Danger on the mean streets of Dublin
Published: Mon, 12/31/12
I recently received an
email from Jon McCulloch telling me about an encounter he had in
Dublin with two would be muggers. (I am on Jon's email list
and he was using it as an example of the importance of the right
attitude in difficult situations.) Apparently Jon was waiting for
his wife outside a shop and messing around with his phone. He
sensed
something wasn't right, looked up and noticed two guys closing
on him. So he slipped the phone in his pocket and stared them out
ready for a fight. They backed off and that was the end of it.
Jon is very fit, used to teach Ju-Jitsu and worked as a bouncer for
a while, so he can handle himself. But I have to admit I do think
he was a little careless there and it might have worked out rather
badly. (As Jon admitted himself even if you come out on top there
can be complications with the police etc.) In Jon's case his
unconscious/intuitive mind was watching out for him and picked up on
the danger even though his conscious mind was otherwise engaged.
Training in martial arts and experience in conflict management
probably made this possible.
I am often asked what is best martial art for self defence and what
are the best techniques to train in? The answer is that if you
have to sort out any problem by hitting someone then something has
gone seriously wrong. So I would suggest that the best training is
the one Geoff Thompson and Peter Consterdine worked out for
teaching in the British Combat Association and you can practice it
every time you go out. Basically it is using colour codes (rather
like the government does for security alerts and that is probably
where they got the idea from.)
Code white is when you are safely behind locked doors and there you
can be pretty relaxed. Code yellow is when you are in any public
space and there you are always aware of who and what is around you.
Code orange is when you detect something or someone who could be a
threat so you give them special attention. Code red is when it is
obvious that the potential threat is taking a particular interest in
you and you start deciding between escape, summoning help and if
absolutely necessary fighting. That is all you need to know, now
just practice it. Predators are always looking for easy targets and
people in code white are the easiest, if you are in code yellow and
willing to switch appropriately to orange or red then it will be
much more difficult for anyone to take advantage of you. You might
also like to consider Peacock Kung Fu which was taught to me by a
Pea Hen I used to know http://iceandfire.ca/stavblog/?p=157
Jon allowed himself to consciously slip into code white, luckily
for him his experience meant that part of his mind was still in
code yellow and then orange which meant he got the opportunity to
go directly to a conscious code red. Unless you cultivate that
awareness using the kind of method described above you may not be
so lucky.
Anyway Happy New Year and if you do want to go into more depth in
actual training then the next Stav course is in Salisbury on the
26th of January
http://www.iceandfire.org.uk/train.html for more details.
Jon's daily emails are rather entertaining and they contain a
lot of good advice particularly about business so you might like to
sign up for them here. http://www.jonmcculloch.com/