I hope this has not adversely affected any of you.

My most sincere apologies,

If it sounds ridiculous, my first bet is almost invariably, “That must have happened in Florida.”

This story is rather tame for a ‘run-of-the-mill’ Florida news story, but I thought I ought to share it. This is a little more standard – what’s tragic is that this is rather standard news in Florida.

This, however, is not. It’s a case of a legally owned and operated handgun used against a burglar. I’ve had incredibly mixed feelings regarding guns. I can see their use, their point, their reason; but, I’m not so sure about how widely and freely distributed they often are. Any thoughts on this one?

Thanks for your patience.

I’ve been thinking about starting podcasts for the blog, but I was curious about what you all want to hear!

So, for the first podcast, should it be:

1) Rape Defense – How to Avoid & Fend Off Rapists (with a focus on stranger rape)

2) De-Escalation Techniques – How to Defuse Potentially Violent Situations

3) How to Get Out of a Fight – How to Prepare for, End, and Escape a Fight

4) Martial Arts Review – A Review of Different Martial Arts (Suggestions you want to know about?)

5) The Realities of Street Combat – A Look at Street Fighting vs. Martial Arts Training and How to Prepare for the Real World

6) Suggest a topic you want to hear about!

EDIT: Feel free to comment here on the blog or you can take this survey.

NORTH FORT MYERS, FL- A North Fort Myers woman scares a burglar right back out of her house.
The man dove though a glass window to get away.

Judy Sorrell says, “I mean I was screaming bloody murder!

Judy Sorrell never thought she’d confront a would-be burglar in her own home, let alone chase him off.
She was napping when she heard glass breaking. She yelled, “Who the hell’s in my house!?”

Everything went smashing every that was on the counter and the glass.

A man had broken into her North Fort Myers home through a window.

Sorrell says, “I’m in a nightgown! You know? I’m running out there about to do battle.”

Her tactic worked, the man dove back out through the window covered in glass shards.

While Sorell called 911, the suspect was spotted by the neighbor, 5 year old “Turtle” Haschel.

Turtle says, “He came out the front door.”

“Turtle” sensing something wasn’t right, got his dad who didn’t believe him at first.

Michael Haschel says,”I didn’t actually think that somebody was running across the fence and jumping across the yard.”

His sister had her doubts too.

“I don’t actually ever believe him unless I see it.”

The family went outside and saw the man jumping the fence.
He ran towards Pine Island Road and got away.

While badly shaken then, even now, Sorell can’t believe her own bravery.

She says, “When it comes to mine and my own, the claws come out. I don’t know what it was, It just happened so fast.”

Read more: http://www.winknews.com/Local-Florida/2010-07-06/Woman-defends-home-from-burglar#ixzz0uENnQ5hw

See the website itself for the source and a video – yet another good example of good, legal self-defense!

Those sorts of questions are tossed around all the time. Let’s solve this.

There’ no one best martial art – sorry. Had to get that one out of the way. So, now that we’ve covered that…

It’s a good idea to choose a martial art you can study locally. Take a look around, try an internet search for Boxing, Kick Boxing, Muay Thai, Krav Maga, Combatives, Jujitsu, Jiu Jitsu, Aikido, Kung Fu, Wing Chun, etc, in conjunction with the name of your town. Check out what’s close to you first!

In actually choosing a martial art to study, and in regard to which is best for self defence, consider this: street fights usually end up in grappling and/or ground fighting, but not always. What’s the best way to train? Learn both striking and grappling.

For example, try to study a striking style such as Boxing/Kick Boxing/Muay Thai in addition to a grappling style such as Brazilian Jujitsu.

If you can’t afford, or don’t have the time, to do them simultaneously, just do one first. Alternatively, learn the basics of a striking style and practice them – even if it’s just a few basic boxing punches as covered in this post – and then learn what you can of grappling.

A basic ideal mix, in my opinion, would be Muay Thai, Krav Maga and Brazilian Jujitsu. Why?

