Principles of Violence

DISCLAIMER This book is intended for academic study and information purposes only. The author, publisher, and the Greyskull Academy of Combat Sciences assume no risk or responsibility for the misuse of any of the information presented herein. herein . None of the information inf ormation regarding regar ding self-defense self-defen se and the law should be considered legal advice. Use caution, and emphasize safety whenever performing any physical act including training in the manner presented in this book.

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PRINCIPLES OF VIOLENCE

DISCLAIMER This book is intended for academic study and information purposes only. The author, publisher, and the Greyskull Academy of Combat Sciences assume no risk or responsibility for the misuse of any of the information presented herein. herein . None of the information inf ormation regarding regar ding self-defense self-defen se and the law should be considered legal advice. Use caution, and emphasize safety whenever performing any physical act including training in the manner presented in this book.

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This book is dedicated to Dave Chambers. This is also dedicated to all combat veterans past and present. Thank you, brothers. Special thanks to Mike, Sean, Jim, and Dereck, who helped complete this book on a tight schedule, and during a gruesome heat wave. I’d also like to give a special thank you to Tim for indirectly inspiring me to write this and move forward with my presentation of this information.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction

5

Chapter One: Causing an Injury

8

Chapter Two: Action vs. Reaction

11

Chapter Three: Degrees of Incapacitation Chapter Four: Targeting

19

Chapter Five: Spinal Reflex

68

Chapter Six: Effective Striking

77

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Chapter Seven: Creating and Denying Structure Chapter Eight: Skeletal Destruction

114

119

Chapter Nine: Throwing

130

Chapter Ten: Weapons

147

Chapter Eleven: Edged Weapons

153

Chapter Twelve: Impact Weapons

160

Chapter Thirteen: Firearms

162

Chapter Fourteen: Improvised Weapons

178

Chapter Fifteen: Fighting from the Ground

180

Chapter Sixteen: Facing Multiple Threats

185

Chapter Seventeen: Violence in Application

190

Chapter Eighteen: Training

209

Chapter Nineteen: The Benefits of Live Training Conclusion

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INTRODUCTION The term “Self Defense” is something that has bothered me for a long time. In a literal sense, the term is fundamentally flawed. You see when people discuss “self defense” scenarios, they are not talking about sporting events like mixed martial arts or boxing, nor are they referring to a shoving match at the local pub. When people think “self defense” they think of dealing with situations where their life, or the lives of others, are in danger, in the face of an asocial criminal. Before I go any further, I’d like to address the difference between a “social conflict”, and an asocially violent assault. A social conflict is the type of thing that happens when two people argue over something, and it escalates to violence. These are the situations that we all gathered to watch in the schoolyard, yelling “Fight!” and encouraging the participant that we liked. An asocially violent spin on the school yard scenario might be a student who had been made an outcast or bullied coming into school heavily armed and opening fire on all in his path, something that we’ve seen in the news far too often in the past decade. In those situations, no one wants to watch, no one is excited, or otherwise interested in hanging around. Asocial violence, violence that happens outside of any agreed upon code or law, is something that is repulsive to us as human beings. Aggravated robberies turned homicides, rape, murder as part of gang initiation, home invasions, and the like are all examples of asocial violence. You are dealing with a person or a group of people, who have already decided to operate outside of what makes sense socially. The rape victim that is brutally stabbed to death after heeding the advice from the media and her college rape awareness class by complying with her attacker has made the fatal mistake of projecting her own morality, or that of someone else who has advised her but does not recognize the psyche of the sociopath, onto her attacker. In her case, the mistake cost the woman her life. The home owner who wakes to find himself in the presence of two large, drugged out gang bangers in his bedroom, who attempts to reason with them, offer them money, or otherwise give full compliance, even after they begin beating him and making

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preparations to rape his wife lying next to him, has also made the same fatal mistake. In either of these situations, “defending one’s self” is a fantasy. It’s something that sounds nice to us as morally sound, socially adjusted human beings. The problem here is that we are up against opposition who is not of the same cloth. They are wildly different in what is “normal” to them, and what they are willing to do in order to fulfill whatever needs that they may have, and which motivated their crime. Simply put, there is no talking your way out of a situation like this. Additionally, any attempt to truly “defend yourself” in the traditional manner is not going to fare well. The only thing that will ensure your survival in an asocially violent situation is to incapacitate your attacker(s). A solid, working knowledge of how to truly incapacitate (read: render unconscious, cripple, or kill if necessary) another human being with your hands is, in my opinion, the most valuable human skill that you need to learn. If and when the time comes where you need that skill, there will be no other solution. We all keep smoke detectors in our homes, yet how many of us have actually had house fires? If you have, and have lived to tell about it, I’m sure that you would not scoff at anyone who wanted smoke detectors or extinguishers in their home. Likewise we have fire escapes, “TOT Finder” stickers to put on our kids windows, and all other sorts of contingency preparations for something that we hope never happen to us. So we are ok with letting firemen on the ground know where our children sleep in the event of a fire, but we are not ok with learning how to rupture a man’s eye, and fracture his skull at the lambdoid and saggital sutures, causing him to expire due to cerebral contusion, if he is attempting to stab our child. We want shotguns in the house for home defense. We accept that a mechanism which requires another human to operate, and can and will render us unable to see well (due to muzzle flash) or hear (muzzle blast) when fired under low light conditions while under duress in a home invasion context, is a valid investment in our personal protection. We accept that the wound that the shotgun would inflict on a violent intruder would certainly kill him in his tracks, but then turn our noses up when someone like myself discusses how a man who has had his thyroid cartilage crushed, and is asphyxiating as a result,

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needs to be knocked unconscious so as to die in his sleep so that he can’t cause any damage in the one to five minute window during which he will be shutting down from his injury but still can pull a trigger or stab out with a knife. Asocial violence warrants a violent response. I’m not talking about sports here; I’m not talking about dick measuring over a girl or other non life-threatening occurrence at a bar. I’m talking about life or death, a situation where inaction results in certain death. These are the situations that people want to learn to defend themselves in, and these are the very situations in which self-defense or mixed martial arts training have no place. In order to survive an asocially violent situation, you need to be able to put the brakes on another human being. You need to be able to shut him or them off, and destroy their ability to use the only weapon that they have, their brain. Regardless of what tool may be in their hand, be it a gun, knife, blunt instrument, you name it, they are incapable of causing you, our anyone else harm without the murderous intent in their brain necessary to wield it. What this book will do is teach you how to respond to the asocially violent criminal with an appropriate and effective use of violence. This book is not designed to make you a “bad ass” that can clean up anyone in a bar fight. It is not intended for addressing social conflict period. The information presented here is only to be used when violence cannot be avoided and it is time to act. This book will provide you with the information necessary to use the tool of violence in that narrow window of application where it is warranted. Some of what you will see is gruesome. None of what you will see is gratuitous if it comes down to your life or his/theirs. Study the principles presented in this book. Develop a working knowledge of them, and train to increase your proficiency at doing violence. When you are faced with it for real, there won’t be time to learn. This book can save your life.

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CHAPTER ONE: CAUSING INJURY When any violent situation begins there are two or more parties with one thing in common: None of them are injured. At the end of the altercation that status changes for one or more of those involved. This is a simple reality that exists in any instance of asocial violence. At some point during the event one person is injuring another, plain and simple. Knowing that this is the case, it is a personal decision that you must make as to which party you wish to be. My guess is that you’ll pick the uninjured party or, more correctly, the one doing the injury. Nothing changes in your favor (or his) until an injury occurs. In a loose parallel, think of watching an MMA fight where two men beat on each other for five rounds before one catches the other just right and sends him toppling back towards the fence. At that point the crowd goes wild, and the other man comes rushing in swinging for the fences, trying to “finish”. All of the sizing each other up, feinting, testing range, and getting the timing right meant nothing until that one crucial blow was landed. A fighter would argue that all of the preceding events were necessary to enable that strike to happen, but that is why I said it is a loose comparison. Real violence lasts a few seconds, and has zero to do with sport. You don’t have a ring, we don’t have a referee, and the stakes are not a belt or prize money, in asocially violent situations the stakes are someone’s life. We don’t have time to compete with this man. You don’t need to see how good he is at doing violence. Chances are, if he is attacking you, and escalating things to the point of unavoidable violence, then he is better versed and experienced in the subject than you anyway. If he weren’t his spidey sense probably would have told him not to mess with you in the first place.

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You cannot afford to not injure this man. Doing so will not be good for you. Remember that one of you must be injured and that it is entirely up to you to determine which of you that is.

What is Injury?

An injury is simply trauma to a portion of the man’s body that interferes with his ability to function in some manner. Additionally, it is a trauma that elicits a spinal reflex. There are a seemingly infinite number of injuries that you can inflict on this man, and after you’re through with this book you’ll have been exposed to quite a few. Which injury you choose to inflict will be determined by the situation at hand. There are no “best” injuries, only ones that are most applicable given the circumstances. Your best injury will be the one that is available to you when you need it. It’s not important which one it is, it’s just important that you act and cause it. Later you’ll learn about the mighty spinal reflex and how it will enable you to own the man once you cause the first injury. You will literally be able to string together a chain of injuries that will lead to his incapacitation, at whatever level you desire, with relative ease. The world in which you are learning to operate has no room for defensive thinking. There are no judges to pat you on your back and console you if you lose, critiquing your form, and telling you how you can improve your performance next time. There are only paramedics, coroners, and psychiatrists who may or may not be able to put the pieces back together and allow you to live a normal life. Losing in an asocially violent situation means loss of life or limb. No one has ever blocked their way to victory. No matter how solid a team’s defense is, they won’t win unless the offense does their job and scores points.

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No man has ever stood by and done nothing while another man sought to cause him death or grievous bodily harm and had anything favorable happen to him. “Defensive wounds” are a term used by coroners and medical examiners. Nothing changes in your favor until the other man is injured. You absolutely must get in there and cause the first injury.

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CHAPTER TWO: ACTION VS. REACTION

Sir Isaac Newton

Sir Isaac Newton’s contributions to the world of physics are legendary. His “three laws of motion” formed the basis for much of what is known about the subject today. In my teaching at the Greyskull Academy of Combat Sciences, I frequently cite Newton as his three laws of motion apply both directly, and in parallel to, the subject of human violence. One of the first principles that we discuss with trainees is the principle of action versus reaction. Acting, specifically, doing violence to another human being for the purpose of preventing violence done to you or a third party is the backbone of what I teach.

Action vs. Reaction: Action always prevails. Much of what is taught in conventional martial arts or self-defense classes is based on the idea of defending oneself against the actions of another. Students are taught techniques that represent responses to a variety of common attacks. In this case, they are taught to react to

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what the other person is doing. To use a dance analogy, the other guy is always leading. The primary problem with this approach is that when there is a man or group of men charging you with murderous intent, there is no time to scan your mental Rolodex in search of the predetermined response that you’ve been taught when faced with said situation. I do not teach people to react to what the other guy is doing. I teach people to act, and force him to react. Since we know that action always wins, this is the only approach that will see you emerge victorious when faced with asocial violence. A simple drill that I do with students is to have them kneel facing each other with an object on the ground in between them. One student places his hand roughly one foot above the object; while the other student places his or her hand approximately double the distance from the object, well above their partner’s hand. The student whose hand is closer to the object is instructed to not move until the other person moves. The student whose hand is farther away makes a move for the object with the simple directive of covering it with their hand. Keep in mind that in addition to their hand being twice the distance from the object, the other person’s hand is in their way on the way down.

The man acting, despite being farther from the object, will always beat the man reacting to it.

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Time after time after time, the person whose hand is farther from the object is able to cover it or even pick it up before their partner can reach it. The interesting thing here is that the partner whose hand is closest to the object knows exactly what the intentions are of their partner. They have an extremely simple action that they must take (covering the object) in reaction to their partner’s movement. Think about how different this is from a situation where another human’s intentions are not as crystal clear, and you are waiting to block, counter, or otherwise defend against (react to) what he is doing. You simply do not have the time. Action vs. Reaction: Action always prevails. The advantageous reverse of this principle for you is that the other man simply cannot process, determine the appropriate response, and affect a defense faster than you can act, and produce injury. Beyond the simple idea of the reaction time gap, there is the idea of action vs. reaction, cause vs. effect at play anytime two or more people engage in combat. One person is injuring the other person, and one person is being injured. This is true in every single example of human on human violence that you can possibly imagine or demonstrate. One is the doer, and one is the do-ee. It’s pretty clear to see which side you would like to be on. When you act, and produce an injury on another human being, for example striking him in the pneumogastric nerve sheath in the lateral neck with a forearm strike, a series of reactions take place. For one, he is rendered unconscious. That is a reaction to the action that you took. Also, his body moves in a very predictable manner with response to the trauma. This will be covered in the chapter on “spinal reflex”. The bottom line here is that waiting for another man to initiate the violence, attempting to counter, block, or any other way react to him is going to set you up for failure. Conversely, acting will stack the odds significantly in your favor. The rest of this book will show you the “how” that accompanies that all-important “why”. You’ve already learned the necessity of causing the first injury, now you will learn how to most effectively do so.

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CHAPTER THREE: DEGREES OF INCAPACITATION When facing asocial violence, you have to remember that this man wants to seriously injure, if not kill you. As we described before, your use of social skills to diffuse the situation is not an option. That’s why we’re here. This book is not about dealing with social situations or “punch ups”, though the information within can be used to dissuade someone from further efforts of escalation if it has become clear that using violence is your only option. This chapter deals with rendering a man incapacitated, and the varying degrees you may do so depending on the intricacies of the situation. Since we are dealing with a person or persons who are hell bent on causing us serious injury or worse here if you do not act, we need to make this man incapable of carrying out his intent of maiming or killing you. In order to do this, we need to shut him off, or destroy his capacities to an appropriate level. Therefore I state that the only three acceptable manners in which to leave a man who has taken the situation with you to into asocial territory are:

Unconscious, Crippled, or Dead Let’s look at each step in this hierarchy of incapacitation in a bit more detail.

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Unconscious Putting the man’s lights out. Yes, the age old, definitive end to the conflict. This is a viable option if you believe that you are able to get out of the situation before he awakes and becomes violent again (if not more violent now), or if you feel that his infraction was not significant enough to go further up the hierarchy of incapacitation. This is important to consider if you feel that you will have a hard time claiming self-defense should you be arrested for your involvement in the situation. To spell it out as clearly as possible, if you put your hands on another man, and cause him harm you had better be able to justify why you did so in court. If one single man has blocked your exit from an establishment, or followed you to your car shouting and shoving, you are going to have a difficult time explaining to the judge why fracturing his sternum with a heel stomp was necessary to bring an end to the immediate threat. At that point you may well be charged with assault with a deadly weapon (depending on where you live), aggravated assault, recklessly endangering another human being, or even attempted manslaughter. Show up in court on the wrong side of the law, and you will be able to test out your newfound skills from inside of a prison. There I promise the violence will be asocial. Likewise, if you are followed to your car, or accosted physically in some manner, and you knock the man out with a forearm to the lateral neck to end the situation before leaving or alerting the authorities, chances are you will be free from prosecution (so long as you can show that you, or a third party, were in immediate danger). Remember that you need this man to be non-functional if he possesses intent to harm you. His brain is his weapon, and it needs to be stopped in order to completely stop the threat. For this reason, knocking him out is the minimum degree of incapacitation that I recommend you taking this man to. If his lights are out, so is his ability to use his brain to command his body and cause you harm. Remember, as a rule of thumb, if he is not significantly larger than you, holding a weapon, telling you that he intends to produce one, or there is more than one of him, knocking him out is probably your best bet if you want to keep your ass out of a sling down the line. Latter chapters in this book will discuss in more detail how to go about rendering a man unconscious.

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Crippled By the time I reach this stage in the hierarchy, I am going to assume that there is a clear and compelling case for selfdefense, and that there is no way that the situation could be confused for a social conflict. This man should be attempting to, or making known his intent to cause you debilitating injury or worse. The term “crippling” warrants some clarification. In my use of the term in this book, I am referring to the breaking, or destruction of some component or components of this man’s body in such a manner that he requires medical treatment to become functional again. This could mean anything from breaking his clavicle, to paralyzing him from the neck or waist down. Obviously the last two options carry a much more serious ramification to him, and therefore to you if you are questioned about the situation. You absolutely will need to demonstrate that you were in immediate danger at the time that you chose to take things to that level, so make sure that there is no gray area. This is the second level in the hierarchy, and the most serious short of killing the man. Simply put, a man with a broken knee is not much of a threat unless he is hopped up on drugs, possesses a wicked intent to kill you, is still conscious, and is able to use or access his weapon. On that note, it is imperative that you are positive that he is incapacitated before attempting to leave, or turn your back on a “crippled man”. A man who attacked you in your home with his fists or a hammer, whose ankle and clavicle you broke, can very well make use of a knife or firearm should you let your guard down, turn away, or assume that the threat is over. It is for this reason that I highly recommend rendering the man unconscious in conjunction with a crippling strike or joint break to negate the possibility of any further offensive efforts by him while you are getting out of dodge or otherwise dealing with the aftermath. Latter chapters, particularly the skeletal destruction chapter, will address several manners in which to cripple a man.

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Dead Ok, so there is absolutely no gray area here. This man is attempting to cause you or a loved one death or grievous bodily harm right now! If you would not be justified in shooting the man, do not consider taking his life with your empty hands, an edged weapon, or an impact weapon. To be perfectly honest, the brandishing or use of any weapon in any situation that does not warrant a lethal response is pretty much handing the District Attorney your own conviction. So let’s assume that all bets are off, and there is a clear case for the use of lethal force. Killing the man is the last step in the hierarchy. There simply is not another level of incapacitation to which you can take the man. Taking his life is the only one hundred percent guarantee that the threat posed by him is completely over. These conditions will rarely be the case, however when they are, you need to act quickly and decisively, and put an end to this man’s life before he ends yours or that of someone else. I train individuals in the skills necessary to end the life of another human being whether empty-handed, or armed with an edged weapon, impact weapon, or firearm. As this book progresses you will be exposed to some of the lethal applications that are available to you should the situation demand such a response. Keep in mind that learning these skills does not make you a sociopath, but rather prepares you to beat the sociopath at his own game if needed. Many have a strong aversion to learning the skill of killing a human being, but I can assure you that if and when you realize that the skill is one that is needed for your survival or for that of a loved one, it will simply be too late to learn. Killing an innocent person is a monstrous thing to do. Killing a would-be murderer is a heroic and unfortunately sometimes necessary thing to do.

