Hubquarters: www.functionalfighting.com

LESSONS LEARNED FROM THE ZEN MASTER: PART 1

Just

Just imagine, a lovely Japanese garden with a monk - right out of the set of the Karate Kid - sitting under a waterfall meditating peacefully.  Hold that thought for a minute…okay, now get rid of it!  Quite frankly everyone who knows me well knows that I am no monk and the only thing that sitting under a waterfall gets you is WET!  Instead of getting all “esoteric” on your ass, I am going to hip you all to some of the Zen tactics of one of the most successful basketball coaches of our time, Phil Jackson.  Okay, okay, I hear some of you saying, “Phil who?” or “What’s basketball got to do with close quarter combatives?”  Well, let me answer these questions first and then I’ll start to delve into the meat & potatoes of how Phil’s philosophy can help your existing fighting skills; these are the little gems that are so often hidden from us because many martial artists will only look to “likeminded” martial artists for fighting tips and advice.  We all need to start thinking “outside the box” more often.  In fact, that’s what gives us an edge- not conforming to the status quo.

 

Legendary Chicago Bulls coach, Phil Jackson – often referred to as the Zen Master – successfully led both the Bulls and the LA Lakers to numerous NBA championships; ten in total, to be precise.  His coaching tactics went way beyond the technical or physical realm.  In fact, Jackson developed a whole new paradigm of leadership based on Zen Buddhist philosophy, Native American principles, plain old Christianity and the school of hard knocks.  Many would imagine that Phil did not really have a tough job due to the stable of amazing talented players he coached including Michael Jordan, Dennis Rodman, Toni Kukoc and Scottie Pippen, but the truth is, you can’t have a winning team if individually each player is show boating for their own self importance and personal gain.  Some of Jackson’s strategies reveal how he persuaded his players to perform with a clear mind in the midst of chaos (sound familiar), enabling the team to apply controlled aggression on the court, understanding the enemy, how to become dispassionate towards your adversaries especially when they are trying to rile you up and most importantly his concept of turning the “me” into a servant of the “we.”  Okay, I have now explained to you who Phil Jackson is and shown you the commonalities of his strategy and tactics in relation to close quarter combatives, so let’s get on with breaking down some of these cool gems that you can take away with you and apply them to your own style or system.

 

Michael Jordan showing off his superior attributes.

 

Albert Einstein once said, “Keep it simple, but not too simple.”  I often use this line when teaching CQC because it is complete in its nature and does not dumb anything down, especially you.  With similar brilliance Einstein also described his work as: “Number One: Out of clutter find simplicity.  Number Two: From discord, discover harmony.  Number Three: In the middle of chaos lies opportunity.”  Jackson understood that in order for opportunity to be fostered out of chaos his players’ minds had to be clear in order for them to experience the present moment on the court.  He achieved this through having them visualise a series of drills that outlined what’s going to happen during the game before the event even begins.  This enables the player to react without thinking because they have already seen, rehearsed and then experienced the moment of contact in their minds’ eye.  Germane to your close quarter combatives, these exercises will allow to visualise the fight before it happens.

 

Drill 1) Clearing the Mind

 

Find a quiet place with no distractions.  It’s okay to sit or lie down, just get comfortable.  Breathe in through your nose and out through your mouth.  An important point on breathing is on inhaling make sure your stomach expands and when exhaling your stomach contracts.  The rhythm of your breathing should be a 4-count inhale, then hold your breath for 2-seconds; continue with a 4-count exhale, then hold your breath for 2-seconds.  Focus your attention on your breathing pattern.  When you become distracted, and you probably will, just note the source of the distraction and then return to just concentrating on your breathing.  This process of noting thoughts and sensations, and then returning to the awareness of your breathing pattern is repeated throughout the drill.  It sounds boring, but what is interesting is how this drill manifests into a moment-by-moment investigation of self-discovery.  To be totally focused in the moment in the chaos of a fight –especially multiple attackers - you need to act with a clear mind.  The big secret is being able to respond with confidence without consciously thinking.

