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VIRTUALREALITYEnhance

Your StreetSurvivabilitywithTonyBlauer’sCutting-Edge Self-DefenseDrill!

byDR. ERIC COBB

IT SEEMS THAT THESE DAYS, violence is on therise, and prosecution of the good guys has reached an all-time high. As a savvy martial artist, you already know theimportance of learning a real-life street-survival curricu-lum that teaches more than just physical techniques. Yourealize that at some point in your training, you’ll have toaddress the question of “appropriateness”—in otherwords, the belief that every encounter is different and mayrequire protective skills that range from verbally defus-ing a potentially violent situation to terminating a threat

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in a life-or-death moment.Tony Blauer, creator of the SPEAR

system (see the March and April 2000issues of Black Belt) and president ofTactical Confrontation ManagementSystems, has developed a progressiveset of drills to address that need. It’sdesigned to instill confidence instudents by teaching them theappropriateness of a variety ofresponses to any given assault. Thedrills constitute a major portion of hislaw-enforcement courses, and they’reevery bit as valuable for civiliansinterested in personal defense.Collectively called the Live ActionResponse Drill, they are among themost important training toolsavailable to martial artists today.

ExtenuatingCircumstances

If you were to poll a group ofmartial arts students with a simplequestion—Is a two-handed shove alethal-force attack?—most wouldquickly say it’s not. Perhaps you’reamong them. But what if the shovetakes place on the curb of a busy streetor at the edge of a bridge? Can the

Depending on the circumstances, a shove can be interpreted as improper physicalcontact or a life-threatening assault. Therefore, you must learn how to respond withdifferent levels of force.

Tony Blauer (left) teaches that thosewho are willing to talk can usually bepersuaded to walk. It is the essence ofhis verbal-defuse tactic.

recipient of such a push sustain alethal injury? Of course.

Imagine this scenario: You answera knock at your door in the earlyevening. At soon as your hand turnsthe knob, the door is shoved open,knocking you backward. You’re thengrabbed by the shirt and pushedagainst the wall. As you recover yoursenses, you think about how you canrespond. Will you thrust your fingersinto your attacker’s eyes? Will you pullthe knife from your pocket and beginslicing and dicing? Will you grab animprovised weapon from the table andslam it into his face?

Before you answer, consider onemore bit of information: The

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knife. How does that affect yourmind-set and response? Other factorscan further complicate your job. Forexample, how would you respond ifyou were home alone? What if yourspouse and children were in the liv-ing room watching television? Eachscenario dictates a different response.When you begin to view your train-ing from this perspective, the need forcreative drills that teach appropriate-ness becomes all the more apparent.

That’s where the Live ActionResponse Drill comes in. Itfamiliarizes you with four potentiallyappropriate responses to any givenassault: verbal defuse, verbal defuseleading to stun-and-run tactics, verbaldefuse leading to stun-and-controltatcit

“attacker” is your younger brother,who’s just returned from boot camp.He’s out to show you how tough he isnow that he’s made it through andearned his first leave. Now, are any ofthe responses listed above or the onesthat ran though your head when youfirst visualized this scenarioappropriate? Probably not.

More Than PhysicalOne of the greatest dangers of

studying the martial arts is that youcan wind up learning only physicalresponses for dealing with threats. Itbrings to mind an old saying: If allyou’ve got is a hammer, everythingbegins to look like a nail. In martialarts speak: If you always train torespond to physical aggression withextreme violence, you’re less likely tothink about talking your way out. Andthat can leave you on shaky ground—legally, ethically and morally.

Review the scenario describedabove but make the imaginary at-tacker a masked man with a Bowie

WinningAll the Battles

Whenever Tony Blauer instructsnew students, he points out an of-ten-overlooked fact: Real-world con-frontations require a toolbox that’sdifferent from the one you use inthe dojo or the ring.

While traditional training meth-ods, drills and sparring exercisescan improve your conditioning, flex-ibility, speed, strength and tool de-velopment, they rarely instill themoral, legal and ethical platformsnecessary to survive on the streetstoday.

To drive home that point, Blauercreated a principle called the ThreeFights. A favorite among progres-sive law-enforcement trainers, itstates that in any fight, there areactually three separate battles:• You vs. you (requiring fear man-agement, correct mind-set, etc.)• You vs. your opponent (requiringrealistic personal-defense skills)• You vs. the legal system (requir-ing an understanding of self-de-fense law).