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Which stop along this continuum you choose to take this man to will depend entirely on the situation. Your life, or the lives of others involved in the situation are what matters the most, and therefore you must be absolutely certain that the threat is over before you take any other action. If you feel that you are morally opposed to injuring a man to any of the levels above, then I suggest you do some soul-searching, read the news, and think about whether or not you are willing to accept putting your life or the lives of your loved ones in the hands of another man. While some of things that you will learn to do to a person are gruesome and appalling, I promise you that he will not have the same abhorrence to carrying out this type of act as you feel that you do now. Understand that being able to maim, cripple, or kill does not make you a bad person or a sociopath, but not possessing these skills, under the right circumstances, can make you a victim or corpse.

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CHAPTER FOUR: TARGETING Targeting is an absolutely critical principle that one must learn in order to most effectively and efficiently use the tool of violence against a would-be assailant. It is therefore the first principle that students spend time learning and developing proficiency in, and the one in which they receive the most disproportionately large amount of instruction in a seminar setting. Quite simply, targeting is what allows one to predictably and reliably produce injuries in another human being. Injury is necessary in order to disrupt that individual’s ability to function normally in some manner, and also to elicit a spinal reflex, which in turn renders the individual a slave to their spine for a valuable bit of time, exposing him to further injuries, and causing him to be incapable of “defending” against, said injuries. Targeting simply involves focusing one’s strikes on areas of the human body that are likely to produce an injury. Developing a comprehensive knowledge of the targets of the human body, their associated spinal reflex, and the injuries associated with each when struck in specific manners is the educational investment that will make the most difference in terms of one’s ability to incapacitate any human being in a violent encounter.

What Targets are Not Now that we’ve identified that a target is simply an area of the human body where injury is likely to occur when struck with sufficient force, let’s look at what targets are not. Targets are not “pressure points”. Pressure points are areas of the human body, which produce pain when struck or grabbed. Martial arts such as Tai Chi, Ninjutsu, Chin Na, and even more esoteric styles like George Dillman’s “Kyoshu Jitsu” (Google George for a laugh sometime. His “knockouts”, specifically the “no contact” ones are hilarious to watch) make heavy use of pressure points in their teachings. While some points certainly are painful when grabbed or struck, it is important to remember that injury, not pain, is what needs to be !2013

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produced in order to incapacitate a human being and save your life in a violent encounter. Causing pain, particularly when dealing with someone amped on adrenaline or narcotics, is a very poor strategy when the other guy wants your head on a platter. You simply cannot bet your life that his intent to cause you harm will be broken because “it hurts”. Targets are not the body’s “weak points”. There points”. There is nothing inherently weak about a man’s sternum or knee. It will take kinetic energy generated by your body in motion with a viable body weapon at the end of it to smash smas h either and render the man non functional. Targets cannot be conditioned to withstand punishment or injury. injury. For example, a boxer can condition himself to soak up blows to his midsection, or develop his “chin”, or ability to take shots to his head, but there is nothing that he can do to toughen up his clavicles, his metatarsal bones, or his lateral neck. These structures simply do not allow for conditioning against injury.

Trauma to Targets Produces a Predictable Spinal Reflex Spinal reflex, which will be covered in depth in the next chapter, is simply the process that occurs when a target area receives a trauma of significant enough magnitude to trip a threshold switch in the spinal cord and cause the body to move in a predictable manner. This is what happens when you touch a hot stove, or step on something sharp. Imagine a man kicking you in your groin full force with his shin before smashing his Ulna bone on the back of your neck, and then stomping on your neck once you were down and out for the count. Everyone can imagine what a man looks like that has just taken a shot to the groin. We’ve all seen it; hell we’ve all probably experienced it at some point in our lives. Understanding the reactions to trauma for each target is a bit of an unfair advantage when it comes to doing violence to another. It allows you to access targets as they present themselves after the first injury, and render him incapable of doing anything about your intentions of causing further injury. It’s crucial to point out that in the groin, back of the neck example above, many would think that the pain produced by the groin kick would be sufficient to bring the situation to an end. This is not necessarily the case.

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While a hard shot to the groin certainly may take all of the fight out of most human males, a man jacked up on PCP may not feel the pain from the strike and go right on his merry way smashing you into oblivion or eviscerating you with his knife if you choose to stop at the kick. What kick. What you can bet on however, is that the stimulus that the kick produces to the nerve plexus in the man’s pubic area will absolutely produce at the least the minimum spinal reflex, i.e. his hands will go to his groin, his chin will pop up, he will bend forward at the waist, and his mouth will open. Take this time to step back and assume a fighting stance, and you now have a “fight” on your hands, which is something that we never want. Take the opportunity while he is involuntarily reacting the trauma (not the pain) to bust his knee with all of the finesse that you would use to bust up a wooden pallet for firewood, and you now have a crippled man on your hands who is much simpler to deal with.

What is the Best Target Target to Strike in a Violent Situation? This is a common question that I receive from the uninitiated when the subject of what I teach arises. Most people are looking for a small “toolbox” of target areas with associated, and equally simplistic “techniques” to use to strike them. them. “Go for the throat ” ” or or “Go for the eyes” are are the type of things that they’d like to hear me say. Many overly simplify the subject in this manner, and it is a dangerous way of teaching (if you can call it that). Imagine for a moment that you are minding your own business outside of a building while using an ATM machine when you are blindsided and struck with a punch to the head. You find yourself flat on the ground with a man standing over you who produces a knife and demands your ATM card and the PIN number. If you’ve been taught to “Go for the eyes or throat” , then you’re going to have a hard time using your tools. Now if you’ve been taught to access a multitude of targets all over this man’s body, then you are more than comfortable causing injuries from any position that you may find yourself in whether seemingly advantageous (standing over him), or disadvantageous (him standing over you after he’s cold-cocked you in the side of the head and potentially broken your jaw). You may, for instance, see his ankle next to your body, and roll onto it from the inside, placing your forearm above his medial malleolus (ball on the inside of ankle) to lever him down and snap his ankle. From !2013

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here you may then dive elbow first into his exposed groin, keeping your weight on his internal saphenous nerve on his injured leg. From there, the lateral neck may present itself to you as he sits up violently in an effort to get his hands to his wounded ankle, and in response (spinal reflex) to his smashed testicles. At that point you may lay your ulna bone across his lateral neck and shift all of your weight above that point before bouncing your weight on it to produce a massive parasympathetic nervous system stimulus by attacking his pneumogastric nerve sheath, and knocking him out. Keep in mind that the “technique” detailed above is not a technique at all in that it is not a rehearsed series of movements that is taught to students. It is simply how one situation may have panned out based on what targets became available, and how you used the spinal reflexes from the injuries to open the gates for each successive injury in your quest to incapacitate the man and eliminate the threat of him killing you for your money. It’s also important to note that the above a bove could have been performed by anyone, regardless of size or athletic ability. Man, woman, even paraplegic could have executed the movements detailed above with the same result. The person used weapons of their body, in this case the ulna bones of the forearms, and the elbows, with their entire body weight behind them to take the man apart. Students learn how to access targets based b ased on what is presented to them at that point in time. With over one hundred targets available, there are many options to exploit. Students build their “vocabulary” of targets rapidly, as they learn and practice their craft. Students learn that there is no “best” target, or targets. There is simply the target that is most readily accessed given the situation. Striking targets to produce injury is light years ahead of the idea of throwing strikes at the man’s “head”, “body”, or “legs”. Do you want to bet that your Thai kicks are stronger and more devastating than his intent to kill you? In the above situation, do you want to bet that taking him down and “mounting” him to reign blows on his face BJJ style is going to prevent him from slamming that knife under your ribs? If you opt to attack his knife hand, and “Kimura” him, him, are you willing to bet that his accomplice is not laying in wait to David Beckham your

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head off while you’re trying to submit him or tear out his shoulder with both hands? Learning to access targets and produce injuries saves you from having to gamble on your technique or experience versus his, your size and strength versus his, and last but certainly not least, his desire to break you over your desire to render him broken. The latter being the most critical, and the one that you are most likely to lose before you even begin.

So What are these Targets? The next book to be released is the Greyskull Academy of Combat Sciences Empty-Hand Targeting Manual. This upcoming title will go into great detail on each of the anatomical targets that are taught in the curriculum. Each target location will be detailed as well as the injuries associated with striking each target in a variety of manners with a variety of weapons of the body. Additionally, each target’s spinal reflex will be demonstrated so as to gain a comprehensive understanding of precisely how the human body will move in response to trauma to a specific target. Following that release will be a similar work designed to illustrate the same information regarding targeting when edged weapons are used. What I will do in this book is provide an overview of the primary targets that are taught to students of this method, as well as provide some basic information on striking each target, and what to expect in terms of injury for each. This section will be the primer course, while the targeting manuals will serve as the mastery course. Below are the primary targets of the human body, separated by anatomical region.

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Targets of the Head • • • • • • • • • • • •

Eye Orbital Bone Nose Frontal Sinus Maxilla Underside of Mandible (chin) Temple Temporomandibular Joint Eardrum Hypoglossal Nerve Medulla Oblongata Lambdoidal/Saggital Suture Joint

Targets of the Neck • • • •

Superior Cervical Ganglion (back of the neck) Pneumogastric Nerve Sheath (lateral neck) Thyroid Cartilage (anterior neck, Adam’s apple) Trachea at Suprasternal Notch

Targets of the Torso • • • • • • • • • • •

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• • • •

Lateral Ribs Kidney Lumbar Spine Thoracic Spine

Targets of the Upper Extremities • •

Radial Nerve Median Nerve

Targets of the Lower Extremities • • • • • • •

Lateral Femoral Cutaneous Nerve Internal Saphenous Nerve (high and low) Knee Popliteal Fossa (back of knee) Medial Malleolus (“ball” of the ankle on inside of leg) Lateral Malleolus (“ball” of the ankle on outside of leg) Metatarsal Bones (instep)

On the next page, I will begin the basic breakdown by target.

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Eye The eyes are an excellent striking target. Causing trauma to the eyes in the form of a simple finger claw strike will make it impossible for the man to see for the duration of the event. The spinal reflex associated with striking the eyes is very dramatic and predictable. The eyeballs themselves can also be ruptured using the thumb while holding the man’s head with the other hand. You will see this target used heavily in later chapters and later works.

The eye targets

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Orbital Bone This is the eye “socket” this target is struck when using a striking surface that is larger than the opening of the eye. This target is generally struck with an impact weapon, but can also be stomped with a heel, kicked with the ball of the foot, or smashed with an elbow or hammer fist if it presents itself during the conflict. Striking the orbital can result in structural damage to the skull in the area of the eye if struck hard enough, but at the very least will make it difficult, if not impossible, for the man to see for the duration of the event.

The orbital bone target

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Nose The nose is a relatively benign target in terms of risk of serious injury, but can have debilitating effects when struck. Striking the nose will normally “break” it, separating the cartilage from the nasal bone. This results in a lot of bleeding, a good deal of pain, and an intense watering of the eyes. The combined effects make it difficult for the man to breathe, and even more difficult diffi cult for him to see for the duration of the altercation. This target can be struck with a large variety of striking surfaces. Below you will see several illustrated.

The Nose Target

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Frontal Sinus This target is located above the bridge bridg e of the nose in the indentation between the eyes. This is a very resilient target that is generally reserved for strikes with impact weapons, or heel stomps to a supine person. Both are likely to be fatal due to the likelihood of skull fracture, and the resultant trauma to the brain, brain, and can cause permanent disfigurement of the face if the man lives. At the very least, the man is blinded for the duration of the encounter when struck in either manner.

The Frontal Sinus Target

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Maxilla This target is located below the nose, where the upper teeth root into the skull. Striking this target causes serious bleeding as the upper teeth are usually broken at the roots and a nd drop into the mouth. The maxilla is commonly struck with either a hammer fist (often accidentally if the nose target is missed), or by a heel stomp to a downed assailant. This is also a common target used when striking with impact weapons such as clubs or baseball bats.

The Maxilla Target

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Underside of Mandible (chin) This target is struck in an upward manner, frequently with the heel of the palm, a two-knuckle fist (in an uppercut), or with a ball of the foot kick to a downed, or “seated” person. In the former examples, unconsciousness is a common result by way of a “boxer’s knockout”, as well as a great possibility of broken teeth, a lacerated or even severed tongue, and potentially a broken jaw. In the latter example (ball of the foot kick), these injuries are also to be expected, but generally there is also a massive head trauma that occurs when the back of the head impacts with the ground. Such a head trauma can certainly be fatal. Below are three examples of this target being struck with various weapons of the body.

The Underside of Mandible Target

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Temple The temple region of the skull is a structurally weak location that is very susceptible to injury. When struck with a two-knuckle fist, or similar strike, the temple is commonly a knockout strike. When struck with an impact tool or a stomp, knee drop, etc. the temple becomes a kill shot.

The Temple Target

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Temporomandibular Joint The temporomandibular joint or “TMJ” for short is the joint where the jaw connects to the skull. This joint is very susceptible to fracture when struck. While boxers learn to keep this joint clenched tight using their mouthpiece thereby avoiding a broken jaw, this joint is very easily broken if the jaw is slack at all, as in the case of a man with an open mouth. It is very common to set up a broken jaw by first striking a target that causes the mouth to come open as a part of its associated spinal reflex. This target can be struck with a multitude of striking surfaces.

The Temporomandibular Joint (TMJ) Target

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Eardrum Rupturing one or both eardrums makes it very difficult for the man to maintain his balance. There is also a tremendous amount of pain associated with a traumatic eardrum rupture, as well as a serious disorienting sensation. The eardrum is an excellent non-lethal target in most cases. The eardrums are only struck with the flat of the palms. Pulling the fingers back greatly reduces the chance of rupture, but maintains the disorienting effects, while cupping the hands introduces a pocket of air into the ear canal that demolishes the sensitive eardrum.

The Eardrum Target

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Hypoglossal Nerve The hypoglossal nerve target is located in the hollow underneath the base of the ear. Striking it with a one-joint strike will produce unconsciousness. With an edged weapon in hand, this target becomes an easy entry into the brain, and therefore an extremely efficient killing target. Simple pressure to this target with your finger will illustrate to you how much you do not want to get struck here. This is one of the main targets that elicits that “Ahhh, you and those fucking one-joints” reaction from my training partners that I describe in the striking chapter.

The Hypoglossal Nerve Target

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Medulla Oblongata Located at the “base of the skull”, the medulla oblongata target represents a great knockout opportunity. The most common manner used to strike this target is using a “four-joint” strike in a downward motion to a man who is in a spinal reflex from a groin or other lowtorso target. Like the temple, striking this target with an impact weapon or a stomp/knee drop is likely to be fatal.

The Medulla Oblongata Target

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Lambdoidal/Saggital Suture Joint This is a particularly barbaric target in that it is only struck when your intentions are to kill a human being. This is the spot on the back of his head where you’d bust him with a rock if you were a caveman looking to take over his land or property. This target is reserved primarily for impact weapons, but when attacked empty handed, is normally bashed into the ground, using the ground as your striking surface. You will see detail on this in the “Violence in Application” chapter. Doing this will cause a massive head trauma, and will almost certainly result in death for the other man.

The Lambdoidal and Saggital Suture Target

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Superior Cervical Ganglion (back of the neck) Striking this target with the ulna bone results in an easy knockout. This is set up easily by striking a target that causes the man to bend forward at the waist such as the solar plexus, bladder, or groin with the latter target being ideal due to the “cradle” created by the man’s head position (detail below). The target can also be struck with a shin kick, if the man is “seated” or laying on his side, or stomped or knee dropped if the man is prone, but the danger of this strike becoming lethal increases exponentially when striking surfaces of the legs are used to access it. A stomp or knee drop to a prone man to this target will almost certainly result in death, or at the very least quadriplegic paralysis, by way of a high cervical neck break.

The Superior Cervical Ganglion Target

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Here, Sean strikes Dereck in the Superior Cervical Ganglion target located in the “cradle” created by the position of Dereck’s head post spinal reflex to a groin strike.

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Pneumogastric Nerve Sheath (lateral neck) The pneumogastric nerve sheath target is located on the side of the man’s neck, slightly forward of the center point (see detail). Striking the lateral neck will result in a knockout by way of the parasympathetic nervous system. This is what we call a “fainting” knockout, which differs slightly from the type of knockout that occurs when a boxer gets hit “on the button”, or has his head snapped back with an uppercut. This becomes a very interesting target when edged weapons are involved due to the underlying carotid arteries and jugular veins. Stomping or dropping a knee on the lateral neck will more than likely result in paralysis or death for the man by way of high cervical neck break.

The Pneumogastric Nerve Sheath Target

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Thyroid Cartilage (Adam’s apple) This target is what the open-hand strike (as described in the section on weapons of the body) is used for. It can also be struck with virtually any other striking surface however, including the elbow, ulna bone, shin, knee, two-knuckle fist, blade edge of the foot, or heel (the last two being to a supine man). Make no mistake; a strike of any variety with sufficient force to the thyroid cartilage will result in the man’s death by asphyxiation unless there is immediate medical intervention. This is not a quick kill however; it can take anywhere from one to five minutes for the person to expire from a strike to this target. It is therefore recommended that if this target is used as a kill that the man be rendered unconscious as well so as to negate his ability to squeeze a trigger or otherwise cause you harm before he expires.

The Thyroid Cartilage Target

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Trachea at Suprasternal Notch This is the non-lethal little brother to the thyroid cartilage target. It is located in the hollow where the collarbones join. It requires a bit more precision to strike than the thyroid cartilage, but can be accessed easily with an “open-hand” strike using the method demonstrated. This target is also easily accessed with the fingers if they are made into the shape shown below while striking high on the sternum with a palm heel strike. Striking this target interrupts the man’s breathing significantly for a period of time, though does not present a major risk for lasting injury. It’s proximity to the thyroid cartilage target makes it a potentially dangerous option for an encounter where lethal force is not one hundred percent green-lighted however, so it is important that accurate striking of this target in the manners described be practiced in your training.

The Trachea Target

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Clavicle The clavicle or “collar bone”, as it is more commonly known, is a very easy bone to break. The clavicle is the only skeletal point of attachment for the entire arm. When broken, it becomes very difficult and painful to use the arm. Additionally, the weight of the arm hanging on the lung of that side makes it more difficult for the man to breathe. The clavicle is most commonly struck with the ulna bone, or with a stomp if the man is on the ground.

