E.D.C. REVISITED

Everyday carry items by definition are those items you carry with you at all times whenever you leave your home.

I was taught the limerick “Testicles, spectacles, wallet, and watch” as a general reminder of those most necessary EDC items. An earlier post provided a more practical review for a city-dweller.

I have not revisited by EDC since the original post and admit to being sloppy in my discipline. My flashlight now usually stays in my car and I am ashamed to admit I sometimes forget to carry my pocket knife. Ashamed because a knife is practical and a necessary last-ditch self-preservation tool.

An EDC knife should comply with local knife laws and we in Oregon are fortunate to have very favorable carry laws (especially for open carry). Nevertheless, open carry of a large knife suitable for combat is not comfortable and would likely raise concerns among polite company. Therefore a pocket folder is a reasonable fallback, even if it is a poor self-defense tool. Something is better than nothing. My typical EDC remains the Kershaw Leek, but I can recommend the Cold Steel Frenzy as a surprisingly comfortable carry – and it is sufficiently large to be a very effective self-defense tool. This is my go-to if I have heightened concerns about my destination.

When I think about my new lackadaisical approach to EDC, I admit to being remiss, but I would like to think it is in part a response to greater training. 

Master Keating‘s moto is Peritus Expello Formidine (L. ‘Skill banishes fear’): And what a compelling moto that is! Great skill instils confidence, allows one to boldly go where the meek quiver, and where the nay-sayers earn their living.

The Dirty Truth on Empty Hand versus the Knife – 
By Master at Arms James A. Keating

There is a growing trend in the martial arts and in the tactical community that a knife attack cannot be defended against with mere empty hands. (I mean who ever thought ya could in the first place eh? It’s an act of desperation in a deadly moment. Better than doing nothing.) First of all we must define what the expert-author-master THINKS that a knife defense is. And also another critical piece of the dialog which is never spoken of is the part about just WHO it is that is wielding that knife (it makes a difference). And then please remember that this is merely THEIR interpretation of how things should or could possibly go. The so called experts opinion is only as good as their training, their experience and there courage allows. That training they base their “expertise” around may or may not be adequate compared to what others know about the same subject. There is the first failing – most of these “experts” have no real life experience in such matters. 

Yet they put forth what they THINK is the most reasonable and adequate way to deal with an edged weapon attack (according to their background, style, teacher or belief). (One must be discerning in what they accept as being valuable in today’s world). (Warning sarcasm ahead) After all if it is on the internet, then it MUST be real right? And we must adhere to its wisdom right? Of course? Of course! Obey ye sleepers to the masters voice!

 The part about YOU having no weapon for yourself to use is a key element in their doomsday knife defense sales scenario. How’d that even happen anyway? Did I not I tell you to always carry a god damn knife? (Even when you are not supposed to) WTF #1? Where is YOUR knife? Lets see, on with the story – so how does that un-expert expert advice always go in today’s fucked up world? Something like this I think is the repeat dialog: “Empty handed against the knife? Then you are already dead” – hey that is the new tactical message being imprinted in the minds of those seeking advice or help in this most deadly of encounters that a human can have. Plus, they usually add that anything you have been previously taught in that area of personal defense is bullshit and will not work. And this is the experts so called  “good advice”? WTF #2? I don’t think so!

Invalidation of any training you may have is not a sound way to approach the issue. When you see, hear or sense such well worn rhetoric it means ONE thing. It means they (the expert) are not concerned with your well being at all, it means they are trying to sell you on something. Usually THEIR version of knife defense or their gadget they are selling and so forth. Scare the sheeple enough and they will buy your product whether it be good or bad. That is the goal. “Beware of Greeks bearing gifts” is an old axiom. The adage is now used regularly as a warning when a supposed gift, advice or act of virtue is thought to hold a hidden agenda.  

A Closer Look at the Problem

Facing a person armed with a knife is intimidating at any level. No matter whether you have a gun, a knife or a club yourself, the KNIFE is still a BIG factor. There are no easy answers! The issue is further compounded when you DO NOT have any weapon at all – trapped in the empty hand mode. One teacher I had told us that when you face the knife and have no weapon then FIND ONE if you cannot run away! Get used to spotting items which might be able to be used as impromptu weapons. Chairs, brooms, bottles and everyday items. Learn to throw accurately. Get yourself something to strike and jab the attacker with. Small items that have weight can be thrown with great effect. Learn to “think on your feet” and use surprise as part of your game plan. Fight back! When you cannot run, hide, fly or find an equalizer then you must do what you can to survive. Surviving IS WINNING in this case.

