Gravelbelly Meets Baguazhong Practitioner

My family &I enjoy English Country Dancing one Friday each month. This past Friday, I met a practitioner of Baquazhong, one of the Chinese arts.

The practitioner (I'll call him "Buck") showed me some of the principles of his art. As he demonstrated, his movements easily took my balance.

Buck was a nice guy, though. As he showed me his art's version of push hands, he let me unbalance him.

He's back in Florida now, but he has sent me the link to the video below which lays out basics of the art.



There are three things I'd like to point out about the video -- all are pluses.

1. When the demonstrator shows the application of his movements against an opponent, you can see that those movements could easily be launched from the startle response position. Indeed, the demonstrator seems to do so more than once, whether by his design or not.
2. Notice the movements that are very similar to what I call the combat wedge, which I describe here.
3. The exercises look as though they are designed to promote focus, control and sensitivity as well as proprioception. 

In addition, my conversation with Buck revealed that in his art, they do not learn techniques, but rather practice movement. Then they practice applying the principles of movement to opponents.

Sucker Punch, 6 (From Reaction to Action)

Continued from "Sucker Punch, 5 (Defense Against)"

In summary so far, defense against the sucker puncher requires:

1. Perception of surroundings and acknowledgment of reality (vs. denial);
2. Non-challenging defensive posture;
3. Line in the dirt;
4. Startle response launches combat wedge technique.

Everything up to this point is designed to protect you from the initial assault. But if you do not follow up the combat wedge technique, you have only postponed an inevitable beating. If your wedge is powerful enough to drive that assailant back or throw him off balance, you may be able to get away.

If not, you must strike with palm-heel, edge of hand, knees, elbows and feet until you open an opportunity to escape. My book, 12 US Military Combat Techniques That Could Save Your Life explains and illustrates a dozen of the most simple and effective blows, in the best tradition of WWII combatives. In any case, the combat wedge is generally going to be your opening move, not the closing.

Once more I give you a link to a video clip by Tony Blauer. In it, he demonstrates that the combat wedge is simply a Bridge to the Next Move. (You may find some of his language offensive.)

That about wraps it up for the sucker punch. If you would like to review from the beginning, go to "Sucker Punch (Overhand Right)" and follow the links through this series of posts.

Sucker Punch, 5 (Defense Against)

Continued from "Sucker Punch, 4 (Defense Against)

Your natural reaction to a sudden movement toward your head is the startle response. I have previously given you -- and warned you about the language in -- this link to a video by Tony Blauer dealing with the flinch or startle reflex. The advantage of the startle response is that it is wired-in by the Designer and that it's extraordinarily fast.

The startle response is fast enough to stop the overhand right sucker punch you saw in the first post of this series. It's fast enough IF you already have your hands in front of you (non-challenging defensive posture). This reflex provides you with the foundation for an effective physical response.

In other words, you train yourself to use the startle reflex as a launching pad for your defensive technique. The particular technique is to thrust your hands forward so that your forearms form a wedge. Tony Blauer's trademarked term for it is a SPEAR, but to me it's a wedge. Blauer explains and demonstrates the technique in this video clip (language, again).

Note the advantages of this technique:

1. It's the extension of a reflexive response, so it's very fast;
2. It's the essence of simplicity, which means an accelerated learning curve;
3. The same move can be used for an attack from the right or left and for a hook. overhand or straight punch.

The wedge is not reflexive in and of itself. This means you must practice. But the fact that it launches from a natural reflex and is so simple will shorten the time it takes to become proficient. Practice slowly to imprint the movement, then work up to full combat speed. Practice against various punches from the left & right.

Just one more post on this subject should do it. I'll wrap it all up in "Sucker Punch, 6"

Sucker Punch, 4 (Defense Against)

Continued from "Sucker Punch, 3 (Overhand right, hook)"

Let's consider the defense against a sucker punch:

The stranger approaches. Your spidey sense sends a shiver down the back of your neck. You have a pretty good idea what's coming. What do you do about it?

