to confidence in the face of confrontation?

to accessing raw aggression when you need it most?

to skilfully applying pure violent intent?

It ALL comes down to specifically and methodically training your mind and your emotions to process and react to external events in a completely NEW WAY.

Not only is this way new and unfamiliar but thanks to the ongoing feminisation of modern culture and the demonisation of any and all behaviours or traits which are overtly “masculine” it has also been deeply ingrained as a huge SOCIAL TABOO to display normal healthy aggression (regardless of whether your a man or a woman). Effectively forcing people to suppress their natural drives; making them miserable, depressed, sick and passive.

Healthy expressions of normal aggressive drive like decisiveness, single mindedness, the ability to simply take action without endless pontificating, hand wringing and worrying what others might think and who we might offend are ALL behaviours derided and devalued in modern culture – have you noticed?

Look at adverts, music videos, chat shows, films. You’ll see it when you look for it.

No wonder people “struggle to access aggression” ! We’ve had a lifetime of social hypnosis telling us to “be nice”.

Well actually to “shut up, be nice” and do as you are told. Being blindly obedient is NOT natural.

If you are over 21, have no history of mental illness, are a reasonable and responsible adult looking for an explanation of how and why these psychological barriers get put in place and a simple step by step procedure for smashing through them then you might want to check this out:

From his website http://www.tonyblauer.com

“Tony Blauer is founder and CEO of BLAUER TACTICAL CONFRONTATION MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS©. Mr. Blauer has pioneered research and training methodologies that have influenced and inspired martial art & combative systems around the world.

His company, BLAUER TACTICAL SYSTEMS (BTS) is now one of the world’s leading consulting firms specializing in research & development of combative training & equipment for the military, law enforcement and self-defense communities. BTS has taught key performance enhancement, fear management, and combatives based on S.P.E.A.R. System research to military, law enforcement and civilian personnel since 1988.

Mr. Blauer’s research on performance psychology, fear management and personal defense readiness has earned him invitations to consult with groups as large as Federal Express and SONY to companies as elite as threat management experts Gavin De Becker, Incorporated. Blauer has been featured in 100+ magazine articles including MAXIM and LAW & ORDER.”

We all love to train. Right? If we are into “self protection” “self defense” “martial arts” or “reality based self defense” then we are going to love to train. Surely.

Well no, not quite. Actually you can have a purely “academic” interest in the subject. Some people like to collect stamps, some people build model airplanes, some collect old books and some collect street combatives videos. They watch but they do not DO. They think about the subject but they are not TRAINING it.

There is nothing wrong with this in and of itself. An interest, a hobby is wholly innocuous in and of itself.

The problem comes in two forms:
1. The hobbyist who thinks he is and talks as though and ADVISES others as though he is a “practitioner”. Usually found dwelling for excessively long periods of time on internet forums pontificating and opining when he should be in the gym training those HIIT, powerlifting and crossfit routines he is advising others to do himself. This is the guy who will tell you “yeah I know boxing” or “yeah I know muay thai” because if it comes on TV whilst he is sat on his flaccid ever widening arse that he RECOGNISES the style.

2. The other problem is when we ourselves drift in to hobby land. If you are injured or simply CANNOT train for some real reason (which if you push yourself on the subject you will probably find as I did that beyond injury there is NEVER a reason, a valid excuse to not at least bang out some burpees, go for a jog and do some pushups.). Have you ever found yourself spending more time thinking, analysing and LOOKING for solutions than laying down the foundations for your being skilled right NOW? Which is more useful TODAY looking for the next interesting martial arts move or doing that “boring” run? Which one is actually going to bring you closer to achieving your objectives?

So the clearest way to deal with this effect is to make a clear mental distinction. Becoming more objective and less subjective never hurt anyone. There is a CLEAR dividing line between the “acquisition of techniques” and the “development of skill”.
Put another way: KNOWING WHAT TO DO ISNT GOING TO MEAN ANYTHING IF YOU DONT HAVE THE ABILITY TO DO IT.

And put into an example: the “self protection hobbyist” above who KNOWS a thousand and one techniques against a thousand and one threats but when faced with ANY kind of confrontation (not even physical) freezes with terror and is too fat, unfit and immobile to do anything anyway. All that information will come leaking out of his ears after a gang of skinny teenagers (who have never trained) pack rush him, drag him to the floor and jump on his head.

The psychology of this is fairly straightforward. Allow me to roll out the “two point explanation” format again.

1. Acquiring techniques is comforting and comfortable. Skill acquisition is not. Sitting there watching dvds and reading books you can KID YOURSELF that you can bust out all these moves you are watching as though they were being downloaded into your brain “matrix style”. This is the fat comic book nerds ultimate fantasy! “Dude, I think you will find… I know kung fu.”
I have watched (and am watching) schools and instructors sell their “street self protection” courses based on this ridiculous notion. It would be funny if it wasn’t so outrageous and didn’t feature people being RIPPED OFF whilst taught things that will make them less able to defend themselves:

“Learn how to defend yourself from multiple armed attackers IN A WEEKEND”.

