newyorker.

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How People Learn to Become Resilient

by Richard Brody

Perception is key to resilience: Do you conceptualize an event as

traumatic, or as a chance to learn and grow?CreditIllustration by Gizem Vural

Norman Garmezy, a developmental psychologist and clinician at the University of Minnesota, met
thousands of children in his four decades of research. But one boy in particular stuck with him. He
was nine years old, with an alcoholic mother and an absent father. Each day, he would arrive at
school with the exact same sandwich: two slices of bread with nothing in between. At home, there
was no other food available, and no one to make any. Even so, Garmezy would later recall, the boy
wanted to make sure that no one would feel pity for him and no one would know the ineptitude of
his mother. Each day, without fail, he would walk in with a smile on his face and a bread
sandwich tucked into his bag.
The boy with the bread sandwich was part of a special group of children. He belonged to a cohort of
kidsthe first of manywhom Garmezy would go on to identify as succeeding, even excelling,
despite incredibly difficult circumstances. These were the children who exhibited a trait Garmezy
would later identify as resilience. (He is widely credited with being the first to study the concept
in an experimental setting.) Over many years, Garmezy would visit schools across the country,
focussing on those in economically depressed areas, and follow a standard protocol. He would set
up meetings with the principal, along with a school social worker or nurse, and pose the same
question: Were there any children whose backgrounds had initially raised red flagskids who
seemed likely to become problem kidswho had instead become, surprisingly, a source of pride?
What I was saying was, Can you identify stressed children who are making it here in your
school? Garmezy said, in a 1999 interview. There would be a long pause after my inquiry before
the answer came. If I had said, Do you have kids in this school who seem to be troubled?, there
wouldnt have been a moments delay. But to be asked about children who were adaptive and good
citizens in the school and making it even though they had come out of very disturbed backgrounds
that was a new sort of inquiry. Thats the way we began.
Resilience presents a challenge for psychologists. Whether you can be said to have it or not largely
depends not on any particular psychological test but on the way your life unfolds. If you are lucky
enough to never experience any sort of adversity, we wont know how resilient you are. Its only
when youre faced with obstacles, stress, and other environmental threats that resilience, or the lack
of it, emerges: Do you succumb or do you surmount?
Environmental threats can come in various guises. Some are the result of low socioeconomic status
and challenging home conditions. (Those are the threats studied in Garmezys work.) Often, such
threatsparents with psychological or other problems; exposure to violence or poor treatment;
being a child of problematic divorceare chronic. Other threats are acute: experiencing or
witnessing a traumatic violent encounter, for example, or being in an accident. What matters is the
intensity and the duration of the stressor. In the case of acute stressors, the intensity is usually high.
The stress resulting from chronic adversity, Garmezy wrote, might be lowerbut it exerts repeated
and cumulative impact on resources and adaptation and persists for many months and typically
considerably longer.
Prior to Garmezys work on resilience, most research on trauma and negative life events had a
reverse focus. Instead of looking at areas of strength, it looked at areas of vulnerability,
investigating the experiences that make people susceptible to poor life outcomes (or that lead kids
to be troubled, as Garmezy put it). Garmezys work opened the door to the study of protective
factors: the elements of an individuals background or personality that could enable success despite
the challenges they faced. Garmezy retired from research before reaching any definitive conclusions
his career was cut short by early-onset Alzheimersbut his students and followers were able to
identify elements that fell into two groups: individual, psychological factors and external,
environmental factors, or disposition on the one hand and luck on the other.
In 1989 a developmental psychologist named Emmy Werner published the results of a thirty-two-
year longitudinal project. She had followed a group of six hundred and ninety-eight children, in
Kauai, Hawaii, from before birth through their third decade of life. Along the way, shed monitored
them for any exposure to stress: maternal stress in utero, poverty, problems in the family, and so on.
Two-thirds of the children came from backgrounds that were, essentially, stable, successful, and
happy; the other third qualified as at risk. Like Garmezy, she soon discovered that not all of the
at-risk children reacted to stress in the same way. Two-thirds of them developed serious learning or
behavior problems by the age of ten, or had delinquency records, mental health problems, or teen-
age pregnancies by the age of eighteen. But the remaining third developed into competent,
confident, and caring young adults. They had attained academic, domestic, and social success
and they were always ready to capitalize on new opportunities that arose.
What was it that set the resilient children apart? Because the individuals in her sample had been
followed and tested consistently for three decades, Werner had a trove of data at her disposal. She
found that several elements predicted resilience. Some elements had to do with luck: a resilient
child might have a strong bond with a supportive caregiver, parent, teacher, or other mentor-like
figure. But another, quite large set of elements was psychological, and had to do with how the
children responded to the environment. From a young age, resilient children tended to meet the
world on their own terms. They were autonomous and independent, would seek out new
experiences, and had a positive social orientation. Though not especially gifted, these children
used whatever skills they had effectively, Werner wrote. Perhaps most importantly, the resilient
children had what psychologists call an internal locus of control: they believed that they, and not
their circumstances, affected their achievements. The resilient children saw themselves as the
orchestrators of their own fates. In fact, on a scale that measured locus of control, they scored more
than two standard deviations away from the standardization group.
Werner also discovered that resilience could change over time. Some resilient children were
especially unlucky: they experienced multiple strong stressors at vulnerable points and their
resilience evaporated. Resilience, she explained, is like a constant calculation: Which side of the
equation weighs more, the resilience or the stressors? The stressors can become so intense that
resilience is overwhelmed. Most people, in short, have a breaking point. On the flip side, some
people who werent resilient when they were little somehow learned the skills of resilience. They
were able to overcome adversity later in life and went on to flourish as much as those whod been
resilient the whole way through. This, of course, raises the question of how resilience might be
learned.
George Bonanno is a clinical psychologist at Columbia Universitys Teachers College; he heads the
Loss, Trauma, and Emotion Lab and has been studying resilience for nearly twenty-five years.
Garmezy, Werner, and others have shown that some people are far better than others at dealing with
adversity; Bonanno has been trying to figure out where that variation might come from. Bonannos
theory of resilience starts with an observation: all of us possess the same fundamental stress-
response system, which has evolved over millions of years and which we share with other animals.
The vast majority of people are pretty good at using that system to deal with stress. When it comes
to resilience, the question is: Why do some people use the system so much more frequently or
effectively than others?
One of the central elements of resilience, Bonanno has found, is perception: Do you conceptualize
an event as traumatic, or as an opportunity to learn and grow? Events are not traumatic until we
experience them as traumatic, Bonanno told me, in December. To call something a traumatic
event belies that fact. He has coined a different term: PTE, or potentially traumatic event, which
he argues is more accurate. The theory is straightforward. Every frightening event, no matter how
negative it might seem from the sidelines, has the potential to be traumatic or not to the person
experiencing it. (Bonanno focusses on acute negative events, where we may be seriously harmed;
others who study resilience, including Garmezy and Werner, look more broadly.) Take something as
terrible as the surprising death of a close friend: you might be sad, but if you can find a way to
construe that event as filled with meaningperhaps it leads to greater awareness of a certain
disease, say, or to closer ties with the communitythen it may not be seen as a trauma. (Indeed,
Werner found that resilient individuals were far more likely to report having sources of spiritual and
religious support than those who werent.) The experience isnt inherent in the event; it resides in
the events psychological construal.
Its for this reason, Bonanno told me, that stressful or traumatic events in and of themselves
dont have much predictive power when it comes to life outcomes. The prospective
epidemiological data shows that exposure to potentially traumatic events does not predict later
functioning, he said. Its only predictive if theres a negative response. In other words, living
through adversity, be it endemic to your environment or an acute negative event, doesnt guarantee
that youll suffer going forward. What matters is whether that adversity becomes traumatizing.
The good news is that positive construal can be taught. We can make ourselves more or less
vulnerable by how we think about things, Bonanno said. In research at Columbia, the
neuroscientist Kevin Ochsner has shown that teaching people to think of stimuli in different ways
to reframe them in positive terms when the initial response is negative, or in a less emotional way
when the initial response is emotionally hotchanges how they experience and react to the
stimulus. You can train people to better regulate their emotions, and the training seems to have
lasting effects.
Similar work has been done with explanatory stylesthe techniques we use to explain events. Ive
written before about the research of Martin Seligman, the University of Pennsylvania psychologist
who pioneered much of the field of positive psychology: Seligman found that training people to
change their explanatory styles from internal to external (Bad events arent my fault), from global
to specific (This is one narrow thing rather than a massive indication that something is wrong with
my life), and from permanent to impermanent (I can change the situation, rather than assuming
its fixed) made them more psychologically successful and less prone to depression. The same
goes for locus of control: not only is a more internal locus tied to perceiving less stress and
performing better but changing your locus from external to internal leads to positive changes in
both psychological well-being and objective work performance. The cognitive skills that underpin
resilience, then, seem like they can indeed be learned over time, creating resilience where there was
none.
Unfortunately, the opposite may also be true. We can become less resilient, or less likely to be
resilient, Bonanno says. We can create or exaggerate stressors very easily in our own minds.
Thats the danger of the human condition. Human beings are capable of worry and rumination: we
can take a minor thing, blow it up in our heads, run through it over and over, and drive ourselves
crazy until we feel like that minor thing is the biggest thing that ever happened. In a sense, its a
self-fulfilling prophecy. Frame adversity as a challenge, and you become more flexible and able to
deal with it, move on, learn from it, and grow. Focus on it, frame it as a threat, and a potentially
traumatic event becomes an enduring problem; you become more inflexible, and more likely to be
negatively affected.
In December the New York Times Magazine published an essay called The Profound Emptiness of
Resilience. It pointed out that the word is now used everywhere, often in ways that drain it of
meaning and link it to vague concepts like character. But resilience doesnt have to be an empty
or vague concept. In fact, decades of research have revealed a lot about how it works. This research
shows that resilience is, ultimately, a set of skills that can be taught. In recent years, weve taken to
using the term sloppilybut our sloppy usage doesnt mean that it hasnt been usefully and
precisely defined. Its time we invest the time and energy to understand what resilience really
means.