Even if you know it's coming, the sucker punch can catch you flat-footed. You want to be ready, so first, you go into the non-challenging defensive posture. Second, you draw a psychological line in the metaphorical dirt. Third, you remain alert so your Startle Response can set you into motion as soon as the orc makes his move.

At this point, classical martial arts (and their derivative self-defense systems) will tell you to block the punch and then strike back (punch, kick, elbow, etc.). Wing Chun and Bruce Lee's Jeet Kune Do recommend that you begin your counterstrike BEFORE you begin your block (or check). These systems can work, but they require years of practice before you become proficient.

You must learn five or six basic blocks. Then you must learn to do them with both hands. Then you must learn to respond with the block that is appropriate to various attacks. Then you must practice, practice, practice until the responses become automatic.

This is the path followed by most martial arts. This is also why someone who has trained for two or three years and thinks he's proficient will often take a beating at the hands of a street predator. The punch lands before he can choose which of ten or twelve responses he is going to make.

If you choose this approach, you can succeed, but not right away. You must train intensively for automaticity of response. Moreover, it will take a long time for you to become proficient against the surprise attack of the sucker puncher.

OR . . . you can build on your natural responses and develop a single technique that you can use against any sucker punch. You can reach an acceptable level of proficiency at this in days or weeks, rather than years. If you are a martial artist, you can use this to augment rather than replace the moves you learned in your style. If you are a non-martial artist, begin with this and then, if you feel the need, add other moves to it.

I will give you the details of this technique in "Sucker Punch, 5 (Defense Against)"

Pistol Disarm

I see a lot of things I like in this side of head pistol disarm video from Defendo.com. Here are some of them:

1. Moving into the handgun rather than away from it (because you can't defend against the bullet, so you have to defend against the shooter);
2. Launching the defense from something very close to the startle response position;
3. Turning on a short, quick radius (because action is faster than reaction);
   
4. Striking with the effective & simple Tiger Claw (palm heel strike with fingers curled to slip into eyes -- see Get Tough!).

The only part of this defense that I question is grabbing the weapon. If the orc has a revolver that goes off as you grab it, exploding gases escape the force cone that will burn and tear the flesh of the palm of your hand. I saw a video somewhere of a guy wearing a thick leather gauntlet putting his hand around a revolver which was then fired. You don't want what happened to that glove happen to your hand.

In practicing this defense, I think I would snake my hand down around his arm and grab the palm-side of his hand where it's wrapped around the weapon. You lose a little leverage, but the Tiger Claw to his chin and eyes should distract him enough for you bend back his wrist & still lock his finger in the trigger guard. At that point, you can [more] safely remove the firearm from his hand.

Note: Fighting empty-handed against someone with a weapon is dangerous. Only you can accept the responsibility & liability for deciding to do so.

Christian Martialism on a Budget, 8

Putting it all together: Scenario Based Training, cont'd
Here is a sample scenario.

Attacker: Say, do you have a light?

Defender: (Alert to distance) No.

Attacker: (Starts to move in) Are you sure?

Defender: (Hands up, palms out, then loudly) Stop! Leave me alone.

Attacker: No need to get all paranoid (launches attack before finishing sentence)

Defender: (Startle response & reactive technique, then escape)

• The attack might consist of rushing, grabbing, sucker punching, etc.
  
• The attacker's approach may also vary -- ask for directions, ask to use cell phone, "wanna buy a watch?", etc.
  
• The escape from the situation is vital. You are not there to win a fight or to prove how macho you are. Sticking around could get you hurt or killed. Also, from a legal standpoint, you may someday be glad to be able to say under oath that your self defense practice focused on the objective of escaping danger.

Christian Martialism on a Budget, 7

Putting it all together: Scenario Based Training
From the beginning, as you develop competence in your fighting skills, you should combine them with other aspects of your total self defense system. I'm referring to adrenaline stress conditioning (see here & here & here & here), startle response (see here & here & here) and drawing the line (see here & here & here).

