11/2/2010 – Mental and Emotional Engagement: Controlling, Defusing and Initiating Encounters from the Fence

Something new for everyone today.  Thus far, I have been teaching mostly fighting methods - things to employ when the confrontation has already kicked off.  Today's work focused on defusing an encounter before it kicks off and, if violence is inevitable, ensuring it kicks off in your favour.

As I mentioned in class, the Fence derives from classic psychological strategies such as the Empty City and Creating Something Out of Nothing (refe. The 36 Strategems), and one thing all such posturing has in common is that it has be backed up by something solid for two reasons  - 1.) lest the enemy call your bluff, and 2.) so you don't betray yourself through your own lack of confidence in your abilities (which will show in a high-stress situation).  As I've said before, self-defence is 90% awareness and psychology, 10% fighting skill.  To this I add a corollary - the confidence built through training fighting skill is the foundation for the awareness and psychological toughness needed to effectively defend oneself with or without violence.


This week's homework:

- Conditioning:  I understand the Commando bodyweight series is very intense.  For now, 2-3 times a week total should be plenty, but I want EVERYONE to do your joint mobility series EVERY DAY.  It takes 10-15 minutes and almost no energy at all, so unless you are bedridden, there is no excuse.  This is the foundation of all the movement training we do and will stand you in good stead to gain as much as you possibly can from each class.

- Basic skills: 1.)  rolling and falling.  I still see people falling with an arm outstretched to the ground in spite of how I keep harping on it session after session.  Much more of this and the mats will go. 2.) Begin working on the square and pyramid breathing I demonstrated and explained in class.  You can try the combinations with various exercises I mentioned, but for now, focus on the breathing alone.  Once you are proficient with it, you can begin incorporating the callisthenics, though the walking drill is worth a try.  Make sure you are not breaking the inhalation and exhalation into discrete blocks - it is one inhale/exhale stretched out over the length of the entire count, not multiple inhales/exhales.

- Psychological skills:  As far as possible, revise your Fence skills with a partner and go through as many possible scenarios as you can, with an increasing number of steps to each interaction.  If you do not have access to a partner, build your own 'script' to use in each of the four broad scenarios we covered in class and polish it in front of a mirror.

Train well and see you all this coming Saturday.

Objectives

- establishing physical, mental and emotional safety buffers in confrontations

- dictating the outcome of a given confrontation through mental and emotional tactics

- setting up for a decisive attack from the fence


Warmup

- IntuFlow basic routine


Ranging, Interception and Control Prep Drills

- 1 and 2-step evasion versus knife and empty hand: evade to superior position, evade to control, evade to takedown with control

- 1-step slow sparring with blade to reciprocal disarm flow

- 1 and 2-step slow sparring with empty hand


The Fence


Demonstration Series

- Definition – creating physical, mental and emotional barriers between assailant and oneself to attain dominance of the encounter and dictate its course

- Analysis from the Fence – Determining an assailant’s intent and mental state

- Stalling from the Fence – Soft Approach: talking down an angry assailant/incoherent babbling and pleading for life; Hard Approach: Shock and Awe Posturing/semi-Hard Quiet-but-Tough Approach

- Defusing an encounter from the Fence – the Tactical Retreat, a.k.a. Abandoning the Goods to Save your Skin/Losing Face to Save Your Life; the Mutually Face-Saving Conciliation

- Initiating an Encounter from the Fence – setups: the Zen Koan interview; the Fake Submission/Conciliation; the Sudden Straight Right

- Cycling from one approach to another

Freeform Practice Series

- Students break into pairs to roleplay random scenarios, each assigned a different aggressor role which they will keep throughout the session to encourage getting deeper into potential attacker psychology so as to develop sophisticated and realistic responses.


Conditioning

TacFit Commando Mission 2 – Recruit-to-Grunt


1.) Lunge Twist/Lunge Twist Knee Strike – 20/10 x 8

1min rest

2.) Revolving Table/Swinging Tripod – 20/10 x 8

1min rest

3.) Hanging Scorpion – 20/10 x 8

1min rest


4.) Bear Squat – 20/10 x 8

1min rest

5.) Rocca Forearm – 20/10 x 8

1min rest

6.) Diagonal Bridge – 20/10 x 8



RESET Drills to cool down


Circle