Tony Blauer - CWCT (Closest Weapon, Closest Target)

Tony Blauer on "Closest Weapon, Closest Target" - performance enhancement!

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Tony Blauer - Reinvent Yourself (Advice on your favorite move)

Words of wisdom from Tony Blauer on 'your favorite move (technique)'.

OK, after watching that, are you ready to go and Reinvent Yourself!!

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Tony Blauer - No FEAR or KNOW Fear ??

Know fear, by Tony Blauer

"When you practice something 'wrong'

you get really really good at the 'wrong' thing.

The longer you practice failure,

the harder it becomes to recognize success."

-- TCMS Maxim

As a coach and motivator of fighters & warriors, I'm often asked about fear and intimidation during training and competition. I tell these people to forget about wining & losing and to just go for the Intellectual Capital, the 'wealth of experience'. Do it to build self net-worth.

Forget About Winning? 

Yes. Especially in training. Forget it for now (unless or until you are at an elite world-class competitive level, like a Tiger Woods or a Frank Shamrock where winning is the objective, because all other objectives have been met). Trying to win always, leads to failure.

How Does All This Apply To The Amateur or Professional Martial Artist? 

As a consultant I've watched people shoot, do simulations, box, grapple, handcuff, take tests, lecture and so on and what I noticed most often during a poor performance was that that person simply got in the way of 'themselves'! It was 'performance anxiety' which is directly connected to self-coaching and fear management.

Knowing how to coach yourself through your unique obstacles will make you better, stronger, faster, meaner, sooner!

There are some fundamental components or ingredients that are available to all of us:

1. A goal
2. A plan

Inside those two simple components lays an infrastructure so simple its complex. The problem is that the process is so easy it becomes complicated. How simple is Nike's JUST DO IT slogan? But how many talk and how many have the next t-shirt that reads JUST DID IT!

Fear of fear is a trap. Fear management is a choice. The good news is the process can be changed but it requires awareness and then, yes, irony of irony: commitment. And that's the reason most do not move past this: they can't commit to commitment.

An analogy I have often used is that of a cooking metaphor: Though ingredients are available to all, and recipes are available to all ... some people still can't cook.

Why? The truth is, some people 'choose' not to cook. And that's the problem. How many people who are professional protectors avoid additional training, running, grappling, shooting beyond the department-required certification?

We can rationalize that we have enough kit to handle the opposition, but that apathy will ensure denial when you meet a threat that doesn't care about your kit. (Kit being a metaphor for you and your gear.) But the reality, in my opinion is people don't push themselves because of fear and it matters little if its fear of competition, fear of losing, fear of getting bruised; its all fear.

Whether it is conscious or unconscious, all success comes down to appreciating and understanding the fundamental component: the management of fear.

Respectfully speaking, there's been too much made of the physiological afflictions of fear and not enough into the psychological, where it counts. When you feel fear, what will you do? In training or in the street the neat thing about fear management is that it's a habit, not a skill, for we are always confronted with some sort of fear, so as my play on words goes; its not about NO FEAR, but about KNOWING FEAR: how to spot, it, analyze it, address it, own it, use it and move through and beyond it.

The Dangers Of Rationalizing It:

If someone were to consistently demonstrate a 'practice' of non-commitment then what he or she is getting good at is 'failure'. Whether it is failure, as in falling on their face or failure to follow-through, it is still failure, because the original goals are never being met. Whatever the explanation, typically, it will always comes down to fear: fear of something, whether its' winning, losing, power, and control, whatever. It's all the same: fear of fear. Avoiding it, excusing it, rationalizing it will always leave a void in your heart or head (dooming you to have that recurring 'if only I had' moment when you're sitting in the proverbial rocking chair of life). This behavior, if it becomes chronic, weakens.

So whether it's about being a good cop, soldier, pro fighter, a parent, and entrepreneur and so on, (the subject isn't important, the effort is), creating a plan and a goal is the start, following through is the exercise. That's where the only important education lays, in the effort. Then, once the goal has been met a new one must be set.

If You Know You Should Be Doing Something More. Then Chances Are You Also 'NEED' To Do Something About It.

Don't get all pumped up and haphazardly run to the range, the ring, the street. The secret is not some Kamikaze approach of diving in screaming NO FEAR!! (Though that sometimes can work) the real secret is more contemplative, it's about diving in smiling, thinking KNOW FEAR. I must 'know fear' in order to evolve.

So one of the secrets to success is in organizing your goals incrementally so that they can be met realistically. Strategy related to self-growth must be done in stages. If you've never run a day in your life, do not enter a marathon to get started. Chances are you'll quit or not even show up on the day of the race. When we do this sort of thing too often (hesitate, quit, rationalize) it is both habit forming and noxious. (You talk, you start to walk, and you stop. Repeat). The real danger is two-fold. The practice of non-commitment is emotionally lethal. It'll kill your confidence and it can destroy the confidence of your peer group. And depending on the scope or frequency of this behavior it can undo relationships because it destroys trust.