Seriously?
Who would fall for this silly horseshit?
Come on!
Have these instructors ever defended themselves from “multiple armed attackers” successfully?
Cool, show me the multiple scars and the multiple hospital reports. Oh, did they all die without you getting injured at all? Riiiiiiiight….
Unless you are fighting drunk midgets (dwarves? Which is politically correct?) I don’t buy it.
I could take on a gang of drunk midgets I reckon.
If they were armed with naught but soft cushions.

Give Brock Lesnar some pcp and a big metal baseball bat and I think even he would get a few stripes in the back “against multiple armed opponents”.

Look you cant “download” skill and I’m not really sure I could teach anything in a weekend against those kinds of odds. Some smart arse will say “yeah you could… its called running away really fast.”
But actually you COULDNT even learn how to sprint in a weekend! Not from scratch, not to a reasonable standard.
And if you think you are going to stand in the middle of a circle of guys armed with the serious intent to do you harm and a tool for the job and “chop socky” them Bruce Lee style, please wake up and smell the coffee now. It would be better than you eating liquefied food “through the wire” for 3 months.

You CAN “download” the acquisition (recognition) of techniques I suppose, through exposure… but without the ability to perform the techniques WHAT IS THE POINT??? You don’t “learn with the ability to DO” a damn thing by watching the DVD. You have to get with a training partner and DO IT.
Repeatedly. Over time.
This is where “skill acquisition” is the less palatable option for lazier, more feckless folk

It’s hard, its a bit boring, its repetitive and it takes time. BUT the good news is like any training you can LEARN to enjoy the process. Call me weird but I find training that others call “boring” quite “relaxing” – was that a “reframe” there?
If you want to be good enough to fight back when you need to you had better to start teaching yourself to enjoy the training. You can learn to associate pleasure to anything. Getting a good sweat on, giving yourself a good bit of pain (good pain not “injury inducing, one off, kamikaze show boating”) , oxygenating the blood stream, accessing some aggression, burning off some excess adrenaline (and calories) and releasing endorphins gets addictive really quickly. Get addicted.

2. There is a psychological phenomena that I have witnessed across several fields of study that does not have a name yet, that I am aware of. People can become “addicted to the search”. Like some sort of nerdy, perpetually procrastinating investigative journalist.
Ever naïve, ever optimistic, like jack from “jack and the beanstalk” they are out there seeking like crazy for their “magic beans”. They sell themselves on all kinds of ridiculous notions and are addicted to: attending seminars, reading books, buying dvds.
These people are a dodgy instructors wet dream. I’ve seen this in NLP/ personal development, sales and marketing and in strength/fitness training as well as martial arts. They seem to believe if they “just keep looking” they will find some magic solution that will “give them everything they want” easily, quickly and with no sweat. Their houses fill up with unread and unwatched products that have bought in a sweaty, guilty frenzy.
What percentage of people attending NLP or psychology seminars actually go out and USE what they have learnt do you think? Is the body building magazine trade built on people who are training? Or on people who “want to be” training? I actually don’t know for a fact what the answer to that question is, but there are only so many times you can tell someone how to “BUILD MASSIVE BICEPS NOW”, what to eat and how much rest to get between training sessions amongst a hell of a lot of supplement advertising!

DO NOT FALL INTO THESE TRAPS.

Keep a good simple work ethic. Take a down to earth approach to your training. Use your common sense, even if you have little or no experience just be honest with yourself and ask “what can I do today that will help me develop skills and attributes that should I get into trouble will actually make a difference?” If you can’t attend a class, get them old trainers out and go and get some air in your lungs. Do some push ups and bodyweight squats if you cant get to a gym.
Yes, it’s true, you must work on your strength and fitness ALL the time. Tune me out if you don’t like what I’m saying. Go train with the guys selling you the ridiculous notion that strength and fitness are not necessary and size doesn’t matter because their hand to hand skills are so ninja deadly. And then have a good honest look at them, at what they are teaching. Use your own intuition and judgement and ask “has this guy been in a fight? If he was to get in one would any of this stuff hold him in good stead? REALLY?”
You MUST embrace a healthy life style. You MUST becoming what your fat, immobile peers would call a “gym junky” and what I would call a “reasonable amount of training that approximates what the human body was designed to do”. How much? As much as you can. How much is too much? There isn’t a “too much” there is only what you are conditioned for or what you are not conditioned for. At what age must you stop training to remain safe? Never, studies have shown you can keep going until you are dead. So keep going. Until you are dead.
Go on, impress the coroner.

Think of a possible scenario that could unfold in the next few days or one that you have been in before and identify a couple of your weak points and set some objectives today to do something about them. Is it a lack of assertiveness? Lack of fitness? Whatever it is, go and deal with that. Maybe you have never trained and can’t even throw a straight punch. You are at where you are at. It’s fine, but take control and do something about it.