I see an advertisement on Youtube a lot these days. Some big goof with a face full of stubble and his homey (salt n peppa) pounding on each others arms and saying “See, it don’t work. Knife defense doesn’t work”! I have even seen Filipino masters now jumping on this bandwagon of woe and sadly they too now bark the same so called defeatist “truth” IE: KNIFE DEFENSES are WORTHLESS. Wow, some fucking expert that is! Piss off! I recently watched one video on DIGG – a Youtube link where this frantic guy in black trousers was all over the part about how dangerous KNIFE attacks are – wow, what a joke! And thanks for the enlightenment! Such profound revelations! I am so impressed by such a vast amount of DEEP knowledge! Fuukkk off eh ya dipshit! Next up? How about – did ya know that drinking gasoline as a beverage is not healthy? Another wonderful tid-bit of advice I desperately needed to know! Here is another gem: Sucking on a Rattlesnakes tail could get you bit!! Fuk, the stunning revelations just keep coming! – and lastly Water is wet! (imagine that!) Bet ya dint know that did ya? Sheeesh! And yeah, like I wanna train w/ this great guru of the frightened masses. 

I hear not your weak words my angry young billy bob. And if I were trapped where no other options exist I WILL FIGHT. Knife, no knife, gun or club. I will fight. The flip side of this is? Freeze, freak out and as a lamb to slaughter so shall thee go. WHY? Because the experts you believe in are NOT experts or warriors. The advice they offer is no advice at all! They are salesmen, limited thinkers, defeatists or losers simply trying to make a buck off your fear. May these liars and fakes someday face a real knife man and be carved to pieces for putting forth such evil shit as they constantly do for others who seek help! The depths of their stupidity has no limits, the inadequate level of their advice is dismal. May they all rot in the seven hells of Shaitan!

YES- facing a knife empty handed is fucked up – I don’t need someone to tell me this most obvious fact! And if my options are all out, then what next? You FIGHT! I knew of man trapped in his own house by a killer. This was in Walla Walla. His escape was cut off and the bad guy was armed with a knife who chased him down and killed him. What if he had not ran but FOUGHT? What if he sprinted to the kitchen, grabbed a chair, another knife or a cutting board etc and fought back? There are times that running away is not available as in that case – so then should we all just roll over and die as these knife defense experts tell us too? No, not in my makeup, you might get cut up, you might even be killed, but FIGHT back DAMMIT – fight back and find that chance, create that chance to live by being being bold and ruthless enough to turn the tables on the fucking attacker. It quickly then becomes “Surprise motherfucker – ya dint think I’d fight back, but I did and now YOU are dead instead of me”! (Just watch Scarface a few times, you’ll get the concept of which I speak).

This is the mindset you gotta have after all other options have been tried. To think otherwise is to lose before the fight is even began. And this is the end result of what these people who are putting this crap out wish you to believe? Fuck them, fuck their products and fuck their ill-fated logic of certain death or injury. Not as long as I am alive is my death certain, and if it is, then by God I’ll do everything I can to take my killer with me right into the grave! We both die then. Shazam weaklings, Zip-a-dee-do dah losers. Keep your weak advice for those who seek such worthless weakness. They wear their stupidity like badges of honor! Babblers, pants shitters and traitors to all that is good, reasonable and strong. Piss off – I will heed no words from thy evil shit filled mouths! Just pathetic scared monkey sounds of defeat and fear cleverly couched as “common sense” and sound advice for marketing purposes. OMG what a curse this plague of cowardice & greed has become! What has happened to my beloved country and its once brave people?  

OUTLINE FOR SHIHONAGE FROM THE EIGHT SUBURI

The eight basic sword forms are a set that provide a frame work that can be translated for empty hand.  In this regard, the sword forms are concepts that inform the empty hand techniques, specifically shihonage.

Form 1. Gyakuhanmi katatedori, step back – bone lock
Form 2. Gyakuhanmi katatedori, step forward – bone lock
Form 3. Gyakuhanmi katatedori, tenkan
Form 4. Gyakuhanmi katatedori, drawing/lead tenkan
Form 5. Aihanmi katatedori, palm up, thumb over, back foot moves 90 degrees back, front foot follows – hands lock at point of contact – uke elbow pronates in
Form 6. Aihanmi katatedori, palm up, thumb over, back foot moves 90 degrees forward (cross body), front foot follows – same hand lock
Form 7. Aihanmi katatedori, palm up, thumb over, tenkan
Form 8. ‘Basic’ Gyakuhanmi katatedori – present palm up – front leg starts 90 degrees – palm vertical

PERCEPTUAL SPEED

As I grow older, I worry that my vision will continue to degrade. During my last eye exam, my optometrist asked me my age, 50, I answered. “Ah, your eyes will continue to go to shit until about 65 and then it will level out.” Candid, but not reassuring.

Eyesight is very important to me and mine isn’t great. It also impedes my combat-efficacity.

I took my boys to Threat Dynamics to do some interactive simulated shooting and live-fire range time. Threat Dynamics has a 300-degree interactive environment that forces you to engage random targets which can appear all around you. There are auditory signals that clue you in on where they will appear, but you have to orient, observe and react before they disappear. Despite me having far more training and familiarity with handguns, both my boys scored better than I did. My reaction time was as good and my accuracy better than theirs, but my perceptual speed was worse. The targets I found and saw, I hit, but I didn’t see as many as they did.

