain circles. She's also a sage of a sorts, even if most of her experience is second hand, who knows she still lacks a lot of violence experience but has a tremendous skill showing others part of what's out there. That's a bard.

Now, you come in. For whatever reason, pick one, you have chosen to learn self defense. Albert lives nearby, and you kinda sorta guess "he's had a life" --suspected it since the day he stopped a gang of punks who were harassing old Miss Dandelion with his mere presence, but you couldn't quite set that thought--. You haven't talked much, though, and you hesitate to ask. You visit the local franchise of the ATA and they have an add: Bob is teaching a seminar in a couple of weeks. 4 hours saturday evening for 200 $. You go back home, browse the net, and find his name is well-regarded. He's even got a website. On it, you find a short article that quotes a book. You don't have that book, but the quotes seem to ring a bell, and they sound legit.

It is then that you remember those same sentences, here and there, in some conversations with Albert. You take a dive and ask him about it next time you find him mowing the lawn. He doesn't say a thing, but he leaves the mower and goes into his house, coming back with a thin, earmarked book, tattered from use. Clara's.

Now, realize that the underlying information is the same in all cases. Albert, Bob and Clara are talking about the same, they're even using the same sentences. However, the information you get is not the same. Albert knows Clara's right, but he can't transmit it properly. Bob doesn't have a clue, but he's found some sentences in that book that, as he reads it, reinforce his beliefs and provide him easy answers, out of context, to people's fears. He knows people are not going to read the book... at least not until they've paid those 200 bucks. Clara doesn't know much. She's been in less violence than Bob, even, but she's got a good point of view, she's made a real effort to understand it and she's a superb writer.

Albert, Bob and yourself need Clara, but for completely different reasons: Albert needs someone to teach you the right background. What's completely alien for you is something he grew up with, so much part of his life that he cannot separate it enough for an explanation. Without some common background, communication is impossible. Bob needs Clara, too, to justify his approach and his prices. But he's going to twist it as much as he needs. You need Clara to see what's out there.

Realize, also, that it's easier to go with Bob: he's already digested the book for you. 200 bucks and an afternoon of your time, and that's all. Albert will not ask you a single dollar, but he'll talk about things that the book only glimpses at, good as it is, and will stretch you brain until it hurts.

Most people don't know an Albert. That's why Clara has to be real careful about how she writes. Most people who read her book will either have no idea or will come from Bob's mindset. Bob has already managed to pervert her words, but she wrote that to help other people, so she must work, hard, to clear any misunderstandings to the people who reach her work having read only selected, out of context, modified soundbites.

Take care.

Progression of readyness

I was watching a video about a new SD gadget. Basically, a marriage between a kubotan and a manriki (gusari) made of cord, both turned keychain. Modern materials and all that, but that was basically the case.

Two things bothered me. The first was that the marketing techniques were either clumsy punches, twisted so that you could use the pointy bits, or, well, control-takedowns that worked. They worked because the techniques didn't use the widget at all. Sure, it was there; sure, it did add some extra pain. It changed nothing.

And that got me thinking. Those techniques could have come from any modernized traditional art. "Defence against punch, number 69", but with a weapon in your hands.

That has so many holes...

You see, you're getting a self defence weapon and acting from the assumption you'll have it ready. Rory would have a fit. Marc would have to get a new keyboard.

Everything has levels. Self defence has levels. Like Rory insists, MA like to concentrate on a very particular level he calls the "duel", and it filters down to SD.

If someone's attacking you, you might find yourself in any of five stages: Surprised, Perceptful, Aware, Facing and Deployed.

Surprised is what happens when your first notice is the floor hitting your face after a sudden shift in balance. You're way behind in any way that counts. You have to reset, you have to defend, you have to get up... Chancy.

Percepful is what happens when you realize there's something wrong as the baseball bat falls. You're still going to have trouble, but you can minimize the first attack and your attacker has to reorient some while you aren't left in such a vulnerable position.

Aware is that "there's something wrong, here" feeling. You're in what some people call "orange" or "yellow". There something that's calling your instincts, maybe someone specific. If you start working from here, you may avoid the event completely. The shift in your body language alone might do it.

Facing is your problem in front of you. You don't have a stance, you don't have weapons, but it's not going to blindside you. You're ready. You know it, he knows it. That knowledge alone may, again, erase the problem before it begins. Or may create another one if you start a macho dance.