The Clavicle Targets

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Sternum The sternum is made up of three bones, the manubrium, the gladiolus, and the xyphoid process. For our purposes we’ll just call the whole thing the sternum. Striking this target results in a tremendous amount of pain, and makes it extremely difficult for the man to breathe. It is very easy, when striking with your bodyweight, to fracture the man’s sternum. This will require medical attention to remedy. Common weapons used to strike the sternum are the elbow, the heel of the palm, the knee, the ball of the foot, and the heel (stomp). Striking the sternum of a downed man with a stomp or knee drop is very likely to cause hemorrhaging as a result of damage to the organs beneath. Stomping a man’s sternum can result in death from internal bleeding. While it can be fatal, it is not a quick kill, so we do not consider a sternum stomp an option if we need to shut the man off in the same manner that we would a strike to the thyroid cartilage or a neck break.

The Sternum Target

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Solar Plexus The solar plexus target is located just below the xyphoid process, the boney end of the sternum. The solar plexus itself is a major nerve center of the torso. Striking the solar plexus “knocks the wind” out of a man as a result of the diaphragm going into spasm. This makes it very difficult for the man to breathe, and can be extremely painful. The solar plexus is an excellent target for striking in a non-lethal encounter, and is one that I make heavy use of in my instruction to law enforcement and bouncers. Despite this fact, the solar plexus target becomes an extremely lethal site when struck with a knife or other edged weapon as it serves as an excellent point of entry into the aorta, the torso’s main artery, and the vena cava inferior, the aorta’s venous brother. The solar plexus target is commonly struck with an elbow, two-knuckle fist, knee, or ball of the foot if the man is standing, and a knee drop or heel stomp if the man is laying on his back.

The Solar Plexus Target

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Diaphragm The diaphragm target is located just above the navel, roughly one third of the distance from the navel to the solar plexus target. Striking the diaphragm with a shin, two-knuckle fist, or elbow is an excellent way to take the man’s air in a non-lethal manner. This target can also be struck with a stomp, knee drop, or hip drop if the man is on his back.

The Diaphragm Target

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Bladder The bladder target is located a few inches above the groin target. If a man cups his hands over his genitals the bladder target can be found in the “V” formed by the man’s hands. Striking the bladder produces a tremendous amount of pain, and elicits a severe spinal reflex. Though I demonstrate, and teach students to train for, the minimum possible spinal reflex, it is very common for a man to continue his reaction after the initial spinal reflex and end up curled up on the ground after a bladder strike. I have personally brought two confrontations to an end with a single straight, penetrating, two-knuckle punch to the bladder (after dropping to a knee). Make no mistake about it; the bladder is an excellent option when targeting a human being in a nonlethal situation. It’s important to note that a stomp to the bladder of a supine man will most likely cause the bladder to rupture, spilling its contents into the pelvic area, as well as break the pelvis itself, effectively crippling the man. Like many targets that we’ve discussed, the bladder goes from being relatively benign and carrying a low risk of lasting injury, to being a devastating and dangerous target when stomped.

The Bladder Target

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Groin This is one of the most commonly known of the targets covered in this book. Most males cringe at the thought of being struck in the testicles. We’ve all experienced what it’s like to take a shot in the groin, and are aware that even incidental contact can be extremely painful and debilitating. This makes the groin an excellent target to strike on a man. Shin kicks, knees, and punches with bodyweight behind them can absolutely rupture or displace the man’s testicles, causing him to need medical attention. Since you are taught to penetrate and strike with all of your bodyweight with each strike, you should assume that this injury will take place anytime you choose to strike into the groin. The groin target also represents an excellent choice when we begin talking about edged weapons and puncture or puncture/incising wounds due to the vascular structures that lie inside the pelvic diaphragm.

The Groin Target

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Perineum The perineum target is the area between the anus and genitals. The prostate gland lies behind this area and is very painful when struck. The most common strike to the perineum target is a ball of the foot kick to a man lying supine or prone. This strike, while debilitating in its own right, is normally used primarily to elicit a spinal reflex, and allow access to other big money targets.

Left: The Perineum Target Right: Sean kicks with the ball of the foot into Dereck’s perineum.

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Liver The liver target is located behind the low ribs on the right side of the man’s body. The trick that boxers are taught early on to remember which side the liver is on is to think “left to the liver”. Striking the liver causes a tremendous amount of pain for the man, and elicits a massive parasympathetic response. A quick Google search for “liver punch knockouts” will show you ample examples of this target being struck with devastating and predictable results. Many pro fighters have taken hard liver punches and kicks with little serious, or lasting injury (this has largely to do with the fact that they were struck with padded gloves, negating some of the compression involved in a bare-knuckle strike), but it is important to understand that the liver can be lacerated by a broken rib, or ruptured from trauma relatively easily. This causes internal bleeding and, if gone unattended, can result in death. This target is most commonly struck with a two-knuckle or one-joint punch, or a ball of the foot kick.

The Liver Target

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Spleen The spleen target is located on the left side of the man’s body, opposite the liver target. Striking the spleen can cause it to rupture and bleed internally, a serious injury that requires medical intervention. Even without a rupture, striking the spleen produces a lot of pain, difficulty breathing, and often times a debilitating temporary “shut down” of the body, similar to what occurs from a liver strike. Common strikes to the spleen are one-joint punches, and ball of the foot kicks.

The Spleen Target

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Heart The heart target can be struck just below the left nipple, and along the left pec line. Striking this target produces a stunning effect, and can result in unconsciousness. The heart target is most commonly struck with a two-knuckle or one-joint fist, or a ball of the foot kick. The heart punch used to be common in the days of bare-knuckle boxing, and was responsible for quite a few “unorthodox” knockouts.

The Heart Target

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Lung The lung target is located on the man’s right side. It is just below, and just to the outside of the nipple. Striking into the lung with a one-joint, or two-knuckle punch causes a tremendous amount of pain, and difficulty breathing.

The Lung Target

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Lateral Ribcage The lateral ribcage target is located on the side of the torso. The ideal point of impact is just above the approximate halfway point between the hips and the shoulders. The ribcage is designed to be resilient and flexible, and can withstand force well from the front or back. From the side however, it is far less structurally sound, and can easily be broken with a hard punch, knee, kick, or elbow. This is an excellent target for a shin kick when the man is on all fours. Breaking the man’s ribs in this manner causes him a tremendous amount of pain, and makes it very difficult for him to “catch his breath”. Strikes to this target should be linear in nature with you imagining your impact point as an entry wound, as you would see with a bullet, and envisioning an exit wound on the other side of his body.

The Lateral Ribcage Target

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Kidney The kidney targets are located on the man’s back roughly two inches above, and two inches below the level of his elbows. Striking the kidneys causes a tremendous amount of pain and elicits a similar effect to striking the liver. Like liver, the kidneys are vascular organs and are prone to rupture when struck with sufficient force. A lacerated kidney causes internal bleeding and requires medical attention to remedy. Failure to seek medical attention for a lacerated kidney can and will result in death. Common strikes to the kidneys include two-knuckle, and one-joint punches, and ball of the foot kicks. The kidney is an excellent target for a lethal puncture wound with an edged weapon.

The Kidney Target

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Lumbar Spine The lumbar spine is made up of five articulating vertebrae. This target is located in the “small of the back”. Stomping with the heel or dropping a knee into the lumbar spine can cause paralysis. This target is also “dropped” over the knee in various combination throws/back breaks.

The Lumbar Spine Target

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Thoracic Spine The thoracic spine is made up of twelve articulating vertebrae and extends from the base of the neck down to roughly the base of the kidneys. Generally this target is struck anywhere from between the scapulae (shoulder blades) to the point diametrically opposed to the solar plexus target on the front of the man’s body. Strikes to the thoracic spine can and will cripple the man. The two most common strikes for this target are the knee drop and the heel stomp. The thoracic spine is also easily broken using a compression or flexion leverage, as I will outline in the chapter on Skeletal Destruction.

The Thoracic Spine Target

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Radial Nerve The radial nerve runs along the thumb side of the forearm. Strikes to the radial nerve cause a temporary paralysis in the man’s arm, and cause his hand to come open. The ulna bone is used to strike this target while a man has his arm outstretched as in holding a weapon or throwing a punch. In earlier incarnations of these methods I used to teach such strikes to the radial nerve in response to a man throwing a punch at you. While timing this can be difficult it is definitely possible. I have personally used this exact method in a violent conflict. Interestingly enough, in that situation the man who was struck in the arm lost his balance (the spinal reflex causes the man’s arm to drop rapidly which can trip him up) and stumbled to the ground where I finished him off with a ball of the foot kick to the solar plexus.

The Radial Nerve Target While the nerve runs the whole length of the arm, the x’s show the two best places to strike it.

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Median Nerve The median nerve is very similar to the radial nerve in terms of reaction, and injury suffered. It runs along the center of the arm on the palm side, and is easily struck using the ulna bone. It is a less favorable target than the radial nerve, but can be attacked with great result in order to set up a more debilitating injury.

The Median Nerve Target

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Lateral Femoral Cutaneous Nerve The Lateral Femoral Cutaneous nerve target, or “LFC” as we call it for short, can be found on the outside of the man’s thigh, roughly halfway between his hip and his knee. Most will “point” to the sweet spot with the tip of their middle finger when standing with their arms at their sides. This target is very painful when struck, and disrupts the man’s ability to put weight on his leg. This is the preferred target of a Muay Thai fighter’s “leg kick” with the shin, and the schoolyard bully’s “dead leg”. While I can honestly say that I brought a confrontation with an ex girlfriend’s brother to an end with a single, unannounced shin kick to this target, you should not think of this target as a “one shot stop”. The LFC target is used primarily to set up a more serious injury. This target is commonly kicked with the shin, kneed from the side, or kicked with the ball of the foot if the man is in an appropriate position.

The Lateral Femoral Cutaneous Nerve Targets

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Internal Saphenous Nerve (high and low) The internal saphenous nerve runs down the “inseam” of the man’s leg. It is a motor nerve, which makes trauma to this target very effective in taking the man’s leg out from under him. It is most effectively struck either high, in a spot diametrically opposed to the LFC target, or low, roughly half the distance between the ankle and the knee. This target is most commonly struck using a ball of the foot kick, or a knee. The saphenous nerve is also great for resting your knee on while injuring a man on the ground or holding him down. The high saphenous target is also very painful when grabbed in a clenched fist. This tactic is commonly used in conjunction with a throw.

The Internal Saphenous Nerve Targets The x’s are staggered to show the various locations where this target can be accessed.

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Knee The knee target refers to the anterior and lateral portions of the knee joint. The knee can be broken using a stomp kick from any of these three directions. The skeletal destruction chapter in this book will also demonstrate how the knee joint can be “torn out” using a variety of leverages. Breaking a man’s knee seriously inhibits his ability to cause you injury. Keep in mind however that a man with a broken knee can still use a firearm with ease. Do not assume that a man that you’ve crippled by breaking his knee is completely out of the fight.

The Knee Target

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Popliteal Fossa (back of knee) The popilteal fossa, or back of the knee target is struck with a stomping kick. The purpose of this is to drive the man’s patella into the ground, effectively breaking it. This also brings the man’s head into an excellent position to execute a neck break or many other injuries.

The Popliteal Fossa Target

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Medial Malleolus (“Ball” of ankle on inside of leg) The medial malleolus is found on the inside of the leg. It is the “ball” of the ankle joint that you can easily see and feel. This target is commonly struck with a stomping/levering kick or knee drop. You can also “roll into” the man’s medial malleolus target when fighting a standing man from the ground. You can use the ulna bone, palm, knee, or even your torso as the point of contact to do this. This is also an excellent target when striking with an impact weapon. The purpose of striking and levering this target is to break the man’s ankle.

The Medial Malleolus Target

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Lateral Malleolus (“Ball” of ankle on outside of leg) The lateral malleolus is found on the outside of the leg. It is the “ball” of the ankle joint that you can easily see and feel. This target is commonly struck with a stomping/levering kick or knee drop. You can also “roll into” the man’s medial malleolus target when fighting a standing man from the ground. You can use the ulna bone, palm, knee, or even your torso as the point of contact to do this. This is also an excellent target when striking with an impact weapon. The purpose of striking and levering this target is to break the man’s ankle.

The Lateral Malleolus Target

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Metatarsal Bones (instep) The metatarsal bones are the long, thin bones of the instep. These bones are easily broken when stomped with the heel. The spinal reflex to this injury is similar to how a man looks when he steps on his nail. It is very easy to throw or otherwise cause further injury to a man after breaking his metatarsals. It’s important to note (as I will mention again in the Effective Striking chapter) that you should never use the metatarsal bones as a striking surface. Remember you strike targets with weapons, not targets of your own, never kick with the “shoelaces”.

The Metatarsal Bones Target

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Study these targets. Familiarize yourself with each in terms of its anatomical location, as well as what I’ve written regarding the injuries associated with each. When you’re out and about around people do a bit of visualization “homework”; observe people in various situations and orientations (standing facing you, seated, facing a different direction, etc.). Pick out what targets you would have available if you were to have to injure this person. Imagine how they would react to being struck in these targets (something you’ll be much more prepared for after reading the next chapter on Spinal Reflex). Imagine what your next injury would be, and what tool you might use to strike it. This simple drill works wonders in terms of your ability to “see” targets that are available to you on a human being. Second only to freefighting practice, which we will discuss in the chapter on training, this visualization exercise will improve your ability to use the tool of violence better than anything else.

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CHAPTER FIVE: SPINAL REFLEX

The Spinal Reflex Arc

Spinal reflex is one of the base principles of this system. When a human being receives a trauma to a given area of their body, their autonomic nervous system produces a predictable response in an effort to safeguard the effected area from further injury. You can use exploit this principle with the exact opposite result. This chapter will show you how to do that.

The Spinal Reflex Arc The human body is full of nerves, both sensory and motor. When the sensory nerves in a given area perceive a stimulus (injury) they send signal back to the spine where a decision is then made to fire a group of motor nerves, causing certain musculature to contract and move

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the body. This is part of the hardware program that all human beings possess. What this means is that if you poke one man in the eye, and then poke another man in the same manner, both men will react the same. This is not to say that it will affect both men the same in terms of their ultimate response, i.e. some will respond to pain differently for a host of reasons. Perceiving pain however is a function of the brain, whereas the initial spinal reflex is commanded by, you guessed it, the spine. This will be discussed in a minute with primary vs. secondary reactions. This means that every man will demonstrate a movement of their body in response to trauma to a targeted area in the exact same way. There is nothing that this man’s conscious mind is able to do in order to prevent this occurrence.

Primary and Secondary Reactions As I mentioned before, pain tolerance, the presence of drugs or alcohol in the system, and other factors can influence how a man responds to trauma from a pain standpoint, but the initial “defense mechanism” movement produced by the autonomic nervous system will be there regardless. I refer to this first stage reaction as a “primary reaction”. The secondary reaction is the one that takes place once the brain has been brought up to speed on what is going on, and registers a pain response. More often that not, a single trauma to one of the presented targets will take the man out of the mix. You cannot depend on this to be the case though, and must understand that you should always train with the assumption that you will only get the minimum or primary reaction. If you do then get a favorable secondary reaction, then problem solved.

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Jim demonstrates the primary reaction to being struck hard in the solar plexus (left). He bends forward at the waist, and brings his hands and eyes towards the trauma. One the right he shows the likely secondary reaction to the strike, once the brain sends the pain signal. Ideally the photo on the right would always be the result, and often times is, you must train with the assumption that the reaction on the left, the primary reaction, is all that you are going to get from the man.

Spinal Reflex Basics While some targets possess a few idiosyncratic properties in terms of their spinal reflexes, most will follow a pretty standard set of rules. • • •

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The hands and the eyes go to the trauma A man struck in the sternum or above will step back A man strike in the solar plexus or below will bend forward The body will rotate away from the trauma

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These two photos demonstrate basic reactions to two targets, the trachea at the suprasternal notch, and the solar plexus. Note that Jim is moving back when struck to the target above the sternum, and is bending forward when struck in the solar plexus. Also note that in both photos his hands are going to the trauma.

Here Mike demonstrates a textbook groin (left), and bladder (right reaction). Note that in both the hands follow the trauma and he is bent forward, but the groin is different in that it causes the chin to come up, “violating” the eyes follow the trauma rule.

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Here we see a liver (left), and eye (right) reaction. With the liver we see the whole gamut, head and eyes to the trauma, bent at the waist, and rotating away from the trauma. We have the same thing with the eye reaction with the exception that the eyes can’t go to the eyes. Take a look at the exposed liver of the man reacting to the eye trauma. Hmm, get’s a man thinking. Pat yourself on the back if you were already thinking that. Understanding these predictable movement patterns also allow us instant feedback as to whether or not we struck our desired target. For instance if we kick a man with the ball of our foot into the groin, and instead of seeing his mouth open, his torso bend violently forward at the waist, and his hands go to his groin, we see him “flinch” downward at the waist and resume his upright position, we know instantly that we did not get our target. We also know that the injury therefore did not take place, and we had better get to work injuring another exposed target.

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Using Spinal Reflex to Combine Injuries Now that you understand that the spinal reflex principle is universal, and that the reactions themselves are completely involuntary, you can understand how this idea can be used to string together a series of injuries to this man. Spinal reflex allows us to take a man to whatever level of incapacitation we desire without any interference from him if we simply cause that all-important first injury, exploit his reactions, and continue to cause further injury. The cumulative effect of the injury that you are putting into the man brings him to a hard stop quite rapidly.

After attacking Jim’s eyes, Jim is stuck in an eye reaction (left). Mike can then easily shin-kick Jim in the groin (right) while he is busy reacting.

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Then, while Jim is reacting to the groin strike (left), Mike has an open target on the back of the neck, the superior cervical ganglion, which he opts to strike with his ulna bone.

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The result, an unconscious man that had no chance once Mike got the first injury to the eyes and exploited the reactions.

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Understanding spinal reflex is key to your success. Pay close attention to the reactions that you see throughout this book, specifically during the Violence in Application portion. Place a heavy emphasis on your reactions during your free fight practice using the base principles that I addressed. Go slow, and pay close attention to what your body is doing. You will be a much better fighter when your ability to perform correct spinal reflex reactions for your partner becomes spot on. In the future there will be additional resources detailing the precise reactions for each target. For now, the basics will put you light-years ahead of the pack when it comes to understanding how to take a man apart.

