I hate competing, in whatever facet the competition is. Whether it is a Brazilian Jiu-jitsu event, a USPSA pistol match, a local two or three gun event, or anything where I can publicly lose, I hate them all.

I have no issue with anything about it technically or philosophically mind you. I don’t think it leads to bad habits, or gives you training scars, or makes you a thuggish meathead. To the contrary, on all those points – I think those are all low percentage things that will only happen when we are lazy. So why do I personally hate competing?

Because it scares me to death, every single time I do it!

I know that may sound odd, considering that I compete fairly regularly. In fact, as I write this, I am five days past participating in the BJJ Pan-American Championships. And not only did I compete; I took home a silver medal where I was particularly proud of my performance in my first match (where I controlled and dictated everything that happened in the match).

And in all truth, I was a nervous wreck right up to the moment I walked towards the mat for the first match. The previous hour or so spent in the warm up area, waiting for the call up was hell on me emotionally and mentally. As was the day or two prior as I started to realize my time was coming. And even after doing this for years (my first BJJ competition was 1996), it was about as tough as the first time I ever competed. I truly believe that it may very well always be like this, no matter how much I participate in these tournaments.

I spend the vast majority of that time in the run up to a match at mental war with myself. “Hey, just leave. No one will miss you.” “You are hurt. That knee/wrist/elbow/shoulder/back thingy is bad and you should not push yourself this way.” “What do you have to prove?” “What if you get hurt?” “You are in L.A.! There are so many more fun things to do. Let’s go to Curry House or Pinks and pig out!” And on, and on, and on. Those kind of thoughts are a constant train running through my brain. Torture. Just plain torture.

So, having said all that – how it pains me so much, and how flat out scared I am – why then do I continue to do it? As a matter of fact, just last night I was looking into how soon I could repeat the process and was thinking about going to the Las Vegas Open in May.

Why put myself through all that? The answer is simple. I do it BECAUSE I am scared!

Here is my thought process. If I am so disturbed –physically, mentally, and emotionally, no matter what, but I am still able to go out and perform to some degree, then how can I consider that anything but an overwhelming win? Does not that indicate some form of fighting mindset? Or a triumph of will? George Patton said “Courage is fear holding on a minute longer”. And shouldn’t that sort of thing be practiced, the same way we practice a throw, or a draw stroke, or a weight-lifting movement?
If the ability to fight through all the negatives is a skill we need to work, then we should not shirk as many opportunities as we can to do so. That is how I base my choice to compete.

Now, I am not suggesting that competing is the only way to do this. Nor am I saying it is mandatory. For me, though, it is. Even if I am close to peeing myself waiting to have my name called………..

There are some things in the martial arts and tactical training communities that bother me. I generally try to ignore them. At the very least, I try to not talk about them publicly, because some of those irritants (pet peeves if you will) can seem minor in the greater scheme of things. Occasionally however, they bubble up to the surface and I have to vent. Today is one of those times.

There is a really weird and distasteful thing you see in demos by some instructors in which, to put it as mildly as possible, they abuse their demo partners. It truly turns my stomach.

Many times it is a very small and subtle thing. The instructor is showing some cool move, does it really fast (often accompanied by his own vocal sound effects), and puts a bit more pressure on the demo victim, just to get a little more “oomph” into it and get the crowd to do a little mental “wow”. Often, the extra energy in the technique happens when the move involves a shifting of the body – maybe showing the instructor’s variation of a headlock takedown, he twists the other guy’s head a little more so there is a bug and visible shift. But all too often it also involves out and out striking, where the equivalent of a sucker punch is thrown. Maybe with a few “cycling hammerfists” making contact and the accompanying thud of the partner’s defenseless body. One of the ways to tell if this move is coming is if the instructor goes from a relaxed movement to suddenly going to super-intent and balls out speed. After the demo partner is trying to shake off the effects of the abuse, the instructor usually exudes the body language of a very smug self-satisfaction. It is so vile.

Of course, the demo partner feels the need to look tough so he says or does nothing about it. But this does not alleviate one bit the veil of scumbag-ness that is now on the instructor. How bad ass are you if you have to truly hit someone who is standing there and essentially giving you free reign?

Honestly, I think this is a deep reveal of the shallow character and deep insecurity of the instructor. His only way of showing what a monster fighter he is, comes about by hitting an unsuspecting target. Yeah, real cool. This trend can be so bad that people who regularly train with these type of instructors actually exhibit almost a flinch during training, similar to someone subject to regular spousal abuse.