You see I’ve noticed over the years that what people are often really looking for beyond the techniques is CONFIDENCE. I can’t give you that. No instructor can. YOU CAN unlock that confidence in yourself by tackling your own problems head on. Not in an aggressive way, but in a rational, step by step manner that you feel comfortable with. That is at least part of where confidence comes from. Knowing what you are and are not capable of. Knowing that you can deal with problems in your own life in your own way. Knowing yourself.

Looking at the mechanics, the components and the context of this video what can we take away from it. Clearly the elbow strike has enormous potential, but is it only applicable as a pre emptive strike when the other person is not expecting it?

In a sporting context, elbow KO set up with deception, but here by faking a left knee:

Another street fight Elbow to the cheekbone, takes a bit to get it in, but when it lands it does knock the recipient unconscious.

Hiya Dave

yeah I think in some ways a lot of gym training can make you quite “precious” if that makes sense?

you get used to having things a certain way and hell of a lot of your needs are accommodated for in a gym environment

this is where I think doorwork is good as a confidence booster, because of the chaotic and extremely “un ideal” circumstances, the gobbing off, verbal, staring, chest puffing, peacock “I wonder if I can get away with clocking you” phase becomes so frequent its dull… of course the downside is it can make you a bit blase about being fronted and I think its a mistake not to take every situation seriously now. My last injury came from a light hearted approach to a confrontation

anyway

thanks for the email

keep in touch

Richie

In a nutshell, you teach people how to defend their selfs. There will will always be two kind of people, those who take what you teach on board and those who sit on youtube sticking dynamite in every single point you make (Trolls). The only difference is, in my opinion, how these two types of people will react when faced with a threat. If someone attacks me for no reason then I beleive I am within my rights to knock seven shades of shit out of him untill he is no longer a threat to me. If someone attacks one of these t**ts then no amount of trolling will help them.

There will always be people online whohave nothing better to do with there time but hey, that’s up to them. Keep up the good work Rich. As a great man once said; Keep it real.

Oh and also, I may invest in that DVD after Christmas as I’m taking a break from i all to over endulge on fad Mince pies and other festive treats : D
Sean

“If someone attacks one of these t**ts then no amount of trolling will help them.”

HAHAHAHA! Excellent

save a mince pie for me

Richie

Free will the use of the mind and self
>control, unfortunatly what the average thug lacks,your education gives
one a choice, knowing what to do and what you can do, it not about
keeping face, the bouncer you told of, that never needed to use force
says it all, oh, Im dont work the doors, or anything like that, only an
army medic.
Thanks, Gary

Hi Gary

thanks for the feedback, ah yeah I’d forgotten about him – I might point people in the direction of that article again

yeah, choice is what its all about

cheers

Richie
(article is here http://streetfightsecrets.com/ChoicetoFightandtheEgo.aspx )

Hey Richie,

I gotta tell you, RIGHT FUCKIN ON! I’ve been teaching mixed combatives for self protection since the ’80s. As a former SOF soldier and Instructor, I say, you hit the nail on the head with your video.

Most people are so into their cush world that they have no clue as to what it takes in a real world situation. Yet they are also the first to scream and wonder why the police did not protect them (That’s what police are for, right?? argh!!). Most don’t want to be responsible for themselves. Anyway thanks for putting out the videos because those in need will find you and learn something useful.

When I was actively teaching I had so called 5th and 7th degree black belts dropping out of my trainings after a week saying it was too brutal, imagine that! As the world goes from bad to worse these people will fall by the wayside unless they change their world view.

I once had an instructor who said “There are 3 types of people in the world, People who make things happen, people who watch things happen and people who wonder what happened”.

In closing do your best and forget the rest! DRIVE ON, brother!

RB

Hi RB

thankyou very much mate, some things just instantly polarise people – this issue of applying violence is one of them

“Most people are so into their cush world that they have no clue as to what it takes in a real world situation.”

So, so true – there is a large gap between the people who have done it and those who havent, couldnt and wont

Anyway I wont go on one

thanks for getting in touch

all the best

Richie

“my pupils get really big and people get really frightened and they say my voice is really commanding. normally when im normal im really nice but since I have been acting for about 8 years, its hard to tell which state im in is that bad I think I need a trainer.”

From youtube subscriber – didn’t bother to reply as all I heard was “I’m so amazingly tough I scare my own mum! ”

Another email from a youtube subscriber:
Subject title: “you’ve created a monster lol!”
I think that aside from teaching people sociopathic models of thought when it comes to violence (I bought psychology of violence and it works so well for confidence) you should also teach these guys to be more masculine as well. I would imagine that being masculine and present (in the moment outside of their minds) can help them not be so scared of others or violence.

Your psychology of violence CD is no f****** joke man. I thought its benefits were limited to violence but nooope. I found myself actually attuned to weaknesses in others, more willing to take advantage of people and a much better manipulator…I remember just doing things that were different but scarily enough felt more natural. I don’t know how the hell these other traits go with just imagining violence vividly. It’s not like I was practicing in my mind “become a manipulative sociopath” it was just imagining beating people to a pulp for 10 minutes. How is this all related?