Cause the first injury Exploit the Spinal Reflex Rinse, Repeat

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CHAPTER SIX: EFFECTIVE STRIKING Striking is the meat and potatoes of causing injury. It is the simplest principle to use, and the one that will come most natural to you as a human being. As your skills evolve, you will begin to incorporate joint breaks in the form of leverages, as well as throws, which are in essence using the earth to strike his body, or striking his body with the earth, the ultimate weapon. In order to use either of these more advanced tools however, you first need to injure the man, and striking remains the simplest and most universally accessible tool to accomplish this all-important task (in later chapters you will learn how injury must always precede leverages or throws; you never attempt to affect a joint break, or throw a man who has not yet been injured). While it would be entirely possible to dedicate an entire book, or series of books and videos on all of the possible manners in which to strike a human being (and you will be seeing these products from me as well), this chapter will address the “golden rules” of striking that must be learned and ingrained at the beginning of your training. There are five rules of effective striking, which apply, almost without exception, regardless of the context. They are as follows:

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• • •

Striking Rule Number Striking Rule Number Weapon of the Body Striking Rule Number Striking Rule Number Striking Rule Number

One: Always Strike a Target Two: Always Strike with a Weapon or Three: Always Strike in One Direction Four: Always Take his Space Five: When Possible, Strike First

Let’s take some time to examine each of the rules in detail, and learn precisely how each applies to the principle of striking to produce injury.

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Striking Rule Number One: Always Strike a Target As I covered in the earlier chapter on targeting, striking human beings in anatomical real estate where force is likely to yield injury is what striking is all about. It makes perfect sense then that rule number one of effective striking would be to “Always Strike a Target”. Without targets we’re lumped into the ranks of the uneducated, with regards to violence, and are relegated to “headhunting”, throwing “body shots”, and swinging for the fences with haymakers in an effort to strike the man in some general area of his body, clutching to our hope that we are better at this bizarre primate dance event than he is. As I’ve stated numerous times so far in this book, and will continue to do so, injury is absolutely what is needed, by definition, in order to render a man non-functional and stop the threat to your safety that he is causing. Without the principle of targeting, it is by shear luck if and when injuries occur from striking a human being. Since luck is not something that we can reliably reproduce, and takes control out of our hands, we do not want to include anything luck-driven in our principles of violence. Always Strike a Target.

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Striking Rule Number Two: Always Strike with a Weapon or Weapon of the Body This one we’ve all done to some extent since the first time we ever struck something. As humans we recognize that there are certain anatomical tools that we have available which are well suited for certain common tasks. When striking a human being, most will instinctively use a balled-up fist. In addition to the fist, most will have no issue understanding the merit of stomping a downed person with their heel in the same manner that they would snap a piece of tree branch in half for firewood, or driving their knee into a man’s groin. Likewise, us humans are a species that loves to use tools to accomplish tasks, and have invented an astounding array of them in our time. The tools of violence are common weapons, and most are self explanatory in nature, when it comes to at least their most basic use. This rule simply states that when we strike a human being, in an anatomical structure that is likely to result in injury, a target, we must use either an external weapon such as club, knife or other instrument, or a “weapon of the body”, such as the heel or knee in the above examples. The two primary reasons why this rule is of importance are the minimization of risk in terms of injury to yourself as a result of your weapon colliding with the other human, and providing an effective surface to deliver the kinetic energy of your strike (your bodyweight in motion) into the target, in order to produce injury. While a later chapter will focus on the use of ancillary, handheld weapons, this section will be devoted to the use of weapons of the body. Below I will list the primary striking surfaces of the human body that you will use to strike your would-be assailant’s targets. Later you will see several examples of these body weapons in application.

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Here is a list of the primary weapons of the body: • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The

“two knuckle” fist “one joint” fist Heel of the Palm Finger Claw Thumb Open Hand Strike Blade Edge of the Hand Hammer Fist “Four Joint” fist Ulna Bone Elbow Knee Shin Ball of the Foot Heel Blade Edge of the Foot Hip

Now let’s examine each striking surface in a bit more detail.

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The “Two-Knuckle” Fist The two-knuckle fist is the correct way of using a “traditional” fist. The impact area is the knuckles of the index and middle finger, hence the name. This fist is not to be used haphazardly by throwing it to nonspecific areas of the body, and certainly not the other man’s skull. Doing this will get you little more than a casted hand for a few weeks as I can personally attest to having been the case more times than I’d like to acknowledge in my youth. Martial artists commonly talk about the “hard to soft, soft to hard” rule which states that you use a “hard” striking surface like this one when striking a soft target like the solar plexus, while using a “soft” striking surface like the heel of the palm when striking a hard target like the “head”. Since I teach you to strike “head” targets that are less structurally sound like the temple, or temporomandibular joint (jaw joint), this is not really an issue. I’m noting it however to reinforce the idiocy that is punching a man in the helmet designed to protect his skull with your hand, made up of twenty seven small bones, filled with nerves, and needed for you to perform precise, dexterous manipulations. Many new trainees have a seeming dependence on using their fists as striking tools, since it is the strike that seems most natural to them. This is especially true of boxers who come to me to learn another set of skills. To combat this, I will often ban them from using their fists during their free fight practice in order to force them to use other tools. In the chapter on training I will explain more ways that I use this idea of restriction to make someone a more complete fighter.

See next page for detail…

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The Two-Knuckle Punch

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The “One-Joint” Fist The use of the one-joint fist is a way of taking all of the same bodyweight transfer, and force of a two-knuckle punch, and focusing it on an even smaller “entry wound”. This strike is used to access precise targets like the hypoglossal nerve at the base of the ear, or the eye (as the single joint enters the orbital). This has also long been my favorite strike when attacking “behind the ribcage” targets such as the liver, spleen, heart, lung, or kidneys. Though causing pain is not our intent when striking another human, this strike has a knack for increasing the amount of pain delivered. This is present even in training at a decent clip. One of my longtime trainees is famous for saying, “Ahhh, you and those fucking one joints” during our free fight sessions, as I am notorious for sticking these just right. To make this fist you simply ball up your fist as you normally would, with the exception of letting the second joint of the middle finger protrude as shown below.

The One-Joint Punch

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The Heel of the Palm The heel of the palm is a relatively injury-proof striking surface. Common targets include the underside of the mandible, the sternum, and the nose. See the eardrum entry in the targeting chapter for detail on how the palms are used in unison, or individually to attack the man’s eardrums.

The Heel of the Palm Strike

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The Finger Claw The finger claw is used exclusively to the eyes. This strike will blind the man for the duration of the violent encounter, more than likely scratching or otherwise injuring his corneas. This is an extremely effective strike, and is easily used by anyone regardless of size, strength, sex, or age.

The Finger Claw. This strike is executed in a penetrating, raking manner from one side to the next trying to get all four fingers “wet” from the man’s eyes, and scratch his corneas.

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The Thumb This is not so much a striking surface as it is a tool that we use to rupture the man’s eyeball. Below I will show detail on the extremely narrow, but devastatingly effective, use of the thumb in combat.

The thumb being thrust through the eyeball to rupture it while the other hand secures the head to keep the man from pulling back. Pushing your thumb through the eye in this manner will blind the man, rupturing the globe of the eyeball, and causing the corpus vitreum, the jelly on the inside of the eye to leak out and run down your arm. A Gruesome tactic, but a lifesaver when needed.

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The Open-Hand Strike This strike is only used to the targets of the anterior neck (throat), i.e. the thyroid cartilage and the trachea. It is a kill strike when used to the former, and is very effective at limiting a man’s ability to breathe when used to the latter target.

The Open-Hand Strike

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The Blade Edge of the Hand The blade edge of the hand is a valuable striking surface, though is relatively limited in terms of which targets it can be directed to. In other schools of thinking to which I have been exposed, this strike is frequently used to access torso targets like the liver or spleen, and can be effective in that manner, however, I prefer a hammer fist or other type of fist in those applications, and prefer to use the blade edge of the hand almost exclusively on the soft targets of the neck. Additionally, I rarely use the blade edge of the hand in a conventional “chopping” manner, as I prefer the much stronger, and larger ulna bone for that purpose. I generally teach and use the blade edge of the hand as a more linear strike as demonstrated below.

The Blade Edge of the Hand In the second photo, Sean demonstrates my preferred use of the strike; as a linear, “punching strike” that originates near the centerline of your body and extends outward like a straight punch, connecting with this surface.

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The Hammer Fist The hammer fist takes the place of the conventional fist in the system of striking that I teach to students in that it becomes the sort of “default” hand strike. It is not limited by risk of injury to the user in the same way that the conventional fist is, and can be used to strike virtually any target. Combine this with the fact that the hammer fist is a much more powerful strike due to the mechanics of the arm, and you have one very nasty tool. Additionally, strikes with the hammer fist become lethal stabbing strikes when a knife is placed in the fist with the blade facing down. Learning to access targets in this manner has a tremendous carryover to your ability to use a knife or other edged weapon with a high level of proficiency.

The Hammer Fist

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The “Four-Joint” Fist The four-joint fist has a limited application, but makes for another solid tool in your kit. Its primary target is the medulla oblongata at the base of the skull. While it can also be used in a circular fashion against the groin or the nasal bone of a supine man, I greatly prefer its use as a linear, pushing strike, and limit my personal use and instruction to applying it in this manner.

The “Four-Joint” Fist; the surface you would use to knock on a door. In the second photo you can see me placing this surface across the medulla oblongata target. From here I would step forward and shove my bodyweight through the target to knock the man out.

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The Ulna Bone If it were possible or in any way valuable for me to have a “favorite” striking surface, this one might be it. The distal section of the ulna, the last three inches or so near the wrist, is virtually devoid of surface nerves, and is essentially a piece of pipe which you can use to bludgeon a man’s targets with tremendous force. It is generally aimed at soft targets (it works extremely well when striking the targets of the neck) with the one exception being the clavicle.

The Ulna Bone

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The Elbow The elbow is an extremely structurally sound striking surface. There are a multitude of targets that the elbows can be used to strike. You can see the elbows used “effectively” in mixed martial arts, and in Muay Thai especially, however the elbow is much more efficient at causing injury when it is used in a much more precise manner. In other words, I don’t want you simply to use the elbow as a stand in for the fist, throwing strikes at generalized areas of the body. I want you to use the point of your elbow as an impact point for your penetrating body weight. In this manner the elbow becomes the pointed end of a rifle round with your body weight as the powder charge behind it.

The Elbow. The actual striking surface is roughly the size of a dime.

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The Knee The knee is a very natural striking surface to use. Its use is extremely common against a standing human, directed at the groin target, but below I will demonstrate several other, more unorthodox, manners in which the knees can be used to strike a human being with devastating result.

The Knee

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The Shin The shin is a workhorse; it can be used to strike just about any target if the opportunity is there. It is extremely effective against the groin target, the nervous system targets on the inside and outsides of the legs, and against a host of targets on a man on all fours. You can also make heavy use of the shin for striking targets of the neck when fighting from the ground.

Detail on the striking surface of the shin Note that the toes are pulled back so as to make the entire unit tighter, and to alleviate any risk of striking with the instep (metatarsal bones).

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The Ball of the Foot The ball of the foot is the portion of the foot that we use when “kicking with the toe of the shoe”. To avoid injury to the delicate bone structures in the toes, you pull them back and strike with the ball of the foot. This allows you to use this type of strike effectively whether you are wearing shoes or not. This is a very versatile strike.

The striking surface for a ball of the foot kick When wearing a shoe, you will contact with the “toe” portion of the shoe head on, but the toes will be pulled up in the shoe in this manner to prevent injury.

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The Heel The heel is perhaps the most versatile striking surface on the human body. The calcaneous is the hardest bone in the body, and can be used to demolish just about any target. While there are several ways in which to strike an upright or kneeling man with the heel, it is most commonly used in the manner in which it is most destructive, as a stomping strike.

The Heel

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The Blade Edge of the Foot The blade edge of the foot is an excellent striking surface when directed at an appropriate target. While not as universally applicable as the much more structurally sound heel, there are many targets that the blade edge of the foot can be used to strike.

The striking surface of the blade edge of the foot

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The Hip The hip, or more specifically here, the lateral portion of the pelvis can be used as a striking surface in certain applications. This area is frequently used when we are “taking his space” to displace the other person’s hips, or to aid in throwing the man. However, we can also use the pelvis to strike a downed man in the manner shown below. When used as an impact point for falling bodyweight, the hip can make for a devastating strike.

Above Dereck drops all of his bodyweight across Sean’s diaphragm using his hip as the contact point. This would completely take Sean’s air away, and elicit a violent spinal reflex. I like to follow this with a blade edge of the hand strike into the thyroid cartilage to seal the man’s airway after a hip drop like this. The forceful emptying of his lungs after the hip drop is followed by an attempt at a forceful inhalation. With the airway sealed, the result is normally a pair of collapsed lungs.

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Striking Surfaces you Should Never Use Listed here are some common striking or attacking tools that should never be used against another human being.

The Radial Bone (Thumb side of the forearm) This area is not like the ulna bone (pinky side) in that it is rife with nerves. Most importantly, the radial nerve, one of your targets, runs close to the surface along this bone. An interesting point about striking the radial nerve is that when you do so the man’s hand comes open and the arm (at minimum, the hand) is essentially paralyzed, This is bad news when you are trying to take the other man out of the altercation.

The First Metacarpophalangeal Joint of the Index Finger This one is a bit less common to those without a martial arts background, but those who have studied traditional martial arts will recognize this as a “ridge hand” strike. This is a poor choice of a striking surface due both to its proximity to the radial nerve, and the relative ease with which the radial nerve can suffer trauma in the event of a missed target, as well as the general lack of power that can be generated by such a strike. While this surface does play a minor role in the “open-hand” strike, it should not be used as a stand-alone striking surface.

The Head (Head butting) While I have personally seen this strike used effectively many times, particularly as a first strike or “sucker punch”, I do not advocate its use unless there truly is no other strike available to you. The risk of injury to you should the target move does not make this one a viable option. You have to consider that your skull, which houses your brain, should not be used to strike another man when there are so many other, more effective and safe, options with which to do so.

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The Instep (top portion of the foot) Unless you want a broken foot, do not kick someone with the shoelaces. Though martial artists often use this surface to strike their opponents, all it takes is a chance impact with something harder than anticipated, and you have rendered yourself hobbled for the duration of the encounter. As is the case with the radial bone, the metatarsal bones are one of the targets that you are taught to destroy, so why would you want to strike someone with a target? Stick to the ball of the foot or the shin, both can be used any time that the instep would be an option, and both provide more power and much less risk of injury to you.

The Teeth (biting) Like the head butt, I have personally seen the teeth used in real world situations effectively. I can also honestly say that in the past I have bitten myself out of a jam. The awful risk of infection via blood borne pathogens makes this one a no go in my book. Unless there is absolutely no other option, you should never bite as an attack (and if you think there is no other option I can pretty much assure you that either, there is, or, you waited entirely too long to attack him).

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Striking Rule Number Three: Always Strike in One Direction The third rule of effective striking is “Always Strike in One Direction”. This simply refers to committing your efforts in your strike, and following through with all of your bodyweight each time. You are to think of the body weapon that contacts the target as the “point of entry”, an “entry wound” to borrow firearms terminology. Your intent is to produce an “exit wound” on the opposite side of the man’s body by following through with kinetic force, putting all of your bodyweight into the target, and extending your strike completely. The opposite of this is what’s commonly seen in boxing and martial arts; the fighter throws a punch or kick, and then returns the arm or leg back to where the strike originated from, usually a “fighting stance”, in preparation of striking again, or defending against the other man’s actions. In order to strike with the force necessary to cause major damage to the targets of your choosing, you must put your bodyweight behind the strike and follow through. This means moving forward and rotating your torso on hand and arm strikes, and stepping forward and down, not back after kicks. In the applications examples you will see how this makes follow up strikes easy as the completion of one strike and its follow through sets up or “loads” another portion of your body, preparing it to deliver another devastating strike. Think of how you would stomp on a wooden pallet or downed branch in order to bust it into pieces for firewood. Your strike would have all of your bodyweight behind it, and would follow all the way through. That is what striking in one direction means, and is how you should strike him each and every time. In the next rule of striking your will see how this idea goes hand in hand with the idea of “taking the man’s space” as well, adding an additional chaotic element; the constant disruption of his balance to the trauma that you are already putting into him.

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Striking Rule Number Four: Always Take his Space

This one is a simple principle that is all to often violated by the uninitiated. Taking his space simply means always moving in a manner so as to occupy the space where he was previously standing, or otherwise inhabiting, prior to your strike. This does several things. First it ensures that you are following through with your strike and “striking in one direction”. Second it safeguards you against missed strikes by keeping the man perpetually off balance and moving backward (how fair is that, you’re already messing with him via spinal reflex, and now you’re not going to let him have any balance either? Cruel). Often times taking his space will result in unintentional “throws” where the simple, violent disruption of his balance as the result of your advancing mass combined with his accumulating injuries and secondary spinal reflexes send him plummeting to the ground. Accept that this will happen and rejoice in the thought that you did not need to use a more sophisticated throwing principle to accomplish the same task. Thanks physics. You will see several examples of taking the man’s space in the Violence in Application chapter. Observe how the man doing the attack is always standing, or otherwise occupying, the space where the man receiving the injury was prior to the attack. On the following page I will demonstrate what the effects of taking the man’s space alone can do with regards to his balance.

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Here my hands are tied. I step into Mike’s center forcefully, taking his space, and shoving his center of gravity (bladder) backwards, outside of his balance base (more on this in the Throwing chapter). The result is him hitting the ground hard. All of your strikes should possess a similar transfer of kinetic energy even though your specific intent may not be to throw him. Hit him like a speeding car every single time with the entirety of your bodyweight.

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Striking Rule Number Five: When Possible, Always Strike First

As I have mentioned numerous time in this book, getting the first injury on the man is the key to your success in using violence. Spinal Reflex then allows for the stringing together of injuries beyond the allimportant first that will ultimately result in his incapacitation. You’ll notice that in most of the applications demonstrated herein, the man is simply “standing there” waiting for you to injure him. I don’t pretend that this is how a human being acts in such a situation, however I have students train in such a manner that the situation begins only after the first injury has been caused. Simply put, I am not concerned with anything that takes place prior to that crucial moment. Later when I introduce “free fighting” practice, you will see that, during such practice, you are presented with a dynamic set of circumstances in which you are forced to see targets, cause injury, and otherwise apply the information presented. In some cases, the other man will move first. He may even strike you first, or even knock you down, cut or stab you. In these situations what matters is that, though he may move or even strike first, you will be the first to cause injury. Think about it like this; if the man approaches you and blindsides you with a punch that lands you on your back (but not unconscious or dead), he has moved first and struck first. If however you launch into him from your newfound position on the ground, attacking his ankles, his internal saphenous nerves, or his groin, then you will have caused the first injury. Once you do that, you are then able to exploit his spinal reflexes and continue to injure him to the point that you see fit.