 

Drill 2) Visualise the Confrontation/Fight

 

After a couple months of practicing Drill 1, start to visualise the actual confrontation.  A good place to start is defining who your worst nightmare is.  Everybody has at least one.  This is usually "experienced based" from being intimidated by someone in the past to being assaulted in some way that has remained deep in the recesses of your memory.  Once you establish who you are visualising, then start to imagine that you have been attacked and are defending yourself and/or your loved ones.  Remember, there are 3-phases of the fight that you could visualise which pretty much would cover most scenarios that you would encounter.  As you are visualising the scenario, make sure that you are winning.  This is easy for some, yet difficult for others.  If you find yourself losing, then stop the fight at that precise moment, clear your mind again and continue at the exact place where the fight left off.  After awhile you begin to identify less with feelings of fear, pain and anger.  The real thing happens so fast; the less conscious thinking and more visceral reaction to what’s going on within each precise moment is critical for survival.

 

Drill 3) Visualise the Technique/Tactic

 

Skill development and developing a seamless flow with all your tools and tactics are vital if you are to develop this “reaction without conscious thought” paradigm.  Here you can visualise in your mind’s eye practicing the actual techniques and drills that you are currently learning in your class or private instruction.  Many people would use this drill as a starting point, but you need to follow the order of Drills 1-3 as I have listed them.  Here’s the second biggest secret gem: we start by clearing the mind for self-discovery; this is followed up by analysing the anatomy of the street fight; from there we use reverse engineering to work on and refine the tools, tactics and techniques.  From there the cycle repeats itself.

 

Alright Globetrotters, this does it for this week’s instalment.  Next week we’ll investigate Phil’s approach to teaching controlled aggression.  Remember, these drills and concepts function as mental attributes and in no way replace actually getting in there and physically training with real people.  They are all just part of a bigger puzzle.

 

Stay Safe

 

Hub  

Just

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

In 1943, human psychologist, Abraham Maslow proposed a theory which related to human motivation entitled Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs.  Much like the NLP pioneers of the 70s Maslow studied and modelled extraordinary people such as Einstein in a quest to filter the essential ingredients to create a better understanding of how to motivate humans towards excellence.

 

In Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs the “needs” are predetermined in an order of importance from a physiological to psychological scale comprising of five levels.  These include

1.       Basics: Breathing, water, food, sleep, maintaining internal stability and sex

2.       Safety & security: personal, health, family, resources, employment and property

3.       Love & Belonging: friendship, family, to be part of a team

4.       Self Esteem: getting respect and recognition from others

5.       Self-actualisation: self expression, problem solving, creating one’s own individual identity

 

According to Maslow we need to address each individual need from the bottom of the list to the top.  In other words we need to master the lower needs before moving on to the higher needs.  By trying to jump to the higher needs without the lower needs met first will lead to undesirable behaviour that ultimately will affect our journey towards personal growth, excellence, happiness and ultimately our survival.

 

Please understand that the first two needs on the list are classified as Survival Needs.  Survival is a pre-requisite to inner confidence and happiness.  But what is really amazing about this revelation is that most people do not incorporate safety and security into their own personal lives.  In most “first world” countries, most citizens rely on others to provide them with safety and security and do not take the active steps to accept the responsibility for themselves.  Personal protection is an essential ingredient for self discovery and personal growth, so it makes sense to start training now!  Set yourself a personal goal and take a self defence class today, but make sure the instructor is galvanizing the following concepts in order to expedite your progress and to ensure that you will be ready for action when you need it most!