Anyway, needless to say I stopped because I got the confidence and thats all I wanted. I would flash into certain unpleasant states however and I found myself waiting in line at stores looking at the female cashiers, and low and behold I had women starting conversations with me left and right and lots of female attention, although I was a scumbag inside.

What the fuck right? Lol, care to shed some light on why these side effects are so weird? Women are supposed to be scared when I’m like this not more attracted! Hahah smdh…

Hi
The Psychology Of Violence “Core Visualisation” Cd is a powerful course but I do worry when I tell people that, especially in a market saturated with training that is allegedly so “deadly” “lethal” “brutal” and “savage” that it will rip your eyelids off when you watch it and so “secret” the NSA will come and confiscate your frontal lobes as soon as the credits roll, that people will just think it’s more marketing hype and hyperbole.
All I can say is that in my opinion it really is the most “dangerous” information I’ve released, in the sense that it can’t fail to work, the changes are large, powerful and come with extremely negative side effects.
And unlike throat chopping and spinning elbows or whatever which have to practised with diligent physical effort over time, the “core visualisation” can be done by anyone, in any condition from their armchair and they will feel more confident and more able to access aggression within 24 hours of doing the visualisation.
Why has it made you more confident and manipulative?
Possibly it takes the “brakes” off a lot of social taboos and thaws your balls out. Many of us have succumbed to the societal unmanning “sanitisation process”. We are brainwashed into thinking that our every impulse or drive is “wrong” (“politically incorrect” or possibly offensive to someone… somewhere).
Society, like a bitchy wife, has removed your balls and now keeps them in a jar in the freezer.
And rightly so.
We can’t have a bunch of free thinking, creative, expressive determined men wandering about challenging things can we?
Certainly not. It could ruin the utopia we have spent years creating and now enjoy the fruits of.
I for one am happy being a neutered slave to society.
Because I’m a “nice guy”.
There are solid psychological reasons why you feel the way you do. I subscribe to Zimbardos view (he of the Stanford prison experiment) that peoples values, beliefs and behaviours are largely a product of their “life training” and their “training environment”, their culture, family, society, life experiences, status etc
See his book “The Lucifer Effect” if you are interested.
Anyway we are at a strange place culturally in many ways that would account for why you think your approach was scumbagish and why in actual fact these behaviours or attitudes might actually be attractive. It has a lot to with the clash between our cultural programming and our (men and womens) genetic predispositions. Women are hardwired to be attracted to the men who give the greatest “survivability” to their offspring. We are just socks created for the purpose of carrying on DNA at the end of the day. Continuation of DNA trumps all other impulses, which is part of why people might stay in crappy relationships or continually seek out the type of partners who are damaging on one level but attractive at the deeper more animalistic levels. Between the animal part of the brain and the human, the animal still wins.

Bear in mind this course isn’t designed to make people manipulative or to make them better at pulling. This is about allowing people to access aggression immediately and appropriately and condition their mind to deliver violence asymmetrically, one way, towards their opponent and “deliver a beating” rather than “ get in a fight”.
Keep in touch

Richie

Techniques to help you overcome fear and access confidence.

The mental techniques I use and teach to help overcome a neurotic fear of confrontation and violence fall into two main categories: in the moment techniques and pre event preparation.

Notice I’ve defined specifically a “neurotic” fear of confrontation and violence, whereby you find yourself over thinking, projecting, over reacting, behaving like a paranoid nutcase and potentially actually creating incidents through a phobic “OVER RESPONSE”. I am NOT talking about the natural aversion to risk and endangerment, as this is desirable and healthy.

“In the moment” techniques are things you can do before and after a verbal or physical confrontation that help you to manage your mental and emotional state and keep you safer and more able to access your abilities. As we know a panicked or overly stressed individual cannot access the full potential of their intelligence, their decision making capabilities or their physical skill.

“Pre Event Preparation” are the mental conditioning and long term self hypnosis or visualisation practises that help you diminish neurotic fear and access desirable states in a conflict like calm, confidence and cold aggression.

That is not to say “in the moment” techniques are “quick fixes” that do not require practise. THEY ARE NOT. They need diligent self disciplined drilling over time. As with any skill, do not seek the “magic results”. Go for building a solid foundation.

Controlling your physiology is one of the most powerful, fastest “in the moment techniques” I know of for managing your state.

The principle is simple:

WHERE THE BODY GOES THE MIND AND EMOTIONS WILL FOLLOW.

Put another way, if you move your body like a happy person it is very likely your state will change in a direction whereby you feel “happier”. It’s all very subjective I know, but trust me it’s powerful.

What does this mean? Different emotional states affect the body in myriad subtle ways. Breathing, tonality, amount and tempo of facial and body gesture, where and how your eyes move, posture, stance, even how close you stand to people when you talk.

Don’t turn this into a dry intellectual exercise resulting in analysis paralysis. Ask yourself: how do I stand when I feel “X”?