Deployed Add a stance and/or a weapon. That widget I first mentioned, a cane, your raised fists. Whatever. Again, the presence of a weapon might erase the problem... or might get you into worse trouble, physical and psychological, than you ever imagined.

The mistake of many martial artists is that they assume they'll be working at the fourth level, or even the fifth. Some manage to train for the third. Very few go below that.

The mistake of many SD "tools" is that they refuse to think below the fifth level. How do I deploy a chained weight in the street? Depending on the situation, you just gave permission to anyone on sight to take you down ("He threatened my friend with a weapon, officer"), and that would include a cop who found you right then, weapon at the ready.

So... deployment. How many SD tools can be deployed easily? When do you deploy them? How? Discreetly? Menacingly? Can you deploy them under pressure?

So, two things: avoid the first three levels, try to avoid the last two. And don't become inspector Gadget. Don't trust a gizmo you don't know if you'll even have with you. Because the next SD fashion that sweeps around might make you change your tool. However, your eyes will probably be with you; use those.

Take care.

Technology against safe zones

I have several acquaintances in the "makers" world. I'm considering, for several prototypes, going there myself. And I'm realizing something.

It used to be that a certain percentage of the population was able to do things that could be extremely illegal. Locksmiths, for example, could open broken safes... but also intact ones. Ironsmiths knew perfectly well how to make functional daggers outside legal limits. Good machinists could build guns.

But they were few, their jobs had a certain pride that going rogue would rob them. Some tools were quite expensive, and required very specific attention.

Enter desktop CNC and 3D printing. Some days ago, a broken child killed a teacher with a crossbow, nearby. Given a couple of years, a more affluent background, and he could have shot a dozen. And the affluent requirement is becoming obsolete by the week.

I used to say that, for SD purposes, you could basically discount firearms where I live. While there are some, they were not found in common crimes, but mostly in already criminal surroundings (don't get upset if you're buying drugs for a dozen people and the guy's surrounded by guns).

Not any longer. Governments will try to regulate. And fail. Because, yes, after the fact it becomes obvious that I had a gun I shouldn't, and I get some extra years thrown into the verdict. But meanwhile? In the States, I can't sell a firearm I made with my CNC, but... weapons are defined pretty narrowly, by a single part of the firing mechanism[*].

It has implications in other places, too, economically (and artistically! Napster is coming to sculpture), but this is not the place.

But if you live in places where weapons are regulated and the regulation tends to hold... start thinking what happens when it doesn't. When a criminal can set up shop with a 500 bucks 3D printing machine and print weapons that may only be good for half a dozen shots, but that's more than enough to kill you. When a hobbyist teaches things to her cousin and it turns out that the cousin is broken inside. When...

It's not going to happen often. But when it does, expect the media to go full throttle on it. And, in any case, just be aware that your traditional "safe" spaces just got downgraded, hard.

Take care.

[*]can't recall which. In Spain, it's basically the barrel: guns are "deactivated" by drilling holes in it, but the rest of the gun is still functional, if you don't fancy your hand.

Techniques' inflection point

Usually, martial arts techniques are responses. A succession of moves that take you from a losing situation into a winning result. So, if things start going downhill and yet you manage to succeed, there must be a point at which this changes, yes?

Where?

Again with my old system's technique. Yes, check it out again, please. Where does that thing go from "I'm going to get smashed" to "I have him"? Where do you think it happens? My opinion? The moment you control his elbow to your abdomen. Everything after that is commentary. It's very difficult to recover from that, and I'd say impossible once you put your other hand to him.

However, a bunch of instructors, even arts, concentrate in the shiny bits. The lock, the control, the takedown. They're nice, funny, often spectacular. But you need control of the situation to get there. And that's where many fail.

Now, yes, this point can change. A very good judoka can intercept a punch and put you down with no intermediate moves. It's not a safe way to bet or train, though.

So, where are your techniques' inflection points? When do you start controlling the situation?

Can you do properly what comes before?

Take care.

Spanish knives

Spain has a long tradition WRT knives. Blades, in general. Then, folding blades. The winch-like noise the kind of knife there makes as it opens used to be a staple of books and comics.

And yet... Go to international knife forums or suppliers and try to find Spanish makers. You won't find the artisans (they apparently created a guild a couple of years ago, but I can't find it now), and you'll have trouble finding them here, even. Web 2.0 is so last year, guys! Don't give me "we can't reach that" market / forum... when people from Scandinavia, France or Brazil do.

