Alternate Reality

It Just Got Unreal

This month I want to talk about choices and about being careful about what we present to our students as "reality based" or how real things are "on the street". You see, our best intentions at "keeping it real" may ultimately have a negative impact on our student's outcomes during real confrontations and all our hours of training and practice will be for naught!

Grappling With The Issues

I remember in the early '90s when BJJ and other grappling sports began to be the "measuring stick" for reality; some participants attending seminars in those arts, would raise the very reasonable question " well what if there are multiple opponents?"

In response to this question the seminar instructor would challenge the inquirer by asking if their art had an answer for the same problem. Of course, not to feel stupid, the person would incorrectly claim that their system had the answers ( this ego response was expected). 

What was not expected was the counter from the seminar instructor. He and an assistant would then accost the person inevitably taking him to the ground to prove their point.

What they missed was that in the impressionable minds of those attending they inadvertently proved a false point. If you are attacked by more than one person you will lose.

They failed to see that due to the conventions of social interaction in our martial arts culture they put the person asking the question in an un- winnable situation which was then accepted as truth by the less informed.

The truth is that multiple assailant scenarios are survivable, even by untrained people. Trained properly, our chances of survival improve. Mind you, they are never guaranteed, but odds do get better.

 The gist of the above and the following sections is to show where our attitudes, our words, our demos and our beliefs may negatively impact our students' mindset.

Getting Grounded

Here's an oldie but goodie. "95% of street fights end up on the ground." When was the last time you asked yourself; who came up with that number? A clever marketing tool  from the  grappling community to get more people to train that became accepted dogma in many circles. Before you ever repeat this again think deeply about how many fights you saw ended up on the ground in a grappling style format. Perhaps a few , maybe a lot, but was it really 95%?

Then think, when somebody was on the ground was it one,or many people, where they on the ground because of ballistic impact from punches or did they fall unconscious? Once you start computing the variables you realize that, although many fights do go to the ground, what's really is important is not so much grappling skill, but avoiding ending up on the ground, being able to protect yourself from the ground and getting up quickly from the ground while under pressure.  This is not to exclude grappling skill but mainly prioritize intelligently.

Living On The Edge

Another group guilty of offering "alternate reality" to their students is the knife culture.  In our chase to try to be honest with students we again fall in the trap of showing movements or saying things that impede their progress.

There is the old "if you get in a knife fight you will get cut" myth on one end. Other teachers advocate there is nothing that can be done etc.

There are the folks using magic markers  on white t shirts, to show their students the " reality" of how much you will get cut.  Then there is the infamous electric knife. I don't know about you but I have never seen a real knife make that noise :-)

Training in the above methodologies literally teaches our students to mentally prepare to lose  and this is the biggest failure I see in our industry today.

Raising Hope

These fallacies are not limited to the areas of multiple opponents, ground fighting or edge weapons.

The "reality based" self defense world is replete with examples of Hyper Reality and Alternate reality instructors and messages that bombard the public. 

Their "you must know this magic ultra macho sounding move that I invented" attitude is creating a culture of hopelessness and learned helplessness.

We must introspect and monitor what we say, how we say it, what we demonstrate and teach in order to make sure we have a balanced approach. Our students need to believe that no matter what they are faced with they improve their chances of survival with proper training.

Ill be cartoonish for a second to drive the point. Imagine if somebody told you that a flying purple people eater was the most dangerous animal in the world and nobody has survived an attack from it. They kinda look like a cross between a badger and a platypus except they are purple and they fly.

There is a world wide infestation of the critters. Would you just simply resign yourself to die as a snack or would you try your best to train to beat them. And , most importantly, if you didn't get a chance to practice and you are suddenly faced with one, would you simply surrender?

Exactly. Our warrior mindset would kick in and we would try our hardest to fight and survive right?

So why is it that through language, attitude, Hyper reality, and teaching, instructors constantly remind their students of the opposite.

Our students have a choice, give up or engage the problem.  If we don't train them intelligently we take away the choice and make them hopeless. 

Regardless of how "impossible" the scenario our students questions are about. " I am surrounded by multiple armed assailants on drugs and they all are 6'4" and 300 lbs, what do I do?"  Our answer should never be... Oh don't try anything, just give up and die.

Tony Torres
Copyright Tony TOrres

The Three Training Methods "Nuts" and Bolts Part 3

In the first two parts of this series we discussed the Pros and Cons of two of what I consider the three pillars of Martial Training. We looked at Self Protection Systems, and Combat Sports. In this last segment of the series we will look at what I call Conventional Martial Arts.

What are Conventional Martial Arts you ask? To explore the subject better, I have divided them into two categories: Traditional (TCMA) and Modern (MCMA). It is also crucial to note here that what is today and MCMA may end up as a TCMA in the future.

Tradition Tradition

TCMA are martial arts that are typically at least about a century old, they tend to come from Asia, including Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines, and also have a formalized social structure within the group. For example, they will have a founder, who has most likely passed away, an elder or most senior representative which in the rare case that they are still alive will be the founder, and they will also have a ranking and organizational structure. In some cases they will even have articles of incorporation and are run like a company.