The Foundation:

Understand your essence. Humans are living organisms and we are meant to grow. Life presents us with obstacles to test our intuitive appreciation of this truth, to help us discover who we are and what we value and what we want to be. When we shirk those responsibilities we condemn our personal growth. This is a universal truth. We must 'commit' to the truth. But it is a person's inability to commit that undermines their success.

Remember, life presents us all with confrontations, sometimes on a daily basis. How we handle those confrontations determines the quality of our day, but ultimately, it determines the quality of our lives! Again, it's not about the winning or the losing, it's about getting in there and being a participant in life. 

Aside from the daily bonus of confronting and managing small obstacles, the serendipity of 'managing ones fear' is that it always leads to a NEW you; it's a pathway to your evolution. Confronting fear empowers and is the catalyst to 'self-actualization'.

Here's a short map of my journey through fear and what it has brought me:

When I started teaching self-defense in 1979 I knew something was missing, something in me. I decided it was an irrational fear. It was in trying to understand fear that I was compelled to try and understand and define the fear. That led me to design a drill to help attack the fear. That phase spawned the original PANIC ATTACK system (force-on-force training circa 1982). Then it was in trying to explain fear to my students and differentiate from the biological sensations and the psychological ruminations that I was forced to define a recipe and that spawned the CEREBRAL SELF-DEFENSE: Mental Edge program and the BE YOUR OWN BODYGUARD program. While trying to understand my fear during contact isolation drills and more dynamic PANIC ATTACK sessions I noticed the simplicity, reliability and suddenness of the startle/flinch response and this gave birth to the entire SPEAR SYSTEM. And, in support of all these programs, I realized that there was no training gear that allowed 'us' to really simulate realistically, at real speeds, in real environments and maintain levels of fear for the danger to address that, I designed HIGH GEAR simulation equipment.

Because of my commitment to the management of fear, all these other important discoveries were made. Managing fear defines you. Managing fear helps elevate and empower you.

It took me 20 years of teaching and training to be able to write the above article but it'll only take you 10 minutes to read it. You may live to be 100 but if you fear fear, your 'evolutionary' life might be over now! Get to know fear and live your life and learn its secrets.

Let me leave you with these immortal words from a warrior who, perhaps unbeknownst to him at the time, was offering penetrating insights into the psychology and remedy for fear. For my friends and colleagues in the LEO and soldier world, these are words to live by:

"Learn it right and you will do it right the rest of your life, learn it wrong and you'll spend the rest of your life trying to get it right, and in battle, you meatheads that get it wrong, the rest of your life will be very short." 

-- Sergeant Steve Prazenka- (Bloody Bucket Division W.W.II)

Know fear,
-- Tony Blauer

Copyright Tony Blauer/Blauer Tactical Systems www.blauertactical.com. 

Tony Blauer is CEO of BLAUER TACTICAL SYSTEMS (BTS) which is one of the world’s leading consulting firms specializing in research & development of combative training & equipment for the military, law enforcement and self-defense communities. BTS has taught key performance enhancement, fear management, and combatives based on S.P.E.A.R. System research to military, law enforcement and civilian personnel since 1988.
 
Permission is granted to quote, reprint or redistribute provided the text is not altered, and appropriate credit is given.

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Tony Blauer - Non-violent Postures

 
The famous Japanese swordsman, Musashi, wrote, "Make your fighting stance your everyday stance, make your everyday stance your fighting stance." Provocative insight from a man who survived over 60 actual life and death duels and then wrote his classic text on strategy, The Book of Five Rings.
 
Still, hundreds of years later, martial artists often fail to incorporate Musashi’s brilliant premise. Why? Musashi’s prowess was legendary. His fights were for real. Perhaps it is because martial artists often do not understand real fights, real violence?
 
 


Real fights Real fights are fights you cannot avoid. Therefore, they are real fights only if you’re in serious danger (no rules, no referee, no mouthguard, and no medic).

• Real fights start without consent: You didn’t choose to be in the fight.
• Real fights occur in what started out as everyday situations.
• Real fights are not cement friendly: There are no judo mats or boxing rings.
• And real fights invariably start standing, or in very close proximity, with some sort of verbal assault as a prelude to the physical attack.

To believe that you can think clearly during the chaos of a physical attack without previously experiencing (or at least training for) that chaos is ludicrous.

In addition, you must train for defense against more than just the street ambush. For example, you must also train for domestic and business situations that suddenly go wrong.
Toward accomplishing this:

• Nurture fear management skills and verbal de-escalation tactics.
• Possess a basic appreciation of predator/prey interaction.
• Learn the natural stance theory.