Initiating the Violence: Striking First Sometimes you won’t become aware of his intent to do you harm until he is in the process of attempting to do so, as described above. In some instances though, his intent will be communicated differently, and it will become apparent that inaction on your part will result in a poor outcome for you, namely injury or worse.

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In these situations, it is important to understand a few simple principles that enable you to strike him first, and cause that first injury.

Action vs. Reaction As I discussed in the Action vs. Reaction section of this book, you are at a distinct advantage when you choose to move. His ability to react is not going to beat out your action. Defensive efforts on his part are always going to be slower than offensive actions on yours. What I am going to do now is illustrate how to combine this idea with a bit of information regarding how he picks up your movement and registers that there is a threat in order to further stack the deck in your favor when it comes to striking first, and scoring that first injury.

Line of Sight This principle deals with the man’s field of vision; what space he is able to see given the current orientation of his head. Understanding the basics of line of sight gives you a distinct advantage when attacking this man with the first strike. A strike that takes place outside of his line of sight, combined with the ever-present principle of action vs. reaction being on your side, has an excellent chance of finding its mark long before he realizes that you have moved. A man standing, with his head and eyes facing front, as he would be if addressing you, has a line of sight that extends at a roughly forty-five degree angle down to the ground that originates at his cheekbones. The photo on the next page will illustrate this.

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Here we have Mike on the left, and Jim on the right. Imagine a line extending from Jim’s cheekbones at a forty-five degree angle downward. See that Mike’s hands would be just inside of Jim’s field of view. Note also that the closer the man is standing to you, the less he can see. This is important due to the human characteristic of “getting in your space” to intimidate you and show dominance. It only increases the odds that you’ll be able to strike and injure him before he can move.

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Here, Mike initiates by throwing a right hand at Jim’s head, all of which occurs inside of Jim’s line of sight. This results in Jim picking up Mike’s movement, and “flinching”, causing Mike’s attack to be unsuccessful.

Here, Mike attacks underneath Jim’s line of sight with an open strike to the trachea and…

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…is easily able to land his strike and cause the first injury.

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Here we see examples of the same ulna bone strike to the lateral neck done both correctly, and incorrectly. In the top photos, Mike attacks under Jim’s line of sight and lands the shot. In the lower photos, Mike starts his attack from farther out, placing his arms in Jim’s line of sight. Jim is then able to “flinch” in response. You don’t want this result. Initiate your attacks under his line of sight.

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Breaking Silhouette This principle again looks at how the human eye detects movement. Human beings are excellent at picking up moving objects on their perceived horizon. For instance, if you were to observe a bird flying against a clear sky as a backdrop, you could easily judge its speed in terms of whether it was moving fast or slow. You could do the same thing when viewing a train from your car, waiting for it to pass. Is it a fast moving train that has already gained speed, or has it just left the station and is therefore much slower going? Now imagine yourself standing on the tracks looking at this train head on. With no horizon to reference its movement against, you will do a very poor job determining how rapidly it is moving. Simply put, humans are excellent at picking up moving objects against a static horizon. Since we want to move and injure this man before he detects our movement, we don’t want to allow him to use his natural ability to see movement in this manner. In order to do this, it is important that we learn to move in such a way that our initial strike does not break our silhouette, alerting him of our attack.

Here I illustrate how you can easily see movement when the arms flare and the man “breaks silhouette”.

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Here are two examples of attacks. Which are you more likely to see coming? The attack on the right does not break silhouette, attacks under the man’s line of sight, and lands right on its mark.

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This is one more example of not breaking silhouette with an attack. Here Mike is holding a baseball bat inside of his silhouette prior to initiating the attack. How would you like to be the one to catch the end of that bat in the frontal sinus, nose, maxilla, or thyroid cartilage while charging this man? Practice these principles, line of sight, and breaking silhouette with a partner. See how easy it is to move and strike undetected when you learn how to deny the man the ability to see you move.

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Using Deception This is the last heading under the “Always Strike First” rule. Deception is a skill that can be used to place your would-be attacker in a state that makes it easier for you to strike him. This practice involves using social skills as a setup for your asocial response. This won’t always be applicable, but can be an effective weapon at times.

Appear Non-Threatening The section on not breaking silhouette demonstrated how a man sees your movement by your arms leaving the silhouette cast by your torso. Avoiding this also makes you appear non-threatening, as it is not registered as aggressive posturing. Standing with your hands in close to your body is going to place him at ease a lot more than puffing your chest up and showing your “inflatable lats” will. Likewise, a calm, or nervous looking face will get you further into his “circle of trust” than a menacing snarl will. Let him believe he is intimidating you while you plot his dismemberment at your hands.

Feigning Compliance This is another tactic that can be used to lure him into your attack. Putting your hands up if he instructs you to makes him believe that you are willing to do what he says. This idea, and deception in general, are topics that I spend a lot of time on in the women’s rape awareness and prevention programs that I teach. Let him think you’re a willing victim.

Dialogue Lastly, there is an observable rule in combat that says that a man has a natural predisposition to not fire a firearm while he is talking. Likewise, he is unlikely to think that you will attack while you are talking, as this is a projected belief that he has on the subconscious level. A tactic used by counter terrorist teams involves issuing a verbal challenge in order to get the man to speak before pulling the trigger in a hostage showdown. Strike him when he’s speaking, or begin to speak just prior to launching your assault.

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CHAPTER SEVEN: CREATING AND DENYING STRUCTURE If you’ve ever tried to pick up someone who was asleep or unconscious, even a small child, then you have seen the principle of denying structure in action. The human body is made up mostly of various fluids. Of the remaining masses, most are not rigid in nature like the bones. When a human being contracts their muscles or “tightens up”, it becomes easy to grab, hold, carry, or otherwise manipulate their body. When a person “goes limp” and becomes “dead weight”, it is very difficult to move them or hold them, much like trying to carry a trash bag full of water. It is the body’s musculature that creates structure, not the bones. Without muscle, a human would literally be a “bag of bones”. Imagine picking up one of those skeleton models found in a science classroom. Not a very cooperative guy huh? This is relevant to you in the realm of combat because it is you that is in control or whether or not your body is structured and easy to manipulate, or limp and difficult to hold. The obvious point here is that if you do not want to be grabbed or held, you can eliminate a man’s ability to do so by simply relaxing the appropriate portion of your body, or your entire body if the situation warrants such a response. When a man grabs you, or attempts to restrain you, he is subconsciously anticipating you to resist, and tense everything up. Trying to “fight” your way out, or wrestle with him will have predictable results, and is what he is expecting. He will have a nice, rigid structure to hang on to. Likewise if a man attempts to restrain you and you suddenly become a man-sized bag full of water, he is going to have very limited success completing his task. This normally results in a loss of his balance as well, since the structure he was expecting to hold is not there. Think of this like leaning against a railing that turns out to not be fastened; you commit your weight to the movement, expecting the railing to hold you up, and instead fall down, surprised and afraid.

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In obvious accordance with the theme of this book, and the principles herein, you will use this opportunity to injure the man in some manner and begin the process of his incapacitation. This can be accomplished by striking the man or even by incorporating his attempt at restraining or controlling you into a drop throw. However you do it, applying the principle of denying structure will thwart his attempts at controlling your body, and will allow you to get to work taking him apart. Below you will see a few examples of the principle of creating and denying structure in action.

Here Sean is being restrained by Jim who is bigger and stronger. If Sean “fights” the grab, Jim can easily hold him. When Sean denies structure, he easily withdraws his arm.

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Causing structure (left) vs. denying structure (right) in full nelson.

Causing structure (sprawling) against a shoot; the grappler easily adapts and slams the man… Vs.

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Denying structure against the shoot. Sean pulls his knees together and turns to jelly. Jim’s momentum impales him on Sean’s knees and sends him clunking over the top where he can then be injured further.

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In this example of a drop throw, Mike grabs me from behind, pinning my arms to the side. Rather than leaning forward and trying to wrestle my way to freedom, I simply latch onto him, deny structure, and “turn to water”. This results in him impacting the ground with my bodyweight across the nerves of his medial arm, his elbow smacking into the ground, and me being in an excellent position to continue injuring him, which you see me doing by striking his groin in the final photo.

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CHAPTER EIGHT: SKELETAL DESTRUCTION

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Attacking the structure of man’s skeleton is an excellent way to incapacitate him. When you destroy his ability to function normally (part of our definition of injury) it becomes exponentially more difficult for him to carry out his intent to cause you harm. Attacking the skeleton is accomplished in two major ways: • •

Striking Applying Leverages

The first you are intimately familiar with by now. Striking forms the basis for this system, and is the bread and butter of injury creation. Striking however is limited in its joint breaking ability. Let me explain. First lets address the fact that nine times out of ten we are “breaking” a man’s joints, not his actual bones. Stomp kicks to the knees or ankles are examples of this. As a matter of fact, the only bones that can actually be reliably broken by way of striking with empty-hands are: • • • • • •

The The The The The The

clavicles sternum mandible metatarsals ribs pelvis (only with a stomp to a supine man)

Put an impact weapon in your hand to multiply force, and that list grows quite a bit. For instance, the radius bone can be broken with a baseball bat or a pipe, but not with your own ulna. Not that the empty-hand list is short, you can certainly ruin a man’s day by breaking any one of the bones listed above, but the ability to more totally disrupt this man’s skeleton in a traumatic matter really begins to come to life when you understand leverages and attack joints.

This book is not intended to be a comprehensive work on the use of leverages to break joints, but I will take this opportunity to provide a basic overview of the subject for your familiarization. Should you choose to continue your pursuit of knowledge of the tool of violence, I will be providing ample materials on the subject of breaking joints down the road.

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First, let’s discuss the six categories of leverages that my students learn to use to take a man apart. Each is assigned a number, for ease of use, and is notated as an “L”, followed by its appropriate number from one to six. They are… • • • • • •

L1L2L3L4L5L6-

Extension Flexion Supination/Medial Rotation Pronation/Lateral Rotation Adduction/Medial Deviation Abduction/Lateral Deviation

Below, Sean will demonstrate each type of leverage using the wrist. They are in order from left to right, top to bottom As a note, the wrist can be broken in all six leverages, something that makes it unique as a joint. Not all joints can be broken using each leverage. The only leverage that can be used to break every single joint in the human body is L1, extension.

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My students learn how to break a multitude of joints in the human body using this simple classification system, and learning what the range of motion limitations are for each joint in each of the six leverages. Imagine the toolbox that knowing this information gives you when it comes to crippling a man that wants to do you harm. What I will do on the following pages is provide several examples of each type of leverage being used to break a joint. With a bit of creativity, I’m sure you can begin to spot opportunities for leverages in your training, and determine which category they fall under. One thing that is absolutely important for you to understand is that you never apply a leverage to man who you have not yet caused an injury to. Martial artists fail in attempting to apply “wrist locks” and holds because they are trying to get a capable, noncompliant man to essentially “let them” do it. Many a police officer has relayed to me a story or two about an attempted wrist lock or shoulder bar, that was taught in their defensive tactics training, resulting in a punch to their nose, and a wrestling match with a non-compliant drunk who didn’t get the memo that he was supposed to be a good “uke”, and let the officer apply the lock. Remember also that I am not discussing “joint locks” here. The goal here is not pain compliance or submission. If the decision is made to break the joint, then the leverage is applied, and the break executed with the same commitment that you would have when using a stomp kick to break a knee or ankle joint, or a hard punch to break the sternum. The next several pages will show a few examples of joints being broken in each of the six categories of leverages.

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L1- Extension

Here I’m using L1, in conjunction with a throw, to break this man’s neck.

Here, L1 is being used to break this man’s fingers.

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L2- Flexion

An L2 break of the wrist, completed by dropping the bodyweight towards the floor.

The neck being broken via L2, a “compression break”.

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L3- Supination/Medial Rotation

Here I am using L3 to break his wrist.

Here, L3 is being used to dislocate the hip.

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L4- Pronation/Lateral Rotation

L4 break of the wrist

L4 being used on the ankle to tear out the knee

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L5- Adduction/Medial Deviation

L5 used to break the ankle.

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L6- Abduction/Lateral Deviation

Using L6 to break the ankle

Here I’m using an L6 leverage to break the wrist.

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Whether you are using a strike to break one of the bones which are susceptible to being broken by way of empty-hand strikes, are using an impact weapon to shatter those that aren’t, are applying one of the six categories of leverages to a joint, or doing one of the above in conjunction with a throw, attacking, and wrecking vital components of the man’s skeleton is an excellent tactic. In the “Degrees of Incapacitation” chapter of this book, I stated that, when faced with an asocially violent individual, the only three acceptable conditions to leave him in are unconscious, crippled, or dead. Skeletal destruction tactics are how you accomplish the “crippled” state in that hierarchy. Play around with these ideas in your training. Learn to take the man’s hand from his eyes after a finger claw strike and break his fingers or wrist with an L1 or an L3 or 4. Apply an L1 break to a man’s elbow when his arm is extended and “stuck to you” after you’ve injured him in another manner. The possibilities are endless, and limited only by your willingness to learn and develop. Like I said before, seeking further coaching on this subject will skyrocket your ability to see these opportunities and use a variety of leverages to cripple the man. For now I want you to have this basic knowledge on which to build, and to experiment on your own. George S. Patton once said,

“Don’t’ tell people how to do something. Tell them what to do and let them surprise you with their ingenuity”.

This quote rings true with the information in this book. Since you are learning principles, instead of a specific set of movements, you have the knowledge necessary to grow on your own, and develop an arsenal of “throw away” techniques each time you practice. A mathematics teacher would be doing his or her students a disservice by making them memorize the answers to a specific set of questions. Likewise I would be doing you a disservice if I taught you a bunch of techniques instead of teaching you how to actually “do the math”.

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CHAPTER NINE: THROWING This chapter will focus on the subject of throwing a man to the ground. For most, this will conjure up images of Judo or Greco-Roman style throws where the man is tossed over your hip, or picked up in the air and dumped to the ground. While both of these types of movements are possible examples of the throwing principles in action, the throwing principle, as taught here, extends to cover any leverage, shove, slam, tackle, or other method used to drive the man into the ground, causing a multitude of injuries, as well. Aikido creator Morihei Ueshiba is quoted as saying,

“I can strike a man with my fist, or I can strike a man with the earth. The earth is larger, and hits much harder”. One of the characteristics of a sophisticated fighter, using this system, is the ease with which he or she is capable of incorporating throwing movements into their attacks. In keeping with Ueshiba’s logic, it is possible to cause more injuries over more area of the body by throwing the man to the ground than it is by simply striking him. As students progress, their free fight practice evolves to commonly include a hard throw of some sort after one or two strikes have caused other injuries. First I will address one very important principle, which is imperative that you understand, that must be applied if you are to successfully throw a man to cause injury.

“Only throw an injured man”. What this means is that there must be an injury caused prior to your throw attempt in order to ensure its success. Grabbing a man in an attempt to send him on a one way trip to the ground will result in grappling match between you and this non-compliant individual who may well be bigger, stronger, or better at grappling than you. Imposing your will to slam him to the ground after you’ve rakes his eyes, struck him in the lateral neck, or broken his clavicle however will work out much better for you.

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There are seeming exceptions to this rule, in which the throw itself is either a result of the injury (as in the case of a leverage throw from a stomp to the ankle, or a component of the injury itself (as in the case of a “body slam” tackle across his diaphragm), but in the majority of cases, you will need to produce an injury on this man with a strike prior to throwing him to the ground. Let’s look at the base principle of throwing so that you can better understand what it takes to destroy a man’s balance and send him to the ground.

The Base Principle of Throwing If you stand up and imagine a rectangle that is formed by your feet, the toes of the shoes, the heels of the shoes, and the sides of the shoes all forming sides, you can see what is referred to as your balance base. Now understand that your body’s center of gravity (when standing) is located just about where your bladder target is. If your bladder travels out beyond the boundaries of that rectangle, the result is a loss of your balance. Future works on the subject of throwing will address a host of other principles such as the “third leg” principle, which expand on this base principle, and open the door for all kinds of diabolical manners in which to injure using gravity, but for the purposes of this book I am going to stay relatively elementary and stick to the bare basics.

Note: In most of the demonstrated examples herein you will see the man being thrown to his back. This is a result of two factors, 1. The man’s ability to take a fall without being injured; this is a result of him having been trained to do so to avoid injury while training. 2. I (or whoever is throwing him in the photos) am helping him fall in a manner that does not injure him for the sake of training. In the real world, more often than not, this man will not know how to fall, nor will you or I be assisting him in landing safely, so he will most likely receive a few injuries in the way of broken wrists, chipped elbows, and/or head traumas from clunking onto the ground like the proverbial “sack of shit”.

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Types of Throws You are performing a throw anytime that you send a man to the pavement hard with the intention of using the ground as your striking surface to injure him. There are a few basic categories that throwing methods can be grouped into.

These categories are:

• • • • •

Hip Throws Leverage Throws Shoves Slams and Tackles Drop Throws

Hip Throws These methods (hip throws) require a more comprehensive understanding of both body dynamics, and the dynamics of throwing, and extend a bit outside the scope of this chapter. These are certainly valuable tools, and can be devastating in their effects, but learning to successfully perform these types of throws is certainly not something that is necessary in order to use violence against another man, a gouged eye and busted knee will do that just fine. If you are into this information, and wish to advance in your level of skill and knowledge, than I do encourage you to keep an eye out for upcoming book and video products, which will be released in the future, that will enable you to learn how to use these destructive tools with ease. On the next two pages I will demonstrate two examples of hip throws.

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This series begins with me striking Mike in the lateral neck with the ulna bone. I then proceed to step into his space (using the hidden triangles principle) to set up the hip throw. The result is a hard slam for Mike, and an excellent position for me to continue to injure him if needed. While this looks as if I’m muscling him over, throwing in this manner requires very little strength.

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In this series I begin by striking Mike in the kidney with a two-knuckle punch. I then set up my throw by securing him around the neck as in a “rear naked choke”. I then execute a hip throw while hugging his neck, extending the vertebrae to cause an L1 break. At the apex of the throw, I dump him to the side and yank up on his chin to introduce further motion into the broken neck to ensure spinal cord injury and death. !2013

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Leverage Throws This type of throw comes about as a result of a leverage applied to a joint. The most common examples of leverage throws involve attacking the ankles and knees. The injury to the joint itself causes the man to plummet to the earth, normally resulting in a host of other injuries to the upper extremities, and/or head. You can also affect a leverage throw by manipulating the man’s head, as we see in many neck breaks.