Muay Thai, often called the Art of Eight Limbs, focuses on a wide variety of strikes involving the hands, elbows, knees, and feet. It has strong infighting (striking and defending when you’re in close) and it allows for great hip flexibility and for getting blows in during grappling situations. Be wary of those that teach Western Kickboxing but call it Muay Thai.

Krav Maga was developed by Imi Lichtenfeld and is now used by the Israeli military. It’s an unregulated, no-holds-barred defense fighting system. It focuses on simplicity, effectiveness and efficiency, making it ideally suited for real world defense. It deals with a very large variety of possible combat situations (from being strangled from behind, attacked while entering your car, getting mugged at gunpoint, etc.)

Brazilian Jujitsu (or Jiu Jitsu) is ideal for when you’re not on your feet, or you don’t want your opponent to be. It specializes in taking opponents to the ground, then using ground fighting techniques and submission holds, which is obviously important when most street fights end up in grappling and/or ground fighting anyway. The benefit of ground fighting is it takes away some of the advantages of larger, stronger opponents, diminishing the significance of their reach and strikes.

Studying these three will prepare you for the widest variety of possible combat situations you might be forced to deal with, from striking and ground fighting, to groups and weapons.

It is the synergy of your strength with your speed. To punch with power, however, does not require great physical strength. Why?

Powerful punches rely more on speed, momentum and torque. This is how to maximize your punching speed and power, using the straight punch as an example.

Punches start from your rear foot.

Push off the ground (without jumping) with the ball of your rear foot, let your lead foot come up – it may just shift or completely come off the ground. At the same time,

Rotate your torso from the hips. Twist the side you’re punching with back, then snap your torso to the other side as you punch, but here’s the key:

Your punching arm must remain loose and relaxed, your hand should not be in a fist, as you throw your punch. This will maximize your speed, and make your punches much more like an iron ball attached to a chain, rather than to a rod. Only make your fist and use any sort of muscle tension immediately before impact. This will act as an extra snap to the ‘chain.’

Also, your hip rotation should be about complete and your punch should land before your weight reaches your lead leg. This maximizes your torque from the hip rotation, of course, but also your momentum by ensuring as much of your body weight and push off momentum from your rear foot as possible goes into the target and isn’t wasted on the floor.

Before using power with your punches, it is important to first train accuracy and speed! Otherwise you may get sloppy or just flail around like a spaz. Of course the other real aspect of packing powerful punches is timing, but that’s a whole other issue.

Of these, I generally focus on the Straight punch, Hook, Cross and Uppercut because the Jab doesn’t jive as well with a Jeet Kune Do stance.

Here’s the first video – it involves more direct instruction in punching technique, rotating the torso, using the feet, positioning, etc. There are complaints in the comments on the Hook and whatnot, but these are the punches he says they are, just they’re in tight – or ‘in fighting.’ The drawback of this video is you will probably have to watch a brief ad before it begins.

This second video uses the heavy bag – you’ll notice a bit of a differing technique with wider distances, which works better for when you have more distance to connect to the opponent.

Let’s address the JKD straight punch – It’s used as a long range, powerful attack with the leading hand, which is the stronger hand in a JKD stance. Another difference is the fist is not twisted palm down, the palm should be vertical, as if you were to give a thumbs-up. This helps to keep the bones aligned with the wrist and forearm, slightly extends your range, and helps to deliver more power. Here’s a fairly good explanation:

For the Cross, Hook and Uppercut, I generally use the traditional hand positions, particularly for the Hook. Adopting the JKD Straight position for a Hook could lead to wrist injuries.

Before looking at the Five Stages and the Pyramid, let’s talk for a moment more about criminals and how to deal with them.

We already know their main drive is selfishness and they may use violence as a means to obtain what they want. To get what they want they need to immediately gain control over your options, or his life is at risk. Does that make sense? People often refer to this as dominance and submission, or power and control. That’s great and sporty, but it boils down to:

If he does not immediately use overwhelming force to neutralize your possible resistance, it is his life that is in danger!

This also plays into why the martial arts do not equal self-defense, besides the legal issues. Street confrontations are not sparring matches and you can’t treat them as such. The strategies and tactics a criminal is going to use are designed to prevent you from resisting.

