...everybody was kung fu fighting...those kicks were fast as lightening..

Hello mates

– we are nearly half way through the week now and you should be feeling like you’re winning…. At least I hope you do…

We are going to pick up from where we left off Monday discussing, “your line in the sand.”

I have trained lots of people over the years in self defense and more importantly to me, situational awareness, and three things have been evident in nearly every client I’ve had:

1   Women typically need a very justifiable reason for going all,* “Annie Wilkes” on someone’s ass!

2   Nearly every guy I’ve ever met thinks he can fight and hold their own in a fight, but unfortunately this is rarely the case. Unless they still train in some form of reality based martial art, they have little actual ability to defend themselves, regardless of how well they used to fight 5,10, or 20 years ago….

3  Those folks that think they want to learn how to kick box invariably have a change of heart after the first time they get kicked in the thigh, Muay Thai style, or punched in the face.

In reality, there is rarely a good reason to fight. And sitting here all calm and secluded in my office, I feel very self-righteous in my capacity to say so. Haha.

But you are getting that advice from a guy who once locked himself in a small room with two building contractors who had decided threatening me over the Nextel radio seemed like a good idea.

After a brief discussion and meeting of the minds, they decided not to do that again. Nothing violent occurred. Nothing violent had to occur… The simple realization that they had been led into the smallest room I could find, and then locked in with me, indicated one of two things:

1   I was completely crazy – there were after all two of them.

2   Or, I knew exactly what I was doing and felt more than capable of dealing with the problem if they chose to pursue their implied course of action.

One simple truth is clear, many will bluster, posture, and even make a lot of noise as if they feel inclined to fight; few will want to actually go through with it.

They are just hoping you want to do it less than they do?!

In this case all’s well that ends well. Both men decided that no matter which category I fell into, if I was inclined to lock the three of us in a small room while we had a chat, that was good enough for them – it was time for them to wind their neck in.

I never had another issue with either of them.

When it comes to training someone for the cage, there really are only two sets of guidelines to consider:

1   Both protagonists are there by choice.

2   And it is a sporting event – theoretically, this means no one is fighting to the       death.

The same thing cannot be said for self-defense.

1   In most cases of self-defense at least one person was completely blindsided by the attack.

2   There is no “warm up” period where you get to practice your moves pre-event, or get coached about what your strategy should be when, “attacked.”

3   Depending on your reaction speed, skill level, fitness level, mindset and available “tools” you might be fighting quite literally for your life.

4   Everyone has a preconceived notion of how fit they are. Some of you probably know how fit you are: Most are clueless, which leads to over optimism in regards to their performance potential. Fighting results in total body exhaustion within seconds; you might endure thirty seconds of a flat out ball busting brawl, if you are lucky.

Now, when I say total exhaustion, I don’t mean the kind of winded or tired you may experience from running up two flights of stairs at work because the elevator is broken.

Yeah. You're ready to fight....

I’m talking about an inability to even lift your arms anymore. You may well throw up as your body seeks ways to ditch unwanted “weight” in the stomach, enabling you to run faster; as if you were capable of running anywhere during or after such an encounter.

As blood is diverted from the digestive system to the large muscles to ‘fight off’ the challenge, stomach and intestines may empty their contents in order to prepare the body for quick action. This leads to a feeling of nervousness, stomach upset, vomiting and diarrhea. These side effects of stress are caused as a result of severe challenging situations that require immediate response and last for a short period of time.

Sharing this information with you isn’t to put you off standing your ground, not by any means. In fact, I would like to achieve the opposite. I would like the information to serve as a guideline, for you, when you begin reviewing your thoughts on where you’d draw your own line in the sand.

There are a variety of possible physical repercussions when you encounter this level of stress, fear and anxiety. Knowing what your body will likely be feeling before, during and after such an event helps forewarn you mentally of what to expect. Your body can react much differently than you’d anticipate it would in these circumstances and without that advance knowledge, the fight can leave you before it is ever time to start throwing blows.

Next Blog, we will have a look at the different types of mindset you may encounter once you’ve drawn your line in the sand and the consequences of crossing paths with someone like that! How would you cope? What sort of martial arts training should you begin looking to participate in, if you have suddenly realized you wouldn’t have a clue what to do with a knowledgeable attacker.

Hell, your attacker doesn’t even need to be particularly good at fighting, he already has the upper hand because he’s been revving himself up getting ready for the encounter – you’ve been figuring out todays list of work problems you need to solve. Mentally, he’s prepped for the fight – you are not. This is why it’s so important to pick a “reality based” school that will teach you proper mindset, as well as physical conditioning and tactics.

Self-Defense and Situational Awareness Seminars are for everyone.

More to follow mates – see you next time.