  What is natural stance theory? For you to handle a real confrontation efficiently and effectively, you’ll need far more than a basic fighting stance. Adopting a typical fighting posture the moment that you sense danger will work against you. You will lose the tactical element of surprise and your telegraph will create greater preparedness in your opponent.
For more than 20 years, Blauer Tactical Confrontation Management Systems has explored the natural stance theory. From our research, we have developed and now teach a system of non-violent postures.

Non-violent postures are based on natural postures and real-life gestures. Therefore, however you happen to be standing when you’re ambushed or you decide it’s strategic to strike, you’re ready. No wind up. No power base shift. No posturing. Just bang! How and where you’re standing becomes the launch pad for your first strike.

How this is done is described in the opening quotation: "Make your fighting stance your everyday stance, make your everyday stance your fighting stance."

Musashi understood that any hint of preparedness would alert his opponent. This just makes the fight more difficult. This telegraph invariably comes in the form of body language.

Communication is made of three components: Body language, tone, and words spoken. Your body language accounts for about 60% of communication, tone 30%, and words 10%. However, the message your posture, tone, and words transmit must be congruent. Otherwise, doubt arises. For example, clenching a fist sends a louder message than a verbal assertion such as, "I don’t want any trouble." Your tense body language promotes reaction even if you really do not want to fight. In addition, unnecessary muscular tension (to include the contractions necessary to hold a fighting posture) interferes with your instinctive athletic system and affects your breathing. Finally, a stance afflicts your spontaneity and predisposes you to tactics that may be inappropriate.

Recognizing this, the Blauer Non-Violent Posture System incorporates natural positions. Natural positions accommodate different moments and emotions. For example, when you question or suggest, the stances are alive and flow naturally, as in everyday conversation. This enables you to communicate freely and effectively.
The science, value, and effectiveness of this system is that its use actually depends on the pre-contact stages that precede most real fights, making this approach truly clandestine.

Also, by incorporating congruous gestures of everyday conversation, you keep your muscle fibers active and loose, enhancing immediate response. This decreases reaction time, even following a surprise attack.
Each non-violent posture has been analyzed for close quarter effectiveness, and each non-violent posture has an accompanying protective arsenal in case of sudden ambush during the verbal stages. For a provocative look at these principles, check out our Science of the Sucker Punch video.
 
 

Here’s a quick summary Non-violent postures:

• Incorporate your natural stances, using the way you really communicate. Therefore, they are easy to learn, easy to use.
• Help you verbally de-escalate situations. The use of natural stances actually relaxes people; they enhance communication and will facilitate a non-physical resolution whenever possible.
• Decrease your reaction time should you need to engage an adversary quickly.

By incorporating the natural stance theory and non-violent postures, you will:

• Learn to use intelligent body language to communicate.
• De-escalate and avoid confrontations.
• Develop close quarter confidence that will offer you the first strike advantage.

Copyright Tony Blauer/Blauer Tactical Systems www.blauertactical.com. 

Tony Blauer is CEO of BLAUER TACTICAL SYSTEMS (BTS) which is one of the world’s leading consulting firms specializing in research & development of combative training & equipment for the military, law enforcement and self-defense communities. BTS has taught key performance enhancement, fear management, and combatives based on S.P.E.A.R. System research to military, law enforcement and civilian personnel since 1988.
 
Permission is granted to quote, reprint or redistribute provided the text is not altered, and appropriate credit is given.

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Tony Blauer - Street Psychology: The Forgotten Range of Close Quarter Training

“The mind navigates the body. If the mind hesitates, so does the body.”
- Blauer Tactical System’s Maxim

A. GOLDEN RULES: 

Acceptance
Apathy and denial will seal your fate. The victim mindset is often one born of apathy and then imprisoned in denial. The key to action (the remedy for hesitation and emotional inertia) is to simply accept the situation and move on. This is the first step towards tapping into the ‘victim’ to ‘victor’s’ shift.

Get Challenged
The moment you sense danger Get Challenged. The opposite of challenged is threatened. Irrespective of the situation, you always want to be challenged. It doesn’t matter the potential danger. Remember that you are there. Accept it. Now, start figuring out your strategies and tactics.

The way you communicate to yourself will reveal whether you are prone to use “victim” dialogue (I can’t) or “victor” dialogue (I can). In every challenge you want your inner coach to support your efforts.

Don’t Stop Thinking
Never fixate on one idea in combat. Your mind must be free to improvise. Plans must be flexible for you to experience spontaneity. Many people freeze in situations simply because they stopped thinking about options.