Thoroughly Modern

MCMA are martial arts that have been developed more recently, perhaps maybe a few decades old, usually by a charismatic person previously trained in TCMA or even Combat Sport or Self Defense system, that combines or re-organizes, or updates their previously learned information into a methodology that suits them and their students.

What's the Same?

TCMA and DCMA both tend to have a ranking structure of belts and grades. Some have certifications and teaching licenses as well. The curriculum of study is organized in such a way that in order to achieve a certain rank, the student must show a certain level of proficiency in part of said curriculum. The syllabus is usually organized so that the easiest parts of the art, sometimes referred to ad the "basics" are taught first and then more sophisticated movements are learned later.

What's Different?

TCMA may place a little more emphasis on "forms" or pre arranged sets, whether they are solo or with partners. Special attention tends to be given to performing and repeating a technique or set of movements precisely as the founder executed it.
The sparring is usually very symmetrical, that is to say the participants are using solely their art's skill against each other., and depending on the art, may be light to moderate contact in nature.

Although MCMA may have solo forms, they may place more emphasis on two ore more participants engaging in drills or the application of their art against a human body. They also tend to embrace safety equipment allowing for more contact even if their sparring tends to be symmetrical.

The "Nuts"

The structure of TCMA and MCMA, with its emphasis on following the originator or the founder, compounded with a rank structure makes it a fertile ground for the growth of a cult or cultish behavior. The wearing of uniforms and the implementation of ceremonies where the leader is shown subservience takes away from the individual and enhances the presence of a "hive" mindset.

Another potential problem is stagnation of movement. Let's be honest people today do not fight the way Japanese samurai fought centuries ago. This applies to allow the noble warrior cultures through history, be they Russian, Chinese , Indonesian or whatever. Culturally in America we are not involved in the Sam kinds of fights that the founders of TCMA were. In MCMA the same problem shows up because the body composition, physiology, background and personality of the founder is not the same as that of the students therefore the art may not be best suited for everyone

The Good Stuff

TCMA and MCMA in general have mastered the art of transfer of knowledge . Because of their organization and structure, they are very effective at transmitting their message and having it replicated accurately by their proponents.
They also make an effort in promoting good qualities and values such as respect, honor, courage, perseverance and other human traits that promote a positive development of a human being. Something that is usually missing from training in Combat Sport and Self Protection Systems.

The Sum Of It All

These three most recent blogs have addressed the main three divisions of what I see as martial training methods. There are some of what I call , Hybrid Systems out there. For example Defence Lab Street Dynamics ( formerly KFM) is a MCMA that started as , and still emphasizes, Self Protection as its core tenet. The have developed a structured way of passing information and exploring different areas of street confrontations in a logical and methodical way.
Gracie Jiu Jitsu is a MCMA that came from the traditional martial art of Jiu Jitsu and was updated to emphasize self protection , but then developed into a Combat Sport now known as BJJ.

With enough research you may find other examples. I believe in embracing the positive aspects of all three training methodologies while keeping the potentially negative issues in check. I offer all three to my students and allow them to decide on their own which track to follow.
I truly believe we can all learn much by investigating all three areas.

Tony Torres
Copyright Tony Torres

The Three Training Methods "Nuts" and Bolts Part II

This month's blog is going to address the second training methodology that I alluded to in last months blog which is combat sport. One of the most interesting things about combat sport is that It has been increasing in popularity or at least appears to be increasing in popularity since 1993 with the introduction of the UFC. Although that popularity may be indeed increasing it's not really as big as most people would be led to believe.
I do enjoy and teach combat sport but combat sport only represents a small part of our popular culture and certainly is not the be-all and end-all when it comes to fighting skill.

The Bad Side

Let's address some of the nutty things about combat sports and then we will address some things are truly beneficial and the reasons I encourage people to participate in some form of combat sport or another.

1. If you train in combat sports you'll be able to efficiently and effectively defend yourself during a street assault. As we all know this is the furthest thing from the truth. Although combat sports offer some direct benefits to someone who may be assaulted, most of the benefits from combat sport are indirect.
We have all heard the story the person that was a champion kickboxer or a MMA fighter etc. they got into some sort of barroom fight and ended up getting their clocks cleaned in short order by some experienced street fighter. Now this has nothing to do with the particular MMA fighter or kickboxer's ability at their sport, it is simply a matter of asymmetry.
Basically our Kickboxer or MMA fighter in this case is used to training partners that move efficiently, and almost always emotionless during sparring sessions. street attackers move very differently than the sparring partners they are used to. Even if you spar all out,100% full contact all the time (which I don't recommend and more on that later) with your partners, you're simply preparing your brain and your central nervous system to respond to another trained fighter that is attacking you under certain rules and restrictions. You're looking at a different kind of punch than one from somebody that is just experienced but not necessarily skilled. Once you get used to these technical strikes, there as slowed reaction time when faced with unorthodox punches.

There are no Rules or maybe yes some...

