{"id":132,"date":"2016-06-11T16:29:36","date_gmt":"2016-06-11T16:29:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/defendublog.com\/?p=132"},"modified":"2016-10-16T01:14:52","modified_gmt":"2016-10-16T01:14:52","slug":"street-survival","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/defendublog.com\/?p=132","title":{"rendered":"Street Survival"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Street Survival<br \/>\n<\/strong><em>\u00a9 Copyright 2016, Tim Boehlert<\/em><\/p>\n<p>If you want to step up your game, improve your security stance, and increase your chance\u00a0of surviving a violent encounter, you owe it to yourself and your family to educate\u00a0yourself. Reading &#8216;Street Survival: Tactics for Armed Encounters&#8217; by Charles Remsberg\u00a0would make a great start.<\/p>\n<p>It was first published in 1980 for the Law Enforcement Community, and I am assuming that\u00a0it was written after too many Police Officers had been killed in the line of duty. Studies\u00a0had been conducted that found their mistakes and identified the source of many of those\u00a0mistakes made.<\/p>\n<p>This book also served to launch a travelling road-show called Street Survival, which sought\u00a0to correct a lot of the common mistakes that officers had made in the field. To that end, the\u00a0Street Survival series of books served for many years as required reading in many\u00a0academies.<\/p>\n<p>I was lucky enough about 6 years ago to come across more than one reference to these\u00a0&#8216;lost&#8217; books while doing my own research to keep myself safe. These books contain a lot of\u00a0great information. In these books you will find much of what we study and take for granted\u00a0today. The adage, &#8220;Study the Old, to Understand The New&#8221; applies here. We didn&#8217;t invent\u00a0this stuff.<\/p>\n<p>One of the biggest challenges of learning anything is that you need to look behind the\u00a0curtain and question many aspects of it &#8211; why does it work, what makes it work, why is that\u00a0knowledge perhaps more important than the knowledge itself? If you want to learn\u00a0anything, take ownership for your own endeavors and effort. Ultimately, only you are\u00a0responsible for you. Own that.<\/p>\n<p>Much of what we train today is not new, or original as you may be led to believe.\u00a0Exploring older books can lead you to some &#8216;new discoveries&#8217;, tactics, techniques,\u00a0philosophies, and principles. This book is 36 years old, and yet there is a ton of relevant\u00a0information in it that still applies and holds up today.<\/p>\n<p>Below I&#8217;ve highlighted just a portion of what I think is still relevant and useful for\u00a0self-defense, and I hope you do too!<\/p>\n<p>Some of the many ideas found within the first volume of this series and which are worth\u00a0reiterating here are:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The combination for survivability in the street is a combination of your abilities and what\u00a0you have been taught. That is NOT a one-way street. You will be provided with only so\u00a0much based on budgetary restrictions, the rest is on you. Too many professionals rely\u00a0strictly on what they will be provided by their employer. In our world, that&#8217;s you. You may\u00a0need to justify what you think is a reasonable amount of funding to keep yourself and your\u00a0clan safe, but don&#8217;t sell that short.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Here&#8217;s an example: I work five days a week trying to\u00a0keep myself safe, my company safe, and our clientele safe. I spend annually between\u00a0$1k-$2k to achieve that goal. That money is mostly for training. That training consists of\u00a0books, videos, and seminars primarily. This fits my needs, but does not maximize them\u00a0necessarily. This will hold true for all of us. BUT, I am making the effort to keep my\u00a0education moving forward, and ever expanding, and honing in on specific skill-sets that I\u00a0require due to environmental needs. That leaves holes in my plan that you could drive a\u00a0semi through, but that&#8217;s life. You can&#8217;t possibly plan for everything, but if you can narrow\u00a0down your specific threats, you can assure that you will prevail under those sets of\u00a0circumstances, and MAY be prepared for others based on your learning.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Just because it hasn&#8217;t happened doesn&#8217;t mean it won&#8217;t or that it won&#8217;t happen to you.\u00a0Complacency affects all of us in some way. Don&#8217;t let it settle in. Don&#8217;t tell yourself a story\u00a0that just because statistics say it&#8217;s likely to never happen that it won&#8217;t or that you aren&#8217;t the\u00a0one it will happen to. Take a reality check and let that sink in. You, and only you are\u00a0responsible for yourself.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Be prepared. Again, that falls into several categories, but in my opinion being prepared\u00a0mentally is at the top of that list. This covers awareness, but it also covers physical and\u00a0emotional realms as well. Don&#8217;t be that guy\/gal.