Cheers, Terry.

P.S. * Annie Wilkes for those who can’t place the name, was the nut-job from the Stephen King movie “misery”.

www.highintensityteambuilding.com

You really should see the other guy...

Hello team-mates! How are you all doing?

The MMA fighter I’ve been helping train, Sebastian Wojdak, fought on Friday night and met a worthy opponent in Jason Salvo. The first round was somewhat of a surprise as Jason came out purposeful, as we had anticipated, and steady, but more importantly he seemed as content to sit back and get a feel for Sebastians timing as Sebastian was to get a feel for his.

Unlike Sebastian’s previous opponent, Jason seemed calm, patient, and somewhat relentless. He pressed in on my guy looking for gaps in his defense and throwing out little feelers to test the strength of his defense. A quick exchange early on saw Sebastian knocked on his ass for the briefest of seconds and I knew this kid came to play!

More importantly, so did Sebastian!

Sebastian, of course, popped right back up and just the way I’ve been training him he circled out and away from the attack and started looking for openings of his own. A succession of powerful leg kicks thrown by Sebastian started to throw Jason off his enthusiastic and methodical stalking approach to the fight. Jason began looking for a way to take the fight to the ground.

Nothing cooking there either; Sebastian skillfully avoided being trapped and taken down moving away from the attempts and countering when possible with uppercuts and other strikes.

When the bell rang for the end of round one I was already hoarse from yelling instructions. With both fighters bloodied, it began to look as if the fighter who came out in the second round remaining calm, focused, and still wanting to be there would take the win.

Scott Whitehead, his ground coach helped me in the ring impart critical information for Sebastian to take into the next round. The bell rang a whole lot sooner than we expected it too, but it always does when you’re trying to catch your breath, focus, and regroup ready for another go around.

Both fighters came out the same way they had began, touching gloves before beginning a steady onslaught of exchanging blows. Sebastian, at one point, had to circle away from Jason’s attack about as fast as I’ve ever seen him move. We had both watched tape from Jason’s previous fights and knew he was a slugger; happy to stand and pound it out in the middle of the ring if he could bait his opponent to do so.

Fighters that will do this are very exciting to watch, there is no doubt (Stephen Bonnar and Forrest Griffin would be a great example) – but as far as the wisdom of doing so, I’m a firm believer in my fighters moving around and coming at things from more oblique angles.

A lot of folks wouldn't want to fight for a living....I can think of worse jobs.

Sebastian changed angles as often as possible, eventually arriving at a place where he could see Jason’s recklessness beginning to leave him open to attack. A quick exchange of blows ended with an incredibly strong right hook thrown by Sebastian that connected cleanly and echoed around the venue.

Jason was unconscious the second this hit occurred, falling to the mat, arms stiff as if hit by an electric current. Sebastian jumped on him to continue landing strikes until stopped by the referee, as per the instructions given by the ref before the fight.

There is little in life that compares to the euphoria of fighting and winning a battle like this, and the crowd showed their appreciation for the two fighters’ efforts with a roar of enthusiasm.

Sebastian is now 3 & 0 with strong finishes for every fight. The strong finishes are important not just because of minimizing risk of injury in shorter fights, but because when possible you should never leave a “win/loss” decision in the hands of the judges.

What struck me after the fight was how many different types of comments I received either directly or indirectly from people who watched it.

The young guy who lives next door to me came and watched the fight with my wife and several other friends, and has mentioned wanting to start competing in MMA and cage fights before, (I trade kickboxing lessons with him in exchange for having him cut our grass, grass cutting is something I hate doing).

I asked him after the fight if he still wanted to do it, especially as he got to see firsthand the damage done to both fighters, one of which he knows personally, Sebastian.  

He smiled and nodded yes, but his heart didn’t look like it was in it. I wasn’t sure if he didn’t want to say no to me and feel like he would lose face, or if he was just being careful about being too enthusiastic…but either way, it got me thinking:

What you talkin' about Willis?

What would most people fight for?

Where would you draw the line in the sand? When would it be justifiable to you to say to someone, “If you cross this line I’m going to punch you in the face!”

And that’s what we are going to have a look at over my next few Blog’s.

All I would like you to consider in the meantime is, what’s the limit for you?

What, if anything, would make you start swinging? What would you be prepared to die defending?

I know it all sounds very dramatic, “What would you die for??” But in actuality, any altercation with another person could lead to serious injury or death, so what would it take for you to throw yourself into the mix and go all “Gladiator” over?

Cheers, Terry.

As usual I started scouring around looking for funnies during the week and have collected the ones that made me titter, and that are re-printable here on my Blog. LOL.

And all we keep hearing is, "the youth of today.." Nothing wrong with 'em at all. Nothing.