Let’s use “confident” as an example of emotional state “X”. How do you stand when you feel confident? Would you lean forward or back? Chin tilted up or down? Confident eye movement?

Does any of this sound far fetched? Think about people you have observed. Do they not move their eyes differently when confident as opposed to terrified? Give this some thought where your eyes move ALONE has a massive impact on your emotional state and even what information you can access.

Want an example? Spell the word “schizophrenic” out loud, without looking at the screen. TRY IT NOW.

Did you notice your eyes moved up? Maybe even looked at the ceiling?

Can you spell difficult words, recall phone numbers or other specific hard to remember details without looking away from the person you are talking to?

All these things TOGETHER count and are very powerful. Study this deeply.

IF you are trying to access a state you have not yourself experienced much of then MODEL someone who does.

How does “X” stand when he is feeling confident? Does his voice change pitch? If I stand like that and talk like that do I feel more or less confident? Is this useful? Etc

There are no hard and fast rules and this is more art than science.

As all good applied psychology is.

Attacking your Attacker?”

2 Words:

“Violent Intent“

With it you have a lot in a fight… but

Without it you have nothing!!

We have on offer a two 40 minute DVD set

PLUS a “Psychology of Violent Intent”5500 word E-Book and a 40 minute  AudioBook for FREE
Possibly the most essential yet most commonly overlooked element of Self Protection training,

“Violent Intent” remains the single key factor in bridging the psychological and physical elements of your training

and in making you as dangerous as possible to any would-be attacker.
WITHOUT Violent Intent, your training becomes “dry land swimming” and the thoughtless, boring repetition of meaningless movements

that

will NOT be recalled under pressure!

You must find ways of integrating the mental and psychological conditioining and the NLP tools into your physical training

if you want a truly holistic,

properly integrated system of Self Protection skills at your disposal.
“The first in the new series of DVDs is released today and its starts with our most essential key component… which is?

VIOLENT INTENT!

You’ve heard me say this time and again: if you want to get good at doing violence to another human being you must have the WILL and DETERMINATION burning strong within you to inflict that violence.

This is the fundamental block upon which all the rest of our skills must be built.

We always start with a clear, strong intent.

The DVD does demo some physical techniques but they are explicitly incidental and secondary to the psycho-neurological drills.

This is the rawest DVD Ive done to date, it does contain alot of swearing and extremely graphic descriptions of violence. Why?

Well as an NLP practitioner I know that my “state” transmits so if I want to elicit a state in an audience or a client the simplest and most elegant way for me to do that is to go into the desired state first. “

Richie

Topics covered:

-What Violent Intent is and why Intention alone could very well be the difference that makes all the difference in a street fight.

-The difference between how a martial artist thinks about violence and how a full time active security operative thinks about it… and why that mode of thought is crucial to how you respond to and handle violence effectively.

-HOW TO GENERATE REALLY STRONG VIOLENT INTENT AND USE IT TO YOUR ADVANTAGE TO DOMINATE AGGRESORS IN THE STREET.

-How violent intent manifests as physical movement.

-HOW YOU CAN START PUTTING VIOLENT INTENTION IN TO YOUR PHYSICAL TRAINING TO TURBO CHARGE YOUR TECHNIQUES.

-Dealing with being attacked whilst seated.

-The final, final FINAL word on the palm vs.fist debate!

-HOW TO APPLY SUPER AGGRESSIVE TECHNIQUES LIKE EYE GOUGES, HEADBUTTS AND BITES TO FRIGHTEN AND PSYCHOLOGICALLY DOMINATE AN ATTACKER

-Using good clean neuro linguistics to generate maximum violent intention.

-The difference between using raw, chaotic, animalistic movement and highly refined, well trained fine motor skill tactics- and how to combine them to maximum effect!

-What frightens an experienced street fighter, why it does and how you can use it to your own advantage.

-How to turn yourself into a swirling, swarm of violent maniacal movement that will put fear and pain into your attacker within seconds of them touching you allowing you to batter them senseless.

to get the Violent Intent Pack Click Here

12 Common Street Fight Mistakes
…

get free report “12 Street Fight Mistakes” Ebook pdf here http://streetfightsecrets.com/StreetFightMistakes.aspx

some examples:
1.Poor Targetting — you must have the knowledge of which targets which generate the most desired effect (presumably unconsciousness or injury) and the skill to hit them.

2.Poor Body Mechanics — you must know how to move your body in such a way as to generate effect, proper use of “kinetic chaining” and hip movement is essential.

3.Lack of Cardio and Strength — you must train to have above average levels of cardio and strength. Technical knowledge without the physical capacity to deliver that technical knowledge is useless.