The current unified rules of MMA allow for a full spectrum of fighting skill to be shown in the competitive sport; however the list of things you are NOT allowed to do is much longer. Even in the early days of the UFC when it was considered No Holds Barred or NHB they did have certain rules, for example there were some very explicit rules, you couldn't fishhook or eye gouge, no biting was allowed, you also couldn't break individual fingers etc. that was all against the rules.
And then there's also the implicit rules. Two people would agree to meet at a specified location inside a designated confined to space and they're not allowed to bring weapons,their friends can't help and so on. Even in the most savage of all competition there are still some rules and in fact you control the amount of potential damage that fighters can suffer.

Lions and Tigers and MMA Fighters oh my!

Lastly on the nutty side I want to address is what I believe is in an unwarranted fear that with the exposure or the growth of combat sports and or specifically the UFC and MMA in the United States that all of a sudden we might be subjected to all kinds of attackers that may be skilled in MMA.
There's two fundamental ideas that dispute the above notion. The first one is the fact that in the United States we have gone through several decades of increasing popularity of all kinds of martial arts. In the 40s and 50s judo was popular and has increased In popularity since then , albeit, at a slower rate. In the 60s we had karate increase in popularity and again the amount of practitioners of karate and tae kwon do and those types of art have increased since then as our general population has increased. I can go on. In the 70s it was kung fu, in the 80s it was the ninja craze, and of course, in the 90s Brazilian jujitsu and MMA .
The fact is that in the 40s and 50s we didn't all of a sudden see an increase in judo attacks on civilians or police for that matter. We also didn't experience a slew of Karate rapists or murderers all around us in the 60s. Nor did this happen in the 70s and the 80s with the respective fads during those decades.
Despite the fact that MMA is immensely popular and the amount of people that participate in all of these martial arts has continued to increase since the 90s we have not seen a verifiable, significant increase in assaults by MMA trained experts. Sure the occasional case will pop up in the media but they really are an oddity and not the norm.

The second point of contention against the "mma trained assaults" argument is this; in the United States football has been around for God knows how long and it's a very popular game. As an example, I myself know how to play football. I even played a few times with some buddies. However my skill level does not even come close to the average High School JV player.
Now playing High School football, and this is somebody that is infinitely more skillet at football than I, doesn't mean that they will end up playing at college level and just because you play at college level does not guarantee you a spot in the NFL
And even being in the NFL does not guarantee being a starter or one of the elite level players. My point is that just because somebody admires a sport, watches or understands and can kind of play the sport, doesn't mean that they can perform well in that sport.

There are millions of people that are fans of football, then there is a lesser number of people that can play at the grade school level or peewee football and there are less still that can perform at the level of high school football players, the number dwindles more when considering college football players and there's hundreds and thousands more of college football players than there are NFL players. Knowing or understanding or admiring the sport does not equal skill in that particular endeavor.

Given those two points of contention I'll close this section with this (and I written at length about this before so I won't belabor the point annoy further) the chances that your attacker will be somebody that's trained in MMA and to the point that he has very usable skill is very, very small, In fact they're so small as not to warrant any excess of time dedicated to training in specialty tactics against that specific type of attacker unless you are training in that particular combat sport.

The Good Bits
Great now that we got all that out-of-the-way let's talk about the benefits of combat sport. There are a lot of them in but I'm going to focus on the ones I think are the most significant

Number one, sport allows their participants To engage in symmetrical training. That is to say that both athletes in the contest or in the sparring match are physically, aggressively trying to apply their learned skills in order to affect the opponents breathing, alignment and structure while the opponent is trying to effectively execute the same tactics against them.

Two things happen because of this. First skills and timing get more refined because it's harder to pull off certain tactics when the person that you're fighting is expecting them.
Second, participants develop a certain amount of mental and physical toughness because, usually, when opponents of close to equals skill are facing each other, they tend to take shots we get hit. This is important because trainees must develop their ability to continue fighting in spite of having been hit. Combat sport is ideal for this and this ability in and of itself is useful in self protection scenarios.
A another benefit gained, although sometimes a little bit less understood is the fact that through the wearing protective equipment and the use of restrictive rules that limit the tactics that we have to use against our opponent, we are technically fighting using less efficient methods of being able to "put our opponent away".
If we can defeat our opponent using less efficient techniques because of protective equipment limited targets and limited tactics allowed, we should be able to fare even better when the protective equipment is not present in our targets and tools are unlimited.

Positive outlet for aggression in general, and male aggression specifically, is a direct benefit of combat sports like wrestling, boxing, kickboxing, MMA etc.
These endeavors allow us to have an outlet for the aggressive energy that is present in a society in which we constantly compete for resources and status.
As human animals we have aggressive energy that will find an outlet regardless of our attempts to suppress it.
If a positive outlet is not found that energy will manifest destructively and could go as far as criminal assaults or status seeking displays of violence.
Combat sports certainly offer an alternative in which young men can engage in violent behavior that has been appropriately modified to ensure fairness and the safety of all all parties involved.
Practicing a combat sport also requires and therefore develops a certain amount of physical fitness, stamina, endurance, power and other attributes that contribute to the overall well being of the practitioner.
For all the positive benefits I highly recommend participation in a combat sport but be careful to avoid the pitfalls mentioned before. Try to be a good sport.