pekiti.com

PTI ADVANCED HAND VS KNIFE

Tuhon McGrath
Pekiti-Tirsia Empty Hand vs Knife technique is based on the following principles:
1. Train as if your attacker has been trained in knife work: The Philippines is a blade culture and
blade attacks are common. Pekiti-Tirsia empty hand vs knife techniques were developed by those
trained in blade work, based on how a trained fighter may attack.
2. Train as if you may be attacked by more than one person: Techniques that take some time to
accomplish (such as locks, throws and grappling moves) should have a built-in escape hatch you
can use if bad guy number 2 comes at you in the middle of dealing with bad guy number 1.
3. Your empty hand vs knife technique should buy you time to get to something better: When it
comes to defending against a knife attack something in your hand that can be used as a weapon is
better than nothing. A goal of your empty hand vs knife technique should be to make it a weapon vs
weapon fight as soon as you can and therefore, your own weapon draw should be built into your
technique.
4. Train to counter the whole attack, not just the knife part: This means learning body language
clues to switch on during the attackers approach and not waiting for the knife to show itself
before you begin your counter. Train as if the attacker might use his empty hand before, during or
after his knife attack.
5. Many of Pekiti-Tirsias advanced empty hand vs knife techniques share gross motions with our
knife vs knife techniques.This gives you a commonality of training across weapons platforms and
helps ingrain the movements into your nervous system.*
(*I will let you in on a little secret. Much of Pekiti-Tirsia empty hand vs knife technique comes
directly from our knife vs knife technique. And once you learn one, you automatically learn a lot
about the other.)
When Grandmaster Leo Gaje began training us in Pekiti-Tirsia hand vs knife technique he followed
a very specific structure that I often liken to the manufacturing of a car; as in several subassemblies
are built and tested before these subassemblies are brought together to form a complete whole.
Each level of empty hand vs knife was divided into three sections: each taught, practiced and tested
before assembly into a whole unit.
1. Parrying skills: This is the classic knife tapping drill of primary, secondary and tertiary parries.
The purpose of this drill is twofold:
A. To learn to deflect the force of a knife attack instead of trying to stop it with a block (which is a
difficult thing to do against something as fast and as flexible as a knife attack).
B. As an exercise specifically designed to improve your hand speed and reaction time.
2. Striking skills: These are the Third Hand strikes of Pekiti-Tirsia. These are comprised of slaps,
eye jabs and gouges, forearm hacks and elbow strikes and fit into a countermove for each knife
attack angle.
3. Grappling skills: Blade reversals & disarms. Joint breaks. Takedowns. Ground control.
A demonstration of classic Pekiti-Tirsia Hand vs. Knife can be seen here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JH1JqKdfC24
Grandmaster Gajes training progression was as follows:
1. Basic empty hand vs knife. This was comprised of defenses against three basic attacks with the
opponents knife held in hammer grip: a low center-line thrust, a backhand high thrust and a
forehand high hook thrust (5, 8, 9 in the basic Solo Abcedario).
2. Solo Knife vs Knife.
3. Advanced empty hand vs knife. This was comprised of defenses against an opponent using his
knife in ice pick grip thrusts and slashes as well as defenses against an opponents hammer grip
slashes, (taught in the advanced level since the gross motions of a hammer grip slash are often the
same as ice pick grip thrusts.) This section included defenses against an attack he called the In-
between thrust. This thrust is the high center-line thrust common to those who have learned their
knife work in prison.
Set between the two levels of empty hand vs knife was a long period of knife vs knife training,
including a good amount of full contact knife to knife sparring (using wooden dowels, lightweight
gloves and fencing masks). I cant emphasize enough how important this knife to knife sparring was
to our empty hand vs knife training. It gives you the ability to read an opponents body language
for his next intended attack and gives you the timing to be able to counter it. Notice that we went
into this sparring only after a good, strong foundation was laid. We already had several years of
stick sparring experience prior to knife sparring and, even in this, we had years of training in stick
drills before going into stick sparring.
You can find a detailed breakdown of this classic Pekiti-Tirsia teaching structure on my YouTube
channel: tuhonbillmcg
Pekiti-Tirsia Hand vs Knife parts 1 through 4.
pt 1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pwmDagd7pFc
pt 2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yf93pTuvkFY
pt 3. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MlcaqKJbaGg
pt 4. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BGMUuyKGGZU
You will find my take on the pros and cons of different knife grips and some nomenclature you can
use for the rest of this article here:
https://youtu.be/zeeKTFb-cZE
HOW I TEACH ADVANCED HAND VS KNIFE
The way I teach Pekiti-Tirsia Advanced Hand vs Knife today grew out of my experience teaching
law enforcement officers (LEOs).
I began my law enforcement career in 1986 and began teaching at my departments academy and
doing in-service training of our officers in 1987. It soon became apparent to me that the way I had
learned Pekiti-Tirsia empty hand vs knife was designed for someone who had the luxury of
spending several years in training, practice and sparring before they would be called upon to use
this training in real life.
I soon began to look for a way to compress the time it takes to learn the main points of empty hand
vs knife skills and give the law enforcement officers I worked with the tools they were capable of
learning in the short time I got to spend with them.
How can this possibly be done? you ask. Here are a few principles that I believe will help:
1. It has been shown that seeing a situation, even once, will improve your reaction time over
someone who has never seen that situation before.
2. Integrate the empty hand vs knife movements into your empty hand self defense techniques. Just
as you treat every firearm as if it was loaded, you can counter most empty hand attacks as if that
hand had a knife in it. This means that you can treat a straight right cross with the same countering
hand motion as the knife attack sharing the same gross motion (i.e. The prison shank attack).
However, this does not mean the reverse: you dont treat a knife attack the same way a boxer treats
a punch, as the knife defense has a much smaller window of what works. In real life it is fairly
common for those attacked with a knife not see the knife in the attackers hand until they have been
stabbed a few times. This means you treat a strangers hands on the street as guilty until proven
innocent. Note: It does NOT mean you can use deadly force on every empty hand attack. (I felt
