As a character in one of those poorly dubbed Hong Kong chop socky flicks would say, “These guys are pretty tough guys. Their kung fu is very good.” Well, for sure they are tough and some have indeed studied kung fu; mostly though, they represent a large variety of fighting disciplines that have helped them survive real world violence. Their knowledge is street tested. For some of them, it’s still tested every day.
I was most pleased that my friends agreed to contribute to this book. I was pleased for my own selfish reason in that I would get to learn from them, as I have so often before. And I was pleased that their contribution, based on their experiences on the street, would make this book the highly informative one it is.
Fighter’s Fact Book 2 isn’t about pretend fighting at a Saturday tournament. It’s not about a fun way to lose weight, a look into another culture, or any of the other things that martial arts study offers. It’s about survival, plain and simple, written by martial arts veterans who know how to fight in an arena that isn’t anything like the clean, open space of a training facility. These warriors can function when their pulse rate hammers at 175 beats-per-minute and when their adrenaline surges like a tsunami. They know fear and they know how to make it work for them.
I know you will enjoy this book as much as I have writing, compiling, and editing it. Read it carefully and heed its advice.
Be safe and train hard.
By Loren W. Christensen
The martial arts in general, this book specifically, contain violent techniques that run the gamut from mild pain control holds all the way to moves that can kill. Therefore, I will remind you many times throughout this book to be justified to use certain techniques and, if I did my job well, this will ingrain itself into your brain. Here is a warning in advance: Be justified. Be justified. Be justified.
Know and understand the law where you live. Remember, in the eyes of the law, ignorance is no excuse.
Consider this legal subsection on the use of deadly force. It happens to be Hawaii’s but it’s basically the same everywhere.
“The use of deadly force is justifiable under this section if the actor believes that deadly force is necessary to protect himself against death, serious bodily injury, kidnapping, rape, or forcible sodomy.”
There are, of course, hundreds of variables to any situation, but taken as presented here, you’re legally justified to take a life to keep yours from being seriously injured, kidnapped, raped, forcibly sodomized, or killed. Most will agree that this is reasonable. But will the police simply be okay with you saying that you believed deadly force was necessary? No. The case will be investigated and you can count on it being investigated very, very thoroughly. The facts, witness statements, and the evidence all need to support your belief. So you better be right. You better be justified.
Now, let’s visit Master Tuff Guy’s School of Self-defense. We’re just in time for his beginner class.
A lesson in overkill
“Okay, listen up, people,” 25-year-old Master Guy says. “When the attacker grabs your wrist like this, bring your arm up and over to force him to bend forward at the waist and release his grip. Now, quickly wrap your arm around his neck, and squeeze until you hear him sputter and you feel his strength fade. Now, step through hard and fast and snap his neck.”
Say what? Snap his neck!? Because he grabbed your wrist? Seems kind of extreme, don’t you think? Maybe we heard that wrong. Let’s check out Master Guy’s colored belt class.
“The attacker has a blade,” Master Guy says, handing a rubber knife to a woman wearing a blue belt. He tells her to poke it at him. “Grab her wrist like this and bend it back to force the knife away like this. Okay, now sweep her feet out from under her. Now quickly slice the blade across her neck, once, twice, then across her stomach, once, twice, and finish by plunging it into her heart.”
“Oooo” goes the class in unison. The master sure is flashy. And those deadly payback moves? Wow.
But no one in the class stops to consider this: The attacker no longer had the knife when the master butchered her. Yes, she might have another in her pocket, but that isn’t mentioned in the scenario. Master Guy said, “The attacker has a blade. A blade. Singular. Might she have another? Sure, she might.
But you can’t fillet a person for something she might have.
In the white belt class the new students are wowed by the nasty technique they are learning – Awesome! We’re breaking a guy’s neck! - and they look at Master Guy in awe. No one considers that Master Guy’s response to the provocation is just a tad over the top. So much so that should they do that move on the street they would be doing many years in a little cell with a bunkmate named Brutus.
Are these scenarios exaggerations of what is happening in martial arts classes everyday? Not even a little bit. I’ve been guilty of doing it, too, but not for a long time now.
This book contains techniques for street survival that can cause pain, minor injury, serious injury, debilitating injury, and death. It’s paramount that you – teacher and student – practice these techniques and any variations you devise, with responsibility and constant analysis as to the moves you’re using and the imagined situations in which you’re employing them. You want to consider these elements for your training partner’s safety and for the legal impact they can have on you. Why do all this? Because too often we just practice defense and counters with intent to reap mayhem on our pretend attacker without considering the legal outcome had this situation been real.
Train for real in all aspects
The old axiom of how you practice is how you will respond in a real situation is true (for more on this see Chapter 2). If you practice an eye gouge and a windpipe choke in response to someone grabbing your wrist, then that is likely how you will respond in a real situation. Do you want to try to convince a judge and jury that that was the best way for you, a trained martial artist, to react? Well, you can try, but bring a toothbrush because you’re likely going to jail. And you’re going to get sued.
Karate instructor Lawrence Kane (Chapters 6 and 11) has an expression I like. “Self-defense Rule #3: Don’t go to jail.” A good one to keep in mind.
You might argue that you and your teacher have no intention of ever responding in such an extreme manner in a real situation where the wrist is grabbed. You say that the grab is simply a device, a stimulus, so that you can practice your counter attack – your over-kill counter attack. It’s just practice. Your training partner grabs your wrist and you go postal on him, and you practice it over and over until … it’s ingrained.
It’s ingrained. It’s fixed in your brain. Imbedded. Deep rooted.
There are thousands of schools and millions of students who practice that way.