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>You don&#8217;t get to decide what the BG (Bad Guy) is going to do, UNLESS you can. Violence is\u00a0a very broad set of rules and you don&#8217;t get to know which ones are in effect, nor which\u00a0ones will be on the table when the SHTF. Know what you don\u2019t know, and be good with that.\u00a0Make peace with that and move forward with your plan to shut it down.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Come to terms with your moral and psychological considerations BEFORE you get into it.\u00a0Really spend some time examining yourself and your capabilities and responsibilities. Just\u00a0because you can doesn&#8217;t mean you should. Just because you should, is it legally\u00a0justifiable? Spend a lot of your time doing what-if scenarios in your head &#8211; where it&#8217;s safer\u00a0to make mistakes.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Force is not the answer to everything &#8211; there are alternatives that you need to arm\u00a0yourself with. Learn some basic verbal skills, de-escalation, tactical communications,\u00a0verbal judo &#8211; it&#8217;s all about NOT having to use your physical abilities on another, and it&#8217;s\u00a0legally your required first step of use-of-force when it&#8217;s applicable.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>What you think about violence isn&#8217;t necessarily the reality of what it will be &#8211; for you.\u00a0Many things happened during &#8216;an event&#8217; that you haven&#8217;t even begun to consider. Add to\u00a0that mixture the fact that you haven&#8217;t practiced much of what you know nearly enough to\u00a0handle this situation. Throw in your reactions &#8211; chemical dump, emotional upheaval,\u00a0environmental booby-traps, multiple goals, etc&#8230; it gets complicated in the blink of an eye,\u00a0and a lot goes through your head or it doesn&#8217;t. Have you prepared yourself for any of that?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>&#8220;Training to face reality takes extra time, extra energy, extra creativity.&#8221; A direct quote\u00a0from Charles Remsberg. It&#8217;s not only important in formal training, but in what you do everyday.\u00a0You need to make the effort to move yourself forward on your own time as well as when\u00a0you&#8217;re &#8216;in play.&#8217;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Have you truly assessed your capabilities and your dependence or independence of\u00a0deploying a weapon? Do you know your weapon intimately? Do you know your ability to\u00a0use that weapon on another human being intimately? Do you understand the aftermath?\u00a0Some very heady things to work on, now!<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Hands. They are what will hurt you. Agreed, but there is a larger picture to consider as\u00a0well &#8211; being blind-sided is one of those possibilities. You can&#8217;t always be ON, but you need\u00a0to raise your level of awareness, and educate yourself on everything that MAY keep you\u00a0safe. Whether it&#8217;s learning more about knives and knifers, or guns &#8211; handguns, long-guns,\u00a0ammunition. Try to educate yourself to the extent that your friends will get a little\u00a0uncomfortable about how much you know and the things that you find interesting. THEN\u00a0you might be ahead of the game, just a little.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Educate yourself not just in Martial Arts, but also in Military Martial Arts, and Police Marital\u00a0Arts. Learn about the OODA loop, about the Awareness Color Code. OODA alone will make\u00a0you more capable IF you have digested it, and keep it in the forefront of your mind.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Practice is always good, and the more realistic it can be, within reason where injuries are\u00a0uncommon, but not unexpected, but it&#8217;s not the same thing. Realize that it&#8217;s not real, but a\u00a0pale substitute. It&#8217;s not like being there, and doing it. There are many, many aspects of\u00a0being there and doing it that you&#8217;ll only get after you&#8217;ve been there and done that, that&#8217;s\u00a0when all of the training starts to make sense, to make you go back and revisit or reassess.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>You will find that one guy that is willing to die rather than to submit. Have you even\u00a0considered that his goal is not your goal?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Don&#8217;t be afraid to criticize yourself. We&#8217;ve all done it. Try not to be your own worst critic,\u00a0but take a healthy dose of &#8216;I told you so&#8230;&#8217; and learn from it, move forward.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Keep moving. Don&#8217;t wait for reaction or results. MAKE results happen. Overwhelm and\u00a0win.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Weapons &#8211; study them, get intimate. Learn as much as possible, for you may end up\u00a0having one in your hands when you least expect it.