Work with your partner to develop scenarios wherein you may have to defend yourself. It would help if you knew the stages of an assault & some variations (fodder for a future post). For now, work on the obvious ones: ambush from behind, sucker punch (overhand or hook), grabs, kicks, etc. from the front or side, etc. Do not script your scenarios, but have a general idea of what you & your partner are doing.

Practice the scenarios in slow motion. I mean very slow motion. Do not cheat by moving faster when you see what your partner is up to. Match his speed as you play out your startle response and your reactive technique. At first, only practice Attack, Startle Response, Reactive Technique. Later add an attacker's defense & 2nd attack along with another reactive technique from you.

As you become comfortable with this level of practice, introduce a new level of discomfort. Let the attacker ad lib a little. Let him choose from two or three possible attacks. Then gradually increase the speed (say, 1/4 combat speed). But don't try it all in one practice session. You need to train your reactions over weeks and months.
Continued in "Christian Martialism on a Budget, 8"

Startle Response, 3

In my first "Startle Response" post, I mentioned a couple of instructors who claim to incorporate the Startle Response into their self-defense programs. One of them is Tony Blauer of Tactical Systems. I got the idea of checking to see if I could find any clips of him on Youtube, and I'm glad I did.

I cannot vouch for his whole system, but what I saw was right on target. It comes from a seminar for police officers. I must warn you, however, that the clips contain scatological and other vulgarisms. Minor children reading this blog should have a parent preview the videos beforehand.

Here is the video on Startle Response:

 The video on pre-contact cues follows, and it expands & illustrates the concept (same caveats apply).

These videos are just a small part of a complete system. If the rest is this good, I'd say, "Go for it." But I haven't seen the rest of Tony Blauer's system, so I'll have to settle for a cautiously optimistic, tentative & limited approval of the Tactical Systems approach.

Startle Response, 2

As I look back at my first "Startle Response" post, I realize that I was trying to cover too much ground in too little space. Maybe I'll write a booklet on the topic, so I can take the time and space to expand & explain. In the meantime, I will try to illustrate the usefulness of the Startle Response with a personal example.

I worked for 9 years as a security officer in a medical facility in another state. At that time, the Emergency Room (ER) staff followed the practice of calling security to the scene whenever the police brought someone in for treatment. One night, I received a call to the ER, as I had many times before.

Two officers had brought the subject, a white male of probably 35-40 yrs, in for treatment of minor injuries sustained in the scuffle when he resisted arrest. One officer was in the exam room with the subject, while the other was off chatting with some nurses. I stationed myself just outside the exam room door, facing the officer & his prisoner.

We carried no firearms, but we did have the Monadnock PR-24 side handle baton, and we took annual certification classes in its use. I had slipped mine out of the ring and had it in my right hand with the long extended portion snugly against the ulnar side of my forearm. The baton was hidden from the prisoner's view by the door frame.

The prisoner sat on an exam table while the officer half-sat half-leaned on another small table in the room. Near the exam table sat a heavy stool, used by physicians. It was made of steel & oak, and it weighed between thirty and forty pounds.

Experience has taught me that I'm the kind of person to whom folks take either an immediate liking or disliking. Evidently, this prisoner fell into the "disliking" category. He sat quietly on the exam table for several minutes, watching, biding his time, and then he sprang into action.

In one smooth move, he came off the exam table, snatched up the stool and brought the edge of its inch-and-a-half oak seat straight down toward my head. It made a dull "thok" sound as it impacted against my baton. I'd had no time to think; both arms were "just there" raised above my head, the protected right arm absorbing the shock, the left hand grasping the stool to gain control of the improvised weapon.

What saved my skull from being crushed like an eggshell? Was it the reflexive startle response? Yes, partly. Was it training? Yes, partly. Was it mindset? Again, yes, partly. (Was it Providence? Yes, entirely!)