4.Lack of “forward drive” – this is not just brainlessly stomping forward no matter what, but intelligently and aggressively stealing the opponents space, crowding and stressing him into submission.

to get the FULL StreetFightSecrets Library (34 Titles in all !!!) in one go but part pay for it over 3 months just go to: http://streetfightsecrets.com/StreetFightMistakes.aspx

Richard Grannon 2010

Forget about “pre contact” stuff like awareness, deescalation and avoidance – focus only on post contact Combative Priorities (as described in the “Beta-8 Syllabus”):

1. cause unconsciousness
2. cause injury
3. cause “stress” (fear/pain creating a defensive response psychologically and physically)
4. control the space/ control the opponent

Assuming their top priorities once the fight had begun was to knock the opponent out or injure them what top 5 major mistakes are these guys making?

This is a fairly standard street fight: loads of activity, loads of effort but not much EFFECT – afterwards they probably had not much more than swollen knuckles, bruised faces and a few muscle tears – WHY?

What are people frequently doing in fights to fail to generate any EFFECT i.e. injury or unconsciousness.

Come up with your top 5 reasons why people fail to generate effect in fights.

The top two answers will win a copy of “6 Seconds of Extreme Violence” the new Street FIght DVD set from http://www.streetcombatives.com

and the runners up can choose any title they want from the Street FIght Secrets Full Library List here

http://streetfightsecrets.com/streetfightsecretsfulllibrary.aspx

get your answers in before wednesday the 29th Sept 2010 to be in with a chance to win

either post your answers on the youtube video comments section or email them to me

have a good weekend!

Richie

p.s. obviously this is an organised fight and there is a lack of intent to do SERIOUS harm but they are trying to knock each other out or put each other out of the fight – please resist the temptation to give “smart” or “funny” answers :-p thankyou!

If I asked you to train in such a way that all you were to get really, really good at doing was delivering “an explosion of savage violence” how would that change the way you train?
What drills would you focus on?
Would it affect your additional cardio and strength trainings?
How would it change the way you think about “fighting”?

Does “An Explosion of Savage Violence” sound like something that is appropriate to “learning to fight” or developing the ability to withstand a “desperate struggle for survival”?
Which of these frames more closely depicts the truth of the real requirements of modern self protection?
Now ask yourself honestly, which of these frames is actually reflected by the way you are training and mentally and physically preparing yourself to deal with real world violence?
Are you a “fighter” or a “survivor”?
Which frame is more powerful for you? Which do you think is more honest and accurate to the type of combative pressure or violence you are likely to face?
In what context will you face violence? Where, when, with whom, under what cirmcumstances, what is your physical and emotional state likely to be, what is their physical and emotional state likely to be, what are their objectives, what are yours?
All these questions help to define the all important “context” – without a context for our training we are just engaging in mindless non goal orientated “activity” not “taking intelligent, decisive action to achieve an objective”.

Does this or could this describe your training? Does your current training inspire you and push you?
Does it encourage you to be more intelligent, more creative, more focussed, more developed as a human being or not?
Are you capable of delivering “an explosion of savage violence”? If this became your speciality and if you were capable do you think you would be more or less confident because of it.
Sometimes learning to “fight” and learning to “survive” can be two very different things solely relevant to two different contexts. Sometimes there is crossover, and that crossover CAN be useful SOMETIMES.
But then sometimes it simply dilutes and poisons.
Do you want to learn (state of acquisition) more and more street fight techniques? Or do you want to develop (state of being) more and more capabilities?
One is a paradigm of “having” the other of “being”. When the pressure is TRULY ON and you are in a “desperate struggle for survival” not a “fight” which do you think will count the most?
Sometimes being more rigorous and disciplined in HOW we “frame” and how we “think” about our training is more important and more POWERFUL a shift than WHAT we actually train.

IF you are truly being backed into a corner with no further options and IF any kind of physical action on your part WOULD actually improve your chances of survival then would “An Explosion of Savage Violence” that allows you to ruthlessly and brutally and repeatedly Attack the Attacker be a more appropriate response than “defending yourself”?
If we change the way we think, the way we linguistically represent the problem, we automatically redefine the solutions, thereby changing the actions we take and the results we get.
The results we seek are better, more intelligent more effective training that leads to greater survivability for the practitioner.

-What is verbal confrontation?

Verbal Confrontation is that range of disagreement where there is no physical threat present or implied (yet) and the threat is solely a non physical, psychological threat to the ego.

-What does dealing with verbal confrontation effectively imply?

Dealing with verbal confrontation effectively means standing your ground, getting your point across in a calm, assertive fashion whilst not unduly harming the other persons ego (or starting a fight).
It DOES mean diffusing the situation verbally before it becomes a fight.
It DOES NOT mean walking off in a bad state and pretending you have been the “bigger person” when you know and feel you should of actually said something and its eating you up inside causing you to spend at least an hour before falling asleep staring at the ceiling and questioning your own manhood.
Other symptoms may include waking up at 4 am to repeat this process of insecurity driven “dwelling impotently meditation”.
It is NOT simply and genuinely choosing to not engage the other person in dialogue because they are just a tiny spec in your reality tunnel and without consequence. That is a valid, but different, response to the issue dealt with on this course.

-Why do we find confronting people verbally a problem?