The funny part is that you almost never see this in the combat sports. It is rare to see a BJJ person crank a submission extra hard while teaching, or a wrestler drive his demo partner smashing into the ground while showing a takedown. I cannot ever remember a boxer or Muay Thai instructor ever taking a cheap shot on me. My Savate instructor, Salem Assli, was huge on ALWAYS making contact even in light technique practice, and there was never one time in five years of one on one training where he ever sunk in an extra hard shot while teaching (in sparring was a different story! ). On the contrary, most times there is an obvious attempt by the doer to protect the other person.

I find it amusing that in the arts where there is constant contact and full pressure comes to bear all the time, there is so little of the cheap shots that accompany those arts that are more “street”, yet have little real or alive pressure to deal with. Perhaps if the martial art/RBSD instructors spent more time training real techniques and were able to continually see the effects, they would not be so insecure and less likely to sucker punch their compliant victims?

A terrific article by noted coach Phil Wright from the UK. Check it out:

http://blog.revolutiongym.co.uk/2015/03/02/the-ooda-loop-analytical-thinking-under-pressure/

Recently, I saw where a guy who knows in his heart that his black belt in Brazilian Jiu-jitsu is not that legitimate artificially “aged” his belt. It looks like it has been worn by someone who has had the belt for 15 years! This person is attempting to appear more legitimate so he can strut around on Facebook and in his closed group pretending that he has been at that lofty elevation since the original BJJ invasion, when the obvious truth is that he and his organization are johnny-come-latelies who have nothing to offer.

What he is utterly missing is the point of the belt, and the point of the wear on it.

Many martial art systems have a ranking method. Sometimes it is signified by a belt, sometimes by a color of a patch or shirt, other times by different ways. Why does the belt ranking of BJJ get so much respect, more so than pretty much any other system?

The simple reason is that the belt in BJJ is earned by performance. Period. You can train for a long time, pay money, kiss up to the instructor, etc., but the main arbiter of when you are awarded a belt, is can you perform at that level when matched up to another person at that level? That is it. If you can consistently, then you are at that level. If you can’t, then you are not. If you can regularly roll (spar) against purple belts and threaten them with moves and are able to defend against their moves, then most people will accept you as a purple belt, regardless of what you wear wrapped around your waist that is holding the gi closed.

Take a  look at the above picture. The wear on that belt is honest wear, that comes about through time on the mat. I have been in this are over 20 years. I know how belts “age”. I literally see it every day. It is not difficult to see the difference between real wear, and fake “run it through the washer multiple times after dragging it behind the car for a bit” type wear. Someone who has not really been involved in authentic BJJ might think he can fool people, but not someone who actually walks the walk.

So the belt is only an external validation of what you have already demonstrated. Anyone can just go and buy a belt and wear it on a mat. Anyone can call themselves anything. Watch this video of a supposed black belt meeting up with a real purple belt.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K4lnwLbT4kk

And here is an explanation by the purple belt who did the exposing:

However, in BJJ, since everything revolves around performance, a legitimate BJJ player will roll against anyone at anytime. It does not have to be in a competition (though that is probably the single best indicator of where your level is), or you don’t have to regularly travel to other gyms for training, but you better be willing to publicly test yourself whenever. If you refuse to train outside your closed circle, or you spend all your time telling your students that anyone outside does not follow the true way, you will never know what you can do. If you are not willing to be open and public in how you perform, and refuse to test yourself in a real way, it really does not matter if your belt looks like it was worn by Helio Gracie in the 50’s; you still suck.

Just back from an awesome weekend in Memphis at the Polite Society Tactical Conference hosted by Rangemaster and firearms instructor extraordinaire Tom Givens.

I taught a 3 hour block on using the Default Cover to survive a surprise assault. It went really well, and I am getting some excellent feedback from it.

The event itself is amazing. Some of the best instructors in the world teaching and lecturing. I will have a more in-depth write up soon, but for now, here are some good vids from the event.

First is me looking suave and debonair:

Here is my bud Paul Sharp abusing me in front of people:

Here is the walking tank that is Greg Ellifritz:

Here is part of the shooting match that all the instructors and a good chunk of the attendees participated in:

My buddy and mentor Craig Douglas:

Another close friend passing on real world helpful info:

Chuck Haggard lecturing, and doing it extremely well:

Some of the difficult shooting taught by Shane Ghosa and Lee Weems:

All in all, this is a must attend event. It will be back again next February or March. Start planning now!

I spent the day yesterday at Cowtown Shooting Range in Peoria, AZ filming a new DVD. It is going to cover how to survive the first couple of seconds after a surprise assault, and focuses on staying conscious and in the fight while keeping upright.  It will be another addition to the Personal Defense Network series that I did my first DVD for, and I should have copies to sell later in the year.

I felt much more relaxed and in control this time, in stark contrast to my first DVD, where I walked around shell-shocked the entire time!

I am really looking forward to seeing how this one turns out.