the need to include that disclaimer after working with lawyers for the last 30 years).
3. The miracle of review videos! I think I could have cut the time it took me to learn and get
proficient at the Pekiti-Tirsia system in half if I had access to the review videos we have today.
My structure for teaching advanced empty hand vs knife. First, I rearrange the order of training and
what is included in each area.
1. Striking skills: Palm strike. Eye attacks. Elbow strikes. Forearm strikes. Knee strikes. Ive chosen
just the strikes that are easy to learn for the non-martial artist.
2. Parry skills (integrated with previously learned strikes). In this class, you use a parry and the right
footwork to avoid the knife attack while striking with the free hand.
3. Grappling skills. Blade reversals & disarms. Pushes. Joint breaks. Takedowns. Ground control &
handcuffing.
Striking training:
The easiest way to teach someone how to strike is to have them strike something. Therefore, bag
work comes first, but you start slow and easy. Since many of places I taught had a limited number
of focus mitts and heavy bags available, I have the students use each other as the target. Before you
get all bent out of shape, there is a method here.
I start with the palm strike (AKA The Slap) because it is the easiest to learn. Start with the
students wearing thick leather work gloves. For a body-part specific warm up, I have them clap
their hands repeatedly. What I am looking for is that the bones of the palm stay parallel with the
bones of the forearm. This helps prevent injury to the wrist, both in training and in combat. The
hands should be relaxed, but slightly cupped on impact. Most people will be able to do the palm
strike position correctly if you start them off by clapping.
We next move onto two-man pad drills, wherein the leather glove covered palm becomes the focus
mitt; with the officer holding the mitt (receiving the strike) playing the part of the boxing coach
and the striking student as the boxer. In these drills we start at 10% power and end their striking
reps at 50% when hitting their partners hand. (it really helps to pair up training partners in this drill
based on matching upper body strength).
We then practice these warm up drills for the other strikes in the system, using either the leather
covered palm as a pad (for slap and eye jab), or having the coach apply the parry techniques for
that strike.
You can watch the drills for elbow strikes here:
Once the basic strikes are practiced, we move onto what I call chain drills. These are mini-
scenarios in which an attackers approach and attack moves are met by the officers counter and
control moves.
An example of a chain drill can be seen here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xlQl7VZj7Kk
The first principle I teach in these scenarios is distance control, especially when the attacker is
approaching the defender.
Here are two videos that show this training in action:
Against a knife draw and low line thrust:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_XN6wq8ZOkU
Against the lead hand grab that often proceeds the prison shank attack:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JWBiUJDXUck
Two things to remember from these videos:
1. 1. Its important that students are trained to begin countering the attack at the earliest possible
moment. This means you train them to spot and react to a bad guy approaching with bad intent and
not train them to wait for the actual sight of a blade before they start defending themselves. They
also need to learn how to spot ambush points. These can be bottle necks in terrain, but also
distance and approach angles.
2. 2. Teach how to coach. Good pad work is a skill.
During both the knife draw and the chain drill videos, did you notice that the man who was feeding
the knife attack also guarded the area that I was about to strike? Thats how I run these scenario
chain drills. The attacker will cut or thrust with the training knife, while he guards the area the
student will strike next in that drill. This way the students receive practice in several areas at once:
the gross motion of the technique, accuracy in their counterattacks, as well as the correct timing and
distance for the technique. (That is an important point. My safety factor in these drills is to have the
students do the drills slowly, but at the correct distance; rather than have them do the hits full speed,
but at a safe distance. During the stress of a fight they will naturally speed up, but they will be
working at the correct distance to their target. If they train fast, but far then they will have a hard
time correcting their distance when they are under stress. Slow is smooth, smooth is accurate, and
accurate is fast.)
I teach these chain drills two ways, based on whether I am teaching a LEO group or a seminar of
martial artists.
For the LEO group, I teach to defend against a limited number of the most likely knife attacks in
their order of occurrence in street attacks, which is:
1. Hammer grip high straight stab (prison shank)
2. Hammer grip low straight stab
3. Icepick grip vertical stab
4. Hammer grip forehand slash
5. Hammer grip back hand slash
It should takes between 2 to 4 hours in a LEO class to teach this material depending on several
factors (manly how much time the bosses give me).
At a martial arts seminar, I teach the counter drills to these attacks in a sequence based on knife
grip.
1. Hammer grip high straight stab (prison shank)
2. Hammer grip low straight stab
3. Hammer grip forehand hook thrust
4. Hammer grip backhand thrust
5. Icepick grip diagonal forehand thrust & slash
6. Icepick grip diagonal backhand thrust & slash
7. Icepick grip vertical thrust
8. Icepick grip jab
The martial arts group will also train in the knife tapping parry drill for both hammer and icepick
grips, since this is so important for reaction time.
Once this core material is covered, we can play with what if drills.
For example, the preferred footwork against a left hand attack form a left lead would be to move in
45 degrees to your to your right to try and get behind the opponent. But what if bad guy number two
is already standing there. Maybe moving to your left is a better idea. How do you modify the
technique to do this and not get tagged by the right hand of bad guy number one? What is his reach?
What targets are available to you and when are they available at different stages of his attack?
Which of your weapons should you choose during each stage?
I tell my students that the chain drills are samples of how to apply the individual pieces of the
technique and that these pieces should be considered as modular units (like Legos, but even more
painful). They just have to learn the base rules of how to make the pieces fit together. If you have
the time, these What if drills can really help give the students the mental flexibility they will need
in the chaos of a real fight.
Advanced Hand vs Knife training will be part of the 2017 Pekiti-Tirsia Summer Training Camp and
other seminars.
More info on this can be had by visiting the PTI seminar page: http://www.pekiti.com/seminars/
Train Smart,
Tuhon Bill McGrath
Pekiti-Tirsia International
WWW.PEKITI.COM