And if you try to browse those brands online catalogues... Ergh! At most, scanned physical catalogue pages. Without info. "Steel: Stainless" is not a valid description. Locking mechanisms? Frame or liner-lock, that's it (or none, in some really traditional makers). Not even the classic one pictured above, not much. Nothing new, no patents, no... Opening mechanism? Friction or stud. Some, very rare, "spyder hole" -like.

Sheaths are about as bad but, then, that's more normal.

Oh, and they could learn some packaging, too. Just sayin'. Blergh! [*]

So what?

Mindset. If that's how aficionados treat their trade... imagine the standard population. Even LEOs. Flipper knives? Assisted? How do you teach knife defence when people still believe that a knife takes so long to open?

Take care.

[*] Basically, knives are not shoes. Really. Trust me. They aren't.

Look

What was the hair colour of the last person you met today before coming home? Don't look. What shoes is your partner wearing?

People go around without looking. Now, looking for certain things is a trained skill. If you travel with a biologist, he won't see the same things while trekking than a geologist, or a car mechanic, or an amateur astronomer.

That's a part of it. The other is that we really, in Western urban societies, don't look. For example, someone was trying to get a gift these last Christmas. I was going through the old quarters, and I passed by a fabrics shop. They had, right on the window, several children's wicker chairs, painted and with a simple fabric design tied to the back rest. Basically, one of the things they were looking for. So I called them, and told them where it was. I had to give the full address, since the approximate place (so and so square, East side) wasn't enough.

It's the only such shop there. A shop where they had bought things before and they'd been very pleased with.

My qualm is not that they didn't realize the shop had children's chairs. You see these things when you look for them. My qualm is that they hadn't realized it was the only such shop there.

It's a small thing, but it adds up. How many exits are there from that square? Basically, five; the rest are variations (several of them; it's one of those small old places). How many trouble spots? How many safe spots? Which ones are open?

Because things are not clear cut. You perimeter can't be the same at rush hour than at 3 am. Among other things, your reaction is probably slower at that time and visibility. To react, you need time, and looking well saves you that time. "He's too near" is different if he just hopped off the bus than if he's been closing in for the last 10 yards, hand hidden in his pocket. [*]

But you have to look. And if you do, if you shed that "anything between work and home aint' my business", you'll find other things. Useful shops, cute girls, nice unknown buildings or parks. And so on. And also exit venues, weapons... and you'll have a vibe that will already make a lot of muggers avoid you [+].

Take care.

[*] I don't believe much in spotting hidden weapons. Frankly, if I did roam those places, I might, and then I'd use misdirection. I do believe much more in available weapons. Chairs, bottles, poll balls and cues, shoes, ashtrays... But it's much easier to avoid those (or grab them) if you are aware of them, if you look.

[+] A lot of muggers. Beware of the ones that still close in. They're either clueless (and dangerous) or they know what they're getting into. And, for God's sake, don't use that awareness and those people avoiding you, to get all macho. You'll be climbing the ladder in the violence system... and there will still be people above you.

Professional weapons

I'm going to do one of those tricks I do with definitions from time to time.

Professionals are people who study their trade and practice it, who do something more than weekend seminars and twice-a-week training. They know their tools. In MA, SaBunNim Smith is probably in the professional-amateur level regarding violence (he might be a highly professional teacher, or lawyer, or accountant... all of those required abilities if you have your own dojo), while a caporal or a bouncer is probably a professional (there are exceptions).

Thing is, some skills might be innate or not. The capacity for violence is mostly universal (some people might be an exception). That doesn't mean everybody deals with violence, but almost anybody can be violent. We choose not to. And it's great.

But that means the professional has to learn more about other details. About mechanics, about psychology, about weapons...

But, again, who is a professional weapons user? Someone who studies and practices the use of weapons, yes? There's a place, about 150 yards from home, with over a hundred professional weapons users. The kind of knife that could well cut me in half, not pocket knives. Knives like the one in the previous post.

Sometimes, when dealing with self defence, we get certain sceptics, specially around certain systems. And then people go into adrenalized mugging responses.

The mugger is not my worry. I can give him most of what I carry. His knife is visible, mostly static.

The ambusher is another critter, but I can probably avoid that (lifestyle choices, awareness, prudence...).

A good deal of incidents are monkey dances gone south. Way south. I have seen people rant and complain and verbally abuse someone with a 12 inch blade in their hands. Usually, nothing happens. If it does... you have someone with a 12 inch knife, expert user and angry, coming at you.