The biggest aspect of neutralizing your ability to resist is neutralizing your will to resist, which is best protected through mental preparation and acquiring higher self-esteem and self-confidence. More on this key to self defence in a moment. Once the criminal removes your ability to resist, he can move on to achieving his over-all goal, whether that’s financial gain (mugging/robbery), homicide (murder/retaliation), or pathological gratification (serial rape/murder.)

The last thing a criminal wants is a fight – he wants to quickly exert some violence, get what he wants, and be done with you. He does not want a fight, thus the less struggling (more quickly he removes your ability to resist) the better. Crime does not involve the mental ramping up and escalation a fight often does, which puts you at the disadvantage because the criminal is already mentally prepared to commit violence. Average people do not walk around in a mental state that’s prepared to commit violence.

Our biggest obstacle is not the attacker, but our typical mental state. We must learn to overcome it – and I don’t mean going crazy – to effectively deal with the attacker, and successfully do so before the attacker does. To do so, you must be familiar with

• Recognition
• Palatability
• Available Time
• Appropriate Response
• Adrenalized Acting

Often our emotions blind us to the development of crime (See AOI/A-OK here, also 5 Stages of Violence), but it’s important to recognize when it could happen and when you’re being set up as early as possible – once you know the indicators, it’s an easy process to recognize.

Minds are creatures of habit. Too often action is forestalled by attempting to create a solution inline with our personal assumptions/beliefs/preferences. Often an effective and palatable option cannot be reached. For example, some believe that ‘violence never solves anything,’ but it becomes a bit of an issue when attacked. While you may not be able to resolve the motivations behind your attacker, an effective counter-force will prevent you from being brutally victimized during an attack. Unfortunately, those who subscribe to ‘violence never solves anything’ rarely develop an effective means for using force. The midst of an attack is not the time to be racking your brain for more palatable solutions. Your attacker is far beyond that point.

The objective of a criminal assault (not a fight, there’s no build up or threat display) is to immediately apply overwhelming force to get what they want. While it may take time for the criminal to set up, the attack is coming at you fast. Without using your awareness, it will be difficult to rally an effective defense. In these scenarios, an effective defense will probably not be palatable.

This is scary stuff, to be sure, but the level of perceived danger is not necessarily the true level of danger. Your roller coaster emotions don’t give you the legal right to immediately blow an assailant’s head off. Anything you do must be appropriate for the level of real danger. Unless you can truly say your life is in danger (actually seeing a knife or gun) you should not be initiating anything. Or, as in this story of attempted rape, it becomes apparent that the man wants to rape her and she defends herself appropriately.

Know how your body reacts to adrenaline – two common problems are freezing and berserking. Neither are good. Your mental and physical facilities will not be at their peak, which is why I say that simplicity is the best approach to combat. Your fine motor skills will not be able to successfully pull-off complex techniques.

OK, that was a really long moment, on to the

Five Stages of Violent Crime

This is basically an expansion of the aforementioned AOI – a combination of Ability, Opportunity and Intent. Now, let’s take the slightly less catchy IIPAR for

• Intent
• Interview
• Positioning
• Attack
• Reaction

The first three stages are critical. These are the stages where you can nonviolently avoid an attack. There are where the violent person determines whether or not you can be successfully attacked.

He may want to (Intent), but if he lacks the opportunity (Positioning), there’s no way for him to succeed. The Interview is his way of double-checking that you’re a safe target, which is vital. In case you missed the previous part, criminals most often have a scavenger mindset. Now, the following is absolutely not even remotely an exaggeration:

Selecting a safe victim is a matter of life and death to the attacker. If he messes with the wrong person, he may die. If he has the Intent, but the Positioning (and/or Interview) don’t work out, he will not proceed.

Intent can often be masked by seasoned criminals or violent people – it can be more difficult to perceive than Positioning, but it is often given away by suspicious locations, nervous or aggressive behavior, etc.

Interview - Criminal violence is a conscious decision and the attacker’s safety is a critical factor in choosing a victim. For the sake of brevity of this article, here’s an excellent breakdown of different types of interviews used. Highly recommended reading.

