Cocktail or cleaning product?
Published: Sat, 11/02/19
It was a rule of the Soup Kitchen that no one was supposed to come in obviously drunk and no alcohol was to be brought onto the premises. It might disappoint you to know that these rules were regularly flouted, so, bottles were confiscated and the contents disposed of and drunk men (and very occasionally a drunk woman) would be asked to leave. As I recall someone was also meant to supervise the entrance and prevent the clearly inebriated from coming in at all.
Most of the time our clients were reasonably compliant and just did as they were told. In most cases bottles were handed over and the premises vacated with the minimum of fuss. But not always, and the possibility of violence was always there. When I say violence, I can’t recall weapons every being used and a man who has subsisted mainly on alcoholic liquid for several years is usually quite a weak and rather pathetic creature. People do get aggressive when drunk but coordination and judgment are also impaired to an extent where one is dealing with the sad rather than the dangerous.
Even so, a little persuasion was sometimes needed to encourage a particularly recalcitrant drunk to leave. Some people would get into lengthly arguments which might also degenerate into pushing and shoving which got no one anywhere. My preferred method was to team up with someone I could rely on to do as I asked. We would each take an arm and I would apply a little bit of pressure to elbow or wrist and there would be no argument. I am not talking about anything as drastic as a arm or wrist lock, just pressure in the right place and assistance to ensure that the person being controlled could not just pull or turn away. On occasions when I did have to eject someone by myself it took a lot more force and technique to get the job done. Not that I could not control a drunk by myself but there was a lot more risk, conflict, and distress involved.
The point? I had certain tactical skills which I had learned through martial arts training, although I used them as discreetly as possible. There was a clear strategy of removing inebriated individuals as quickly as possible to discourage others from following their example and in order to create a pleasanter environment for everyone else. The best tactic for fulfilling this strategy was to have two people eject one person using minimum force but taking no nonsense. It seemed to work, we never involved the police as far as I recall and I don’t remember anyone really getting hurt. The assistant needed no special skills, just a willingness to help and do as they were told.
It was a different and, looking back, a more Innocent time, no drugs, no needles, no dealers and no weapons. I am not sure if I would want to be working in the equivalent environment today. I guess I would figure it out soon enough just like I did before.
What I did learn was the importance of having a clear strategy and then choosing the best tactics for fulfilling that strategy. I also realised that not everyone needed to know martial arts to be effective in a challenging environment, even an untrained person can be a valuable tactical asset if the leadership is there and they are prepared to do what they are told.
One of the important things I realised early on about Stav is that we have five clearly identified strategic principles. Once you can identify the requirements of each strategic principle you should be able to work out how to fulfill a strategy. It is really very simple but still worth learning and practicing and this is what I will be sharing before the end of the year:
Salisbury on the 16th of November
Beverley on the 7th of December
regards
Graham
PS I am getting some interest already in Rune Retreat at Midsummer next year, if you have not checked it out yet then the site is here http://rr.stavcamp.org/