itstactical.com

On the Cutting Edge: Counter-Blade Tactics

for Real World Survival - ITS Tactical
By Chad McBroom

A number of years ago, I was tasked with assisting a large Law Enforcement agency with edged
weapons defense training. As I reviewed their existing program, I quickly discovered a number of
deficiencies in both their tactics and training methodology. This caused me to rethink my own
methods of teaching people how to survive an edged weapon attack, especially those with minimal
training.
Coming from an extensive edged weapons background, I look at edged weapons defense from an
attackers perspective rather than a defenders. I think about how I would attack and defeat the other
persons defense. Its amazing how quickly things break down when you study edged weapons
defense from this perspective. The problem is, most edged weapons defense programs approach the
subject from the defenders perspective. Doing so results in short sightedness and the inability to
see all of the attackers options.

Common Problems with Common Approaches

Time Contexting is a term I use to describe the process of placing trained fighting responses into
the proper context of time. The time context should account for reaction time (action beats reaction)
and the speed at which the attack would likely occur, including extension and retraction time.
Many edge weapon defense programs train to perform techniques using unrealistic time contexts.
They usually looks something like this: a cooperative partner attacks in slow motion and/or leaves
the attacking limb extended, many times overextended. The defender executes a series of
movements which attack the limb or the opening created by the limb being extended. These
techniques may appear to work during training, but as soon as an aggressive opponent who isnt
content with losing enters the equation, these techniques fall apart. If it doesnt work against a full-
speed attack from an uncooperative opponent, it doesnt work.
Time Contexting doesnt mean all training needs to be conducted at full speed; it simply means
training must be based on realistic speed equivalents. When performing cooperative training at
slower speeds, both parties should move at the same speed equivalent. Attacks shouldnt be
overextended or left in place after reaching full extension. They should be executed in the same
manner they would be during an actual attack. Performing attacks in this manner not only ensures
realistic responses are being trained by the defender, but also reinforces proper mechanics on the
part of the feeder.
Many edged weapons defense programs also fail to recognize that, unlike a punch or kick, which
requires a certain amount of distance to generate power, very little distance is needed for the
delivery and recovery of a bladed attack. In addition, the angle of the attack can be changed in a
split second. Such disregard for these truths results in inflexible and overcommitted defenses that
focus on the blade and quickly break down once the anticipated attack changes course.
Things to Remember

If you are ever faced with a blade-wielding attacker, there are a few things you should remember
that will drastically improve your survivability.
1. Stay mobile. Distance is your best ally against any contact weapon, so use your footwork to
stay as far away as possible. Run if you can.
2. Place barriers between you and the attacker. A barrier is anything your threat has to avoid or
move around to get to you. This can be done by moving behind a stationary or moving
object, such as a park bench or a car, or by physically placing an object between you and the
attacker, such as a chair or shopping cart.
3. If contact is made, do your best to protect your vital organs and arteries. Keep your hands up
and guard your centerline, which encompasses your throat, neck, lungs, heart and arteries.
4. Dont get fixated on the weapon. Like the tip of a whip, the blade is the fastest moving piece
of the attack. Train your eyes on the attackers sternum, because any movement of the arm
will originate with the upper torso. Allow your motion-sensitive peripheral vision to pick up
the movement of the blade.
 5. Stay in the fight. Theres a good chance youll get cut; dont focus on it. No matter what,
fight through to the end. Youre not dead until the coroner says so.