JKD segments and classifies types of speed. Perceptual speed is crucial to your reactionary time. In order to react to a threat, you first need to observe the threat, then orient on it in order to decide what to do and act accordingly (OODA). What range time reminds me is that I have a challenge with both perceptual acuity as well as orientation (the time it takes to recognize a threat). I also noticed this when hunting sage rats – I wasn’t nearly as quick to spot the varmints as the other hunters – and I don’t think it was simply my lack of experience.

Perceptual speed is probably the single most important type of speed for survival. And arguably it is a deep part of our genetic inheritance. In The Fruit, the Tree, and the Serpent: Why We See So Well (2009), Lynne Isbell cogently argues that our visual acuity results from the need to quickly identify predatory threats, specifically snakes. The hypothesis she develops is that predatory pressure from snakes selected for threat detection, thus snakes were responsible for the development of primate vision which is now our most developed sensory interface and results in the disproportionately large size of the pulvinar region of the brain.[1]

Fortunately for me, perceptual speed in monomachy is not focused on visual identification as much as it is on the detection of motion and intuiting threatening range – seeing furtive movements and understanding combat distance.

In weapons training, I have focused on teaching the points along the continuum of motion to recognize as cues that merit a response. Recognizing those moments requires rote repetition to be sure – practice and more practice to ingrain the pattern and see the openings. But rote repetition needs refinement to learn to see the tsuki (openings). We have focused on finding these moments along the descending arc of the opponent’s sword because those brief time intervals are when possibility expands to counter-cuts, stop hits and disarms.

Learning to see those moments is the focus of training as soon as the pattern (kumitachi) is ingrained. Move beyond the rote and learn to identify opportunities created by the logic-chain.

Once you have learned to see openings, the next step is learning to anticipate them by reading the intention of your opponent.

How does one do that? Don’t fire until you see the white of their eyes!

Human eyes differ from great apes by having sclera – the white surrounding the pupil. This allows us to read each other’s focus – and we watch each other intently, recursive attention: We watch the other’s eyes to see what holds their attention. What do they want? If I know what they want I can predict their behavior. This is a critical social skill to master and we do it reflexively.

And as students of the martial arts, we need to exploit reflexive behavior in others while training/controlling our own. By watching the focal point of your opponent, you can anticipate their target. Hence the corollary strategy of hiding your eyes.

Master at Arms James Keating frequently wears dark glasses. Why?

Look into my eyes

Eye-protection during training, yes, but the habit is deeper – much harder to read his intention. Disguise your intentions.

Misdirection is another key skill to develop – learn to look both no where (mushin no shin) and intensively at false targets. By shifting your gaze you can lead an opponent. And you lead by moving your pupil and that movement is transmitted by the contrast of the sclera showing providing the background, the field of movement.

The level of concentration is paramount in weapons training. The physical exertion isn’t as important as the mental focus. Each cut should be a kill-stroke, therefore each cut needs intense visual focus. You see what you aim at.[2] This concentration can be disguised and then used for misdirection.

Play with misdirection. You can do this in everyday conversations to practice. In the course of normal conversation, quickly shift your focus on something behind your interlocutor and watch their reaction. Do they break their focus to follow yours? It’s a game to develop the skill.

The things you do everyday are not mundane – they are of paramount importance! Statistically you repeat these actions the most. So integrate your training into these actions.

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[1] Inquiry continues to both validate and disprove her hypothesis but I look to two salient facts: Ophidiophobia (phobia of snakes) is one of the most common and intense phobias among the general population and intriguingly, ayahuasca celebrants report snakes as the most common vision. One also could expand the thesis to account for dragons, which are an amalgam of predators of primates: snake, cat, and raptor.

[2] The negative side of this is tunnel vision – focus on the single problem in front of you to the dangerous exclusion of all other input. Once you master the ability to focus on your target, you need to move to the next level of breaking tunnel vision – see the entirety (the Gestalt) of the situation.

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Scientifically study human perception and Kant’s inquiry of the ding an sich dissolves in the acid test of biology and pragmatics. The very possibility of a thing in itself, not mediated through perception by the senses or conceptualization, can be dismissed entirely. Human perception and reality is comprised of ‘affordances.’ In his Ecological Approach to Visual Perception (1979), Gibson develops the argument that our perception is mediated at a deep level by biological demands. Thus, we do not see a “cliff” but rather a ‘place to fall from’ and we do not see “rock” but a ‘thing that can be thrown.’ This has profound implications. Gone is the Kantian imperative that people are not means to an end, since every object is perceived as nothing more than a tool (a thing that helps us to get to achieve our goal) or an obstacle (a negative impediment to our progress). Consider being at a party with friends and acquaintances. A fire erupts and one time ‘acquaintances’ and ‘friends’ become concrete obstacles that limit your access to the exit. We are built to see the world at a level of resolution to bifurcate our perceptual classification into tools and obstacles (threats). Layer Darwinian selection on this concept of affordances and one must acknowledge that this classification system is a selected survival mechanism. Inspiration >here<