 

1.       Be a hard target

2.       React immediately

3.       Intercept the attack

4.       Keep it simple, but not too simple

5.       Close the gap while standing, open the gap while grounded

6.       If you are overwhelmed use an improvised a weapon

7.       Abide by the law

8.       Remember that escape is always your goal

 

Remember that tips are just that- tips!  These tips are for normal everyday folks who are looking to protect themselves from immediate danger.  Both law enforcement and security related tactical force options may include some different goals.  Regadless of your role, to accomplish your goals you have got to train with a real person.  I am not talking about sticking in a DVD or video or even reading some books.  I am talking about the real thing.  This is the only way towards YOU truly reaching your self-discovery and own personal growth.  This where ultimately we can transmute the physical into the spiritual where you will be able to walk the Earth with the confidence that God intended for you to have in order for you to enjoy life to the fullest!

 

Give me 6-hours of your life and I will change your outlook on personal protection forever.  Here are some of the things that you will learn:

 

·         Not only will you be able to exceed your physical capabilities, but also your mental, emotional and spiritual attributes as well.

·         You will develop your own value and belief system about self-defence that will allow you to protect you and/or your family against anyone, anywhere, anytime and with anything within a moment’s notice.

·         Your skill development will transcend new frontiers; not just concentrating on the technical, but enhancing the technical with the tactical, conceptual and the interpersonal skills that are essential for your survival.

·         Finally, you will be able to actually use what you learn for real; in real time action when you need it most.

·         Don’t delay, it’s all about YOU.  YOUR survival, YOUR confidence and YOUR life!

 

To book your Personal Intense Training and begin your journey please visit:

 

http://www.functionalfighting.com/personal-intense/index.html

 

Hub

 

PERSONAL SAFETY “PASS IT ON” PLEDGE 2009!

In the 2000 film, Pay it Forward, a young boy is presented with a challenge to improve mankind with an innocuous school project.  The boy problem solves this dilemma by figuring out that if he can do three good deeds for someone and then in return inspire them to “pass it on” to three more people, then eventually positive change will occur and spread indiscriminately.  Of course everybody - in the film -  dismisses this as a childish idea at first, but over time a profound change begins to spread its tentacles throughout society; all brought about by this auspicious gesture of positive cause and effect that was brainstormed by an innocent child with no preconceptions about success and/or failure.

 

This got me thinking.  What three things could I “pass on” that would increase the general public’s awareness, responsibility and organisation germane to their personal safety?

 

The three commonalities in all good personal safety doctrine are:

 

·         EVERYONE is responsible for their own security! 

·         Awareness, Avoidance, Planning and Prevention are the keys to unlocking your safety and survival skill-sets!

·         A personal safety plan should always be proportionate to the existing threat!

 

It still amazes me when people ask me questions related to their personal protection and then give me strange looks when I ask them what steps have they implemented in their daily routine to deter the threat of criminal intrusion.  For instance, most people I talk to do not lock their car doors when they are driving; they do not understand basic first aid procedures; they listen to an I-POD while jogging; travel safety is often neglected; basic home security measures are virtually obsolete; basic safety awareness levels are increasingly low; dealing with violence is often misunderstood; internet security procedures are often neglected and possessing a general security mind-set is often translated into having a precarious paranoid state-of-mind, until of course, the inevitable happens and the first words to come from their mouth goes something like, “I never, ever thought it would happen to me!”

 

I do realise that it is difficult if you have little to no experience with personal protection issues to know where to start, so I have come up with an idea of modelling the school project from the Pay it Forward film.  Essentially I am suggesting that you pick three personal safety tips from this blog and simply “pass it on” to someone who you feel is not as security conscious as they should be.  Then follow that up by suggesting that they in turn “pass it on” on to three more people who they feel could benefit from this information and then those people “pass it on” to three more people and on and on it goes.  The outcome in theory should awaken the collective unconsciousness throughout your immediate demographic and help to get this whole “Pass it On” movement going. 