 
B. CREATE A DIRECTIVE:

A directive is your ‘mission statement’. It is a simple mental tool that will help you sharpen your focus in the situation and realign your intention, thus, helping you to more quickly get focused and create strategies. Think of your directive as a default program that ‘kicks in’ as soon as you sense danger. Most people don’t have a true directive. Create one. It will quicken your response time because it gives your plan purpose. Your ‘purpose’, or objective, creates an internal command that sets your psychological arsenal in gear. This is fundamental for any sound strategy.

This is my personal directive and it governs my mind set during most confrontations:

“When faced with the threat of attack,
I will do what I can to avoid the confrontation
With as little violence occurring to both myself and my attacker.”

My directive helps me focus on my objective as I carefully select the right strategy to protect myself. I know I want to avoid violence. I now have permission to run or fight. Directives can be slightly different for each person (depending on situation, environment and occupation). But, as a rule, your directive should embody our Tactical TEN COMMANDMENTS.





C. NEVER TELEGRAPH PREPAREDNESS:

Anything you do that forewarns your opponent only serves to make for a more dangerous opponent. You don’t need him more prepared. So don’t offer him a greater adrenaline dump. Let him be overconfident.
Therefore, never tell your opponent that you train. Never adopt a stance until the “physical” stage of combat has already commenced.


D. IDENTIFY YOUR NATURAL STANCES:

Musashi said, “Make your fighting stance your everyday stance and make your everyday stance your fighting stance.” There is much to learn from this idea. However, on a literal level (and in conjunction with rule “C”), it means, simply, fight from where you are. Every position you are in is a fighting stance. Learn the blocks and strikes from all “natural stances”. This exponentially increases your element of surprise.


 
E. IDENTIFY FORCE CONTINUUM (if possible):

The amount of force you use should parallel the danger you are in. This will serve you morally, as well as, legally, should the altercation go to court. As martial artists we are exposed to so many different ways of striking and rarely are the methods identified in relation to the legal concept of the Force Option Continuum. In my system we practice with “emotional motion” drills (using the same techniques while trying to feel fear or panic, or total confidence, etc.) and we give directives when practicing scenarios, i.e. stun & run, subdue, defend with extreme prejudice and so on. Using directives and practicing while in various emotional states allows participants to fully understand how emotions impact their skill and it permits them to evaluate in training the appropriate choices they should make during a confrontation.




 
F. SEE YOUR STRATEGY WITH A SUCCESSFUL RESOLUTION:

When you create a strategy, visualize the goal. Don’t just start a strategy, which is what most people do. Your strategy is like a map, which only serves you when you have a destination. Your goal is your destination and you want to arrive alive. So create a strategy with the successful resolution of the conflict.


 
G. NO FEAR:

Remind yourself that psychological F.E.A.R (False Evidence Appearing Real or False Expectations Appearing Real) is your real enemy, more so than your opponent is. Succumbing to psychological fear induces inertia (a body’s inability to move) and will create the opposite of “F” (above).


 
H. STAY DETATCHED:

A strategy is only useful if it works right? You must simultaneously monitor the situation while you are engaged and determine if your choices are appropriate and be willing to confidently change your strategy should the circumstances change.

 
I. CWCT:

Identify ‘Closest Weapon/Closest Target’. This strategy in conjunction with your natural stance awareness is an unbeatable combination and is the foundation of our SCIENCE OF THE SUCKER PUNCH seminar. Study this well, as it gets you focused on “first strike” advantage, thus, increasing your perception speed that ultimately reduces the chance of you getting sucker punched.



 
J. NEGOTIATE:

In the immortal words of the late Patrick Swayze’s portrayal of Dalton in ROADHOUSE, “Be nice, until it’s time to not be nice.” Don’t be cute, either. Violence is not funny and you should really make the effort to avoid the situation. Try to verbally defuse the confrontation using “choice speech” skills.





Copyright Tony Blauer/Blauer Tactical Systems www.blauertactical.com. 

Tony Blauer is CEO of BLAUER TACTICAL SYSTEMS (BTS) which is one of the world’s leading consulting firms specializing in research & development of combative training & equipment for the military, law enforcement and self-defense communities. BTS has taught key performance enhancement, fear management, and combatives based on S.P.E.A.R. System research to military, law enforcement and civilian personnel since 1988.
 
Permission is granted to quote, reprint or redistribute provided the text is not altered, and appropriate credit is given.

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Tony Blauer - Ten Commandments of Street Survival

Chapter One: The Ten Commandments of Street Survival
 



 
1 ‑ Thou Shalt Not Not Train.  

Imagine for a moment losing a real street fight.  Imagine the impact on your confidence, dignity and pride. Imagine if you were hurt and couldn’t train or possibly go to work for several weeks. Imagine if when you “physically” recovered you were gun‑shy in sparring. Imagine all this.

At the time of the attack you took too long to recognize the danger, hesitated and as you started to react you were knocked to the ground and though you put up a valiant effort you were beaten.