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In this simple example, while Mike is reacting to a finger claw to the eyes (not shown), I use my palm to attack his hip crease and shove it at a forty-five degree angle to the ground, using leverage to slam him. I’m now free to continue injuring him.

In this example of a leverage throw, I place my hand on his metatarsal bones, and use my knee to lever him down, pushing it just above the medial malleolus, breaking his ankle (L5) and slamming him to the ground.

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Here I’ve struck Mike in the groin with a palm heel strike (not shown). I then bring my leg up in a “wheel-like” fashion, and stomp just above his lateral malleolus with the blade edge of the foot (see effective striking section for detail), breaking his ankle (L6), and levering his head down towards the ground rapidly.

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Here I begin by striking Mike in the solar plexus. I then take his hand from it’s location at the injury site (thanks spinal reflex), and apply an L3 break to the wrist, dropping to a knee, and levering him to the ground where I then use an additional L2 break to cause further trauma.

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Shoves This is the simplest type of throw in existence. Simply put, you are causing an injury to the man, and then shoving his center of gravity (bladder) outside of his base to send him to the earth. The beginner will find this easiest to do when the man is doubled over in a groin or bladder reaction, but with a more thorough understanding of the “third leg” principle of throwing, shoves can be used effectively regardless of the man’s position. Below are two examples of a basic shoves.

In the above example, Mike is reacting to having been struck with a heel of the palm strike to the groin. I simply step through his center while shoving him down hard onto his side.

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In this example I begin by stepping in and striking an advancing Mike in the solar plexus with my elbow. I then take him behind the neck and shove his head in a straight line to where his third leg would be if he had one in the rear. The third photo places me in a perfect position for a neck break (L2), but I instead opt to continue the shove and let his head whip back into the ground.

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Slams and Tackles These throws involve hurling your body at the man’s center in order to send him crashing to the ground in an injuries manner, often times with your bodyweight falling on top of him to cause further injury. These can be very devastating, and can render the man non-functional in a hurry.

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Here I charge Mike and slam the side of my body across his diaphragm, driving him to the ground. On impact, all of my weight lands hard on him, driving the air out of his body. It is then easy to find targets and produce further injury.

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Here I strike Mike with a heel of the palm into his groin. I then begin to roll, trapping his hip from in between his legs with my non-striking arm. I continue to roll to my side, slamming him to the ground and smacking his head down hard. Here I then attack him with an L4 break to his neck (rotary atloaxial separation).

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Drop Throws Drop throws involve controlling the man’s body while falling to the ground at his feet (blocking his third leg to the front), sending him on his merry way to the pavement. These are very effective when “denying structure” to a man who has surprised you, or otherwise grabbed hold of your body in an effort to control you to initiate the attack. While drop throws can be used entirely offensively, they are most commonly used as a result of him having moved first, and/or having stolen your balance. What seems to be a good situation for him becomes a hard slam to the ground in the blink of an eye. Drop throws used in this manner often are in “violation” of the “only throw an injured man” principle in that the man’s contact with the ground accounts for the initial injury.

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Here Mike initiates the assault by grabbing me and shoving me off balance. Recognizing that my balance is gone, and that I need to attack him, I grab him behind the neck and “sit down at his feet”, using his momentum to slam him hard onto the ground where I can then strike targets and cause further injury.

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Here Mike attacks from behind, pinning my arms and knocking me forward. I immediately pin his hands to chest and drop at his feet, rotating to my side. This results in a hard slam for him, and more than likely a chipped elbow on the concrete. I then immediately strike with an ulna bone into his groin and then continue injuring him.

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During your free fight practice, which I will explain in the upcoming chapter on training, look for opportunities to incorporate some of the methods detailed above. The possibilities for trauma available to you when using throwing principles are vast. Stay tuned for the more comprehensive throwing products in order to expand your knowledge and capability in this lethal science.

An x-ray showing a subdural hematoma, a common head injury received from a throw on a hard surface.

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CHAPTER TEN: WEAPONS

“Self Defense and the Pooper Scooper”

Throughout history, man has invented and used tools to accomplish a variety of actions. A tool is simply anything that provides a more efficient means of completing a task. Modern weapons such as firearms, knives, and clubs, are nothing more than tools that allow violence to be performed on another human being in a more efficient manner than the average person is capable of doing with their empty hands. This is important to understand in the context of combat science for a few reasons. The next few chapters will provide some insight on the advantages and limitations of ancillary tools of violence such as the weapons listed above. I titled this passage “Self Defense and the Pooper Scooper” because we are talking about tools here. A pooper-scooper is simply a tool that some use to perform a task that most would rather not perform with their hands. It’s not that one can’t collect their dog’s waste with a bag turned inside out over the hand, it’s simply that the scooper makes things easier, saves the dog owner from bending down, and places a distance barrier between the person’s hand, and the dog shit. If you think about it, there’s not much difference between a pooperscooper and a firearm in terms of how they add value to the owner. A firearm allows one to injure, incapacitate, or even kill another person from a distance. A simple stroke or strokes of the trigger, and another human being can potentially be taken out of the picture. Powerful, huh? Absolutely. This is why firearms are such an effective and sought after tool of violence. A firearm purchased or carried for “self defense” is erroneously described. The weapon will not do anything to defend you or your loved ones. It will not call the police, it will not spring into action from your bedside in the event of a home invasion, and it will

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not keep someone from raping you. Without your brain’s intent to fire the weapon into the vitals of another human being, the firearm amounts to nothing more than a very expensive paperweight. Should you choose to kill another human being, a firearm is an excellent tool. The single biggest problem with that statement is that in order for it to be effective at that purpose, it needs to be in your hand when you need it. Many people purchase firearms for in their homes, or even acquire licenses to carry firearms where they are legally obtained. Their logic is that the weapon is their self-defense tool. It makes them feel warm at night by its sheer presence.

“Nothing can hurt me or my family, I keep a gun in the nightstand”. “I feel safe walking the streets because I’m packing a .45”.

Again, the problem here is that the weapon had better be in your hand or drawn when you need it. We see this same idea with knives as well as other tools like pepper sprays and stun guns. All of these tools can be applied effectively in certain situations and under the right conditions, but it is a grave mistake to base your own personal survival preparedness or that of your loved ones on any object that you can put in your hand. As I’ve said before, the only true weapon is the human brain. Once your brain is aware of the critical shift necessary from self preservation to the destruction of another human or humans as outlined in my previous article, it is then necessary to learn to use the other weapon that you have available with you all day, everyday, wherever you go, your body. Throughout the years, many have come to me to teach them how to use firearms, or to a lesser degree, knives for the purpose of selfdefense. After I explained to them that neither tool could be used to protect anyone, that they were instead tools for injuring others, I followed by refusing to teach them how to use any ancillary tools until they were capable of incapacitating, or killing another human under any circumstances with only the weapons of their body.

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I don’t want to hear a story about a woman being raped and murdered while digging for her pepper spray in her purse, or after the attacker(s) laugh at her when she sprays them (save the comments about how that wouldn’t happen with X or Y brand of sprays, I’m very familiar with what’s on the market). I hate hearing about the homeowner who is beaten to death in his home that was unable to get to (or load) his firearm in time to bring it into action. Simply put, gambling with your life is not something that you should do. Betting it all on black, in this case the weapon of choice, is nothing short of asinine. Nothing about a weapon makes you less susceptible to violence. Nothing about a weapon makes you better at doing violence to another human (an attribute that I promise you the asocial, amoral attacker you will face will possess to a much greater degree than you). Nothing about a weapon increases your intent to do harm to another human. As a matter of fact, those who purchase firearms for the “deterrent” effect that they possess, as in “I pull my gun and he capitulates and the situation ends” are already thinking in a manner that will get them killed.

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Here we see the danger in focusing on the man’s weapon and not his intent. Jim grabs for Sean’s gun. Sean, who wants Jim dead (the true threat), produces a knife and stabs Jim to death. Jim neglected to address Sean’s intent and his mistake cost him his life.

I don’t train people to be knife-fighters, though we do spend a lot of time teaching you to use the knife. I don’t train stick-fighters, though the last thing an asocial attacker would ever want to encounter is one of our people armed with a club of some sort. I don’t train people to be gun-fighters, though they are fully capable of manipulating and effectively using a variety of modern firearms. I train people in principles that apply regardless of whatever tool is their hand, AND regardless of whatever tool may be in the other guy’s hand. Violence is violence, it doesn’t matter if you are armed or unarmed, whether he has a gun, whether there is more than one of him, whether you are standing, seated, or on the ground. The same principles apply.

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The next four chapters will focus on three types of weapons,

• • • •

Edged weapons Impact weapons Firearms Improvised weapons

They are intended to give you a solid understanding of what it takes to face a man or men armed with such weapons, as well as give you a bit of the basics on using these weapons offensively. Later works will go into much grater detail on the professional use of each type of weapon.

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CHAPTER ELEVEN: EDGED WEAPONS Edged weapons are simply any tools that can be used to inflict puncturing, penetrating, or incising trauma to a human being. The most common edged weapon is of course the knife, with tools like screwdrivers and ice picks close behind. Edged weapons can be devastating tools, and only the firearm rivals the efficacy with which they are capable of taking human life. Despite this reality, they are still simple tools, and they require a human brain to use them effectively. No knife has ever stabbed someone one its own. To take that a step further you must understand exactly how edged weapons kill. Edged weapons are capable of producing either puncture wounds, incising wounds, or both. Incising wounds are “cuts”. They open the body up and make for a lot of bleeding. A quickly Google search for knife wounds will produce a multitude of gruesome images of people cut up like crazy, sometimes requiring hundreds upon hundreds of stitches to close the wounds. The key point here is that they survived. What you typically do not see is a man with a one-inch scar located over his heart or his kidney from a stab wound. That brings us to puncture wounds. Punctures increase the surface area of the trauma in depth as opposed to width. Stab wounds allow access to vital organs inside the protective walls of the body, and are generally much more likely to be fatal than cuts. Generally speaking, in training students to use the knife, the majority of focus is placed on puncture wounds as opposed to cuts. Incising wounds are generally only taught on the exit of a puncture, or as an incidental bonus that takes place when following through from a strike with the ulna bone of the knife hand. The lethality potential of punctures is what is responsible for this disproportionate emphasis. A human being must lose one fifth of its total blood volume in order to go into hypovolemic shock. That means one full liter of blood for an adult. Shallow cuts !2013

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make a mess, and look repulsive, but there are few targets that can make a person bleed that much quickly enough to be used to incapacitate them. Contrast that to a simple stab into the heart, kidney, or aorta, and you can see why the stab is king.

Facing Edged Weapons As I stated in the weapons chapter, there is nothing about a weapon in the man’s hand that changes the fact that his brain is the danger to you. If he can’t use his brain, he can’t use his knife. If he is injured, he is in spinal reflex, not stabbing or cutting you. If you continue to injure him to the point of incapacitation, then the threat of his intent along with the knife he brought along no longer exists. To sum it up; take the man out, not the weapon.

Jim produces a knife and threatens me with it. I don’t go after the knife, or attempt to take it from him; I simply get busy injuring him.

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If it makes you feel any better, you probably won’t even know that he has a knife. If he wants to kill you he will just start stabbing, so you will just be injuring an unarmed man in your head. Many who have survived asocial conflicts, who have even been cut or stabbed during the altercation, report not even being aware that the knife was present until after the situation was over. Regardless of whether or not he makes it known, injure him. If he shows it to you or threatens you with it, do not wait to see what he does and attempt to counter or use your “knife defense” techniques you learned from your “reality-based” self-defense course. Injure him! He just gave you the green light to do so legally by brandishing a lethal weapon.

Using an Edged Weapon As I stated before, stab wounds are king. Despite all of the fancy things that you see in movies and in martial arts classes, there are only two ways that a professional holds a knife. They are in a tight fist with the blade facing up, or in a tight fist with the blade facing down. That’s it. No mystical tiger grip, fencing grip, reverse grip, etc. It’s ice pick, or Norman Bates, one or the other. Though the knife gives you access to injuries that you cannot cause without one, the target areas remain the same. The pathologies of the injuries change of course, but for the most part if you can punch it or kick it, you can stab it and have a great effect. A later product will identify all of the targets for edged weapons and the pathologies that are associated with each. For now, experiment with using the knife against targets in this book during your free fight practice. See if you can identify the organs and vascular structures affected when you strike each with a blade. As always, ensure that you are not becoming a “weapons fighter”, and focusing on the knife in your hand. Make sure that you are using your body as a unit that just so happens to have a blade on the end of one of its appendages.

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A simple punch to the solar plexus; put a knife in your hand and it becomes…

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…an entry into the aorta, vena cava inferior, and the heart depending on the angle of the strike. This is “Dexter’s” target of choice for his victims. Note the low-tech grip that I’m using.

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Bonus: Selecting an Edged Weapon for Concealed Carry The knife is an extremely efficient tool when it comes to taking a man’s life. It should be noted that this, not “self defense” is the only reason why one would opt to carry a knife for personal protection. If you choose to carry a knife, you absolutely must be prepared to use it to mortally wound another man. If you are not willing to do this on a moral level, do not carry the knife. Like “shooting to wound”, there is no “cutting to intimidate” or anything along those lines. The knife does not leave your pocket unless it is about to enter the man’s body and end his life. If you are opting to use a knife in an asocially violent situation, then all of the criteria necessary to permit you to use lethal force must be present. Namely, you must be in imminent danger of death or grievous bodily harm, or must be acting on behalf of a third party that is in a similar situation. Use a knife in a situation where these conditions are not present, and you’re going to prison. That said, if you choose to carry a knife, for use as a tool in the case of an appropriate situation, your knife need not be “impressive” or intimidating. You are going to have a much easier time explaining why you chose to stab the man and end his life with your ubiquitous, unassuming pocket knife than you are if you opted for a blade dubbed “The Ultimate Combat Tactical Folder” , or a double edged, fixed-blade dagger. A judge is not going to want to hear your explanation for selecting such a tool, and you are by default going to come off as a hyper-vigilant, militant type of individual. When used correctly the knife is felt, not seen. The man will not know that you have a knife until it has already inflicted a mortal wound on him. Therefore you don’t need a knife with “wow” factor. You are not “Crocodile Dundee” , so stick to something a bit more practical. Your knife should be small, with a blade no longer than four inches. Personally, I think that three and a half inches represents the upper limit on blade length for a concealed carry blade. When used effectively, a three-inch blade can kill a man every bit as dead as an exotic, six-inch folder. It should be believable that your knife is part of your everyday kit, and used to cut tape, open boxes, or any other, non-killing-a-man type of activity.

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Much like how most would find it completely logical that you stabbed a man with a kitchen knife that attacked you in your home, it is certainly believable that, when in fear of your life, you used your every day pocketknife as a “defensive” last resort. This is also one of the reasons that I advocate the screwdriver as an edged weapon. Like the claw hammer, the screwdriver is fifty-state legal, and easily purchased anywhere. While it may be a bit if a stretch to use one that you’ve pocketed in a business suit, it will make sense to most if you stab a man under the ear with one who is reaching in your car with a gun to your head. I urge you to take selecting a pocketknife for carry serious, and not dismiss my thoughts while rambling about your rights, etc. The law’s perception of your tool of choice will become extremely relevant and important to you should you find yourself in a holding cell, or in an interview room after killing a man in “self defense”.

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CHAPTER TWELVE: IMPACT WEAPONS Impact weapons represent the oldest class of weapon. Caveman used clubs and rocks to bash in the skull of his enemy, and to hunt and kill his food. Any object that can be used to inflict blunt force trauma on another man is considered an impact weapon. That said, modern times have brought about several tools which are commonly used for this purpose, whether that was their originally intended purpose or not. Some of these tools are: •

•

•

Clubs (this encompasses all types of police batons and martial arts fighting sticks) Hand tools such as hammers, tire irons, and pipe wrenches Sporting implements such as baseball bats

The latter two categories represent what you are most likely to encounter in a violent attack from an impact weapon-toting adversary. Impact weapons provide a reach advantage, as well as the ability to strike with much greater force. This is why human beings have relied on them to do greater damage since the dawn of time. There is no necessary training required to use an impact weapon, which makes them extremely user-friendly to literally any human being who chooses to pick one up. A tool such as a piece of steel pipe or a baseball bat is a force multiplier that allows such things as breaking a man’s radius bone or femur, tasks that cannot be accomplished with empty-hands, to become possible. Additionally, strikes to the head with an impact tool are much more likely to be fatal due to the massive head trauma that results. Despite this fact, there is nothing about an impact weapon that makes the other man more dangerous. As I described in the introduction, it is the man’s intent, not his weapons that make him a threat. Like any other weapon, an impact weapon cannot be used if his brain is not able to drive, so you are always instructed to attack, and shut off his brain when he poses a threat to you.

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Later products will provide more education on the use of impact tools as offensive weapons, but if you understand targeting, spinal reflex, and the necessity of causing injury to render the man non-functional, then you are way ahead of the curve. Remember that just because you wield an impact weapon, edged weapon, or firearm, you do not become a “stick”, “knife” , or “gun-fighter” , you are simply a man who understands how to fight with the listed tools. Violence is violence, what is in your hands or the other man’s hand has no bearing.

Nothing changes because the man has a baseball bat in his hands. Here I simply drop to a knee and punch him in the bladder as he attacks.

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CHAPTER THIRTEEN: FIREARMS Firearms are excellent tools when it comes to taking human life. They, unlike other weapons, are mechanisms and allow you to fire a projectile into a man’s vitals from a distance. Learning to use firearms effectively is something that I highly recommend that you do if that is a possibility for you. Firearms bring with them an intimidation factor that the other weapons just don’t seem to carry. Because of this, most people are more afraid to face an attacker wielding one than any other weapon. This chapter will help alleviate some of that concern as you learn the principles associated with dealing with firearms.