This next quote was taken from one of my favourite apps ever, and they have a website if you wanna check it out for yourself: FMLife

Quote: “Today my boyfriend begged me not to break up with him. Not because he loved me, but because losing me would would mean losing me as a friend on Facebook, then losing me as a neighbor on Farmville, and thus dropping one skill level…” FML. – isn’t that beautiful? Hahahahaha.

Here’s some great surveillance camera footage of a 75year old woman beating a robber about the head during his hold up of a convenience store!

And for all you martial arts fans out there….this is freaking funny! So much for friendly slaps only during this game…hahaha

It’s a toolbox…no really, it is…I wouldn’t have watched it otherwise! Promise.

This following link is to a selection of photos for “wingmen” that went well above and beyond the call of duty!!! Some of these pictures are stomach churningly good.

Momma always said, look both ways.....

Medications can only help so much...

Another link to the best vandalism shots in history. Who says crime isn’t funny? 

 Jk: Two men go bear hunting.

While one stays in the cabin taking a nap, the other gets bored and goes out to start looking for bears alone.

He finds a huge male bear and takes a shot. He realizes he has only wounded it and not killed it, when the bear roars in his direction and begins racing towards him.

The man panics, and takes off running back towards the cabin. He’s fast, but the bear is faster, even though it’s wounded.

Feet from the cabin door the man trips and falls flat on his face. The bear, moving much too quickly to stop, trips on the fallen man and rolls right over him, through the door and into the cabin.

The fallen hunter quickly jumps back to his feet, and slams the door shut behind the bear. Shouting from outside the cabin into his friend his says,

“You start skinning this one, and I’ll go get us another…..”

Please don't fondle the art work!

Apparently there has been marked decrease in suicide bombers since Susan Boyle made it onto Idol and announced she’s still a virgin….

 Something about discovering what they might look like must have put the terrorists off “martyring” themselves….

Can’t imagine why?

Hope you guys have a lovely weekend and we’ll get back to it again next week.

Cheers, Terry.

P.S. My fighter Sebastian is fighting again tonight, so I’ll drop a line in here on Monday about how he did.

This is probably what I'll look like right before wandering off into the bush...

Hello mates!

Top-of-the-morning-to-ya.

Most of us are brought up to believe in humanity, in the same way as we are brought up to differentiate between right and wrong. Morality is important throughout our society. We are expected to want to rescue, help and save everyone, as if everyone was really worth saving…

Television shows reinforce this standard by highlighting the struggle between personality types during a crisis – it helps heighten the drama and thus the, “watch-ability” factor. The “good-guy” fights to save the rest. He struggles to convince the, “group” he has a plan, that he can get them all out safely…What a load of crap.

And what a waste of energy!

If you want to survive, don’t go wasting your valuable mental and physical resources on folks hell bent on doing things their way. Just let them go. Or better yet, you go.

Survival will boil down to common sense and your ability to remain calm and rational. Others will not be so blessed. Their idea of common sense and rational thought may differ greatly from yours – in fact, I would hasten to add you should count on that being the case.

If you and I were in a survival situation it’s not my style to start barking orders at the group, in some misguided attempt to make everyone realize what they might be doing is wrong.

In fact you might be somewhat surprised in not hearing much from me at all.

I’m much more likely to make a few quiet suggestions, and see who’s listening. I want to see which of the group has retained their ability to still think clearly and weigh up all the options.

If it becomes apparent to me that none of the group has retained that ability, or perhaps the person with the loudest voice has decided to take charge and leads the group off in the wrong direction, you will not see me again. I’ll quietly wander off into the “bush” and take care of myself, but thanks all the same…

Once you've made a decision, grow a couple and follow through; alone if need be.

If you know what you are thinking is right, makes complete sense, gives you the best chance of survival and you haven’t heard anything from anyone else around you to challenge that idea, then have the balls to follow your instincts.

You will have insufficient resources and energy to fight and recruit people that have already chosen to align themselves with the loudest mouth in the group. So don’t try. This is your chance to prove Darwin’s Selection theory in real time. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_selection

There is a scene in Gladiator, starring Russell Crowe, when he is about to be thrust into the Arena for the first time. The man in front of him begins urinating on himself in fear.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0172495/   

“Maximus” takes a step back distancing himself from the guy as he anticipates things not ending well for that man. You should do the same, both figuratively and literally, if your group appears to have lost its collective minds.

There are those out there that will have little or no control over their emotions. They lack the mental toughness necessary to persevere and overcome the situation.

They will want someone to save them. They will not be capable of saving themselves. They will not begin their survival journey by saying the Survivors Creed,

“I will live in the moment. I will hope for nothing. Provide for myself everything. Roll with the punches when adversity strikes and things don’t go my way. I will laugh at every available opportunity. Rescue, should it arrive, will be just a welcome interruption in my survival journey – nothing more.” – Terry Vaughan.