Richard Bandler once told me (I was 20 and on my first NLP course) that he thought I was trying to look big and tough but that he knew I was secretly scared and couldn’t even talk to girls I liked. Damn him and his mind reading, he was absolutely right!
People involved in Self Protection, Martial Arts, Combat Sports and Security can often be very skilled and capable and confident in situations of high risk, but crumble in medium risk confrontational scenarios.
Can you think of an example of a “tough guy” who is scared to say “no” to his wife or girlfriend?
Or a really “hard b@$stard” who can fight ten brickies… but cant walk over to a girl he likes and introduce himself?

What is the issue here?

Well… what is any human beings single greatest fear?

Death?
Spiders?
Pain?
The Unknown?
Ghosts?
Spice Girls Reunion gigs?

Nope,

Its…

HUMILIATION!

Verbal Argument leaves a much wider opportunity for humiliation than a physical fight does… so your nervous system acts like the argument is the bigger threat than a physical fight.

Sounds ridiculous doesn’t it? But at an unconscious level that is exactly what an argument is, a larger threat.

Your Autonomic nervous system is governed by unconscious drives that will not and can not distinguish between a Sabre Tooth Tiger attack and some Public Speaking scenario.

But as a martial artist with some training you know that you can end a physical “argument” with the ultimate “put down”: multiple elbows to the jaw (I joke!)

So you feel more in you confident comfort zone when a physical fight is imminent no matter what is said.

So we end up with the bizarre scenario of experienced, trained men who can fight off attackers with skill and finesse yet who feel sweaty and get shaky voiced when telling people not to jump in front of them in a queue.

-What can we do about it?

There are various techniques and processes that need to be reprogrammed into your unconscious to help but here are some common sense guidelines to dealing with Verbal Conflict:

1. Know that you are right.

Sounds non consequential I know but this one powerful first step can allow you to completely “reframe” how you experience the whole Verbal Conflict.

Ask yourself “How do I know that I am Absolutely right to feel this way?”

The more of a sense of certainty you get about your absolute right to do something about this situation the stronger, calmer and more resolved you will feel.

How does knowing you are in the right empower you and make you feel more resolved?

Im not 100% sure why this works so powerfully, but I do know that one of the fundamental principles of human psychology is:

“People will do ANYTHING if they have a good enough reason.”

So as you sit there stacking all the reasons you know that you are absolutely right to engage in a verbal conflict you feel stronger and stronger and more motivated to just get it done.

Another reason might be that it will bring clarity to your situation.
Some social situations are ambiguous and as we have moved from village to city life we are encouraged more and more to interact less and less with our fellow humans.

The result?
We are less certain nowadays about what we have the right to say and get involved in.

A Counter Example:
You are looking after your 4 year old niece, you are walking along happily when from out of nowhere someone runs past picks her up and attempts to run off with her…
Do you need an instructional CD to tell you how to react at this point? I’ll bet not! But most social situations aren’t that unambiguous so we need to bring that level of crystal clarity to them ourselves.

2. Stay Right. Be Professional.

I know that you, like me resist the idea of someone thinking you are using your training or size to “bully” them. You abhor the notion at an unconscious level. In fact the sweating and shaky voice you feel in verbal conflict could be a manifestation of your neurology rebelling against this violation of your “rules” and self image.

“This just isn’t who I am… I punch people, I don’t argue with them!”

Well Mr. Martial Artist: don’t be a bully in any way, shape or form.
Be the opposite and you will blameless in your own eyes ad others.

The key word here is “professionalism”.

Be really friendly, stay in a good state, be polite, be clear and communicate in your body language and tone of voice that you are only looking for a mutually beneficial solution.
Reframe the situation. Use your imagination in whatever way works best for you. Be Ghandi or Kofi Annan. Sober, dignified, reasonable but utterly resolved.
Think of Cesar Milan with his “Pack Leader” Dog Psychology of calm, assertive energy for training unruly dogs. No barking or threats.
Be like Gandalf in the Lord of the Rings: “You shall not pass.”

(I know he looks like a floppy hatted bearded old git, but he fought a 20 foot steroid injecting fire breathing whip weilding demon… and totally kicked his ass.)

If it goes physical at least you know morally and ethically in your heart of hearts you were in the right. You gave them every chance.
Legally it looks much better in front of witnesses to have been seen to be the reasonable, un provocative party even if the only thing perceived was your volume of voice, your facial expression and body language as is often the case in reports of fights.

3. Be Zen

Being Zen in this scenario has 3 parts:

Perception and Reality are two different things.
The map is not the territory.
Make as few assumptions as you can about the situation, stay in the moment, externally focused and switched on.

Be Detached.
Be detached from the outcome of the conflict. The more detached you are the more intelligence you will be able to access for its successful resolution.
Do NOT take anything personally. The person isn’t talking to YOU, they cant be as they don’t know YOU. They are talking to themselves and to the projection in their sphere of reality that you represent. Leave your precious little ego to one side.