Upon reflection you realized that you lost this fight for several reasons: Your actual understanding of the theories of “intuitive radar”, “attacker profiles”, “sucker punch psychology” and “fear management” were limited.  Actually, you never did “sucker punch” drills. You had never done “threshold and pain tolerance training” or worked on “ballistic ground fighting” and you never analyzed natural stances.

This scenario is a fantasy or perhaps a nightmare. But it need not be. “Totality” in your training is simply about being thorough. I always my tell my students, “If I am to lose, let me lose to the superior fighter. Let me lose because he was better than I was. Not because I was worse than him.” How hard do you train in relation to “why” you train? Think on that.

Coach Bear Bryant said, “The will to win compares little with the will to prepare to win.” That is one of my favorite quotes and pretty much sums it up.

You can’t not train and expect to be your best at a moment’s notice. Boxers agree to fights 3 months in advance so that they may train for the contest. You don’t have that luxury. As my friend Marco Lala said, “You can’t fake endurance."
 

2 ‑ Thou Shalt Not Defeat Thyself. 

The mental side of combat is so vast and powerful that it quite literally determines your next move. Dan Millman wrote, “When faced with just one opponent and you oppose yourself… you’re outnumbered.” 

Powerful words. Your mind can be your ally or your most formidable opponent. Your thoughts can motivate you or they can create the Inertia State of psycho -physical paralysis.

Psychological fear leads to doubt and hesitation.  Unchecked it can devolve into anxiety and panic.  Unsolicited, a ‘Victim’s vocabulary' starts: What if I lose? What if it hurts? What if I fail? Thoughts like these must be eliminated from your vocabulary for you to perform at your peak. Your ‘self talk’ or 'internal dialogue’ must be positive, assertive and motivating. Your inner coach must empower you to greater heights, to surpass preconceived limitations, to boldly go where…you get the picture. That is what it means to not defeat yourself.


3 ‑Thou Shalt Not Give Up.  

The will to survive is probably the most neglected area of our training. It is also the most important. Knowing what to do and knowing which tools to use is important but compares little with the ‘will to survive’.  If you have great technique, but do not know how to dig deep, I will bet on the opponent with heart. Will beats skill. “Not giving up,” means Not giving up. You must research this.

Irrespective of your training, there are situations that can catch us off guard.  Sudden violence or specific threats outside our Comfort Zones can overwhelm us emotionally and induce the ubiquitous “victim” mind‑set.  To off‑set this I have my students tap into their “desire” to survive by writing out a list of things they will lose if they do not survive the fight. 

This list is memorized (ideally, long before any serious altercation) and serves as an unconscious motivating force that triggers the survival mechanisms when our theoretical warrior-self is experiencing technical difficulties.

The list should include the most important people, places, and things in your life. And you must remind yourself that if you “give up” in the street ‑ you may be giving up that list as well.

In 1987, this concept became the Be Your Own BodyGuard^TM principle.  This is a powerful metaphor for street survival.  Sometimes we feel that we would rush to someone else’s aid quicker than we would defend ourselves…this is a common emotional feeling, however, it is not very practical if you are the intended victim.  So ask yourself, “Who (or what) would you fight to the death for?”  And if you are that person’s Bodyguard, who is yours? 

My friend...be your own bodyguard. 
 

4 ‑Thou Shalt Not Fear Fear.  

More dangerous than your opponent is your mind. If it doesn’t support you you’re ¾ beaten before you’ve started. There are really only two types of fear: biological and psychological.

Fear (biological) has been generally described as the “fight or flight” syndrome for most of our modern history.  This definition does not serve us once the physical confrontation is under way and is really not pertinent to your success.  Though the adrenaline surge created by your survival signals is a component of success, it is the mind that ultimately determines the action you will take.

Psychological fear, on the other hand, is an emotional state. Therefore it can be controlled and used to create action.  However, due to the lack of good information on fear management, fear, as we feel it, usually creates emotional inertia: your body’s inability to move. Inertia or panic is created by psychological fear when the mind visualizes failure and pain. Understanding this process is necessary to conquer fear.

We use three acronyms, to help us remember that psychological fear is only in our mind.  They are:

Psychological F.E.A.R.

1. False Evidence Appearing Real
   (External stimuli that distracts us; physical evidence: weapons, multiple opponents, etc.)
2. False Expectations Appearing Real
   (Internal stimuli that distracts us; how we visualize, images of pain and failure.)
3. Failure Expected Action Required
   (A trigger to DO SOMETHING!)

Cus D’Amato, a famous boxing coach, said, “The difference between the hero and the coward is what they do with their fear.” The next time you feel it ‑ fight it. Challenge your fear. Attack your fear. Do not fear fear. We all feel it. Fight your fear first then fight your physical foe. This is one of the true ways of growth.