The Three Training Methods "Nuts" and Bolts Part I

Often in my blogs I speak of three different areas of training. I call these Martial Art, Combat Sport and Self Protection. I will be discussing the individual traits of the three different areas in a three part series. I will address some of the pitfalls in each area as well as what I believe makes each of the three unique and important. lets start with...

Self Protection

Self Protection training is the area of training that concerns itself with dealing with modern day real violence.

The "Nuts"

Mucho Macho Much?

The world of self protection training is filled with hyper masculine and ultra violent images and marketing by "authorities" that perpetuate a myth of training for "the real thing" and "real situations" in a way that is just a bit over the top. They emphasize behavior that is detrimental for the psychological and emotional health of the student.

So often I see courses or systems of training being promoted by these so called authorities using fear or hyper macho, semi militaristic language and tone in their written articles, promotional materials and even spoken word. This is typically followed by either direct or underhanded comments and "put downs" of the other two areas of training, Martial Art and Combat Sport.

Lets briefly revisit a premise I mention throughout my previous blogs which is; human beings don't really need Self Protection training in order to protect themselves. Our species has been doing it for hundreds of thousands of years quite effectively, against all kinds of different scenarios, and survived.

If we know that humans all over the world have, in general, protected themselves effectively with NO training then it is also true that people can effectively defend themselves after having received ANY TYPE of training; regardless of how unrealistic it may seem to the "Reality Based" system community. Once we accept this reality ( pun intended) then it only becomes a matter of efficiency. Efficiency both in learning the material and its application in true events.

How We Fall

Here are three basic pitfalls that I see in the reality-based self protection community we will start with fear-based marketing and instruction.

The Only Thing To Fear

Sometimes fear-based instruction and marketing is a product of direct abuse by the instructor that is trying to "sell his wares". Their instruction and marketing is just like TV news. "Are you prepared for...?" The newsman will ask in somber tones in order to get you to watch at a particular time.
It's an old trick. If you feel that you need that information to survive (fear response) you will definitely tune in. The same is done by unscrupulous instructors all the time. They are quick to tell you "If you learn my super tactical anti wolf, super sheepdog techniques you will be safe from all murderers and rapists and bikers! These are the only techniques that are tried and tested in a prison full of giant Sasquatch, gang member terminators! Only I have the real answer to that bogeyman that may come at you at any given time!" You get my point. Also beware if you find yourself talking like this :-)
The other side to this coin are instructors that, although well intended, really don't know any better than to constantly think about potential attacks and violence.
These instructors mentally live in an imaginary world where violence is almost always the answer to any possible situation.

Hyper Drive

Behavior indicated above leads to the second pitfall which is hyper vigilance. The same instructors that use fear as marketing or fear during their instruction tend to create paranoid students.
Although there is a stark difference between awareness and paranoia, the line that divides the two is quite thin and can be easily crossed without self-awareness. Without noticing, somebody that believes that they're just being very aware of their environment, or just being very cautious and implementing reasonable measures to keep themselves safe, can very easily, and unknowingly cross the border into paranoia
The simple test is this; if you live in the United States and you fundamentally believe that we live in a dangerous society more than likely you're paranoid. If you believe that in fact we do live in a very safe society, you are likely to have a healthy sense of awareness.
Something even more important is that somebody that's more relaxed in the exterior environment, and ahas a more broad and external focus, is more likely to be able to detect real danger than somebody that thinks the bogeyman's around every corner.

Warrior Come Out to Plaaaay

The last pitfall of Self Protection Instruction that I will address is the hyper macho, ultra militaristic language I see in some classes, seminars and systems. I see it in their ads and in the actual delivery of their material and seminars.
I find it kind of funny when they use their Conan-like lines "obliterate your enemies until you hear the lamentation of their women..."
Another, somewhat more subtle, line I hear is "the best defense is a good offense" and other such movie-like quotes.
Offense is offense, not a defense at all; it might be a preemptive offense that will keep somebody from implementing their own offense but it's still offense :-)
The notion that knowing how to attack and attacking only is what is going to enable you to survive every encounter is simply inane.
Another notion that is a bit silly is the notion that we must destroy all of those that cross us in some way, even in a physical encounter.
Most likely the real answer for the average citizen that needs to learn self protection is to escape, and escaping doesn't always involve being able to crush our attacker. My recommendation is to stay away from any instructor that sounds like a character from a movie especially if that movie is Conan, the Terminator, the Punisher or the Expendables.

The Bolts

It's Not Your Body

A self protection system should not only address physical self protection it should also address psychological and emotional self protection.
That doesn't mean that every self protection instructor should be some sort of psychiatrist or psychologist or provide some sort of cure-all counseling for any psychological or emotional issues a student may have. But a good self protection instructor should have at least have a fundamental grasp of some clear principles of healthy emotional lifestyles and psychological well-being.
Some simple examples are; teaching students the difference between awareness and paranoia, how to deal with workplace bullying for adults and how to deal with school bullying for the younger students. Another skill set that should be a staple is how to develop a sense of self worth and understanding how having certain feelings like excessive anger or depression or even just having had a stressful, shitty day, can influence their behavior and decision making when a potentially violent situation arises.