Here is a an article written by “John Mosby”, a friend and former Army Ranger and current firearms instructor. He simply and succinctly sums up anything I could ever have said on the philosophy of how getting on with training.

http://mountainguerrilla.readfomag.com/2015/02/valkyries-valhalla-and-the-way-of-the-samurai-soft-standards-and-the-philosophy-of-stoicism/

The past few weekends I have been going through my attic in preparation for a move. I have a ton of boxes up there that contain 30+years of book, magazines, and newspaper clippings. I will be moving into a smaller place, and I need to go through the boxes to see what can be gotten rid of. Since I have not done this in a very long time, there were a lot of things in the boxes that I had forgotten about.

One of those that I had lost track of was a number of issues of an old magazine called Full Contact. My wife got ticked at me since as I found them, everything came to a screeching halt as I flipped through each issue. But I could not help it since this discovery brought back a flood of good memories.

For those who were not around then, Full Contact was a Martial Arts/Fighting magazine that was published for a short time in the early to mid 90’s. Now, to understand my fondness for the magazine, you have to understand the landscape that we had back then martial art wise.

This was before YouTube, when good instructional videos or DVDs were like finding a needle in a haystack, and mostly before the internet as we know it today as a complete web that ties the world together existed. To find out really anything in the martial art world we were at the mercy of the publication schedule of Black Belt and Inside Kung Fu magazines, along with a small number of lesser mags. And all of them had information that was at best three to four months behind the times. We were also at the mercy of what the editors of those magazines decided was “cool”. If something did not fit their personal likes or beliefs, it was ignored and went under the radar to the masses.

Then, along came Full Contact. It was the first major newsstand publication that focused almost exclusively on the self-defense aspect of martial arts, and how it related to the real world. They even – GASP! – talked about the use of firearms in a positive way, which never happened in the regular martial art magazines. They featured a number of instructors who rarely got publicity like Sonny Umpad, and they allowed those who did get some publicity in the general MA press a much more free hand in articles. In a word, it was a giant breath of fresh air.

Now, that is not to say it was perfect. The editor was sometimes fooled by his own personal bias and often featured people who should not have been featured so heavily (to express it gently). And, now looking back, some of the attitudes were the precursor to the current trend of “tactical” stuff to be ipso facto better, even when it was actually faux tactical and kind of stupid.

Still, I have a lot of fond memories of the magazine, and I think it had an overall positive influence on instructors who came to prominence afterwards. While I am dumping most of the stuff that I had packed away, I am keeping my Full Contact back issues

I get a lot of emails and messages asking for advice and pointers on where to get various gear. It is certainly not a problem for me, since I enjoy corresponding and talking about all things Martial Art/combatives/fighting oriented with interested people all day long. However, I end up writing the same things over and over, so I thought a series of blog articles that cover some of my basic pieces of general gear advice was in order. The first one up for discussion is what boxing gloves do I recommend?

For a good starter glove for someone just getting into the need for working striking skills, go to

http://www.kofightgear.com/sparring_gloves.htm

These are really well made gloves that are properly designed and hold up well under moderate use. You absolutely cannot beat the pricing.

For more dedicated work, or for someone who is getting deeper into a boxing paradigm, I prefer Thai-style gloves. There are a couple of reasons for that. Number one, most of the padding is concentrated over the knuckles where it actually matters. Mexican and American gloves tend to have the padding distributed over the whole glove, including areas that never see impact. Which is kind of goofy, in my opinion, but that is how it is. In reality, lighter Thai gloves are equivalent to heavier American gloves, generally by about two ounces. So a 12 oz Thai glove generally has the same knuckle padding as a 14 oz American or Mexican glove.

The second reason I prefer Thai gloves is that they typically are more snug and have minimal padding around the base of the hand, which makes entangled clinch work slightly easier and more functional. You can do that kind of work with “puffier” gloves, but it is not as convenient nor do you get the feel of the techniques to the same level.

There are a number of Thai brands, the most prominent of which are Fairtex and Twins. I myself prefer Twins. Their gloves seem to mold to my hand just right. Other people feel the exact same way about Fairtex. Twins has a tendency to be slightly cheaper, but a bit harder to find.  There are a number of places to get Thai gloves, including the big places like Ringside. I have had good luck here:

http://www.muaythaistuff.com

If you have more specific questions, feel free to hit me up.

Anytime someone in the tactical firearms community brings up the need for unarmed combatives, many people will inevitably bring up some objections. They range over a number of things, but generally come up with two major ones.

I dealt with one of those in an earlier blog post (http://www.iacombatives.com/2014/07/30/dont-limit-yourself-pt-1/). This time I will tackle the other oft-repeated objection.

That objection is essentially that learning some specific unarmed combative skill set is a waste of time since their individual combat/fighting mindset will see them through any H2H involved violent encounter.

There are a number of fallacies at work here. First of all, if this is what you are counting on, how do you know you have the needed mindset in the first place? Have you ever once demonstrated that you have it and have used it? If not, then why are you assuming it will just be there? It is like buying a Lottery ticket, then spending all your life savings because you “know” you have a winning ticket before it is announced. You are placing a huge bet with the highest stakes, and you don’t know what your cards say.

There is another problem here as well. Let’s say for the sake of the argument that you do have the needed mindset. Why can’t the attacker have as much if not more mindset than you? What if in addition to the initiative of starting the attack, he has developed a killer mindset that leaves yours in the dust. What will you do then? You are behind the curve in acting, you don’t have the physical skills, and he has a more devastating mindset. That is the definition of a “can’t win” scenario.

The third problem is one of logical equivalency. If we take the same logic at work here, and apply it to other things, we see the foolishness. “I don’t need to take any first aid classes. If something happens to my child, I will just have the mindset to get me through.” Or “I don’t need to have gone through medical school. Just let me operate on you. My mindset is awesome and I will know what to do when I cut you open.” Stupid, right? But, that is the exact same logic used in their attempt to dodge the idea of needing to know unarmed skills.

Another way of stating this logical fallacy that hits closer to home for some of those who object to training H2H methods  is “I don’t need to practice with my gun, or take instruction from a reputable teacher. When I am attacked, I will just pull out my gun and take care of business.” I guarantee you that if you used that statement in any online firearm discussion forum or on Facebook, you would be raked over the coals. But the same people who would excoriate you for the above statement will then in the next breath use the exact same argument to dismiss their need for H2H training. You cannot have it both ways. If we have a need as well as a responsibility to learn how to use a firearm in a self-defense situation, then the same need and responsibility is there in the realm of unarmed combatives.

However, the biggest fallacy lies elsewhere. This is the whole underlying idea that even if you have the right mindset, it will somehow, magically, give you the ability to defeat someone who has the initiative and more aggression and greater physical skills. Sorry to disabuse you of this, but mindset is not like spinach to Popeye. You don’t just ingest a swallow of it and are then able to thrash Brutus. It is not a magic pill or some special talisman. It cannot give you abilities that you don’t have in the first place. You are not the Hulk, and you need something more than anger to power you up.

Take a look at the following video. It is an excellent summation of everything I have written. Notice that the bigger, stronger, more physically intimidating person is completely aware of what is happening. He is not taken by surprise and has had time to work himself up to a fighting rage. He verbally engages the smaller and obviously younger opponent, and gives every indication he has prepped himself for the fight, and indeed, he even launches the first strike! Also notice that as he finds himself in an inferior position taking a beating, he does what many pro-mindset superiority people promote – he engages in “dirty tactics” and any action possible to win the fight, including striking to the face as he is being choked, and even slamming the smaller guy onto asphalt.  And watch where it gets him:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ZNt1-S6Ba0

Not how absolutely nothing he did had any effect whatsoever. He unleashed every trick in the book, and had the double extra advantage of initiating the fight as well as having the superior physical attributes. Throughout, he exhibited a dedicated “mindset” to fight. And the results were a complete and total loss. The only reason he is even alive at the end of the video is solely because the smaller person decided not to do any more damage. That is it. Period. Superior skill set wins out. End of story. And this will be the same story in 98% of similar situations.

Edited to add: Something I forgot to mention earlier, but was pointed out by a buddy (thanks Phil!) – Also in the video, note how the bigger guy taps. In the sport/friendly training world, this is an acceptance of defeat and is a signal to the winner that he  has the submission hold on tight and has succeeded and can let go. In the Reality Based Self-Defense (RBSD) world, they will say that when you train with tapping, you will go on autopilot in the real world and let go and then get killed when the other guy continues the attack. This video shows what an utter load of crap that is. Tapping is always a conscious act in a training context and is not done by rote. Only someone who has never put any real time into serious pressure tested training would say something so completely unproven.

I am not advocating a lack of attention to developing combative mindset. Far from it. I would actually tell you that training a fighting H2H method against resisting opponents BUILDS true fighting mindset. I would also say that is the desired result. However, if you think mindset is something that during a fight will give you superpowers and allow you to prevail against a trained opponent, well; you may as well stick your nose back into a comic book because that is where that attitude belongs. Mindset comes about through demonstrated success, not in some fantasy that plays out in your head.

Take the time and spend a bit of energy to build a decent level of empty hand self-defense techniques that have been proven to work, and then add in some mindset. The result will work much better than trying to be lazy and take a cheap, mentally masturbatory shortcut.