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Study your adversary. Learn what makes him tick, try to put yourself in his\/her shoes, and\u00a0understand what their motivations may be. Study your enemy, for they&#8217;ve already studied\u00a0you.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Learn your targeting. Understand as much as possible what the right target is and what\u00a0the right weapon is for that target. The goal is usually to stop the violence as quickly as\u00a0possible, but do you have a solid legal foundation for that goal? Is this social or asocial\u00a0violence? The targets and tools will be different perhaps?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Train under stress, fear if possible. No one can really tell you what that is like &#8211; it&#8217;s\u00a0different for everyone, and likely different under every circumstance.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>&#8216;Practice at surviving.&#8217; Don&#8217;t become complacent.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>&#8216;Patterns of instruction&#8217; should &#8216;match patterns of encounter&#8217; &#8211; train for the most likely\u00a0encounters?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Under the stress of combat, and that&#8217;s what fighting encompasses, you will &#8216;revert\u00a0without thinking to the habits you have learned in training.&#8217; Agreed, and one important\u00a0thing to consider here &#8211; if it isn\u2019t working, move on. Don&#8217;t be the guy that continues to\u00a0repeat the same &#8216;move&#8217; and expects different results.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Don&#8217;t fight like you train, and therein lies the rub. As an example, don&#8217;t spar. Sparring\u00a0trains into you some very bad habits &#8211; pulling your strikes &#8211; only hitting at X% of power,\u00a0stopping after scoring a point, and other &#8216;rules&#8217; that will work against you. It may cost you\u00a0dearly. This also includes &#8211; don&#8217;t WAIT for results &#8211; keep moving, keep doing damage until\u00a0the threat stops.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Learn about spatial relationships &#8211; proximity. Test your variables; test your ability to work\u00a0within certain distances and environmental constrictions. Rory Miller is a proponent of &#8216;In\u00a0Fighting&#8217; &#8211; I&#8217;d only heard that once before in my years of training, and it didn&#8217;t make sense\u00a0the first time, until I explored the larger possibilities behind that simple phrase. Explore.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Most confrontations are over quickly &#8211; seconds at best. Work smartly within that time\u00a0constraint. Work to that goal as well.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Reaction to recognition is key to victory. The quicker you can respond, the better your\u00a0chances are. Get beyond the DENIAL hurdle and you\u2019re over the first large hurdle in your\u00a0way. This takes practice, practice, practice. It starts with excellent awareness, and\u00a0anticipation. Don&#8217;t daydream when you&#8217;re &#8216;on.&#8217;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Don&#8217;t expect your assumed authority to work in your favor &#8211; bouncer, security, owner,\u00a0etc&#8230; that may be the impetus to action and the fuel for the fire that is about to light you\u00a0up.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Criminals train more than you do, most likely.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Don&#8217;t expect rationality or compassion from your opponent.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Their desperation and your constraints are not equal but are opposing forces internally.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Don&#8217;t hesitate to act based on what you think. Your gut feeling may be the only thing that\u00a0saves you. For the uninitiated, read Gavin de Becker&#8217;s &#8216;THE GIFT.&#8217;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>If you are to survive, you need to be aggressive, and take chances.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Don&#8217;t give up. It&#8217;s been proposed that many officers died in the line-of-duty because they\u00a0&#8216;thought&#8217; they were going to based on some subconscious &#8216;understanding.&#8217; Being hurt is\u00a0not the same as being out of the fight. It&#8217;s time for Plan B!<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Never let your guard down. Even if you&#8217;ve overcome one or many opponents\/ threats,\u00a0don&#8217;t become blas\u00e9 about your abilities to overcome. Always be vigilant. There is always\u00a0someone that will surprise you and possibly defeat you. Be realistic, not complacent.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>You should walk out of your house\/business with survival as the most important thing on\u00a0your mind.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>&#8216;Let the circumstances dictate the tactics, not vice versa.&#8217; That is so true!