THE BLOG ENTRY BELOW IS FROM CHRIS RANCK-BURH, A FAVORITE, INSIGHTFUL INSTRUCTOR FROM TARGET FOCUS TRAINING. It addresses the top end of our training cascade: Better to avoid than to escape…. etc. Here he is….. AVOIDING THE VICTIM SMELL One of our Master Instructors, Dave S., just got back from a vacation in San Francisco….
Too Young for Self Defense Training?
It is not my intent, in this entry, to discuss the reasons, but I am receiving an increase in self defense inquiries from young teenagers (meaning under age 18) and their parents. Here’s my quandary. Clearly, today’s kids need exposure to SD, but the principles and content can vary greatly. For example, my program is…
A PHILOSOPHY FOR COUNTER-VIOLENCE INSTRUCTION
IMAGINE. PREPARE. PRACTICE.. There is only so much time, as self defense students, that we can or will commit to training. We have job deadlines, families, and other goals. We have funky knees or lumbar vertebrae that complain, especially the next morning after class. That reality demands, in class, a focus on essentials with an…
Guns in America
Hi gang. Rory Miller is one of my favorite authors/thinkers in the SD area. I occasionally bump him with Q’s. Here’s is a recent “sharing” we had about guns and ammo. Give this dialogue some attention. Add some of your own…. Me: THE GUN LOBBY. The gun lobby is articulate, focused, passionate, and “loaded”. We…
THROW vs FALL
GRAVITY: THE SURPRISE PACKAGE This poor gentleman is an instant away from impact with the planet. Most likely he slipped on the ice. The spill path, trailing from the cup, suggests his orbital path is quite vertical, the shortest distance to a crash landing. Possible injury list: coccyx, a rotator cuff or two, wrist, elbow,…
Deterioration Cascade
Self defense …. is actually SELF OFFENSE When we are cornered and our life is on the line, our panic screams in our brain to comply with the predator’s commands, to fear the weapon, to trust the next moment will deliver our safety. But with each added second of hesitation, our chance for survival plummets…
POWER TO THE PULL UP
THERE ARE ONLY SO MANY WAYS (AND GAGETS) TO EXERCISE THE HUMAN BODY. UNTIL RECENTLY, I HAVE AVOIDED THE “UP” EXERCISES…. AVIDLY….. WHETHER THE GRIP WAS PALMS IN, PALMS OUT, PARALLEL, WHATEVER. JUST NEVER LIKED THEM, PROBABLY BECAUSE THERE’S NOWHERE TO CHEAT ON THE DEAL: YOU’RE EITHER POWERING UP AND DOWN AGAINST GRAVITY OR YOU’RE…
When the Bad Man Won’t Go Away
When it comes to facing imminent victimization, most of us…we just want the bad man to go away. We avoid conflict. We abhor violence. There is a natural disinclination to react, not to mention attack. Understandable, but dangerous. When we are in the crosshairs of violence, we either break the freeze, suck it up and deliver the…
The Brain Matters: The Joy of Practice
In each cubic centimeter of our 3 lbs of brain, there are more cellular connections than stars in the Milky Way. (Not well documented, who did the counting!) One third of brain activity is delegated just to vision. Most of our brain function is evolutionarily hard wired–about two thirds of it. These processes represent our…
NOW THAT’S FOCUS!!
FOCUS!!! GET TIRED OF HEARING THAT ONE? I TRY NOT TO NAG IN CLASS. HERE’S A GREAT STORY, JUST FOR GRINS. ED Macauley, a renowned college and NBA basketball star, just died at age 83. His nickname was — EASY ED. But don’t be fooled. During one game, while a star player at St. Louis…