Before Shit Happens

Another characteristic of well-rounded self protection training is the teaching of awareness, avoidance, conflict management, and all of the areas that deal with either potential or actual conflict BEFORE it becomes physical. It's just this simple; we should be able to get out of more fights that we get into.

Don't be Offended

It's very important for a self protection system to have sound survival or protective strategies and tactics. In other words if all our preventive strategies and tactics as discussed in the previous section have failed or simply are not applicable because our attacker is In such a position that the he achieves physical contact before we can implement our avoidance strategies, then our self protection system must contain tactics that will enable us to stay conscious, stay on our feet, maintain or regain our sense of balance, regain our equilibrium and recover from a dizzy or shocked state and eventually be able to retaliate and escape the situation.

Unless You Can Be First

Some events clearly put us in a position in which, in order to survive, we need to start the fight. Any sound training regimen will include training in how to strike preemptively when appropriate in order to seize and maintain the advantage over our adversaries.

How To Get Outta Dodge

Escaping is not limited to just knowing where the exits are and things as simple as that. You must also train to understand WHEN is the right time to escape, specially after contact or physical altercation has been initiated between you and a bad guy or group of bad guys. There is a good time and a bad time for us to try to run away and those should be addressed by a well-rounded Self Protection system.

Armed Encounters

Surviving armed assaults and using both conventional and improvised weapons is something that should be covered in self protection training. The system should at least familiarize the student with edged weapons, blunt instruments, firearms fundamental defense and offense in a rational and safe manner.

It's a Party

Understanding what to do when faced with more than one attacker is another area of training that must be addressed in any intelligent methodology of self protection training.

I Fought The Law

Lastly In order for a self protection methodology to be well-rounded it must also address the legal ramifications of self protection, and using appropriate levels of force for the problem that you encounter. As I am fond of saying, not every Self Protection problem is a nail, so the answer can't always be a hammer. What to do and what not to do if the police arrive at the scene and start asking questions must also be part of the curriculum.

In conclusion if you're truly teaching Self protection then your curriculum should be made up of more than just physical drills and tactics otherwise you're not teaching self protection at all. You are just teaching a slightly more efficient method of violence.

Tony Torres
Copyright Tony Torres

Tales of the ...Oh, Cult.

Or perhaps just a cult-like or cultish organization. A cult is very extreme but very real possibility in the world of self protection and martial art; but more frequently, good people get sucked into the drama of a cult-like organization.
So in this month's blog I wanted to share some observations about how certain martial arts or self defense groups can turn dangerously cult like and end up robbing good people of their ability to think for themselves and causing damage to their psyche and even interpersonal relationships.
I will list 10 major characteristics that are recognized by sociologists as cult behavior so that the reader may recognize any of that behavior occurring in the organization they belong to, or maybe even recognize any similar behavior in themselves and take corrective action.
Be warned, there are more than 10 characteristics, these are just the easiest ones to recognize.

1. The guru or leader is always right!
Infallibility is probably the first and the easiest telltale sign that you belong to a cultlike organization.
Is the founder of the organization, the leader, or even the organizations, principles, precepts and teachings beyond reproach or scrutiny?
Are they considered to always be right and never to be questioned?
Think about this for a minute if you are in an organization where the leader is always right, then that means you are expected to be wrong about a lot of things, and the leader is perfect.
As rational human beings we should know that it's really impossible for any organization or leader to be perfect; however in cults it is assumed that everything being handed down from the leader or guru is perfectly true therefore never to be questioned. This creates an environment where one always feels not worthy or less-than-perfect.
If the leader claims to know something that you could not possibly know without him or the organization demands praise for the leader as if he is a perfect human being, be warned.

2. You are always wrong.
This is the sister characteristic to number one. If you are often wrong, not good enough, not intelligent enough, not qualified enough, to either judge the leader of the group, judge its principles, techniques, or tactics, you are clearly in cult like territory. Cult leaders are known to belittle their members so that they constantly feel inadequate and subservient to the leader and the organization.

3. No dignified exit
Often in cult-like organizations when somebody decides to leave or break with the unit ( this could be a martial arts organization, a sports organization and could even be a self protection company) there is no dignified way to exit.
That is you are made to think that leaving the organization makes you weak, makes you treasonous, it makes you a lesser individual, you're a traitor to the greater group and when you do leave then you are victimized by personal attacks to your character and your reasons to leave. You are judged as someone not worthy of the pure and higher levels of knowledge of the inner circle.
In reality if everybody were capable of leaving the cult at once, very quickly the leader is exposed as a phony and charlatan and pretty much not worth anything. The only person who truly fears people leaving the cult is the only person that has anything to lose, the cult leader. Because of this, cult leaders, create a system of peer pressure where somebody that might be thinking of leaving or somebody that has left already is ostracized as a traitor and evildoer etc. Their reputation is smeared and this, in turn, creates more fear for the current members of the cult to leave in fear of same retaliation.