Check Disrupt Seize Neutralize

The edged weapon defense I teach in CFS Counter-Blade Tactics (my subsystem of empty-hand
blade defense) uses the process of Check Disrupt Seize Neutralize. This systematic series of
actions is designed to address the attack from start to finish. However, any step in this process can
be skipped (with the exception of the last one) depending on the dynamics of the situation. Ill give
you an overview of this approach, but realize that Im just scratching the surface.

Check
The check is used to intercept an incoming attack when a full evasion isnt possible. Assume a
neutral position with the hands up halfway between your chin and sternum with your palms facing
outward. As the attack comes in, deliver a quick, retracting strike to the attackers arm between his
wrist and forearm using the palms of your hands. (I advocate using both hands because it provides
the most surface area to prevent the attack from slipping through.) Once contact is made, return to
the neutral position and prepare to stop the next attack. Be sure to move off the line of attack as
much as possible during the check.
Many edged weapons experts advocate only using the outsides of the forearms to stop or deflect an
edged weapon attack in order to protect the arteries and tendons located in the arms. This isnt a bad
tactic, however, having trained thousands of Law Enforcement officers and civilians in edged
weapons defense, Ive found this is difficult for most people to do under pressure unless theyve
spent years training this way. People react with their hands.

Disrupt
A rhythm disruption is anything that disrupts an attackers rhythm of movement and resets his
OODA loop. One of the quickest and most effective rhythm disruptions is an attack to the eyes on
the half-beat. The purpose of the disruption is to create an opportunity for you to move in and
control the weapon arm. You may have to deliver several checks before finding an opening to
execute your rhythm disruption. With training, youll eventually be able to execute a check and
disruption simultaneously.

Seize
Once the opportunity presents itself, move in and seize the attackers weapon arm to gain control of
the weapon. Always strive to move to a position that places you outside of the attackers physical
weapons. There are several ways this can be done depending on the situation and your level of skill
and training. However, as a general rule, I advocate the following as the default method:
Grab the wrist of the arm holding the blade using a thumbless grip (aka Monkey Grip). With your
opposite arm, grab deep behind their elbow. This gives you optimum control of the arm because it
closes off the dead space and prevents them from being able to pull their elbow back to break free.
From this position, maintain constant pressure to drive the attacker off balance.
Neutralize

The final step in surviving as edged weapon attack is to neutralize the threat. This could mean
disengaging and employing a firearm, but once you have seized the attacking arm, its best not to let
go until you have removed the blade from the equation. One of the high-percentage techniques I
teach is an arm-bar takedown.
From the position I described above, bring your inside arm over the top so the attackers tricep is in
your arm pit. Stack your inside hand on top of the hand securing the wrist and drive your inside
shoulder toward the ground. From this position, drop forward onto your inside knee and straight
down as if trying to touch your elbow to the ground; keeping your weight focused over the
attackers shoulder. From there, you can lock the attackers wrist against your outside thigh and
walk it up to lever the arm and secure the weapon.

Conclusion
What Ive presented here are a few basic fundamentals for surviving an edged weapon assault, as
well as a brief overview of my way of teaching Counter-Blade Tactics. If at all possible, avoidance
is always your best defense. However, life doesnt always offer us that opportunity. Train your mind
and train your body so youll be prepared for whatever life throws your way.
Photos Bill Bahmer Photography
Editor-in-Chiefs Note: Chad McBroom is the owner and founder of Comprehensive Fighting
Systems and specializes in the practical application of edged and impact weapons. Chad is a
freelance writer who regularly contributes to Black Sheep Warrior, BladeReviews.com and other
publications. Hes also the author of the book Solving the Enigma: Insights into Fighting Models
and has contributed to several books on blade combat. Chad is a blade designer and consultant,
using his extensive knowledge of edged weapon tactics to help design some of the most versatile
edged weapons on the market.

urbancombatives.com

An article by Lee Morrison

Id like to talk a little bit about the use of the default position, carried on the back of whats often
referred to as our natural flinch response;
let me explain what I mean by that. First of all I am talking from a situational perspective, where we
have found ourselves in a confrontational
sense, reacting to something that someone is either doing or in the midst of doing to us. In other
words we are defending, which as we all know
is never the ideal, but if initiative is lost to the other guy then we must have a contingency plan in
order to regain that said initiative ASAP. The
default response refers to a moment in time during a physical assault, where we employ a response
that will act as a transition between, limiting the damage inflicted upon us and actually regaining
the initiative in one big hurry. Notice that I said limiting the damage as oppose to offering
Complete protection which of course, no default can guarantee.
During the course of this article I am going to refer to comments, advice and physicalitys that relate
to this specific topic from a variety of my
peers, people who I have studied with, listened to, read about and observe and all whose opinions I
respect. Basically many of the top people
within our field have, as I am fond of saying, come to similar conclusions via similar experience.
We all may employ a slightly different slant on
the way we teach in a technical sense, but the same bedrock principles remain as a constant. In short
we all have the same point to make.
One of the early pioneers of modern-day Combatives was Tony Blauer whose conceptual idea of
employing an offensively defensive response
against an aggressors encroachment be it an attempted shove or any kind of haymaking/angular
attack, working off the back of our natural
instinct to flinch and cover.
The problem with the way in which we employ this flinching instinct in a natural primal sense, is
really quite negative and inadequate from a Combative point of view. Naturally we are inclined to
drop the head and raise the arms to cover the same, (which is considered the general
of the body) all good so far, but in addition to this we also tend to move and turn away from the
source of agitation greatly compromising
our base and balance, whilst pulling a stupid squinty facial expression. Out of all of these negative
aspects, it is the compromised balance and
moving back, thereby giving the aggressor the room he needs to continue the assault, not to
mention moving to the most dangerous part
of the weapon be it a fist impact tool or whatever, where it has now accumulated maximum
velocity and power; that is really where the real
danger lies.
The Natural Flinch:
As you can see, the natural flinch response usually involves a massive compromise to your base and
structure, all your weight on the back foot,
turning laterally with the feet and body, turning the head and looking away from the stimulus as we
distort our visual sense by squinting, in
some cases even shutting the eyes. Finally moving back to a point where the weapon has gained its
maximum velocity, giving the aggressor
room to continue the assault.
 Base and structure severely compromised, leaving you in too negative a position to respond
effectively.
Tony Blauer strived to rectify this problem by fusing this natural flinch response, onto the back of
the trained motor action of driving forward
with a spear like formation of the arms, (hence the term for the acronym S.P.E.A.R) that jams the
aggressors encroachment in an offensive
way, placing you at Close Quarters for the employment of immediate follow up tools to end the
engagement. This was a good platform from
which sound tactics have spawned via like-minded people. If you look how far back Blauer was
actually developing this kind of stuff (early 80s)
we should all agree that he was way ahead of everyone else at the time.