 

Ø  Please remember that I am not talking about combative hard skills here; you should only learn combative hard skills from a certified professional instructor who knows what he/she is doing!  The Combative Hard Skills (C.H.S.) is what we would cover in our Personal Intense Training Program (P.I.T.):

 

   http://www.functionalfighting.com/personal-intense/index.html

 

What I am suggesting to share openly are the soft skills of personal safety that are often overlooked in your everyday personal routine such as: awareness and avoidance; developing a security mind-set; assessing your threat and evaluating the risks; spotting suspicious behaviour; understanding your rights; fear and anger management; emergency preparedness at home and on the road, and developing a sound personal safety strategy to empower your survival and awareness skills.

 

The Foundations for Personal Safety

 

1.     Are You at Risk?

 

Always analyse your personal safety from the vantage point of the potential attacker and/or the would be criminal- think like the enemy!

 

Answer these questions honestly:

 

·         Are you an easy or hard target?

·         When and how are you most at risk?

·         How can you avoid being selected as a target?

·         How can you best prepare yourself to respond to an attack?

 

2.     Are You Prepared?

 

·         Stay physically fit

·         Know emergency locations (police, fire and medical) and emergency phone numbers

·         Carry a basic urban survival kit

·         Maintain a low profile

·         Obtain the hard skills for responding to sudden violence

 

3.     Are You Aware?

 

·         Always note emergency exits and escape routes

·         Observe the environment and people around you

·         Beware of getting lured into a staged event

 

Please remember to keep these principles in the proper context and proportionate to YOUR threat- are you in downtown Baghdad or in downtown London?  The scope of this article is to be able to improve our society by making more people cognisant of their own personal safety by raising their awareness, accepting responsibility for their own personal safety and organising an action-on protocol to implement into their daily routine.

 

Relax, take a deep breath and accept the “Personal Safety Pass it On” challenge 2009!

 

Happy New Year!

 

 

Hub

Affirmation of Martial Roots

How I do love the Filipino Martial Arts.  In fact, those who have trained and known me over the last decade are quite familiar that I hold black belts in both the Pacific Archipelago Combatives and the Filipino Combative Martial Arts under W. Hock Hochheim.  Hock himself has multiple black belts under the legendary Remy Presas in Modern Arnis and Ernesto Presas in Kombatan Escrima.  Unlike many of his contemporaries, Hock actually trained hard-core several times in the Negros Islands with the Masters.  When I received my martial accolades from Hock he said, “You are now a Guro.”  Following in the footsteps of all my mentors in life (including Hock), I decided not to use that title professionally and asked my students to simply call me Joe.

 

Despite the fact that I have forged a respectable career in operational security as an independent contractor, I have had an ongoing, enduring, unique relationship with these traditional arts from the ubiquitous Archipelago.  I believe that there is a fundamental, intrinsic link which forms a symbiotic bond with making the combative connection between empty hand combatives and weapons that is unlocked within this traditional martial art. This is clearly defined within the study of the five major areas of Kali/Escrima/Arnis that delineate the warrior arts of the Philippines.

 

• Solo Baston- Single Cane
• Double Baston- Double Canes
• Espada Y Daga- Cane and Knife
• Daga- Knife
• Mano Mano- Empty Hand

 

 

 

The Philippines is an island nation- Archipelago- of almost 70 million people where more than 70 dialects are spoken.  Over the centuries the Philippines has been a crossroads for various cultures involved in trading and fighting.  Kali is thought of as the mother art of modern Filipino Martial Arts as records indicate from the Malay Sri-Vishaya Empire dating as far back as the 8^th century A.D.  Although it can be confusing at times, the Filipino Martial Arts take on different names depending on the actual region within the Archipelago you are in; for instance in the Manila area the art is known as Arnis and in the Visayas commonly referred to as Escrima.

 

 

      

Some of the most well known styles of Kali/Arnis/Escrima are Modern Arnis, Lacoste/Inosanto Blend, Doce Pares, Warriors, Pekiti Tirsia, Cinco Teros, Lamenco, Illustrisimo and Kombatan.  Historians have cited over 200 systems of this traditional martial art.  Names describing the ranges of fighting include Largo Mano (long range), Medio (medium range) and Corto or Serrada (close in-fighting).  