4. There is no graduation
No one ever rises to the same level or becomes as good as the "Guru". There is no end in sight to the servitude of the member. this is not to be confused with an open minded leader who is truly expanding his own knowledge base and learning from others and sharing the new ideas with his peers. This is not considered cultish. But when the student can never reach the goal of becoming as good as the master then that becomes an issue, especially if the master does not seem to be on a path of growth and evolution.

5. Cult speak
An organization that creates its own language or alters the meaning of commonly known words and phrases, or selectively interprets scientific information and studies to fit the organization's agenda is another indicator of cultish structure. If an outsider reading the organization's materials or listening to a member or Guru speak, would have difficulty understanding or the cult's science does not meet accepted standards, it would again fall in the cult category.

6. Group think
When the organization or the leader of the group Have standards answers for everything, and when the members are taught to repeat or parrot those answers when difficult questions about the group, it's leader, or their beliefs arise, that is called a group think.
As part of this very often any analytical, independent critical thinking or criticism of the leader is discouraged or prohibited while any repetitive praising of the leader or the organization is encouraged.
One way to test this is basically to see the level of poor tolerance that the group members, or the organization itself, have of criticism. Do they respond with vitriol to being criticized and having their beliefs challenged? Are they open to rational debate or are they simply dismissive?
In cult-like organizations there is very little tolerance for different opinions and in fact are known to be vindictive in their methods of dealing with people that disagree with them.

7. Demonization of competing organizations
What's interesting about this particular characteristic is that the closer the criticized group is to the original cult-like organization the more they are demonized. Look, for example at how much time members and leaders of some styles of martial arts, combat sport or self protection groups, spend speaking negatively or criticizing other martial arts styles or practitioners. If the focus of the organization is on the negatives of other systems rather than contributing to the better of their community and clients, beware.

8. Personal attacks on critics
Rather than present their merits and the benefits of their particular system some leaders of martial arts or self-defense organizations prefer to personally attack their critics. As with number 7 above, if the group and it's leader seem to spend an unreasonable amount of time launching personal Internet attacks this is a sure sign of a cult.

9. Moral Compass of the Leader
In cultlike groups it's very easy to for outsiders to pick up on the fact that very frequently the leader of the group has very faulty morals and character. Traits to be spotted are dishonesty, manipulative behavior towards followers, greed as motivation and basically just bad characteristics, that outsiders can easily see. The main problem is that, unfortunately, these characteristics go unnoticed by the current members because of the fog of denial often clouding the "true believers" mind.

10. Ideology over perception experience and logic
The last symptom that I'll discuss is when the tenets and principles of the leader or the group are meant to override any of the member's personal experience, perceptions and logic.
For example a leader of an organization may claim to know this one magical move that will help everybody win against all comers and every situation, whereas our logic, experience as human beings and personal observation, tell us that it is impossible. The chaos of combat is such that there's no way that one solitary move could be the answer to all our combative problems.

Cult Culture
To conclude I want to say that martial art, combat sport and self protection organizations are fertile soil for both inadvertent and malicious creation of cults. The people that come to us do so because of some genuine fears and feelings of inadequacy for dealing with them, or in some cases, with already weakened and perhaps damaged psyches.
If your organization exhibits 5 to 10 of the above characteristics, you belong to a full blown cult but, sadly, you will probably not know it. It will take someone from the outside to shake you into wakefulness.
If your group shows 1 to 4 of the symptoms then maybe change can happen from within, you are in a cultish or cult- like group.

For Leaders
As leaders and coaches we must be vigilant to recognize any of these traits emerging in our thinking, behavior or organization.
It is easier to see the traits in others rather than ourselves. Continue to learn and grow from other sources expand your knowledge base and allow your students to challenge and question what you teach, you may learn something.
Be loyal to your students' growth and benefit, but never demand loyalty.

For Members
Sadly the hardest part is for a member to recognize they are in a cult. If you are currently in an organization and you detect or recognize some of these cult-like qualities from your leaders and your seniors, test it out! Question and criticize and see what kind of response you get and if the responses match the traits above, I recommend that you leave as soon as you can. If someone you know is in an organization like this, help them leave. if you know of someone running a similar organization expose them or call them out on their BS. For your own sake... WAKE UP!

Tony Torres
Copyright Tony Torres

Out-of-Control

So lately there's been a lot of controversy about gun control and gun banning in social media, the internet, tv and other media. Everybody that reads my blog pretty much knows what my stance is on that. Gun-control means the criminals and the psychos get to have BETTER guns than the good guys and gun banning means that the criminals and the psychos get to have the ONLY guns, so NO I don't believe in gun control.

The kind of control that I'm going to address here is how much control can we have on our lives, some of the outcomes of situations in our lives, and some of the circumstances of our lives; specially those that are related to violence. Surely we cannot control every single aspect of our lives however, preparation on several aspects may help us cope with emergencies better. For example if you're stronger and fitter you have more of a chance to escape some bad guy that might be chasing you, or you might be better able to carry a loved one to safety that needs to be removed from a dangerous environment.