Facing Firearms The introduction of a gun into the mix changes very little. The only real exception is that you need to address the weapon’s field of fire. You always assume that at least one round will be fired while you are injuring the man. Failing to do this is asinine and not in keeping with reality. Instead of thinking that the situation will go down like the movies, with you snatching the gun from the man and riding off into the sunset after he scurries away, tail between his legs, afraid of you, you prepare for the reality that the gun will fire, and you will more than likely be killing a man with your hands this evening. One thing that I want to point out before I go any further is that you should absolutely not use another man’s weapon. What I mean by this is that if you take it from him, or it becomes free in the melee, do not attempt to use it. Unless you are intimately familiar with the weapon system, can be one hundred percent positive that it is loaded and in working order, and are proficient with firearms, you should not attempt to use his. Doing so would be placing an undue emphasis on its presence, and would likely cloud your ability to deal with the situation in the most direct manner. To add to what I just said, a good friend of mine was assaulted at gunpoint. He took the man’s gun from him and shot him (did not kill him). He was charged with attempted murder, and illegal possession

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of a firearm because the other man said that the weapon was his. Later the charges were dropped when detectives discovered the wounded man’s fingerprints on the rounds inside the magazine, proving that he had loaded it and that the gun was his, but this is not a headache that you want. The funny thing is that my friend is very adept with his hands and could have easily ended the altercation without resorting to shooting the man (he clearly was less adept with firearms since the man survived).

The Danger of the Muzzle The muzzle is the only dangerous portion of the firearm. Unless I am directly in front of it, the gun can cause me no harm.

This is where I do not want to be

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I am in no danger in either of the above photos because I am not in front of the muzzle The first order of business when facing a firearm is getting out of the line of fire. This is accomplished by way of penetration and rotation.

Penetration and Rotation When attacking a man with a gun, I must move into him while rotating my body. This simple principle gets me out of the line of fire, and into his space where I can injure him and eliminate the threat.

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Penetration and Rotation. Drive into him and rotate of the line simultaneously.

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I don’t need to know where the gun in is. It doesn’t matter what hand it is in, how he is holding it, etc. This is why I chose to illustrate this with him behind me. Simple penetration and rotation gets you off the line and into him, which is where you need to be.

Push vs. Pull When two objects are connected, pulling the ends in opposite directions will make the body of the object center itself between them. Think about a long, coiled rope. Pull one end and have somebody else pull the other. The rope will eventually describe a straight line between you. This is simple physics, but bad news if the object in the middle is a gun (unless you’re the one holding it). A human’s natural instinct is to pull back when you try to pull on their gun to take it away. This is why “take away” techniques are so dangerous, because they ignore this simple fact. As soon as the gun holder is not cooperating like a good training partner, the gun gets centered and goes boom! Bye bye defensive tactics guru.

Sean points the gun at Jim who tries to wrestle it from him. Sean’s natural instinct is to pull back, centering the gun. Bad news for Jim.

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Sean points the gun at me. I begin to attack his elbow to break it, pulling him down and around in front of me…

He pulls back, and now I have to wrestle him to keep the gun out of my center. I should not have pulled.

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This time I use the same attack, except I PUSH instead of pull.

Now I end up not getting shot, and Sean ends up with a snapped elbow.

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When fighting a man with a firearm you must be aware of the field of fire. It is assumed that the gun will fire and that would be bad news if this was the view of a loved one or an innocent bystander.

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So remember, if you are attacking a man with a firearm, you must do a few things: • • •

•

Penetrate and Rotate Push, never pull INJURE HIM Consider Field of Fire

The last thing I want to mention, that should go without saying by now, is that if he announces that he has a gun, or shows it to you, do not wait for him to point it at you. Level him instantly. Cause injury NOW!

Don’t wait for him to pull it out. If he shows it to you INJURE HIM!

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Bonus: A Simple Principle that will Make You Significantly More Accurate When Shooting a Handgun Ok, so this book is not about firearms use. I don’t have the space in here to cover all of that. What I will do is teach you one simple principle that dramatically increases your accuracy with a handgun without ever shooting a round. When the average person holds a handgun, they do so in the manner that feels most comfortable in their hand. That almost always results in the bore being off center from the radius bone in the forearm. The gun should run in a straight line right down the radius. This is accomplished by having the butt of the gun dig into the hypothenar pad of the palm (pinky side).

Incorrect alignment (left), correct alignment (right).

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You can see how incorrect alignment can make you miss your target even at this close of a distance.

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Bonus: Selecting Firearms for Concealed Carry Choosing to carry a firearm is a serious decision. It is one that requires a high level of responsibility on your part. Unlike other tools, the firearm is a mechanism. It is capable of firing a projectile and killing a man from a distance. Unlike impact weapons (which are out for concealed carry anyway), and edged weapons, firearms can also kill someone “accidentally”, as a result of human negligence. Do not carry a firearm if you are drinking alcohol, it’s not good for you if you get caught doing it, and the repercussions for others could be even more severe. Additionally, I’m writing this with the assumption that you are carrying a firearm in an area where it is legal to do so, and are following all applicable laws about concealed carry. I do not advocate or condone carrying a firearm illegally, and a court sure won’t if you’re found to be doing so.

Revolver or Pistol? This topic has been debated for ages. What it comes down to is a combination of personal preference, and what type of situation you are likely to encounter where the use of a firearm would be warranted. Revolvers offer unbeatable dependability. They will fire just about anytime you pull the trigger. Also they have no external safeties to manipulate, a plus for sure in a combat situation. The drawback to the revolver is its capacity. Most revolvers that would be considerations for concealed carry hold five or six rounds. While this is statistically more than enough to address most any lethal force situation that the average citizen is likely to encounter, some may feel a bit more comfortable toting something that packs a bit more ammo. Enter the semi-auto pistol. Pistols come in a variety of calibers, sizes, shapes, and levels of quality, more so than the revolver. Since this book is not specifically about firearms (though later releases will be), I am not going to get to in depth with this subject. I will however say that a semi-automatic pistol makes an excellent concealed carry weapon as well, assuming that it is appropriate for the shooter. This brings me to an important point that I make to all of my students when it comes to firearms:

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Shot placement is King.

If you do not hit your target, you will not get the intended result. You can see the obvious parallel to fighting with empty hands here. The same focus on targets that I teach when using your body to injure a man is crucial when using a firearm. Knowing this, the best weapon for you is the one that you are capable of firing the most accurately, from any conceivable position. This means that if you love the idea of toting a big, high-powered semi-auto, but find that you are far more accurate with a five-shot, full steel, revolver with a three-inch barrel; you are far better off choosing the latter. Likewise, if your revolver is a .357 Magnum, but shooting that load makes the gun difficult for you to control for follow up shots, you may be much better suited to stuff the cylinder with a .38 special load that you can handle and shoot more accurately. Bigger is only better if all other factors are equal. Firearms kill by way of firing a projectile that penetrates, and crushes vital tissue in, the human body, period. This can be accomplished with literally any modern handgun, hell, it worked for years with old black powder muskets, so don’t sweat over having the coolest, or most “high tech” gun on your hip. If you are a gun enthusiast or collector, that’s great. If you like to “talk guns” with your gun club, or buddies from the range or gun shop, that’s also great. What I am suggesting emphatically that you do is leave your ego aside when selecting which gun you want wear on your person as a tool for the protection of yourself and others. Speaking of ego, that brings us to our next topic,

What caliber should I choose? Here we go. This subject is more hotly debated than that whole prochoice, pro-life crowd. Interestingly enough however, most that debate this topic have never used a firearm for its intended purpose. Those that have, or have been in an environment where that sort of thing was a bit more common, tend to have a different perspective, i.e. they don’t care.

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This topic is rife with those who tout that “bigger is better”. Most of these people will be advocates of the .45 ACP cartridge. Most who fit this bill will also loathe smaller calibers, and always seem to have a particular dislike for the battle-tested nine-millimeter parabellum round. Like I said before, choose the weapon that you can best control and fire accurately. That is all that matters. While I am myself a nine-millimeter fan, I have no allegiance to that particular round. I have my reasons for favoring certain calibers or platforms, all of which have directly to do with how well they serve their intended purpose, but I do not condemn the use or support of any others. Frankly, I am capable of manipulating an extensive array of handguns, both revolvers and semi-autos, and am perfectly at home with any number of guns on my waistband. This is the result of half of a lifetime of gun ownership and use, as well as extensive training (both as student and teacher) on the subject of combat shooting, as well as that whole ground combat experience thing. The last of those pedigree components is what makes me shake my head in awe when someone says how ineffective the .556 NATO round is, or how piss poor the “stopping power” is from a nine millimeter (the two calibers of weapons I used and saw in use the most in Afghanistan). Over the years, many have been surprised; some even “offended” at some of my choices of carry guns. They’d often make remarks like “I’d expect you to carry XXXX, not something like that”, or my favorite, “How is it with all that you know and have seen that you can step out of the house carrying that?!” If the last question doesn’t answer itself, I’m afraid I can’t help you, the irony is simply too much. One evening a close friend of mine who is currently serving in the Army’s First Special Forces Operational Detachment: Delta, or “DELTA Force”, the premier anti-terrorist team in the world, and I were out to eat. He was armed with a Ruger LCP .380 pistol loaded with a round that he helped a somewhat well known ammunition manufacturer create. I had a snub nose .32 H&R Magnum lightweight revolver pocketed as well. A patron of the place where we were dining, who was unfortunately introduced to us, had a few too many drinks and proceeded to “talk guns” to us. We certainly had not brought up the subject; it was the fault of a mutual “friend” (if the term is still applicable after this introduction), who mentioned that we were both “army guys”. He prodded to know what we were carrying, and when we told him his reaction was comical. He literally laughed out loud. He then proceeded to tell us, “You boys need to grow you some balls and get you one of these” before pulling his shirt up to show the !2013

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butt of his custom 1911 .45 ACP pistol, tucked in a belt holster. I couldn’t help but notice how well it accentuated his beer belly. After the incident, my friend and I laughed on the ride home. We, like most with who have experience in such matters, are humble people. We don’t advertise who or what we are. Our guns are simply a component of our “kit”, like our cell phones, or car keys. They certainly are not a status symbol, or something that we consider part of our identities. We don’t initiate such conversations, and we certainly don’t brandish our guns in public places, while drinking alcohol, for the entire world to see. The fat man was appalled at our selections, and enjoyed his moment of “superiority” over us for his choice of firearm. My friend and I just had a good time chasing women, and knowing with quiet resolve that either of us were fully capable of shooting our firearms accurately, from any conceivable position, strong hand, weak hand, whatever, and potentially saving the lives of ourselves and others should the need have arisen. (Ok, this probably would have occurred after one of us belted the fat guy in the lateral neck so that he didn’t take anyone’s head off with his “cannon” in the ensuing melee). For those familiar with American current events, note that Trayvon Martin (the black youth controversially killed in self-defense by George Zimmerman) was killed with single nine-millimeter round fired from a KelTec handgun. Both the caliber, and the brand of gun are not in high favor by the “gun store commando” types, but the incident just goes to show how asinine their arguments truly are. While I promise to cover this topic in much greater detail in a later firearms product, I will leave you by saying this: Choose a weapon with a capacity that is likely to see you through a situation that you are likely to encounter, that fires a moderate powered round that you can shoot accurately. Find a secure manner of concealing the weapon that does not advertise to others that you are carrying it. If it makes you feel better, carry more ammunition in the form of a spare magazine (semi-auto), or speed loader or speed strip (revolver). Practice dry fire exercises regularly, and shoot as often as desire, money, and time permit. Familiarize anyone else with whom you have regular contact with (talking family/significant others here, not the guy at the donut shop) with the firearm to reduce the likelihood of negligent, dangerous occurrences. Remember that the gun is a killing tool, and will be recognized in court as such. Never present it unless you are fully willing and ready to !2013

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fire it into another man and end his life, in a situation that warrants the use of or display of preparedness for the use of, lethal force.

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CHAPTER FOURTEEN: IMPROVISED WEAPONS I’ve included this section in this book to address a common idea that seems to come about when it becomes known that you train and are knowledgeable in this information. I’ve gotten questions over the years along the lines of

“How can you kill a man with a ______________?”

Invariably the blank will be filled with some arbitrary object like a hairbrush, soup ladle, or something equally ridiculous. There seems to be some obsession, born out of Hollywood and the “secret agent” mystique that people possess about using everyday objects as killing tools. Apparently the ability to do so conveys some ultimate level of mastery of combat that these people fantasize is possible, and held by those who fit this bill. Having known professional “assassins”, both military, and civilian/government, I can assure you that these “skills” are not a part of the curriculum for their training. People envision a government trained killer infiltrating a foreign country under a false ID to assassinate a political leader and start a coup, armed with a bunch of spy gadgets and tricked out, suppressed pistols This is what they see in the movies. More often than not, if such an act does take place it is certainly not with the aid of such tools. What is much more realistic is a poison kill, an incendiary device, or a simple bludgeoning. Think about it, this man is entering a foreign country on a commercial flight. He has no “secret agent” kit with him, nor a network of friendly’s to sell him sexy weapons in metallic briefcases out of the back of a truck. This guy has to be an average citizen in the eyes of everyone else. He has to blend in. This is a man who recognizes how easy and efficient it is to take a man’s life with a hammer. I apologize if I’ve busted anyone’s bubble out there, my intentions are not to ruin your childhood fantasies, but rather to shed light on the idea that there are no mystical powers possessed by people in these positions. !2013

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A former CIA operative once relayed to me that, in his career, the conflict resolution tool he used the most was his hand-to-hand training. Next to that was, get this, chemical sprays (that’s right, good old pepper spray), and last but not least was a snubnose revolver (a far cry from the full-size pistol with the big suppressor and laser sight). My point here is that focusing on how an everyday objects can be used as weapons takes away from the importance of learning the simple fundamentals that allow you to be armed anywhere. Your body weapons will always be with you, and it will always be simpler to use your ulna bone to crush a man’s throat if needed, than to stab him with your keys protruding through your fingers (a bullshit tactic commonly taught in women’s self defense courses that I wish would just go away). Remember the introduction to this chapter on weapons when I discussed the dependency idea. There is nothing about a weapon that makes you a more capable fighter. By now you understand that if the other man has a knife in his hand you will kill him every bit as dead. Likewise, depending on some arbitrary tool to accomplish a task that you can easily, and reliably accomplish with your empty hands places the focus where it doesn’t need to be. While I do sometimes teach people how to construct weapons out of common items (more for “edutainment” purposes than anything), the topic is simply not relevant to this book. Any weapon that you fashion out of something else takes time to make. This is clear-cut premeditation, and will get you in trouble with the law should you use it. The exception to this rule would be a hostage scenario, where you had time to plan an escape. For now we’ll put our focus into developing your proficiency with your body weapons, and later with impact weapons, edged weapons, and firearms, tools that are much more applicable to your “mission”. Trust me, you may not have access to a coat hanger to fashion a puncture tool, but you’ll always have your elbows and thumbs should you actually find yourself in that hostage scenario.

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CHAPTER FIFTEEN: FIGHTING FROM THE GROUND

In the last decade or so, the sport of mixed martial arts has grown exponentially. In the early days of MMA competitions, the fighters, largely from traditional martial arts, were defeated with regularity by “grapplers”, practitioners of martial arts that emphasized submissions and chokes as a means to end the match, as opposed to striking. These events created a massive public interest in these styles of martial arts. Over the next several years, as all MMA fighters began to gain familiarity with the grappling styles regardless of their backgrounds, you began to see “striking” come back to life in these events. The fighters from the traditionally “striking” oriented styles had learned the tricks of the grapplers, and, most importantly for them, had learned how to defend against their attacks. These days it is pretty much standard for MMA fighters to train a combination of Muay Thai, a kickboxing style, Western Boxing, Wrestling, and Brazilian Jujitsu, the grappling style that began this craze. This has been great for the sport of MMA (though I preferred the insane match ups of the old days), but has influenced the world of martial arts and self-defense in what I feel is a largely negative way.

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Since these bouts were initially billed as “reality fighting”, a stigma that they still carry, for many they are considered the “laboratory” in which any martial art worth its salt needs to be proven. This has led to the public believing that if they learn the skills of an MMA fighter that they will be prepared for whatever they may encounter “on the street”. This has resulted in a belief that fighting is segmented by range and plane, and that one must learn a host of different styles in order to be a “well rounded fighter”. To these people, this means that once the fight hits the ground, it’s time for “ground and pound”, submissions, and chokes. As I’ve mentioned before, the concept of submissions does not in any way shape or form jibe with the subject of asocial violence. No sociopathic criminal, hell bent on ending your life will simply “give up” or “tap out”. Now one may say that an arm bar used in competition can easily be used to break the joint in a “real fight”, or something along those lines, but the positions required to apply these movements certainly do not allow a person to rapidly move on to another attacker if need be. Chokes fall into the same category. While a choke held long enough will render a man unconscious, one of our “degrees of incapacitation”, that period of time is still an eternity when there is more than one person wishing to do you harm. Simply put, mixed martial arts training is excellent for preparing you to compete in mixed martial arts fights. I am a fan of the sport myself, and enjoy watching the events. Beyond that, in the world in which I teach people to safely navigate, preparing yourself for asocial violence by training for MMA can very well get you killed. The trend I’ve been speaking of is present in the “Reality Based” selfdefense programs as well. People learning “street lethal” movements on their feet, striking the throat and the eyes, and facing attackers armed with modern weapons, are “going to the guard”, and looking for arm bars as soon as they hit the floor. Nowhere is this more disturbing to me than in the official combatives course taught in the United States Army today. There are literally passages in the manual that refer to “holding position and waiting for help to arrive” . The brazilian jujitsu based system is horrible for the intended purpose, and I am thankful beyond words that I was not a naïve soldier indoctrinated into the belief that training in that manner had anything at all to do with combat. !2013

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Do any of these look like positions you would want to be in when facing an unknown number of threats that may or may not be armed?

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So what DO you do when the fight hits the ground?

Injure the man. Yes, it really is that simple. NOTHING AT ALL changes because you are on the ground. Violence is violence regardless of what position you or the other man is in. My students access targets to produce injury from every conceivable position during their training. Free fighting, the training method that I will detail in a later chapter, forces you to fight from all sorts of positions, and to access targets on a man who may even be in an “advantageous” position over you. You train to do violence to another human being, period. A man skilled in the principles presented in this book will be comfortable with their skill no matter the circumstances in which they are asked to apply their craft. Here’s an example of fighting from the ground (note that I do not use the more accepted term of “ground fighting”, which like “stick” or “knife” fighting implies that there is some different set of rules to follow).

continued on next page….

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In the above series I am surprised and tackled to the ground. I immediately begin injuring the man by rupturing his eardrums. I follow with a hard knee to the sternum, and a hammer fist to the temporomandibular joint, breaking his jaw.