Tony Blauer was an early pioneer of the default/flinch response.

Of course like most ideas there are pros and cons. The fact remains that a trained response is one
thing and a primal instinctive response is
another. I tend to agree with Southnarc when he said I dont think that you can ever truly; totally
over-ride the natural flinch response if you are
taken completely by surprise. As an example; if you turn a corner tight and blind, (something that
no good SP practitioner should ever find
themselves doing) at the exact moment someone starts to swing a bat at your head, then you will
most likely raise your hands lean back,
turn away pull a silly face and get clobbered. The conclusion to that example is that you must have
some kind of INCLINATION that something
is about to happen. Whether you catch a glimpse of something out of the corner of your eye, or
you pick up on a body language cue such
as pull back of the arm/shoulder, grimace of the face whatever, anything that indicates that
something is coming at your head in one big
hurry. This is inclination and lets face it, if we are aware of the approach and we see it coming, as
we should then we would employ some
kind of situational control, (fence) in order to either defuse or if need be, pre-empt the situation this
is our game plan and the fact that we
have put up any kind of fence in the first place, is because we have an INCLINATION that there
could be a problem. We know that any assault
on our person could be immanent. It is under such circumstances that any default response could be
brought into play, if the aggressor seizes
initiative.

As we can see here; if inclination is present, then the transition to an immediate emergency cover
(regardless of choice) can be obtained in a heart beat, followed of course by a just as immediate
counter offensive.
Here our hands are already up and higher than his and the transition to covering and crashing
forward is only a heart beat away. This is where
the natural instinct to flinch can marry up with the trained response of the default position,
regardless of your favoured method. Now in the

21st century we are often spoilt for choice, this can be a good and a bad thing, the principle of
Hicks law can present itself in the company
of Murphys luck and if you have too many choices during your moment of need, then log jam will
certainly cut into your reaction time. Like
I said in the beginning of this article all good Combative instructors share commonality. We are all
pushing the same point, under the
circumstance of lost initiative cover your head, crash forward and counter from Close quarters, with
an offensive that will take out his entire
ancestry and blood line. Any default cover is for that moment in time, to limit damage and take the
fight back to him period. To quote
Southnarc again, it is not a place you want to hang out! Getting back to choice, there are a
number of different ways that we can adopt
a default position, in my opinion and it is just that an opinion, there is no better or best way, just
whats preferred and in my case what has
proved to work for me, on numerous occasions under pressure. So lets take a look at some of
whats out there. Lets look at some of the
choices and their sources then place what you decide to practice, into the area of choice, trial and
error and natural fit.
The primary function of any default position:
Input here again, comes from Southnarc; No default position will prevent you from getting hit, its
objective is damage limitation during the
transition from lost initiative to regaining the upper hand. What the default should do first is
prevent you from getting knocked down or
knocked over. If youre on the ground you are vulnerable and before any chance of escape is
possible, you must first regain your feet which
is easier said than done. The second thing it should do is to prevent you from getting knocked out,
to do so it should offer a fair degree of
protection and cover to the main knock out points on the head, i.e. the temples, the chin/jaw or
button and the sides of the neck. Damage
can be pretty much sustained at-least temporarily, else where on the head i.e. nose, teeth etc,
without knocking you out unless of course,
you let it stop you psychologically, which shouldnt happen if mindset is in place. If the default
covers the above criteria then its a valid tool
in my book.
Before we start ask yourself the following questions:
Can I use this response standing/against a wall?
Can I use it seated or rising from a seated position?
Can I use off my back or from my guard?
Will the same cover offer me some degree of protection, from both a straight-line and angular shot?
How about attempted grab or encroachment?
What about a leg/waist tackle?

Here we can see the cover employed from both a standing and seated ambush perspective; in both
examples we can present an
adequate barrier between the offensive stimulus
and what we need to protect i.e. our noggin!

Here we can see the cover being used from the ground. Cover your head and brace your feet close
to your back side, in preparation to
thrust explosively upward with your hips to buck
your opponent forward after alternate elbow strikes into the groin.
Where possible we want one non-diagnostic response that with help with all of these eventualities,
as in that moment, there is no time to
diagnose whats coming. Again none of these, are positions that I want to get caught in none than
the less they are feasible scenarios, that
my support system or in this case, my default should be able to cope with. Now lets take a look at
some of the various methods practiced
within the Modern Combatives fraternity. In some examples the differences are slight, in others
they are more obvious in all variations the
commonality that weve talked about is glaringly present; check it out.
The Spear:

Tony Blauer jamming forward encroachment with the Spear; same from the front and jamming an
angular attack, just drop the head raise the arms and blast forward.
The SPEAR is basically a wedge shape, that is driven forward and into an aggressors
encroachment, be it an angular
assault, an attempted attachment or just sudden forward pressure. The term Spear was coined due
to the similarity to the geometrical shape of a spear head and the structure of the arms, as the tool is
employed. This diamond formation of the
forearms in relation to the upper arms offers an extremely strong structure that can stunt a sudden
encroachment if thrown into
the chest/neck area, as well as jam any kind of angular assault if employed before momentum is
gained. Personally I find
the spear good for the above, but less functional for any kind of straight line or combination attack.
The open extension of
the arms compared to a tighter and more compact cover doesnt really offer me personally, the
confidence of the latter.
Sound tactic though, again drop the head raise the arms to cover, as you drive in with forward
pressure. Again works well off
the fence, making a fast transition to cover as long as inclination is in place, once again Tony Blauer
is to be commended for
his early use and development of such a concept. Tony was developing this stuff when most of us
were still locked into the
more traditional way of thinking. The Spear was a good power base from which similar ideas and
tactics have developed.
The Shield:

Richard Ryan preventing forward encroachment via the shield, commonality to any tight cover that
you employ whilst moving in, is the immediate follow up potential; here Ryan is
straight into the aggressors face off the cover of his arms. The last picture offers an overhead view
covering a hook line.
Richard Ryan of Dynamic Combat employs a similar method he calls the shield. His idea comes
from updating an old concept.
To quote Richard who says; since ancient times men have utilised shields to form a blockade
against their opponents
weapons, to ram and crush through their defences and counter attack. The concept of the shield is
the same; protect your
vitals from attack, by employing a structure for the assailant to beat on, slam or strike against
without being able to penetrate.
Of course this falls in line with the whole idea of the default; cover crash and counter. Ryan like the
rest of us, only suggests the
use of the shield as an emergency response under the circumstances of lost initiative, and then only
for as long as it takes to
employ an immediate counter offensive. I agree with Ryan on the point where he says; Stay tight
and compact,
the greatest danger in shielding is extending your limbs away from your head. This will open you
up to a variety of attacks and
nullify the shield process. Like any default response it should only be used as a momentary cover
to help maintain your ability
to see, breathe and think before making your escape or countering. www.dynamiccombat.com
The Crazy Monkey:

The hands constantly move to protect the head and face from a multiple punching attack. The front
of your forearms and elbows deal with
any frontal straight punch, while the sides of either outer arm can be closed tight to cover any
angular (hook line) punches from the side.
In reality you want to close him down after one or two punches are taken on the arms;
and finish it from the clinch.
Full credit for this method goes out to excellent MMA coach, Rodney King. Rodney developed this
(in my opinion and
experience) extremely functional method, from his active experience from working the doors,
before taking the concept into
the MMA arena. The position for the CM is made by placing both palms on the crown of your
head, leaving your forearms
and elbows covering your face and chin. This position is never static but constantly moving and
covering the entire
head/facial area just like an exaggerated motion of washing your hair, as you slip your body and
move your head to the left
and right, to present a harder to hit moving target. A very similar cover was shown to me some
years ago by one of my
instructors the late Peter Robins, back then it was described as the wash your hair cover and we
would often practice
it in multiple assailant/crowd drills, just cover up, keep moving and blast through a gap in the
simulated gang/crowd.
 As the aggressor throws punches strive to destroy his fists with your pointed elbows as you dive
through his space and guard and clinch onto his neck.

From here get inside to clinch the neck and finish with multiple knees to the groin and thighs;
follow up as appropriate.
Additional note:
A good way to practice is to have a partner wearing bag gloves, throw multiple punches at your
head as you stand with your back to a wall.
It is important to only go forward as you cover and fend, moving back gives your opponent room
to operate and develop power. So by
training with your back to the wall, the only way you can go is forward. Practice the drill for say 20
seconds then close him down into a clinch.
We practice it like this in the beginning for one reason only; it will help you to develop composure
to deal with this kind of multiple punching
attack. In reality you would go for the close down as soon as the attack starts. Whether we are
fending multiple punches from a skilled boxer
or a wind milling Neanderthal the response is the same. Cover your head with your hands and arms,
presenting your opponent with only the
points of your elbows and forearms to hit and drive forward to close him down as soon as the
assault starts, cover, crash and counter.

The CM cover to a momentary rapid flurry of hands, offers good damage limitation and a quick
close down to Close Quarters where I can quickly regain initiative.
The Cow-catcher:

The Cow-catcher employed as it would be, with impact; against the Bullet man suit. You can see the
sudden jolting effect and the space created by the simultaneous thrust of both palms.
This method developed by Lee Aldridge of New Mexico sticks to the same commonality that weve
looked at so far, work
off the flinch via some kind of inclination. Dropping the head as you raise the arms, only this time
the arms are extended as you
shove hard with both palms into the high-line. The object seems to be to create space and distance
between you and the
would-be aggressor, which may allow you the opportunity to facilitate an escape and/or access a
weapon/firearm etc
where applicable. Out of all the arms extended type variations, Id probable go with this one. I
particularly like the idea of an immediate response to create space in order to access a weapon,
improvised or otherwise. www.fightingconcepts.com
The ONeill cover:
This is another technique that can be incorporated into our natural flinch response. This was
originally part of the ONeill system
ala Dermot Pat ONeill, who was an instructor in Shanghai under Fairbain and again later in
WWII. Although the skill was
employed by ONeill more as an offensive attack it also lends itself well as a default position. It
brings into play the same drop
of the head whilst raising your arms for cover, as you step deeply into your opponent, jamming his
forward offensive.
The difference this time is that you now hold your arms in a horizontal formation one on top of the
other in front of your face.
Make a small gap so that you can look between your arms as you drive forward, spiking your
opponent in the throat with the
top forearm/elbow and in the chest area with the other or somewhere approximate to that area.
From here a natural follow
up is to drive through and upward into his groin with a rear knee strike as you walk violently
through him.