So what I'm really going to address here is an issue that is somewhat related to gun-control. It's the contrast between your right to defend yourself and what I believe is your duty to be able to protect yourself.

We live in a relatively safe society regardless of what you think about the of the amount of crime in your neighborhood or city, the psychos shooting schoolchildren, and all other violent crime news your hear all the time; the truth is we really live in a very safe society. There are people that can go their entire existence living in the United States without ever having to face any real life threatening bodily harm. Some people even go through a lifetime without even Getting into a scrap in school.
These extremely safe living conditions we have developed create an environment in which we do have a lot of rights and among them is basically the right to choose to not learn how to defend yourself.
There are places all over the over the world were self protection is a daily necessity. People in these places don't have the luxury of training in self defense they just defend themselves constantly from actual physical threats from enemy tribes, from other races that hate them, from criminals etc. They're literally fighting every day and have to learn to fight back sometimes through just plane exposure to that violence.
In contrast, in the US violence is not really at at our doorstep every day, every hour of the day, and because of this a lot of people choose to live in denial of such violence.
Get a couple of generations in a family that never really have to face any serious violence or evil and suddenly they believe that they really are in this utopian society were violence does not exist.
Take some of those people that have been living in that Utopia called denial and land them in positions where they can make decisions for other people (politicians) positions in which they can make their voice heard and influence our sheeplike masses ( celebrities) and all of a sudden, their denial is transferred to their followers.
Their survival, in their environment of denial, never required self protection skill of any sort let alone violence so therefore they believe that these tools are unnecessary for everybody to survive.
The same social mechanism affects the individual as well. People that are not exposed to violence and never have to use violence to protect themselves tend to start thinking that they will never need it and therefore nobody else ever will.
This is where the difference between your right to defend yourself and your duty to defend yourself becomes very important.
Police response is not perfect nor always timely. Those of us that are reasonably healthy should shoulder the burden of our own safety for several reasons. If we are able to minimize injury to ourselves our life will have better quality and also less injuries mean less hospital bills etc so there is an economic side to the equation.
Another reason to have a basic understanding and skill in self protection is this, there are those that are less able to protect themselves who are often victimized, infants or the very young, the elderly, the handicapped.
Most readers of my blog I know would take action if they witness a child being abducted at a public place, but how many people do you know would do the same? How many would stare motionless?
As martial artists and self protection experts we are hearing more and more about members of our community stepping up and stopping violent crimes.
This is not an accident, those who accept violence as a reality and become familiar with it are more likely to intervene during dangerous situations.
Scott Sonnon said it best when he was talking about strength. He often talks about how you don't have the right or privilege to be strong and have a duty to be strong.
In the same way, I truly believe that you don't have a right or privilege to understand, at least a basic level of self protection, you have a duty to be able to protect yourself!

Tony Torres
Copyright Tony Torres

Sharp Issues

Caution! The video on the link below is graphic and shows people being fatally and near fatally wounded by a knife assault. It is included here solely for the purpose that some knowledge may perhaps help others avoid a similar tragedy.

http://m.youtube.com/#/watch?v=75RTkGbiJpk&desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3D75RTkGbiJpk

BACKGROUND

The lady at the beginning of the video is the former girlfriend of Carlos, the man who ends up attacking the police officers. The incident occurs near the police station where the lady was reporting that Carlos has been threatening to kill her and her new boyfriend. Ironically she also states she owns a gun and when she pulled It out Carlos just said "Shoot me then"
She stated that she only had the gun to defend herself when something serious would happen.
I will breakdown some observations I made about what led to such a tragic ending as wellas some ways to avoid it

OBSERVATION 1. PREPARATION

Clearly Carlos was psychologically, emotionally, and physically, prepared to use deadly force as evidenced about the 4:25 mark on the video in which he assaults the officers.
The officers however were not ready to do the same. Even after that initial exchange the officers in various states of readiness, some with guns drawn, others with a hand on their holstered pistol, one with a rifle and even some with no weapons at all; kept ordering Carlos to "Not come any closer." But Carlos did while saying " shoot me then". None of the officers that were present had mentally prepared themselves to execute deadly force decisions and actions.

PREPARATION PROBLEM

We have a couple of extremes when it comes to preparing ourselves for deadly force decisions. I like to call these Camp Cavalier and Camp Ostrich. Overconfidence and Denial. Camp Cavalier members are fond of saying things like "don't bring a knife to a gunfight' or, I "train in in a knife, stick and gun system and know how to cut so I understand the knife". Camp ostrich on the other hand states or wishes that they will never encounter a situation like this.
The major problem is that, regardless of what we may think, preparation is always artificial at some level. We can never truly replicate all the factors involved in a real knife assault.
It wouldn't be remotely feasible or safe to go to a local mental institution and pay the " nice" psychopath to "come at me bro" with a real knife :-)
So preparation must occur in many levels.