 

  

 

In contrast to many other oriental martial arts, the Filipinos first learn how to handle and defend themselves against weapons; this enhances your ability and turbo charges your reflexes when you transpose your tactics to empty hand fighting.  The ability to survive against a bigger man is a result of developed combat attributes.  The weapons are the vehicle to attain those attributes to enhance your unarmed skills.  Many people in the UK don’t understand at first why we study and place emphasis on weapons.  The answer is simple:  we train with sticks and knives to develop enhanced empty hand survival skills and to understand how to defend against those very weapons that could be used against us when sudden unsolicited violence comes knocking on our door.  I do not subscribe to the illegal carrying of weapons, but rather as a responsible training structure to enhance survival options in the moral, ethical, legal and justifiable defence of my life or the life of my loved ones.

 

And so, my friends, I can attest to you with no hesitation that to affirm my martial roots is to pay homage to all of the great Filipino Martial Arts and the true Masters that have stood the test of time!

 

 

Hub 

THE SKILL DEVELOPMENT TREE PART 2

Strategy determines doctrine.  The actual implementation of that strategy to achieve the desired objectives is called tactics and that begins with physical contact.  The methodologies are the various ways to inculcate the tactics of the system and allow you to operate at your maximum level; in other words, this is how you get good!  The techniques are the particular ways to manipulate the body’s natural weapons in order to come up with a variety of ways to carry out the task at hand.  At the point of contact, unpredictable equations could very easily start to become part of the scenario.  This is where adaptation comes in to address those volatile engagements where we could end up on the ground, facing multiple attackers and/or having to deal with weapons.  The best tactical school to test all of this is operational experience.  It is here where we can absorb what is useful and reject what is useless.  Through many years of “battlefield tested” operational experience, the doctrine of a system starts to take shape and in our metaphor, the system’s doctrine represents the trunk of the tree.

A sound doctrine would involve assessing the threat, delaying the threat, defending against the threat, neutralizing the threat, escaping the threat and finally above all other costs, surviving the threat.  Within the scope of the aforementioned formula would include, in no particular order, disengaging from the threat.  Comprising of strategy, tactical, situational and positional training, all training is more easily acclimated by organizing the material into bite size training modules.  These training modules hold the key to unlocking the training methodologies which are responsible for learning the basics of executing the tactics, countering the tactics, skill development drills of the tactics and then pressure testing the tactics standing, kneeling and grounded with and/or against empty hand, knife, stick and/or gun.  These training methodologies represent the branches of the tree.  Cross training in various styles gives us a snapshot of how this works in relation to refining a tactic.  Training methods from different systems can be employed to accelerate the learning process and transmute that into a pressure testing structure fairly rapidly. 

Last and least important are the leaves of the tree.  This illustrates what the techniques stand for.  For some reason, so many martial artists hold on to bags full of leaves, carrying them around wherever they go like precious deities.  We don’t need to know 142 ways to choke someone out, or a 56 deep counter for counter series for countering a wrist grab.  The stability lays in the foundation of the tree- the attributes; continues with the importance of a sound doctrine; the methods for skill acquisition and a few variables of the body’s natural weapons.  There are always a hundred ways to perform a technique; let’s just concentrate on a few of the best and most efficient ways for you to survive sudden violence.  If you don’t believe me, the next time you are walking in the park and a big ol’gust of wind comes along, look to see what the first things are to go from the tree- that’s right, the leaves.  So the next time you go to a seminar take a good look around you and don’t be surprised if you suddenly see most of the attendees carrying around trash bags full of leaves (techniques) like fool’s gold.