<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Always be rehearsing mentally. It&#8217;s as important if not more-so than hitting the gym or\u00a0the Dojo, in my opinion. As an example, I have personally watched a video on a specific\u00a0technique, that I only mentally rehearsed before having to actually deploy it, on more than\u00a0one occasion. In Japanese culture, I believe that that is referred to as Mushin &#8211; without\u00a0mind. It works, and don&#8217;t let anyone persuade you otherwise. Your mind is your best tool &#8211;\u00a0develop it. Survival instinct is strong, and your mind WILL take over when all else fails.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>&#8220;Whenever possible, you want to cultivate tactics that are unexpected, to be\u00a0&#8216;systematically unsystematic.'&#8221; HUH? Yeah, something more for you to explore! Have fun!<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>There will always be a clue, if you&#8217;re aware, that it&#8217;s about to go down. Learn those clues &#8211;\u00a0body language, non-verbals, physiology. If you have a better understanding of your\u00a0opponent, knowing them perhaps more intimately, you have your baseline to gauge by,\u00a0otherwise&#8230; pay attention and look for the subtle, micro clues.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>&#8220;Uneventful familiarity breeds complacency.&#8221; Just because it hasn&#8217;t happened, doesn&#8217;t\u00a0mean it can&#8217;t or won&#8217;t. Keep your wall up!<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Keep your head on a swivel and your ears on. Always be &#8216;scanning.&#8217;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Watch for the &#8216;grooming&#8217; or &#8216;comfort&#8217; touch &#8211; signs of nervousness. Grooming is done to\u00a0comfort the person doing the grooming, perhaps to work up the courage to strike. A\u00a0Comfort touch is to reassure the threat that his weapon is still there.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Always look for the most likely places that someone would carry a weapon when being\u00a0approached. Do it to everyone to stay in practice and make it a part of what you do as your\u00a0norm.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Keep a safety zone around you at all times. They have suggested 36&#8243;. I think it depends\u00a0on you solely, and whom you face.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>&#8220;Repetition of good tactics forms good tactical habits.&#8221; Amen, right?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Control what you can.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>&#8220;Human nature is very predictable.&#8221; Maybe in context, or maybe if you have studied it in\u00a0depth. I think otherwise mostly sometimes. Does that even make sense?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>&#8220;You must be ready to execute it without hesitation.&#8221; In the context of use of force &#8211; you\u00a0must commit fully once you have decided to act. Totally agree. I have done otherwise, and not gotten what should have been expected results. If you don&#8217;t fully commit, then you are\u00a0holding back. If you hold back, you lose advantage. If you lose advantage, you also lose\u00a0surprise. It\u2019s a crapshoot after that. Good luck, you&#8217;ll need it!<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><em>tim@avinardia.com<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Street Survival \u00a9 Copyright 2016, Tim Boehlert If you want to step up your game, improve your security stance, and increase your chance\u00a0of surviving a violent encounter, you owe it to yourself and your family to educate\u00a0yourself. Reading &#8216;Street Survival: Tactics for Armed Encounters&#8217; by Charles Remsberg\u00a0would make a great start. It was first published &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/defendublog.com\/?p=132\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Street Survival<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-132","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-conflict-research-group-international"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/defendublog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/defendublog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/defendublog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/defendublog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/defendublog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=132"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/defendublog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":144,"href":"http:\/\/defendublog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132\/revisions\/144"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/defendublog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=132"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/defendublog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=132"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/defendublog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=132"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}