Magic wands and euphemisms
Published: Mon, 03/27/17
Last week I was asked to complete a feedback survey. I had been on a two day course/seminar and the organisers wanted to know what attendees had thought of the event. At the end there was an offer to do a survey of my own. So, I signed up with Survey Monkey and tried my first questionnaire last week on the subject of attitudes to self-defence. I will share the results when I have a big enough sample to be meaningful. The 13 I have had so far have been very interesting. If I have not already invited you to complete it then the link is at the bottom of the page.
I have been giving the subject of self-defence quite a lot of thought recently. Nothing personal I am pleased to say, but tragic events such as last Wednesday in London remind us that the unexpected can happen at any time. There was a short seminar on Saturday morning where I was able to explore the first two principles of self-defence, awareness and maintaining safe-distance. Yesterday I attended an excellent training session with John Johnston where John showed very effective self-defence applications of moves from Karate Katas. It is often said that traditional Katas have little practical value. Well, that depends on whether or not you know what to look for. With a guide like John you would be surprised what can be found.
Then, on the 8th and 9th of April Fox Walters and I are co teaching a CQC weapons seminar. Fox will teach the use of the Bowie Knife and straight razor. I am going to teach use of the walking stick for defence against a knife. A stick is not a magic wand which instantly bestows magical self-defence powers on any one who picks it up. (Even if it was , according to the Harry Potter books, you still need years of training to use a wand effectively. ) So, I will be looking at how to train with a stick so that you can simply handle it with confidence. Like anything else this requires regular practice. Then we will explore the likely advantages and disadvantages of using a stick for self-defence.
The course will be about weapons in the sense that Bowie knives and razors are capable of doing a lot of damage to the human body if used aggressively. My back was cut open for a minor operation over a month ago and the wound is still not fully healed. Even a minor knife wound can take a long time to recover from and, thinking again about last week’s attack in London, we know that a knife attack can be fatal.
So, is a weapon of your own the answer to self-defence? There is no simple answer to that question, even the word ‘weapon’ may be unhelpful. Rather than use the word ‘weapon’ the Americans sometimes use the term ‘Force Multiplier’. When I first heard this expression used I thought that it was just a rather pretentious euphemism for ‘weapon’.
On reflection I realised that FM (force multiplication) does mean much more than just picking up a weapon and hoping that will solve a problem for you. FM suggests that you already have force that you can use and that you just need to increase your effectiveness. So, the first stage of FM would be training and knowing how to focus your strength and skills to maximum effect. The second stage of FM would involve setting up situations strategically and tactically to your advantage. The third stage of FM would involve bringing in equipment such as a stick. As said above, a stick (or knife or even a gun) doesn’t solve a problem for you, and may even make a situation much worse if you are not careful. However, a simple stick can multiply your force in the sense that it increases your reach, can withstand more damage than flesh and bone for blocking and you can hit harder than you could with your bare hands.
So, our seminar on the 8th and 9th will be exploring how the knife and razor multiply force for causing damage. Also, how using the five tactical principles of Stav and the simple walking stick, we can multiply our force for defence. It should be a bit scary but it will also be fun and informative.
Details of the seminar in Somerset on the 8th and 9th of April http://www.somersetstav.co.uk/cqcweapons.html
I will also be covering similar material (and much more) at the USA training on the 20th to 22nd May http://iceandfire.org.uk/usamay17.html
regards
Graham
PS If you would be willing to spend a few minutes filling in my survey on attitudes to self-defence I would be most grateful http://somersetstav.co.uk/sdsurvey.html