Mindset kept me from being lulled, like the police officer, into a complacent state of mind. He did not move from his position until after I was trying to wrest control of the stool from the subject. I won't fault him -- it happens to the best of us (and some of the best die because of it).

Reflex supplied the immediate response of the initial movement. My arms came up convulsively and involuntarily. Then training took over as I continued to bring up my arms and blocked the blow.

Thus, the Startle Response does not form the whole of one's self-defense preparation. It is, however, the cornerstone for everything that comes after it.
I will give you a link to a free video resource in Startle Response, 3

Startle Response

Startle Response: "BOO! Scared ya; hahahahahaha. . . ." You're most likely to hear that from bratty little folk who want to take control over other people by making them jump. No doubt you've had it done to you, and (admit it) you've probably done it to someone else at some time or other.

That little jump or start (as in, "You gave me a start,") is called the startle response. It causes the eyes to blink and the arm and leg muscles to contract convulsively. It happens very quickly (e.g., eyeblink response in 21-75 milliseconds).

Repeated exposure to startling stimuli can even train you to anticipate the startle response. On the shooting range, we call it flinch.

You can learn to consciously eliminate a flinch because the flinch itself is a learned response. And there are those who claim to have overcome the startle response, but there is some controversy over whether that is really possible, since it is a reflex, and also since a small percentage of the population have a very weak or even no startle response to begin with.

Until recently, researchers associated startle response only with loud noises or visual stimuli such as sudden movements toward the face. A 2001 study at the University of Toronto, however, demonstrated "that startle is best evoked when noises are combined with tactile stimuli . . . ." This led to the conclusion: ". . . that the primary role of the startle reflex is to defend the body against strong impact stimuli, not noises."

Therefore, the startle response has a key role to play in self defense. Rather than try to extinguish this response that's hardwired into us from before birth, we need to ask how we can understand it and cooperate with it in our defense training. Let's begin by taking a look at the startle response at its fullest expression.

When fully startled, you will go into a partial crouch (leg contractions), bring the head down (rounding the back & protecting the vital organs) and bring your hands up to the sides of your face (hands protect the head & elbows protect vital organs). This is your base for self protection, and it's automatic.

In self defense training, it is best to practice a ready stance very close to that of the startle response. With hands open, raise them -- palms facing away from you -- to chest level. Elbows should be against the ribs. This is a position someone might naturally assume when trying to calm an angry, aggressive person. I can hear him saying, "Okay, okay, can't we just talk about it?"

This position readies you to go into the defensive Startle Response Posture (SRP). Your body is almost there, but not quite. This will shorten your response time. (As an aside, some combat pistol trainers acknowledge the SRP and teach their students to fire from the "combat crouch" posititon.)

When you deem it necessary to assume a ready stance, we may conclude that you are in a situation of perceived danger. This means that you will already have some level of adrenaline coursing in your veins. That's good because, as one study found, ". . . threatening situations or fearful experiences have a powerful augmenting influence on the startle response." Your automatic response will not only be quicker, but the adrenaline will enable you to launch your counterattack directly from the SRP with ferocity.

Rather than try to resist or extinguish the startle response, I believe it will be much more productive to train yourself to launch palm heel strikes, judo chops, elbows and low kicks from the SRP. This is something that most martial arts and self defense programs do not teach. I do, however, own a 2-video set of a self defense system that actually begins every move from the startle response.

I might tweak the final product a little here or there, but overall, it's better than a lot of what passes for self defense training. It's called "Self Defense by the Numbers." It was produced by Century Martial Arts, but it's no longer available." It probably never caught on because it was based in real-world simplicity with no bells, whistles or flashy techniques. You may be able to find old VHS copies on eBay.

There are a couple of other systems that build on the startle reflex, and although they have good reputations, I have never really examined their products, so I won't mention them here.

Bottom line: train the basics & integrate them into the SRP.
I will continue this discussion in Startle Response, 2