Thanks for opting in for my Self Defense Combat Training Reports.
Below is the 1st of your 12 issues. I trust this will be the most useful series of reports you'll ever receive, packed with insights into a world you may not have had much exposure to.
In this series I'm not just going to give you a few techniques to ward off a local thug. Nope. You see, when you train in my system I guarantee that what you learn will keep you alive should you ever become involved in a violent confrontation.
But to do that, you need to know something about principles -- about the 'why' -- of what you're doing, as well as the techniques. It's training your mind along with your body. Without it, you're doing what everyone else is doing -- just learning techniques for specific situations. And in an upcoming report I'll explain why this is recipe for DISASTER.
So welcome aboard. Let's get started.
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Self Defense Report #1:
The Most Critical Decision
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Before we can even get started, you have to answer this question:
"What do I want out of training?"
Are you here to hone your competitive edge, learn an extra trick or two they've never seen in the ring before, increase your athletic performance? Or are you here to learn how to take out criminals, how to survive--scratch that--WIN in potentially lethal violent conflict?
I'm constantly surprised by the number of people who never even consider what their ultimate goal in training is. It's not a casual question--your goal should color the way you train, and vice-versa--knowing what you want gives you a yardstick to constantly measure both the appropriateness and veracity of your training, as well as giving you a way to know you're done. In short, you better make sure you're climbing the ladder under the right balcony, or you could end up eloping with the wrong person...
If you've answered the above question with 'competition,' then you're in luck--there are many great places to get excellent qualified instruction in martial arts and combat sports. You'll really have very little problem finding schools where you can safely pit yourself against others to see who's the fastest, strongest, and who has the most cunning technique under the watchful eye of a judge or referee.
You'll also get hammered into the best shape of your life--the conditioning and athleticism of the modern combat sports competitor is second to none.
Unfortunately, if 'sport fighting' is your thing, there's not much I can do for you. You'll probably find very little utility in this newsletter. In fact, you may even want to unsubscribe, to save your inbox the clutter. No hard feelings. If you'd like, go ahead and finish this issue to better understand the reasons why.
As for the other answer to that question, if you're interested in knowing how to navigate life-or-death criminal violence, then this is indeed the right place.
You see, in upcoming issues I'll throw some provocative stuff at you, give you insights you've likely never been exposed to, challenge other stuff you may hold as absolute.
It's my goal with this newsletter to arm you with the necessary information to confidently seek out the most effective hand-to-hand combat training.
Before we get to that there's one more group I'd like to address, in fact, it's these people I'm hoping to reach most: the ones who answer...
"I want to do both!"
And the answer to that is simple.
YOU CAN'T.
It's nice to think you can. In many ways I wish it were so. But the hard fact is that you do what you train.
Let me say that again:
YOU DO WHAT YOU TRAIN.
What do I mean by this? I mean that whatever it is that you spend your time practicing is what will hop out of you when you need it. If you train to wrestle, and you get in a bar fight, you'll wrestle--and chances are you'll be okay. The price for failure in a bar fight is usually humiliation, not death. But should you find yourself in a life-or-death situation, guess what? You'll wrestle. Because that's what you trained. There's not magical transference of skill just because you realize the penalty for failure could be death. You'll do what you've always done. Period.
Now, if you've spent all that time training to hurt people, to put them down so they can't get back up, if you've been training for criminal violence, then that's what you'll do when your life depends on it. Again, no magic, just whatever it is you've spent your time doing. In the end, that's all you've got.
Remember that line about goals coloring your training (and vice-versa)? Here's where that gets so critical. What is the goal of competition? Is it to put your opponent in the hospital? To cripple them and end their career? To kill them? While some of the ringside rhetoric might have you believe those are the goals, they are most certainly all inappropriate. You, yourself, probably wouldn't step into the ring if any of that were true. In fact, the rules of the game are carefully constructed to prevent any of that happening. The rules are there to allow rigorous competition while keeping you safe. (Not from bumps and bruises, of course--but from disability and death.)
What is the goal of violence? It's hurting people. It's doing all the things that aren't allowed in competition because they're so awful and effective. It's doing the things that put the man in the hospital or the morgue. Not appropriate for the vast majority of situations--but when someone wants to kill you, it makes perfect sense. That's the only time it does.
If you train with rules, you'll stick to the rules when your life depends on you chucking them. If you drag your rules into that life-or-death situation, they'll hold you back and hold you down while the other guy has no such limitations. Think about it--'criminal violence' is hallmarked by a total lack of regard for rules, everything from common courtesy all the way up to the Big One, Thou Shalt Not Kill.
If someone's chucked all the rules and decided to come after you, your best bet is to do the same. And, of course, everyone assumes they will--you'd be an idiot not to, right? Except for that pesky fact:
YOU DO WHAT YOU TRAIN.
Here's an unfortunate, real-world example:
A skilled and successful combat sports competitor was jumped by two men in a Vegas parking lot. They had knives. He dropped the first one with a classic takedown--knocking him unconscious. The second man came at him with the knife. The competitor got hold of the man's arm, laid back and locked it up in a textbook arm bar.
At this point, things are working out beautifully--his training is paying off.
Until it all went wrong.
The guy tapped out.
And the competitor let go of the arm with the knife.
The man stabbed him multiple times, leaving him with lifelong issues related to the injury.
The good news is that he survived. The bad news is that his training almost got him killed.
I know what you're thinking. "No one in their right mind would choose to let go of the arm with the knife!" And you're correct--no one would willingly choose that action if the choice were presented to them any other time. But that's the funny thing about training--you're ingraining your choices ahead of time, patterning yourself for the way you want to behave in future situations. And you're stuck with it.
No magic, no 'life-or-death effectiveness' even though you realize that's what's on the line. You do what you train.
So, what is your goal for training?
Until next time,
Tim Larkin
Creator of Target-Focus Training
http://www.targetfocustraining.com
And as time permits, I'll answer selected questions.
Submit your questions at: comments@targetfocustraining.com
If someone forwarded this newsletter for you to read, be sure and sign up for your own personal copy at:
http://www.targetfocustraining.com
There you'll find the tools that can help you survive a violent criminal attack.
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