Weekly Self Defense Blog #1
Posted: July 13, 2018
Written by Mark Slane USKMA Founder/Chief Instructor
“After initial contact all plans go to hell.” Gen. Patton
I am kinda anal about a few things when it comes to self defense. I just saw an ad for a two day seminar on what to do when you are bound (how to break zip ties, how to get out of the trunk of a car, how to escape and fight with hands bound, etc.). I have seen Home Invasion seminars that take an hour or two to work on this same thing. This, to me, is a fairly worthless thing to train. If I were at a seminar where they started working on this I would step out. You see, I have already made up my mind that I will never be bound. This is one of my “go buttons”. To work on this would put it into my mind that it could happen. I refuse to think of this as an option. If I have the choice of going against ten guys with machetes (or guns…make up your own worst case scenario here) or to be bound I will go forward like an animal even with slim odds of surviving. The other choice is to be bound…and then options and decisions have been taken away from me. I would only survive if the scumbags decide I will survive…I would have no say.
Now I have been asked “Well, what if you get knocked out and wake up bound”. This kinda goes against our “target principle” of training. I must spend most of my training time on what is likely to happen (the bulls eye). When I get really good at defending the most likely attacks I can move out a ring (train the next most likely attacks). The “wake up bound” is way out there on the outer rings…it just doesn’t happen. If you were to get a newsfeed on all of the violence that happens in this country for the next month you would read about a lot of beatings, stabbings, shootings, etc. but I doubt you would find one case of someone getting knocked out and then waking up bound.
Two scenarios where this may happen would be sexual assault and home invasion. Let’s look at violence to women first. It is a major rule in self defense to never be moved to a secondary location. If you are going to be bound and moved you must take your chances and fight back now while you aren’t bound. Things don’t get better as you wait. There is no “better” time to react so waiting for that better time will get you into trouble. You certainly don’t stand a better chance after you have been bound and moved. In fact, things have just gotten much, much worse. The scumbag now has privacy and time. As I say during one of my lectures “if a group of terrorists busted into this room right now the only chance any of us would have to escape is this very second. We would scatter and go out doors and windows. If we wait one minute they have us surrounded, another minute we are all sitting with our hands bound…waiting takes away options.”
The home invasion scenario is where it is most likely that you will be bound. These scumbags use threatening your family to get you to comply. Again, I have made the decisions beforehand that I won’t let this happen. If the scumbag has a gun to my child’s head I will go forward and fight. This sounds horrible but I see only two scenarios. One is that I fight the idiot now and hopefully he aims the gun at me instead of pulling the trigger. The other is that I get bound and watch my family be tortured for hours and killed before my eyes. Yep, this is why I will refuse to be bound.
Think about what you are training and always mind set. If you have thought about what you are going to do in any given situation you won’t freeze and hesitate. Your plan will come out of you. BE SAFE!
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