PREPARATION SOLUTION: PHYSICAL

When addressing physical preparation I refer to the actual tactical maneuvers that you practice to protect yourself from an assault.
In order to do this we must apply some Intelligence, and by that I mean both intellect and the collection of information.
If your knife system introduces you first to you holding the knife and practicing a variety of numbered angles for slashing and stabbing, whether its a clock system or some other contrived "number- to-angle" sequence, you are starting at the wrong end of the training spectrum.
Your are studying either a "knife dueling" or "knife assaulting" system. Ponder this for a bit. How often do you see yourself in your personal or professional life, either attacking an unarmed person with a knife or fighting with your knife against somebody with their knife. I'm not saying it would NEVER happen, I'm just saying that it is a lot more likely that you will be surprised while unarmed by a knife wielding enraged psycho; hence any responsible knife training should always BEGIN with effective survival strategies and drills for responding unarmed to a knife assault. In 9 years in the military, 13 as a police officer and 3 as a private military contractor I NEVER, assaulted an unarmed man with my knife and I NEVER had to fight knife to knife against a criminal or psycho ( only in some very specialized training) However I did have encounters where I was unarmed and the bad guy had a knife and all the knife assaults I responded to involved unarmed victims.

But you say that "we must understand all the angles in order to respond effectively! We must learn how to wield the blade to respond properly!" This isn't true for two reasons. One, people with absolutely no training and no idea of angles have survived knife assaults with minimal or no injuries. Two, human violent behavior is very predictable. Desmond Morris, a zoologist, has published works since the 1960's addressing this part of human behavior. I recommend reading his work.
I also recommend every one to research video of knife assaults taking place and you will notice some very predictable patterns on the angles used by cold blooded criminals and the once used by enraged emotionally charged subjects.
We know from observation that the more experienced criminal is more likely to use multiple quick dominant arm straight thrusts to the body when the hold the knife in what is known in some circles as the hammer grip or blade up. If the criminal is holding the blade down, or ice pick, they tend to use shorter elliptical, multiple, dominant arm, downward stabbing motions to neck or face area.
We Also know from observation that mentally unstable, and highly emotionally charged subjects will use wider broader motions and mostly hold the knife in the ice pick while stabbing caveman style downward or at a slight angle. In the occasions when they use a hammer grip, emotionally charged or crazy people tend to slash at the same caveman angle.

Gathering this intelligence is crucial in order to prioritize our preparation. If you are not training from the onset to deal with A. Multiple straight stabs to torso B. Multiple downward stabs to your neck and face and C. Downward angle slashing; your training regardless of how intense it may seem, is not preparing you for reality.
Your drills must progressively introduce these attacks gradually increasing resistance until you can do them full speed with protective equipment and training knives.

PREPARATION SOLUTION: EMOTIONAL/PSYCHOLOGICAL

Regardless of how well and accurately you prepare physically, you must invest the same if not greater amount of time in emotional preparation.
We do this by introspection, intense visualization , and resolute affirmations.
Introspect and deeply think about what it would feel like to be in front of an experienced criminal or enraged lunatic with a knife and having them come at you. Imagine your fear and turning that into fighting energy and controlled rage.
See your self surviving, reversing the predator prey relationship and engaging the enemy with whatever force it will take to stop him.
Continuously affirm consciously that you will survive and escape the situation no matter how dire the circumstances may seem.
You must believe down to the very core of your being that you can and will succeed against the knife attacker.

PREPARATION SOLUTION: STRATEGIC

Prior to the encounter you must have a strategy in place that keeps our ego in check and allows us a wide array of resolutions.
Ultimately our main goal is survival. If our choice is to run, fight,or control the situation it should be made intelligently with this goal in mind.

In cases where you are unarmed agains a knife distance control is critical. You either want to be far enough away that the attacker has to take several steps to get to you, or so close that you can completely or partially control the armed limb and minimize injury.
Being far away may help in an escape resolution or to allow you to place obstacles between you and the attacker, or find an environmental weapon.
If you or the attacker close to intimate distance, it is unadvisable to try to separate again as Pablo, the policeman, found when he backed away from Carlos. By backing away after after trying to swing the stick he stayed at a range that was ideal for Carlos, and he received a single stab wound that likely penetrated the subclavian artery and bleed out.
If you are in intimate range try your best to finish the fight there by incapacitating your attacker.

I will address here the case against "knife disarms" . Many knife fighting system will spend a lot of time practicing all sorts of disarms against a knife. This is both wasteful and dangerous. The only effective and reliable disarms against a knife are, in order of importance, attacker death or unconsciousness, attacker otherwise incapacitated through bashing of armed hand against a solid object.
Anything else is simply fetishism at best and fantasy at worst.

FINAL POINT
It is interesting to note the paradox of human resiliency/weakness. The only fatality received only one wound, whereas all the survivors, including the suspect, suffered multiple stab and gunshot wounds.
Intelligent preparation is the key to surviving a knife assault and survival is the ultimate goal.
Take your training for this unlikely event seriously and train safely and responsibly.

Tony Torres