5 ‑Thou Shalt Not Telegraph Your Intentions.  

When it’s time to fight, most fighters telegraph their intentions. This “faux pas” is committed at times by everyone and every type of fighter, including you and me. From street fighters to professional boxers, from military generals to serial killers.  We all telegraph.

Telegraphing for most is considered to be a physical gesture, but really, the physical telegraph is usually the third stage of the telegraph ‘Domino effect’.  In my seminars I always remind participants that you can only beat the opponent when the opponent makes a mistake. Think about that. The “real” opportunity occurs at the moment of the telegraph, when the intention is revealed, when there is hesitation or a momentary lapse in attention.

Start thinking about the various ways we reveal ourselves, signals that create the telegraph: anger, erratic breathing. Adopting a specific stance, going for the knockout, verbal threat. These are some of the most common telegraphs that would afford an experienced opponent some mental preparedness. Remember that your opponent should be the last person to see your attack. 

This subject is so vast that I can’t do justice to it here.  Just remember that fighting is like tennis, the player who makes the most unforced errors, generally loses.  But don’t look at the obvious.  Be sure to study our Sucker Punch Psychology and Non-Violent Postures theory.
 

6 ‑ Thou Shalt Not Lose The Street Fight.  

You must know in advance that you will survive the authentic street fight. By ‘authentic’ I mean a true situation where you have a moral and ethical reason totake action. Only then can you be resolute in your conviction and only then will you have the support of good and the force of the universe behind you. This may sound corny to some, but when you use your skills for ”life” (for preservation), rather than “death”, (abuse of your skill) the emotional power that is available to you is exponential.

You must also appreciate the relationship to the pejorative ego in combat. You don’t “win” a real fight. You survive one. Win & lose are labels our ego uses. Think survival. Think about your life and why you’ll survive. This is true power.

Remember this: Never fight when your opponent wants to fight. Never fight where your opponent wants to fight. And never fight how youropponent wants to fight. Take care of those three factors, I’ll bet on you. Sun Tzu wrote: “The height of strategy is to attack your opponent’s strategy.”  Study this.

*On purely a strategic level you can study the Samurai treatises about the mind and the ego and death. They reveal much about the appropriate mind‑set for lethal combat. If you catch a glimpse of the power of this mind‑set you will recognize true power and you will be sure not to abuse this power.
 

7 ‑ Thou Shalt Not Invite Disaster.  

You’ve heard the expression “An accident waiting to happen”.  So many victims of violence failed to use simple skills like awareness and avoidance.  No one deserves to be a victim, but many street tragedies result from “planning for failure through failure to plan."  Though the world is an incredible and wonderful place, it does have its dangers.  If you respect this simple truth and spend a little time developing your Survival Toolbox, you can get back to the real task at hand: enjoying your life.

For simplicity sake consider there are two types of victims. Those who deny and ignore (apathy will usually help seal your fate) and those who manufacture danger at every turn.  If you haven’t had the opportunity to read Gavin De Becker’s excellent book The Gift of Fear, get yourself a copy.  It is the first time, in my opinion; anyone has effectively explained the fear signal in a positive, useful light as it relates to danger and violence.  His examples and theories are welcome additions to the pre-contact arsenal necessary to try to avoid violence.  

It would be nice if simply ‘trusting’ survival signals were all we needed to detect and avoid danger.  Unfortunately, there may be situations where we do everything right, but still find ourselves in the thick of things and must take physical action.  Preparation is paramount. 

Learn to evaluate a stimulus in advance.  This mind‑set will spare you a lot of trouble if you do a little research. In the end, most situations are easily avoided with the right attitude, awareness and advance analysis.

Here are the critical areas you must examine:

• Evaluate your routine. Are there any obvious places you could be attacked? Is there something about your schedule, behavior, residence, etc. that sends a‘come and get me' message to an opportunist criminal?  When would you attack you and why?
• Evaluate your mind. What type of person are you? Do you find yourself in many confrontations? (Of any nature)  How do you deal with them? Do youlose your temper quickly? Do you accept abuse (verbal, mental, etc.) too readily? Both reactions could create serious problems in a violent confrontation.
•  Evaluate your arsenal. You may take care of the routine and have yourself in total control and still be faced with a threat. What specialized skills do you bring to the confrontation? Many of us become fairly proficient with our empty hands in a ready stance in the dojo where we know the rules, we know our opponent, the level of contact is agreed to and we’re wearing equipment and…I think you get my point. Do you really understand the nut on the street? Are you confident on the ground? Against a weapon? In a survival scenario? Total confidence results when you ask pertinent questions and research, to satisfaction, the answers. That’s being proactive. After all, this is your life.