We will look at rules three four and five over the next few days and as always, I welcome your comments, emails and suggestions!

Cheers, Terry.

Hello gang, nice to be back and I hope you lot had a dandy weekend.

We are going to be having a look at a few close calls; a few, “I nearly died” incidents; even a few close calls that others have experienced and then see what benefit these brushes with the reaper can be to all of us.

I’ll start with one instance where we were deployed somewhere hot and sticky (Royal Marines) and had been tasked with putting on a firepower display using 51mm mortar. We were a small cog in a big wheel that day and our “out of the box” (straight out of Officer training at Commando training center) 2nd Lieutenant was keen as mustard to prove what he could do taking charge of our fire-team.  He was determined he could set a new record for the amount of H.E. (high explosive) rounds we could have airborne at the same time…

I wonder how many stupid mistakes have been made throughout history by someone trying to impress someone else and all for the wrong reasons? I’m going to be conservative and say probably just a few.

Anyhoow, we had set up the mortars, had opened several boxes of explosives and were now standing by to start dropping them in on an area about 600 meters away.

So far so good… 

The order to commence firing came over the radio and so it began. Three of us had a system that went something like this:

One man would pull the tape off the rounds (and extract the safety pin which was a bit like the pin used on hand grenades) before handing them to -

Man number 2 would then feed the round into the top of the mortar tube, before -

Man number three pulled the firing handle at the base of the tube, ”launching’ the projectile down range – tadaaa!

Normal rate of fire for these things is 6 – 8 rounds per minute. Accept if you’re a new officer ready to re-invent the wheel. This guy thought that if he harassed us enough we could send enough of these things into the air it would be as if it were raining rounds…

Bad things happen when the man in charge let’s his ego start dictating protocol.

So there was a nice rhythmic popping soundeach time a mortar round left the tube, only interrupted by the constant babble of the officer behind us insisting we,

“Do it faster..” 

I wanted to reply, “that’s what she said” - but of course I didn’t, I didn’t have time…

So we, ”went faster”. As is nearly always the case a wise and well respected Sargeant wandered over from near the high powered gathering of Brass a short distance away, in order to bestow some wise words of caution upon our benevolent leader. Bare in mind, the three of us lowly grunts were already exchanging worried glances about various safety issues that increasing the rate of fire was having. Including heating the mortar tube barrel up dangerously high. Mortars tend not to leave deformed, overheated tubes, in the unfettered state they were intended.

The 2nd Lt. of course ignored the mother hen sargeant and insisted we actually increase speed further.

I now found myself holding a mortar in each hand, pin removed, and trying to drop the explosive into the tube as soon as the earlier bomb had cleared it. Tensions were running high and we were starting to snap at each other when we weren’t performing our individual tasks fast enough.

It was during one of these exchanges that it happened…

The guy pulling the safety pins asked me if the last round he handed to me had the pin still in it. This of course meant I had to turn my head to check, meanwhile, unseen by me, the guy holding the mortar tube and pulling the firing lever, was having trouble getting the arm pulled down to strike the base of the round, already in the tube.

During this heated and rapid discussion the 2nd Lt didn’t approve of our slowing down and yelled over all of us to hurry the hell up; “people” were watching. 

I quit trying to talk and feed ammo into the tube at the same time. I began lining up the next mortar round over the opening of the tube, poised to release it, when I had a flash of doubt as to whether I had heard the tell-tale sound of the previous round firing. I withdrew the new round out of the line of fire as the old round left the tube.

In terms of how close we come to spreading ourselves all over the firing line, let me say this, the launched round burnt the thumb holding the new round I was about to drop as it passed. If the two high explosive rounds had met, there wouldn’t have been enough meat left from our fire team to put into a plastic sack.

For a few seconds all firing ceased. Oddly enough, no-one complained. The “new” officer withdrew, leaving command in the “capable” hands of the sargeant while he went in search of other pressing matters on which to focus his attention. The color had drained completely from all of our faces. In a typically cool tone the sargeant suggested we continue, only this time placing only one round in the tube at a time.

No one on the team felt inclined to contradict him.

The whole exchange only took a few seconds and then we were back to firing at the approved rate of speed. This time the comforting sound of mortars leaving the tube was interlaced with sporadic giggling as we all took stock of how close we’d come to blowing ourselves up.

Over the next couple of days we’ll have a look at leadership, ego, humor, and how much more effective we all are when the guy in charge has a cool head!

Cheers, Terry.

P.S. “One thorn of experience is worth a whole wilderness of warning.” – James Russell Lowell

www.highintensityteambuilding.com