And yet, martial arts and SD still train either the classic old school defences against long blades and Japanese knives gone rote or weird ideas against the switchblade. And then someone pops up and uses a butcher knife like he means business...

Again, there's a story in one of Lawrence Kane's books about a guy attacking him with a baseball bat. He used an old school defence against a sword. It was the right distance, the right mechanics... until the perp let the wood go and made it a shuriken.

The guy knew his tool. If I get a fishmonger or a butcher to attack me, it's pretty likely one of us is going to end dead (I really don't want to find out which). Instead, we get hung up on punks with blades, on old techniques hung to dry under the sun and cracking down.

Take care.

Blocks

Most of our blocks, in KJKB, are two. Then, we have two others that can be seen as offshots. And even the first two are, basically, the same block with altered coordination. In fact, if you use one of the variants of one, pressuring into the centerline, you get almost the same final position.

It's curious, because those two blocks are, mostly, efficient versions of what Rory calls 'Dracula's cape' and 'the spear', resp (*). Also, while they do work as blocks, that's really only the beginning, almost an excuse. What you really get is an entry.

So, I'm beginning to rethink blocks, and punches. I'm starting to think of punches as a way to increase your distance and blocks ans ways to close them. This classification has its own troubles, but bear with me.

Imagine an oi-tsuki. Once you've done it, and supposing your opponent hasn't been pushed back (or fallen, or...), your guy is an arm's length away. Precisely so. This means you have that distance, you know it and you can choose what to do with it (a kick, running away...). He's not choosing his distance any longer. That's quite a plus. Same for an elbow strike, a side kick, you name it.

Now, imagine the upper block (that's Tristan Sutrisno, on your right side; superb). If you do that against, say, our previous oi-tsuki, you enter his perimeter. Again, you control your distance. This time, however, you're closing in, and jamming his movement. In some options, you just locked his retreating arm, and he'll need to get rid of that to use it again or to close into you, and you'll have time to work your own ideas.

"Before I studied the art, a punch to me was just like a punch, a block just like a block. After I learned the art, a punch was no longer a punch, a block no longer a block." Shu-ha-ri, Bruce Lee edition. Let's see if I reach the next one.

Take care.

(*) I do not, in any way shape or form, endorse Bauer. For a single nanosecond.

Where I come from

Remember I said I had trouble graspingcertain KJKB ideas? This is why. I spent two three-year periods with them in the late 80s and early 90s (back then, tori was a 2d). I recall our main instructor then had some interesting concepts on structure and intent, but he said them far too seldom. Might be one of the reasons they're mostly absent in those videos. It was one of the reasons they looked at me weird, there. That and trying to watch for defence... Glitches, I guess. Things that would bute you in the ass in a SD situation.

For example, see this other one. That elbow lock is badly done, and so is that neck clamp (for starters, they don't reinforce each other); that's the only reason he can do the rest of the technique.

If you watch the longer video, the first one, there are a bunch of movements that make no sense, weird glitches. Some of them have been introduced after I left. I know I still have a couple of the rest, almost 20 years later. Now, there are those weird glitches with the extra step beforee a takedown/throw. That kneeling in kamae after the technique's done. That... You name it, they've put it in.

And I won't get into 1 vs 2 techniques with unresponsive 2nd uke and other niceties. Or the hojo jutsu like endings. Endings are well and good... Once you've actually, you know, defeated the guy, survived the attack.

Thing is, the basic idea of those techniques is not that bad. What they miss could mostly be solved with Japanese concepts. Zanshin, kime... But the modernization has dumped all that... And not gotten anything else to substitute it. There's no intent, no awareness of the danger of the situation. A good lot of those techniques would seriously improve if Tori simply pressured forward some. And dumped extra movement (like that wacky step before throws; seriously, that instructor was a judo competitor!). And, and that's something I was aware of back then, as a colour belt, and links with the 'pressure' concept, if they did the waza technically correct. Like that suppsoed sode garami, for example. I mean, some of our Kaju techniques are pretty similar (That grab technique around the 20s mark is rather similar to one of our second set, for orange; the differences are telling. Not the fact that the attack is different, but differences in the balance of the takedown, for example). And, again, some of these ideas were taught, if rarely, back then. Now...

Sigh. If I've had as much trouble as I've had getting rid of those habits and I goddamn tried...

Take care