 

Hub             

THE SKILL DEVELOPMENT TREE PART 1

You can’t learn to swim on dry land, but you can’t learn to swim in a tsunami either.  Progression is the most efficient vehicle for you to foster skill.  No matter which way you look at it, skill development is the key that unlocks the basic fundamentals that allows you to begin to grow and prosper within your chosen art or discipline.  Too many disregard these building blocks and use “reality” as a scapegoat, but the real truth is that your development should represent more of a spiral matrix than a ladder that you climb.  Disregarding this and jumping straight into full speed scenarios and/or sparring will simply result in a bunch of assholes and elbows and guess the news?  Nobody is progressing anymore!

Allow me to take a moment to clarify this.  In most martial systems, the grading structure follows a “climbing the ladder” approach from white belt to black belt.  In fact, many systems will, at certain stages of development, tell you that what you learned at level x, you can now forget because you have finally progressed to level y.  With the spiral matrix approach, you are maintaining all of the concepts that you have learned at each level, but you are adapting the previous level’s skill capability with the new or higher level’s expectations.  This way, everything you learn has scope for improvement and growth, and more importantly it allows you to inculcate the material so that you can express it at will and under pressure.  In other words, when the shit hits the fan you’ll be ready to rock!  This is what it is about: constant filtering, constant evolvement and constant improvement.  Some may misunderstand this to mean that I am prescribing learning a plethora of techniques, but in fact techniques as they are directly translated are the least important element here.

Let’s take a moment to muse over this visualization.  Describing the system that you train in, visualize the system metaphorically as a tree.  The roots of the tree symbolize the physical, mental, emotional and spiritual attributes that every fighter needs to possess to be complete.  Without these attributes honed and polished, few are successful in pulling off life saving moves when it comes to the crunch time.  Of course there is a hierarchy of needs with these attributes and most people start with the physical part.  In both your personal development and instruction to others, you’ll find that dealing with the physical attributes not only keeps you honest, but it helps to keep you non-hypercritical as well. 

A brief list of physical attributes to pay attention to are: body mechanics, sensitivity, explosiveness, footwork, strength, timing, power, flow, speed and ambidexterity.  Progressing from there we add the mental element.  It is here that you are ready to develop your awareness, combat mindset, killer instinct, perception, will to survive and hunter/prey psychological warfare.  There are many drills that can bring out these attributes and help you to understand and embrace the sudden violence that could be directed at you when you least expect it.  Anything could be coming at you: fists, heads, knives, bottles or even the threat of a gun.  Whatever course you choose, your overall mental attitude will enable you to do something fast.  To hesitate can easily become fatal. 

The next element is the emotional aspect.  Don’t worry, we aren’t getting all touchy feely here; this deals exclusively with fear, anger and combat stress.  Stress is a result of you being out of your depth and untrained, or succinctly put, unprepared.  Undue stress transmutes into fear.  Interpreting fear and allowing it to consume you negatively triggers anger.  As all these components are emotions that are felt in the body, the mind quickly takes part convincing you that you are doomed escalating the thinking process.  This process can then quickly cycle between the mind and body eventually resulting, in some cases, into a complete paralysis causing you to freeze where you could easily wind up being beaten up, taken into captivity or even dead. Many people are abducted in broad daylight in busy town or city centers, especially women and children, as a result of that freezing response.  What you do at that precise crystal moment will make all the difference for your future.  Learning to control stress, fear and anger will allow you to become dispassionate about your assailant and enable you to focus on trouble shooting the situation ultimately achieving control allowing you to make a decision to act.

After that, the roots of the tree finish up with the spiritual component.  It is here where we take a look at your belief system, ego management and self discovery.  It is at this stage that you can foster the qualities of real courage, confidence, humility and high morale.  This is what establishes a sense of purpose in your life, contribution and giving something back.  Ben Franklin’s 13 Virtues is a good example of the qualities that would influence your personal growth, self discovery and foster a bullet proof belief system for your survival.  More to follow soon…  

 

Hub