Heightened Sense of Security

I'm away at another show. I drove all day Wednesday, and yesterday spent all day at the Louisville (pronounced loo-uh-vl) Expo Center. Will do so today & tomorrow, as well.

I've noticed that I tend to have a heightened sense of security when I'm away from home, like this. I'm always thinking about where my stuff is, what's safe in the motel room, where to leave things, and what to carry with me.

This evening as my brother and I had dinner at a restaurant, I thought about how tired I was and how vulnerable that made me. I get like this whenever I'm away from home. But tactical thinking should not be a function of distance from one's abode.

How about you? Do you let the familiarity of your surroundings lull you into a sense of false security? Do you feel most safe when you are actually least protected?

Perhaps it would be a good idea to take a critical look at your habitual routines and rate your actual security as if you were far away from home.

Thanks to God . . .

. . . and thanks to you who prayed.

After surgery, Raquel spent about an hour in the recovery room & then was moved to a regular hospital room. She was released the next morning & is now back home, trying to complete her recovery at her sister's house, where she is nanny to six children.

Thanks again for your prayers.

Judo Chop -- Multiple Attackers

On my walk this morning, I got to thinking about training my judo chop (known to you youngsters as a karate chop, to WWII practitioners as edge-of-hand blow and to many martial artists as knife hand or sword hand).

The strike can be devastating, especially when directed at the side of the neck. (And it doesn't matter much where on the side of the neck because you're sure to hit something important: brachial plexus, carotid artery, vagus nerve.) It's also effective when directed at throat or temple areas, but be warned that hitting those targets can be fatal.

I started thinking about it this morning because of a dream in which I had used the judo chop against multiple opponents. It worked pretty well, in the dream ;-)

The thought occurred to me that if I stood with my back in a corner -- not a good place for a real fight, by the way -- I could chop out at both walls at the same time, as though at assailants who were trying to flank me.

After the walk, I went to my training room and tried it out. I stood in the non-challenging ready stance, and lashed out (see fig. 3 below) at both walls as I visualized orcs.

Hitting the wall is no problem, as long as you're using the meaty edge of your hand and not your little finger to strike. (Illustration comes from Get Tough by WE Fairbairn.)



I recommend you train with two strikes simultaneously as well as one, then the other. Also, try facing the corner, then whipping around to engage the two orcs coming up behind you.

Of course, effectual training for multiple assailants requires practice partners. That's a luxury I don't have, so I'm forced into these somewhat less-than-ideal creative solutions. If you train solo, you know what I mean.

Prayer Request

I just received word that one of my daughters -- Raquel -- has been diagnosed with appendicitis & they are prepping her for surgery as I write this.

I appeal to you, brethren, for your prayers.

Back Home!

We arrived back in Possum Kingdom after 5AM yesterday (Sunday). We were all exhausted from the marathon trip & sadly, did not make it to worship.

This morning we took a walk in the cool air, and I surprised myself by walking a little farther than we had before we left. I did not get any real walks in during the trip, but I did have to climb some stairs on a daily basis.

The trip allowed me to see myself & my performance in an unaccustomed context, and reminds me of my need to address personal fitness issues.

I developed shin splints in late July to early August, and as a consequence I cut out the daily walks for about two months. Just started up again a couple of weeks before the trip. Now, I hope to get back into a regular fitness routine.

Because of the shin splints (mostly healed, still a little pain & swelling), I will be looking low impact & no impact exercises. I think I will try to incorporate a lot of John E. Peterson's Power Calisthenics into the mix.

How about you? Chances are you're a lot more fit than this old, fat guy. But what could you do to take your fitness level up a notch or two?

Followers & Followup

I was surprised to find that WARSKYL has 3 "followers", even though I had not promoted that feature. So, I put the app over on the right, in case anyone else wants to publicly affirm that they follow this blog.

Now I would like to address the men, women and young people who attended the WARSKYL Conference on Saturday. At that time I gave you an introduction to a small number of defensive skills. In a group of almost 40 people, it is difficult to give individual help to everyone who needs it -- which means some of you left better prepared for a physical confrontation than others.

Therefore I would encourage all of you to put in some practice over the next few weeks. As things were winding down, I noticed John C. practicing the palm-heel strike with someone. Over a period of not much more than 5 minutes, I could hear the smack of his palm against the focus mitt become stronger and crisper.

You can do the same with your skills. Listen to your body and feel the effects of your strikes. You can do a lot to correct and improve your skills through self-evaluation.

Finally, a few of you asked about where you could obtain your own focus mitts. I've checked Amazon, & they have some similar to the square, yellow Tae Bo mitts, only theirs are red: click here to see.

For a little more money, you can get one that has the glove-style grip on the back: click here to see. As I said at the conference, though, you could make some serviceable focus mitts out of an old foam pillow or cushion and some duct tape.

Fight Scene Update

In the post, "Another Overhand Right Video", I linked to a fight scene & mentioned "If you're dancing, dance. If you're fighting, fight. Don't confuse the two."

I have since discovered the scene actually came from a Hollywood movie called "Never Back Down". I also have obtained a better image of the scene: