This video provides some interesting insight into an aspect of criminal assaults that often gets overlooked.

I am not going to cover the situational awareness aspect of this. My dear friend William April of April Risk Consulting does a terrific job of that for this incident on his Instagram page. Read his wise words here:

What I want to talk about here is the lack of efficacy of the attack. This is a perfect storm for the bad guy. He has all the time he wants to set up his attack, he is able to initiate completely from behind, and the victim is totally clueless to what is going on even after the first stab. And the result? Not that much! Multiple stabs in the back, and the victim appears to have been almost unaffected.

This is an excellent view into the reality of a knife attack, and it gives us great observation into using a knife for self-defense. Too many pro-knife instructors blithely advocate techniques that are not that far off from how this bad guy is using his blade. The typical knife that can be carried for most people in the modern world is going to have a blade length of 4 inches and less, which if you look at the knife used in this attack and compare, the knife we will have is essentially smaller. Using something like that is categorically light years away from using a giant Bowie knife or Japanese wazi-kashi. Assuming that the effects from a big blade translate to a much, much smaller blade is foolish in the extreme. As well, thinking that with a small knife you are going to penetrate deeply enough with a slash to reach tendons and ligaments is just as wrong-headed. With the stabs done in this video, there was not much damage done, so what will be actually accomplished with a slash that by definition cannot go as deep?

This is not a putdown of using a knife in the self-protection mode. Not at all. In fact, I am a strong advocate for just that. But we have to be realistic in our approach, and we cannot arbitrarily think we can just swing or stab away to get the job done. We have to have a specific tactical plan of action that is supported by concurrent techniques, along with some dedicated pressure testing and drilling to make sure we can pull it off on demand. And always have the idea that it could fail and that we need back up plans. Anything less is going through life with big blinders on.

A wonderfully illustrative video:

This viral vid has attracted a lot of commentary, and most of it centers around either the fact that it shows how poor situational awareness leads to bad outcomes, or if she had only been armed to fight back.

I don’t disagree with either of those, but that is not what I want to focus on. Rather, let’s look at a well worn trope that is often thrown out there. There are a number of pithy phrases that get trotted out in the tactical self-defense world and one of them is that if you cannot use your firearm, than just “run away”. Like most of these tropes, it sounds good in shorthand, and it appeals to our sense of simplicity. But how does it work in real life? Well, when people talk like that, it is usually from the safety of their keyboard when they are nice and comfortable, and also when there are no issues in the way, such as injury or illness, or particular circumstance. The reality is shown by this video. She tries to run away. She abandons her purse and tries to flee. How well does that work? Not at all. One of the attackers is more physically capable and easily runs her down. Note that she is on a flat surface with no obstructions and does not hesitate to start to run, and yet it is all for naught. She is caught and thrown violently around. She is lucky that these criminals were only interested in her property, and not her, because she was helpless.

My point is not that running away is bad or useless. My point is that we as a community must step away from the simplistic and deal with real answers to keep people safe. Don’t settle for glib advice. Look at the real world, and how things can actually happen, and start to plan for those worst case scenarios.

https://www.timeslive.co.za/news/south-africa/2019-02-20-watch–mzansi-rages-about-mugging-and-motorists-who-ignored-victim/

This is an interesting video for a few reasons.

1. Every time someone promotes any grappling in a self-defense context, the same insipid, moronic comment is trotted out “you will get your head kicked in by his buddy”. This is on the same level as “ma booger hook” for intelligence quotient. This video amply demonstrates why context matters and there is no hard and fast, black/white rule. It was the grappler who had someone essentially helping and the non-grappler who was outnumbered. This is life. You may be flying solo, but you may also often have people by your side. Well, you do if you are not a keyboard warrior who spends more time on the ‘net in his mother’s basement that is. In that case, you probably won’t be going out on the town with a friend.

• Note the complete and utter domination of the grappler. The other guy literally cannot do anything. He is as helpless as a baby. Note also that he is not particularly smaller than the grappler, nor is he physically frail or weak, but it is irrelevant. The grappler has zero problems doing whatever he decides to do. THIS is the reality that non-grapplers fail to grasp. They will pontificate about how they can eye gouge, or hit the balls, or access a weapon while the “sport grappler” is doing his thing when the truth is they will be controlled and their actions will be completely dictated by the experienced grappler. Find a moment in that video when the non-grappler had any realistic chance to do any of the typical counter moves advocated by some people. Hint: you won’t find it.

For all that he did right, the grappler had an ENORMOUS mindset failure. William April continually harps on the fallacy of projecting your world view on others. Here is a perfect example of why that is dangerous. The grappler obviously felt the fight was over. The other guy however, thought otherwise. This is not a mistake that is limited to grapplers. Most people fall into this. That is why we need to study and understand how criminals think as well as act. Do not fall into the trap of thinking that the fight is over until you have made sure it is over

I don’t give a flying bag of monkey crap how good you are when you have had a couple of hours to warm up, are doing it by yourself, have no impartial judge to watch, and pick and choose your performance examples. If you think that showing the results of a drill that you shot 23 times before recording is equivalent to a guy performing cold and on demand in public to someone else’s standard and judgment, then you are an idiot. Shot a sub 5 second FAST but never seem to show up to a class where you can actually try for a coin? Cool story dude.

 If you are the guy who loudly proclaims that some NFL QB sucks, and you go on to say that he should have checked off the first receiver and thrown to the third guy, but have not yourself touched a football since you were a scrub water bearer in high school, you are an idiot.

If you tell everyone at Buffalo Wild Wings that some UFC fighter sucks and that he should have had a smarter game plan for the match, but always seem to have some excuse about why you don’t train, you are an idiot.

If you tell a black belt that has been actively teaching BJJ since 2004 that the t-shirt choke he shows will never work, but then fail to show up to a seminar (at no charge done in your area) to show in person why that is true, you are an idiot.

If you tell everyone that you have an unstoppable guard pass, but somehow never seem able to go to a competition in which you would obviously take the gold, then you are an idiot.

If you tell the world that BJJ guys are vulnerable to “dirty tactics” and don’t know how to deal with them, but when you are invited publicly to multiple BJJ schools to demonstrate that in person and you strangely go silent? Here is your idiot ribbon.

If you cannot perform cold, on demand, on someone else’s timeframe and for public consumption, then your critique is as valid as your performance. Zero.

If we are concerned with true real world self-defense, then our standard of performance, and the final arbiter of that, has to be what we can do when we are not prepared. As world renown firearms trainer Tom givens has noted, self-defense is a come as you are affair. Is it important to train hard and track our progress? Of course, because doing so pushes the envelope of what we can do, and therefore gives us a better upper end of our individual spectrum, but at the end of the day, it is what we can do when the balloon goes up that matter. Don’t tell me what you can do on your best day. Show me what you can do when you are sick, tired, injured, etc. And don’t insult those who do focus on that and show their performances that reflect that.