Positioning is when they situate themselves to attack – not fight, but overwhelm. This is the ‘last straw’ and proof of ill intent. Again, here’s an excellent breakdown of positioning. Also highly recommended reading.

Attack is fairly self-explanatory, but if you’re dying for a breakdown…

Reaction – A combination of how the criminal feels afterwards and your actions.

The shorthand version is just AOI, broken down for you on this very blog!

Before moving on to the Pyramid, take a look at the following video. It was posted earlier in the blog, but let’s look at it again with our new knowledge in mind.

Watch the young man’s body language for Intent. Can you tell something’s awry? Do you see him alter his Positioning to get into a better situation to suddenly overwhelm? Notice his brief Interview, which is followed by additional Positioning and a second Interview? The Attack and Reaction are pretty obvious. How could this have been avoided?

The video poster offers some good notes/specifics, too.

Pyramid of Personal Protection

This sucker was developed as a counter to the 5 Stages of Violence. It’s pretty handy.

From No Nonsense Self Defense

The foundation is Knowledge and Understanding, which we’ve been addressing. Next: Walk-Aways.

Walk-Aways form your home line of defense – they’re the locks on doors, the alarm systems, etc, that keep burglars away and forewarn you of break-ins.

Habits can range from remembering your Walk-Aways to looking around when you enter a fringe area. Develop good habits for your safety.

Awareness is a combination of Habits and Knowledge – Pay attention to behavior, if you see danger signs, walk away.

Maneuvering/Positioning is getting yourself out of and staying away from danger. Or “knowing where you don’t want to be.” Criminals are always doing this. They pretend to do something else, but are really adjusting their positioning. Criminals rely on surprise and if you notice the criminal trying to maneuver to get you into position, quietly slip away. By knowing what the criminal needs to act and not letting him develop the situation, you nonviolently protect yourself.

Knowledge of Self-Worth & Boundaries is knowing yourself, know how you think, know how you come across, and be committed to yourself. Know that you, nor your loved ones, can afford for you to be victimized and that you are justified in telling someone to back off; however, know when to stop by not escalating a situation into an unnecessary attack.

Verbal Boundary Enforcement is simply communication. This is the step of letting a potential attacker know you know what’s going on and you’re prepared to defend yourself. Do not threaten or boast – leave a little room for him to save face to help de-escalate. This is simply a get away from me or unpleasant things will occur. This is assertiveness without aggression. You’re doing what you need to do to get him away, you’re not punching him or chasing him down the street. Before you speak up, know how far you’re willing to go.

Physical Self-Defense is the last step, when it becomes unavoidable. If you arrive at this point, it is not natural, it has been forced. You are justified to do what it takes to stop the assailant. Physical self defense is not about fighting, it’s about doing what you have to do to not be hurt, robbed, raped, or killed. You will deal with the authorities and repercussions later, but in the now it’s about doing what you must to survive. If a non-lethal threat was posed, you probably should avoid using lethal force. If your attacker is down and out or runs away, leave. Call the cops.

The Pyramid forces your attacker to go through a lot of work to arrive at physical violence, putting a maximum amount of distance between you.

As a quick side note about secondary locations: Do everything in your power to avoid being taken to a secondary location. I don’t care if they threaten to choke you, stab you or shoot you, this is the absolute last thing you want. Why? It will almost inevitably lead to rape, murder, or both. I assure you, you’re better off against a gun at close range where you stand than in any secondary location. If you’re suddenly assaulted and kidnapped, don’t flip and immediately assume you’ll die because you’ll still have chances, but if you’re approached on foot or by car, avoid it at all costs. Why such bad news? Murder, Rape and Kidnapping are the three most serious offenses in the eyes of the law – if they’ve already committed kidnapping, why not the other two? It’s never good news.

Well, that should wrap up this mini-self-defense-series on Criminal Minds, Stages of Violence, and the Pyramid of Personal Protection. Again, this material was largely drawn from No Nonsense Self Defense – You may be sick of me mentioning it, but it truly is a phenomenal resource.

Some combat coverage should be coming soon, any specific requests? Comments or questions on this article or about self-defense or martial arts in general? Thanks for reading!