Apathy and denial will seal your fate in a confrontation.  Other personality aberrations like an inflated ego, misguided inferiority complex, and overconfidence all contribute to the issue of safety. These attributes will create problems during confrontations of any nature. Be proactive about the things that can cause you grief.

I have a simple belief that keeps me honest and introspective: I believe we experience confrontations every day of our lives, (“Confrontation” defined as any situation that affects our enjoyment of the moment - I know people who take traffic personally!). Therefore, the degree of calmness and clarity with which we deal with our confrontations will directly determine the quality of our day and therefore, the quality of our life.
 


8 ‑ Thou Shalt Not Kill, Unless It Is Absolutely Necessary.
 
Bruce Lee wrote in his Tao of Jeet Kune Do, “Forget about winning and losing; forget about pride and pain. Let your opponent graze your skin and you smash into his flesh; let him smash into your flesh and you fracture his bones; let him fracture your bones and you take his life’ Do not be concerned with your escaping safely ‑ lay your life before him!”



Hmmm? What do you think of this? Pretty powerful, huh? Note how it triggered a visual and how it affected your mind‑set: power or fear? Though Bruce Lee’s quote has much value, it sends a dangerous message if not analyzed correctly.

Many people who come to the martial arts for self‑defense buy into the mythological image of cool nerves, impenetrable defense and total control. Unfortunately, the sociopath’s intensity on the street bears little relation to the energy in the dojo and so those martial artists who have not done diligent homework for the street situation are predisposed to fail. This doesn’t mean they will. But, it means they survive in spite of the way they trained.

What would you do if...?  Have you really visualized different scenarios and analyzed what would be necessary to escape the confrontation safely?  It takes courage to walk away.  Is avoidance a component of your self‑defense system?  How far would you go to avoid bodily harm?  Would you kill?  What moral and ethical issues do your responses raise?  Do you possess a directive, one that would support you in a court of Law or when you looked in the mirror?

When you train with integrity, and respect all humanity, you will grasp the deepest message in Bruce’s words. As a last resort I endorse his message.
 

9 ‑ Thou Shalt Not Settle For Mediocrity.  

There are three key areas of concern for this commandment. Human beings are designed for improvement. Our brains and bodies are built for success. We use only a small percentage of our brain’s capacity. Our bodies are capable of massive muscular and cardiovascular development and we have only just begun to explore the power of spiritual development.

Remember earlier I wrote that the mind navigates the body? I believe that there are three fundamental rules we all break from time to time that prevent us from maximizing our performance and development in many areas.


AVOID COMPARISON: Compete with yourself. Use other people for inspiration only. If someone is better than you are, use his or her “skill level” as a reference point.  Find out how they train and what their beliefs are.  Many people miss this point and experience frustration in their training.  The pejorative ego is duplicitous and works overtime on comparison. It’s your job to defuse this emotional time bomb and get focused on your path.


DON’T JUDGE: Don’t judge others. Don’t even judge yourself. Learn to evaluate, diagnose, weigh, and consider. When you change the “judgment filter” to one of “analysis”, you will gain so much more. Like comparison, judgment is a detour away from our goals.  Many times we enter some arena (relationship, job, fight) worrying about what the other person is bringing to the table.  How can you be yourself and work on you when you are fixating on them? True education takes place when we start to notice our tendency to compare and judge.

LIMITING BELIEFS: Many of us have been fed negative programs during our life and these  ‘ideas’ eventually become our very own erroneous beliefs.  And they severely handicap our growth. How often do we say or hear statements like, “You can’t”, “That’ll take too long.”, I’ll never be able to do that”,  “What’s the point?”.  The list goes on... you get my point. Beliefs that do not serve your goals, success, happiness, or dreams must be purged from your mind. This is an easy process...unless you believe it is too hard.


Just remember that starting off positive is every bit as important as actually starting.

Here’s another key concept in the performance enhancement formula my company has developed: You’ll often hear motivators state: “Your potential is unlimited”.  Nothing could be further from the truth. Actually ‘potential’ is quite finite, whereas ‘capacity’ is unlimited. Think about it [and yes I know this is completely backwards from conventional thinking].  Your ability is limited by your capacity. But you can work on your ‘capacity’ daily.  And therefore ‘capacity’ is continually evolving.  However, ‘potential’ is fixed.  In other words, your potential is limited by the fact that you are human, or of a specific gender, age, size and so forth.  Potential is also something we ‘can’t do’ yet. The trick in maximizing performance therefore, will be our ability to reframe, to create a personal paradigm shift and really direct our energy into our ‘current abilities’ and forget about where we could be if…

Confused?  Read the next two paragraphs and then reflect a little.