This is the arm and body position for the ONeill cover and here is the cover in application; as you
perceive your aggressors intent, just drop
your centre of gravity and drive through your aggressor with the cover, from here walk violently
through him with knee strikes to his low line
 striving to literally blow out his base.
The spiked elbow cover:
This is the method depicted in a lot of Kelly McCanns tapes it is a great tool to use if someone
throws any kind of angular
attack or if the individual simply attempts to encroach on your space. All you are going to do from
here is step in with a falling
drop step action and spike him in the chest area with the point of your elbow. This again fits in with
our flinch response in as
much that the head is dropped, whilst still keeping your aggressor in view as the hands come up to
protect the face and
neck. The spiked elbow arm is bought up high into centre line and your opposite hand is open and
in front of your face as a
monitor.

What is most probable from here is that as your opponent is speared in the chest, he will be knocked
back from the strike, in
pain with the wind knocked right out of him. But if some reason he is still on his feet the follow up
potential is massive. To
practice this drill have your partner hold a padded shield flat against his chest, and simply fall
forward into the pad impacting
with the point of your elbow and your body weight behind it. From here the progression is to have
your partner close on you
with increasing force and power, then you will realise that the bigger the guy is and the harder he
comes at you the more your
elbow will hurt him as it impacts his centre of body mass. Take the progression through all stages,
from compliancy to an all out
attack with compliancy removed, really pressure test it. If we must react defensively because we
have been caught slightly
off guard, then the best course of action is to be defensively offensive and the spiked elbow offers
just what we need for that
purpose. It can also be employed against a straight line shot by shifting to your flank slightly to
cover the shot, followed by
clearing the attack limb and throwing an immediate counter.

Here it is in application. Drop slightly as you cover the head and move inside to jam the attack.
Continue instantly with a clinching elbow
strike into the face following up as needed.
The Fend drill:
The Fend was developed through the trial and error of pressure testing, by CQB Services and
Personal defence solutions
instructor Simon Squires and a mutual friend of ours Brian from South Africa. Here was a classic
example of two lads looking for
something that would stand up to a relentless continuous punching attack.

Here CQB instructor Si Squires demos the fend position.

The Fend is what they come up with and it certainly offers some merit. Personally I find the
position a little static and I have
found that novice students tend to stand still with it, shut their eyes and hope for the best, rather
than looking to gain composure.
Such a problem only requires practice and experience to overcome so I certainly wouldnt score
that as a point against it.
Good tactic provides a good tight cover from standing, seated and grounded ambush attacks. Here
we see it employed to
fend a multiple punching attack. Regardless of whether the attack is from a skilled boxer or a wind
milling Neanderthal; the
response is the same, cover your head with your hands and arms presenting your opponent with
only the points of your elbows
to hit. Drive forward to close him down as soon as the assault starts then get inside to clinch and
employ the appropriate follow
ups. www.personaldefencesolutions.com

Standing cover and fend to a multiple punching attack whilst blasting forward to close down and
clinch etc.
The Keysi method:
The Keysi system is an off-shoot from the JKD concepts approach, though recognised as a
respectable system in its own right.
They employ an array of tight elbow covers pretty much in line with what weve seen so far. From
such cover an immediate
counter is employed using a variety of natural bodily tools, including hammer-fist strikes and
punching skills from boxing range
and close quarters.
 Keysi man Andy Norman demonstrates one cover position from his art, and me depicting a couple
of others, again from the Keysi system.
Notice the last picture and its similarity to the ONeill position of some 60 plus years earlier.
Default/Southnarc: www.shivworks.com

Southnarc showing the Default Position and the importance of leading with points and edges.
This is basically an in-fight contingency plan to employ, should you lose initiative and find yourself
now, having to negotiate an
aggressors attack. This is what SN refers to as an oh shit! Moment The cover protects your
temples, jaw hinges and the sides
of your neck, which are the most likely knock out points. The chin is less vulnerable due to the fact
that you have created a
tight cage around your head thereby supporting the head and limiting the brain shake via
impact. Priority lies in keeping the
hips square and orientated forward with the pelvic girdle back. Nose over toes is the sought after
position this goes a long
way toward preventing you from being bowled over, whilst providing you with traction for your
own forward drive. That
combined with caging your head provides a fair degree of cover from in-coming blows regardless if
they are thrown left or
right, angular or linear, single or multiple.

SN jamming forward encroachment; also employing a Fist helmet to feel the energy of an
immediate follow up in this case elbow strikes.
SN default against a straight-line attack, leading with points and edges the straight punch slides over
the top.
Default/Mick Coup:

MCs long and short default cover; demonstrated here as a counter clinch and wall crash.
Mick Coups default cover employs a slightly elongated arm position, along with square hips,
shoulders ahead of the hips for
stability. Mick likes to employ this cover under the circumstances of lost initiative before launching
an immediate offensive, or
as he calls it hitting the go like F**k switch Again commonality, under certain conditions Mick
will also employ a tighter and
more compact cover if circumstances dictate such a need.
The Armadillo boxing guard:
The Combative sport of Boxing has also employed a similar tactic for years the classic Armadillo
guard or cross-arm cover has
been used effectively, from the days of Bob Fitzsimmons to Jo Frazier. This was particularly suited
to a shorter boxer who was
likely to be subjected to uppercuts from a taller opponent, or just as a means to cover from an on-
slaught of punches, or when
a boxer was faced with a two handed attack that threatens to overwhelm him unless he covers
up. Covering up is what we
will do instinctively and the above tactic offers the best means to do that, in a ring environment.
Aspiring young boxers should
find a cover that best suits their body type for such a time when they need it. The same can be seen
with the use of the Crazy
Monkey, within the realms of MMA. Although, this is of course combat sport orientated and a very
different environment to the
street, commonality is the same, in that any type of cover employed is a brief, temporary defensive
measure that enables
damage limitation, whilst awaiting the opportunity to counter and retake the initiative. A means to
keep composure and blast
back at the first opportunity.
Conclusion:
As you can see spoilt for choice, all probably come with their own set of pros and cons that remain
to be found during the acid
test of training. My suggestion is find one that suits you and drill it to exhaustion, take the
progression up to having a partner with
boxing gloves and bad intentions, really trying to knock you out then youll know and be confident.
Once there place it in the
tool box of your support system where it belongs. Bottom line is as always, if its going to
get physical then, you be the feeder.
You take the initiative by being first, if you need to employ any default use it offensively, aiming to
shut the aggressor down
straight away, dont give him room and dont let him work his game just cover, crash and
counter.
Peace LM