Each battle demands a differentset of skills and tactics, and theLive Action Response Drill isamong the most useful tools fordeveloping your capabilities tofunction in each one. When per-formed with intensity and focus, itwill teach you much about yourself,your ability to control your fear andyour capacity for dealing with theemotional and psychological stressthat is sure to follow.

It also offers a safe and effec-tive method for pressure-testingyour tools and tactics against anopponent, and that’s a vital step indeveloping real-world efficacy. Per-haps most important, it provides afoundation of appropriate re-sponses to different threats, whichwill empower you to articulate howand why you acted the way you didto protect yourself. —E.C.

Not every self-defense encounter requires a martial artist to terminate his assailant,says Tony Blauer (right). Often it is enough to follow a stun-and-run or stun-and-controlmethodology.

Tony Blauer’s stun-and-control tactic usually begins with a disorienting strike, thenmoves on to a grappling technique designed to hold the assailant until help arrives.

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tactics, and verbal defuse leading totermination of the threat. Thefollowing is a brief examination ofthem and the ways they can apply toan attack.

Verbal DefuseA TCMS maxim holds that those

who are willing to talk can usually bepersuaded to walk. Put differently, if apotential attacker has not yetphysically assaulted you, there’s a goodchance that appropriate verbal skillscan de-escalate the tension and allowthe involved parties to walk awayunscathed.

Verbally defusing a situation is anart and science in and of itself, one thatwarrants extensive study of predator/prey psychology, choice speechpatterns and other verbal tools. For themajority of martial artists, it’s the mostoverlooked part of training.

Verbal Defuse Leading toStun-and-Run Tactics

If you’re unable to verbally defusean assault, in many instances thewisest and safest course of action, fromboth a physical and legal perspective,is to create enough distance and timeto escape the threat. Stun-and-runtactics typically utilize quick, non-telegraphic strikes to disorient andpsychologically unbalance the attackerlong enough to enable you to flee.Again, this is something to which mostmartial artists devote insufficient time.

When you examine the conceptthat what you do in training is whatyou’ll do in real life—only at a lowerskill level—the need to practice theactual physical tactics of stun-and-runbecomes evident. An example involvesplacing two chairs at one end of the

To be realistic, martial arts training must include plenty of practice of the physicaltechniques that will serve you best on the street. Here, Tony Blauer (left) faces anassailant (1). As the man initiates a roundhouse kick (2), Blauer slams a low kickinto his supporting leg while making sure he protects his head (3).

1

2

3

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dojo and designating the area betweenthem as a safety zone. During practice,the defender is tasked with stunningthe attacker, then running to safety. It’san incredibly beneficial drill, especiallywhen incorporated into women’s andchildren’s self-defense classes.

Verbal Defuse Leading toStun-and-Control Tactics

In many instances, it becomesnecessary not only to stun an attackerafter verbal attempts have failed, butalso to control him until theauthorities arrive or other helpmaterializes. That’s why the nextsection of Blauer’s drill uses the actualphysical tactics that come into play—usually a combination of non-telegraphic strikes and street-smartgrappling moves.

When would stun-and-control beappropriate? Again, the scenariodictates everything. Perhaps you’re anightclub doorman who’s forced todeal with a belligerent patron. Maybethe attacker is a drunken relative whois insisting on driving himself homeand growing physically violent at youroffers to be his designated driver. Theonly limitation to this part of thedrill—and the application of itslesson—is your imagination.

Verbal Defuse Leading toTermination of the Threat

In stage four of the drill, ending thethreat is the directive. The emphasisis now on employing your full close-quarters arsenal to debilitate theattacker as quickly as possible. AnotherTCMS maxim—real fights happen inthe space of a phone booth—can helpyou overcome any challenges you mayencounter here. For best results,concentrate on developing yourproficiency at executing elbow strikes,knee thrusts, head butts, eye gouges,pinches and bites.

Back to the BeginningNow, return to the original scenario

and visualize a situation involving the

same attack. You can choose any oneof the four responses taught in theLive Action Response Drill. It changesthings, doesn’t it?

You should now be able to applythis knowledge to all types of poten-tially dangerous encounters. You’llfind that your decision-making skillshave improved dramatically and yourphysical tactics have become more re-fined. In short, you’re better preparedto handle violence while minimizing

the legal and moral entanglementsthat often follow the use of force.

About the author: Dr. Eric Cobb isa free-lance writer, combatives trainerand chiropractic physician. He hasstudied jujutsu, kenpo, taekwondoand pentjak silat serak. He is also acertified Personal Defense Readinesscoach for Blauer Tactical Systems. Formore information, visit http://www.tonyblauer.com.

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