I have done a number of motivational seminars on this very important paradigm shift, an empowerment process I call The Myth of Peak Performance.  To consider, evaluate, plan and proceed, you must understand the difference between “capacity” and “potential”.  What you can do is your capacity.  What you would like to be able to do is your ‘potential’.  But, at the end of the day, you can only do as much as you can do.  

Reflect on this expression: “You’ll never know how much you can do until you try to do more than you can.”  In training, assess your capacity, recognize your potential as greater, and create realistic goals so that you experience success regularly and you will be on your way to self‑mastery.  But do not fixate on your potential.

In the self-defense and martial art world many practitioners severely handicap their capacity by not sharing information, not investigating other options and ideas, not asking questions. Etc. To go beyond the limitations of style’, you must challenge all ideas so that your training results in unshakable faith in your skill.
 

10 ‑ Thou Shalt Not Rebuke Other Systems.  

Bruce Lee said “Man, the living creature, the creating individual, is always more important than any established style or system.”  This commandment is important on two levels. Firstly, on an emotional level it is so important to make peace with everyone we contact. This attitude is contagious and if we all adopted a more loving and compassionate view of life and of our fellow human beings, we would all experience a significant increase in happiness and peace of mind.  

In the martial arts world there exists so much comparison, pejorative competitiveness and politics, that our industry is simply a microcosm of the warring nations and rival gangs that pollute our cities and countries. Please reflect on this.

We are on the same team. We train to better our selves. We choose different schools and styles for a variety of reasons. But we all want the same thing. Peace. Inner peace. Confidence. Self‑control.

So keep an open mind. Maintain a “Beginners Mind”.  A beginner loves to learn.  He is intent and intense.  Learn to communicate, listen to the words, and listen to the voice of body language. When someone shows you a different way or explains a different approach, listen keenly. Savor, digest and absorb.

And secondly, as a martial artist and self‑defense specialist, you cannot afford to limit your training. The more you understand any and all strategies, approaches, attitudes and methods, the greater your confidence.

So remember, training must be holistic: Mind, Body, Spirit  

(*Note how each commandment interconnects and a flaw in one of the areas could very well throw the equation into flux.)

---

This was chapter 1, an excerpt from my street defense manual entitled BE YOUR OWN BODYGUARD.


Copyright Tony Blauer/Blauer Tactical Systems www.blauertactical.com. 

Tony Blauer is CEO of BLAUER TACTICAL SYSTEMS (BTS) which is one of the world’s leading consulting firms specializing in research & development of combative training & equipment for the military, law enforcement and self-defense communities. BTS has taught key performance enhancement, fear management, and combatives based on S.P.E.A.R. System research to military, law enforcement and civilian personnel since 1988.
 
Permission is granted to quote, reprint or redistribute provided the text is not altered, and appropriate credit is given :-)

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Rickson Gracie: "You have to be able to live in your worst nightmare."

In the current issue of Black Belt magazine, I read an article on Rickson Gracie and his combat psychology. I typed up one part of the article for my personal notes and also to share with you. IMO, this quote is very powerful and pure gold!

I liked the writing style of the author and cannot wait for the book to be published. Although I have many books on my To Read list, when this book is available, it will jump to the top of my list! In all likelihood, I won't have a chance to train with Rickson Gracie, let alone the other 9 masters in the book, but from the article, it is clear that the author was able to get into the minds of the masters. Rickson IMO is a throwback to the warriors of old... part warrior and part philosopher. Showing my age here, but to paraphrase the old E.F. Hutton commercial, "When Rickson Gracie speaks, I listen!"

How many of us are mentally tough enough to put ourselves in a place/situation that we know will test and challenge us? It is easy to be complacent and always look to do what you are strongest or feel the most comfortable doing, but can you do as Rickson advises? Is your ego/confidence fragile? Are you mentally tough?

... Gracie talked about the importance of regular jiu-jitsu training and being put in uncomfortable situations.

"Where there's discomfort, there's fear," he said. "In these very tough positions, you're in a little piece of hell. And through this daily suffering, you learn to survive in these situations. You have to find comfort in uncomfortable situations. You have to be able to live in your worst nightmare. Jiu-jitsu puts you completely in the moment where you must have complete focus on finding a solution to the problem. This trains the mind to build that focus, to increase your awareness, your capacity to solve problems. Sometimes, you don't have to win. You cannot win. But that has nothing to do with losing."

Source
"Live In Your Worst Nightmare - The Fighting Wisdom of Brazilian Jiu-jitsu Master Rickson Gracie"
by Steven Abood
Black Belt
January 2012
pg 65


Note

Rickson is one of 10 masters author Steven Abood interviewed and is writing about in his upcoming book "Ten Jiu-jitsu Masters". It's a book that chronicles the life stories and life lessons he learned form a decade of training under the greatest masters of our time. Abood posts as "FatBuddha" on http://www.mixedmartialarts.com.

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