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CHAPTER SIXTEEN: FACING MULTIPLE THREATS Facing violence from more than one person at once is a very realistic possibility. Criminals are pack animals, and use their superiority in numbers (as well as any other advantage) to ensure that they will succeed in their efforts. I commonly say that it is a safe assumption that in an asocially violent situation, he will be bigger than you, stronger than you, and there will be more than one of him. This certainly does not make it impossible for you to survive the situation; it simply alters how it must be approached slightly. First, I want to reiterate that you should always assume that there is more than one threat. This is another reason why you do not waste time in taking out the man before you. You may not see his friend, or the others, but you should assume that they’re there. It’s important to note also that the law is on your side when there are multiple attackers. There have been numerous accounts of a man shooting and killing unarmed combatants who “jumped” him, armed with only their fists. The logic here is that they would not do this in a pack if their intention were not to inflict crippling injury to this man (grievous bodily harm). I’m not saying that the presence of another man ensures your self-defense case in court, nothing does entirely, but it dramatically ups the odds that your actions will be deemed justifiable.

Don’t be the Monkey in the Middle Most of you played this game, often unwillingly, as a kid. Two or more kids take something of yours and proceed to toss it back and forth to each other in order to keep it away from you. It’s annoying and demoralizing on the playground, and in an asocially violent situation it’s extremely dangerous. Do not allow yourself to be placed in between two or more people who want to do you harm. At least one of them will be out of your sight, and that is simply not OK.

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If two people set up around you in this manner, it is your job to attack in such a way that positions yourself out of their little “meat circle”. Using the push and rotate principle that we discussed in the firearms section, you will maneuver in such a way that you place one of them in between you and the other. This “lines up” your targets, and makes it much more difficult for the other(s) to attack you since you have their friend (who is currently being incapacitated) placed as a “shield” in between you. You also should make heavy use of shoving throws in this situation. Bust the man in his lateral neck while stepping to his side, lining up your opponents, and then shove his fainting body into his partner battering ram style. Push, penetrate, and continue your assault on both targets, rendering one non-functional and then the other.

“Stack them up and stomp the pile.” This is a saying that I first heard well over a decade ago, and one that I hammer home when teaching students to confidently take on multiple opponents.

Faced by two attackers I quickly strike Mike in the lateral neck, penetrating and rotating to position him between Sean and I…

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I then throw mike into Sean hard, shoving them into a neat pile….

I then “stomp the pile”.

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Here I act first and strike Mike in the solar plexus….

I then continue to penetrate and rotate, throwing his head into Sean’s groin before striking Sean in the lateral neck. From here I can stack them and stomp them.

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Fortunately you are not learning a bunch of “techniques” that work against one person, and then having to switch gears and use what you know about how to fight more than one if needed. The same principles apply. You have been taught that real violence is short-lived, and that five seconds is on the high end of how long a real conflict will last once the violence starts. This extends to fighting multiple people. You must eliminate the threats as quickly as possible, remembering that the law will be on your side if you are acting in self-defense. The single best way to develop your proficiency in fighting more than one person is to practice doing exactly that. This is where it pays to have multiple training partners. Rarely, unless I am working one on one with a student, do I practice against a single person. Normally it’s a mass attack of two or more, with weapons, anything to up the ante in their favor. I want to be so far out of my comfort zone in training that facing a single threat that is unarmed and simply wants to beat my face in is child’s play to deal with. Training in this manner adds another layer of urgency to the mix and forces you to become even more efficient in your incapacitation of human beings. That beings me to my final point on this topic, they are human beings. No matter their numbers, they react to trauma, move, and injure just like any other human being. If you shin kick a man’s groin, and rupture his eyeball before slamming his head into the sternum of his friend, he is still out for the count, and his partner (who would now be re-thinking his motives if he were sane, an assumption that we cannot make) is next on your list. This is your life here. You wouldn’t let one man take it, why would it be any different if he brings a few friends?

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CHAPTER SEVENTEEN: VIOLENCE IN APPLICATION The following pages will provide an array of examples of the principles presented in this book in application. I am deliberately including a variety of situations and spatial considerations to illustrate how this information can be used regardless of circumstance. It is of the utmost importance that you understand as the reader that the series’ of movements presented here are not done so to provide “techniques” or pre-determined reactions to such situations, but are a mere depiction of how the principles of violence can be applied. None of these series’ are taught in a “scripted” manner to students (in actuality they are simply what “came to me” at the time of the photo shoot ). Instead, students develop their own unique, “throw away” techniques series’ every time they are on the mat in their free fighting practice. As you learn to develop your awareness of targets, and become more versatile in your striking, you will be able to execute movements, and take out human beings on the mat for an hour or more at a time without ever repeating the same series of movements. I would also like to note that you might observe what appears to be gratuitous violence in some of these series’. You may think that “he would have been incapacitated after the second strike” or something along those lines. The reason you see the violence continue is that “shit happens”. By this I mean that you will sometimes miss a target, or not put all of the force that you would have liked to into one. This will obviously not produce the same incapacitating effect that a strike with your entire bodyweight and perfect placement will cause. Likewise, as I covered in the portion on secondary reactions, sometimes you’ll clock him once in a target, and it will end the situation altogether. The most important take-away here is that you end the conflict on your terms. At any step along the way if the man is done, you can stop, simple as that. What I don’t want is you thinking that a man will quit, or be non-functional every time you strike him in the liver. It is for those reasons that we continue the violence in training, and strike a multitude of targets.

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Series 1

In this series Sean grabs me from behind to spin me into his punch. I immediately strike into his pneumogastric nerve sheath with my ulna bone…

At this point I see that my strike was successful as he is in the process of stumbling away on his way to unconsciousness. I finish by stepping forward with my left and nailing him with a ball of the foot kick to his bladder.

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Series 2

Sean presents a knife, and issues a demand. I strike his radial nerve with my ulna bone…

I then throw a left, one-joint punch to his liver, followed by a right hammer fist to his temple to knock him unconscious.

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Series 3

Sean attacks me placing me in a tight headlock. I respond by striking him into the groin with a heel of the palm strike…

I then grab hold of him at the eye sockets, using them as handles to manipulate his skull and arch him back…

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I then hammer hard into his manubrium, the top bone in the sternum, to fracture the sternum. I am free to continue injuring him if I determine that it is necessary.

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Series 4

Sean approaches while I’m seated. I strike into the groin with an inverted heel of palm a strike…

I then slap his ears with cupped hands to rupture his eardrums. Keeping my hold on his skull, I rotate it in order to expose the targets on the side of his head and neck…

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I then finish by breaking his jaw at the temporomandibular joint.

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Series 5

Armed with a knife or screwdriver in my right hand, I simultaneously knee to the groin and strike with the ulna bone of my left arm in to Sean’s thyroid cartilage. I then stab into his heart…

then I hammer with my left to his kidney to aid in retrieving my knife, and to drive him facedown to the ground…

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I then take control of his skull, grabbing him at the eye sockets which I use to pull his head back, allowing me access to his brain, and kill him instantly by shoving the blade underneath his ear at the hypoglossal nerve target. NOTE: There are three kills in this one, the crushed thyroid cartilage, the stab to the heart, and the stab into the brain.

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Series 6

Sean places a gun in the small of my back. I immediately penetrate and rotate to clear the line of fire…

I strike and grab Sean’s testicles with my right, controlling him as I pivot behind to take his hips…

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I continue the “push” by dragging his hips to his hidden triangle in the rear, slamming his tailbone into the ground. I then attack his neck, breaking it in a rotary atloaxial separation to take his life. NOTE: This is not a step-by-step process here, the rotation from the start of the movement to behind Sean, with the injury in the middle, happens extremely quickly. Due to the rotation taking me out of Sean’s line of sight at the onset, most report that there is an “invisibility” element to movements like these as in “Now I see him, now I’m on my ass and he’s nowhere in sight”.

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Series 7

Sean places a knife to my throat. I penetrate and rotate, stepping in with a blade edge of hand strike to his groin….

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I then knock him out with a one-joint punch to his hypoglossal nerve target.

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Series 8

Armed with a knife in my right hand, I strike Sean in the lateral neck with my right ulna bone. I push through the movement, completing an arc, cutting deep into his lateral neck to cut the carotid artery and jugular vein…

I drop to a knee and stab the knife into his groin to enter the pelvic diaphragm…

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Using the knife as a handle, I shove Sean’s center to his hidden triangle point to the rear, slamming him down. I then rise with the knife firmly in my fist and cut my way out, damaging a host of organs, and severing his aorta at its base. NOTE: This is an extremely efficient exsanguination kill. The blood spill here will be very dramatic.

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Series 9

Armed with a baseball bat I strike Mike with a right punch to the spleen (using the base of the bat as the striking surface…

I then use my left leg to stomp his knee at the popliteal popli teal fossa target to drive his patella into the ground before looping the bat over his throat and pulling him upright..

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I then drive my knee into his medulla oblongata target at the base of his skull while pulling back on the bat to crush his thyroid catilage…

After dragging him down into place, I strike him hard in the temple to fracture his skull and cause massive head injury. Note that I am using the weapon to full advantage but not demonstrating “dependence” on it. There is a seamless integration of the bat and the weapons of my body.

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Series 10

This series begins with me using an L5 leverage with my knee to break Sean’s ankle…

Keeping a hold of his broken ankle, I rise up and kick him in the perineum…

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I then finish by using L3 to tear out his hip.

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CHAPTER EIGHTEEN: TRAINING Like any skill, the application of the principles presented in this book should be practiced in order to further your y our level proficiency. While the ability to use the tool of violence is able to be used by anyone, anytime, regardless of whether or not they’ve ever received any formal training in its use (often those with no training, criminals, are the best when it comes to doing exactly that), you have the advantage of having been exposed to these ideas, and now being able to sharpen your sword through effective training.

Training with Partners

In order to most effectively train to use violence, you are going to need at least one partner. While having a variety of training partners who represent a variety of different body types and appearances is ideal, one good partner who is like minded and interested in bettering him or herself can and will go a long way. Both you and your partner will need to be familiar with the spinal reflex reactions associated with strikes to the targets outlined in this book. While a comprehensive knowledge of target-specific reactions is optimal, a simple understanding of the “spinal reflex basics” presented in the chapter on Spinal Reflex will form an excellent base onto which both of you can build. I urge you to back and re-read that section of this book thoroughly prior to conducting your training. Likewise, while you can serve as the “instructor” if your partner is unfamiliar with this material, it is highly recommended that you have your partner read this book in its entirety as well, so that you are both on the same page when it comes to your root knowledge.

Training Requirements Training to use these principles requires little in terms of equipment. A ten-foot by ten- foot wrestling mat can be bought online for a few !2013

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hundred dollars, and will serve as a godsend when you are hitting the ground time after time in your sessions. Despite this fact, the luxury of having a mat is not a necessity. Grass, sand, and even the carpet in your living room (be sure to move the old coffee table), can also make suitable training surfaces. I speak from experience, having used all of the aforementioned surfaces for years prior to ever havi ng access to mats. Besides a mat, there are a few additional supplies that can be useful to your training. You should have some sort of a club to train with. A simple piece of wooden dowel covered in foam pipe insulation, and wrapped with duct tape works very well for this. In fact, that is exactly what we use at the academy for the majority of our impact weapons practice. A training knife or two should be in your kit as well. Professional training tools are very inexpensive, and can be bought online for less than fifteen dollars in most cases. The safety provided by the rubber composition of these tools is worth infinitely more than that. I would recommend buying these in a variety of sizes and blade designs to provide several different advantages/limitations to the user, making your training more realistic. Training with firearms should never be conducted with real weapons. I say this having been in violation of this literally the entire time I was in the military, and many times in the civilian world. The risk is not worth it. Rubber training guns, like the ones we use, made by ASP™, cost roughly fifty dollars each, and are exact replicas of the firearm, down to the weight, though less expensive models can be bought online. The emergence of Krav Maga as a popular martial art has made buying training guns much cheaper. Those guys all seem to use this one model of training gun, which can be bought for about ten dollars, is yellow in color, and resembles a distorted Beretta 92. Then there’s always the old water pistol. Whatever options you select for your training tools, opt for safety over sexiness.

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Free Fighting Free fighting practice is where all of your skills will come together. The idea is simple; one of you acts as the man doing the violence, while the other serves as the reaction partner. Your reaction partner will execute the appropriate reaction for the strike that you y ou are applying, allowing you to see what targets become available, and access them with further strikes. Serving as the reaction partner teaches you a wealth of knowledge about the application of these skills, arguably as much as being the fighter. I often say that you can tell the difference between a good student and an instructor, i nstructor, or instructor candidate more from watching them as the reaction partner than you can from watching them on the offensive. It is important that the two of you go slow while learning this process. A new trainee will not be able to perform reactions accurately, nor will you be particularly adept at striking your targets with precision, if you crank the speed up. There up. There was a saying that I heard virtually every day of my Army career that went like this:

“Slow is Smooth, Smooth is Fast” I drill this into my students, making sure that they are moving correctly, striking targets accurately, and that their reaction partner is performing solid reactions. A typical session should feature one of you initiating an attack and continuing to cause injury until the reaction partner is considered nonfunctional. Once this has happened, the fighter will turn his or her back on the reaction partner and take tak e a step or so forward before turning to attack again. The rule is that the fighter starts to cause injuries as soon as he sees the reaction partner upon turning. Basically, if the reaction partner has not gotten up off the ground all the way, and is kneeling, the fighter gets in there and gets busy wrecking him. After two turns, you switch roles. As the reaction partner, your first “turn” begins from wherever you ended up after your partner’s second turn. For instance, if you are supine after being stomped in the sternum, you begin to fight from your back as soon as your partner turns back towards you. This teaches you to fight from any conceivable position, and prevents the “squaring off”, or beginning

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each sequence facing each other, that new trainees tend to instinctively do. Training weapons can be used at any time during the practice session, though I recommend spending at least half of your training in the beginning without them. Both fighter and reaction partner should be fighting with and without weapons in any given session, presenting opportunities for their partner to take them out as an armed reaction partner, and using them offensively when it is their turn to be the man causing injury. As you progress, a third party can throw weapons into the mix literally, tossing them into the melee as it is in progress. This provides another dimension to your training, and forces you to think even more spontaneously.

Advanced Free Fighting Once you have a solid handle on free fighting, you should begin to incorporate other ideas in order to further your training. If available, you should include more than one person, with one being the fighter, and two or more serving as attacking reaction partners. Your partners should not attack “movie style”, hanging back and waiting their turn, but should instead attack in a mass, attempting to strike or grab you (slowly at first) before you cause an injury to them. Learning to fight more than one person is simple when you use this method. You learn that, while there are a few principles that make multi-threat situations simpler, the same principles apply as when fighting one person.

Restrictive Drills Another advanced free fighting method that I am a huge fan of, and that I used over the years to become a much more complete and instinctive fighter, is the use of what I call “restrictive drills”. These involve restricting the use of certain tools, or creating other disadvantages to you, the fighter, forcing you to “Adapt and Overcome”, another favorite training mantra of mine leftover from my Airborne days.

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Some of my favorite restrictive drills include:

• • • •

• • •

•

• • •

Disallowing the use of (or tying up) the dominant hand Fighting with handcuffs on Beginning every sequence seated or lying down Placing a weapon in the dominant hand, but not allowing its use Fighting with a blindfold Disallowing use of the hands or arms period Beginning each situation with your reaction partner placing you in a hold or lock Using a certain sequence of injury, i.e. strike, throw, joint break Limiting yourself to three specific targets Fighting in confined spaces Beginning each situation as a third-party rescue scenario

These are just a few of the restrictive drills that I like to use. Experiment with these, and get creative. These force you to “think on your feet” much more than basic free fighting, and will rapidly increase your level of skill. Obviously the more you train, the better you will become at applying these principles, however it doesn’t take much to keep your edge sharp. Since you are learning principles and not techniques, your skills will be there for you when you need them. Your focus, whether training, or doing violence for real, will always be accessing targets, causing injury, and exploiting the man’s spinal reflexes to cause further injury. I feel the need to reiterate that your training should be conducted slowly until both of you are very proficient and comfortable. As you get become more skilled, i.e. your fundamentals are more solid; you can increase the speed a bit. Until then keep it slow, and make the most of your training sessions.

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CHAPTER NINETEEN: THE BENEFITS OF LIVE TRAINING While it is entirely possible to learn and develop a solid base of principles from text and video, there is no substitute for getting out there and training. Quite frankly, the only way to install this information deeply into your memory, both mind and body, is to spend time training in this information. I have presented to you the training methods that are used here at the Greyskull Academy of Combat Sciences so that you can conduct training with your friends and family (something that I highly recommend), however if it is at all possible, I urge you to come and train with us either at our home base here in Pennsylvania, or at one of our seminars. Seminar dates will be announced regularly on my website strengthvillain.com. Simply visit the site’s store and click on the “events” tab for available dates and information. Nationwide (US), and international dates will be added as we go. If you wish to book a seminar at your school or location, please contact me at the email provided below. If you’re local, and want to train on and ongoing basis, or wish to travel in to conduct training in a private setting, please contact me at [email protected] Additionally, if you wish to have us come to you, I am available for private training for you, your group, or your organization on a contract basis. Live training will provide you with a level of comprehension of this material that is unavailable anywhere else. Having my staff and I assist your learning process, get on the mats with you, and provide real time feedback is an invaluable asset to have. I hope to meet and train with each and every one of you at some point.

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CONCLUSION As I stated in the chapter on “Skeletal Destruction”, and have reiterated throughout this book, my intention here was not to give you the answers, but rather teach you how to arrive at them on your own. Unlike the proverbial “shitty math teacher”, I care about your ability to apply this information should you need to do so. You now possess a basic knowledge of what I call the “Principles of Violence”. Of course, like any other field of study, there is more to be learned should you desire to continue on, but what is unique about this topic is that you now know everything that you absolutely need to know in order to be proficient. My students learn all they really need to learn in a three-day seminar. Continuing to learn beyond that only shows their commitment, and ensures that they will have a bigger toolbox from which to work. Think about what I’m saying though, in terms of knowing all that you really need to know. You now know that surviving an asocially violent situation is all about injuring the other man. You now know a multitude of targets that you can strike to produce injury, and possess a solid reference to look back on. You now understand spinal reflex, and how you can use this bit of science to take a man apart while he’s “helpless”. You understand the rules of striking. You know a vast array of body weapons that you can use to strike a man and cause injury. You know how to strike first. You have learned the basics of throwing to cause injury, and the basics of breaking a man’s joints. You know what not to do when grabbed, or pushed off balance. You know what you must do if you’re dealing with more than one assailant. You’ve learned why fighting on the ground is no different from doing violence to man in any other position. !2013

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Principles of Violence

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