Believe and trust in Karma.
Karma is not necessarily a religious faith based concept, it is also Newtonian Physics: cause and effect.
If someone is being manipulative, bullying, confrontational, aggressive with you do you think you are the only person they’ve done it to? Very unlikely. Its more likely a little game or programme of psychodrama they are impelled to play out again and again.
Now think of them like a blind robot, with no choice but to waddle out into the big bad world with that horrible attitude programme running inside their little heads. How long before that little blind robot hits a wall?
Are they hitting a wall right now?
This is where compassion for their plight can come in, by having a clearer sense of what is really happening.
But don’t be too merciful.

Verbal Conflict Master Pack Available Now

http://streetfightsecrets.com/VerbalConflictPack.aspx

streetfightsecrets website http://www.streetfightsecrets.com

streetcombatives website http://www.streetcombatives.com

click here for “the ultimate street fight takedown”

We have become fixated on developing more and more solutions without getting deeper and deeper into defining and exploring the problem itself.

This is quite a neat way of avoiding the difficult, challenging reality of what real world violence is and of staying in a comfort zone of mental masturbation of collecting more technical solutions.

Probably because it makes us feel like we are doing something about the problem (not that we are really clear about what it is) whilst feeding our egos and acquiring more “stuff”.

It’s time to get to grips with the problem and define the what who where when why of real world violence and then, as Rory Miller suggests, “let the context define the strategy and the strategy the technical solutions” (paraphrase) rather than the other way round.

More info:

Rory Miller interview

http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/video/video.php?v=1499702543190&subj=1291659754

http://www.facebook.com/people/Rory-Miller/1291659754
Rory’s blog http://chirontraining.blogspot.com

Rory’s book http://chirontraining.com/Site/Writing.html

to see this weeks special offer on Streetfightsecrets products go to http://www.streetfightsecrets.com

http://streetfightsecrets.com/combativepsychologypack.aspx

The “Supra States” Course will allow you to create another persona who CAN deal confidently with confrontation and even violence more effectively. It’s only natural that you would want to be able to “switch personalities” and still have your normal polite charming self to be used in most social situations. Just being an aggressive idiot defeats the objectives of effective self protection as you will alienate yourself from normal decent folk and possibly actually create fights that you could have otherwise avoided.

The “Psychology of Violence” course is a simple powerful way of generating tremendous states of aggression and violent intent. This is one key area that many many self protection students fail in, they often complain “I just can’t get aggressive”. This course will blast through any such barriers. The only problem with it is it can work TOO well and that aggression can bleed through into your normal personality making you needlessly belligerent and confrontational.

Naturally this is strictly a course for over 21′s only and you are soley responsible for your own psychological and physical health. If you do get any negative side effects from either course, stop using it immediately and get in contact.

bid on these items on the Street Fight Secrets Ebay Store

http://shop.ebay.com/streetfightsecrets_dvds/m.html

Recently I was told by a customer that my constant site changes make me look like I have ADHD and that some of the way the material was presented looked slap dash and that I had simply rushed to get products up there.

Looking like I have ADHD doesnt bother me – appearing to not really care about the site or the subject does… and did.

I had an objective look at the site and just found it ugly and not very user friendly. So I’ve got rid of it and am starting again, but this time with much more care. You will literally be able to feel the love Ive put into it pouring off the pages.

Joking aside, its obvious Im no great shakes as a web designer or as a seller of goods so please do feel free to give me blunt feedback, it can really help.

The first 3 items that were requested were one

the big pack, the full streetfightsecrets library now available here, by Dimitri a new doorman in Greece who has some interesting questions about doorwork that I will get into on the blog this week http://streetfightsecrets.com/streetfightsecretsfulllibrary.aspx

the “Psychology of Violence” CD was requested by a wrestling coach in USA- will be interesting to see what he is using the CD for, will contact him after he has had the CD for a week or so.

That one is available here http://streetfightsecrets.com/PsychologyOfViolenceCD.aspx

and Ive just had a request over msn as I sit here on the couch doing my internet work for the Control and Restraint DVD http://streetfightsecrets.com/ControlandRestraintDVD.aspx from Johannes in Norway

“Why do you need this?” I ask him

“Johannes says:
Well, as you wrote on the site, not all situations is in need of extreme violence. Also, I don’t know too many of them..

It’s not always apropriate to chrush someones skull, especially not here in Norway, where violence is a thing that police take serious. Very serious.” He replies via msn.

Fair enough.

The remarkable thing to me is that all these people are perfectly polite, intelligent and quite normal. Or at least that is the way they come across in emails.

This is the norm for me. The people who regularly contact and buy products from me seem to be in the overwhelming majority, rational intelligent law abiding citizens.

Maybe not what you would expect from a site called streetfightsecrets.com (there is a back story to that slightly cheesy name but I’ll get into it another day.

Another thing that might be of interest to you is Im nursing yet another couple of minor injuries from yet another fight I had recently.

These injuries are self inflicted, from palm strikes to the skull and elbows to the back of the head.

Now I dont mind a bit of bruising and swelling if it gets me a result but Im not sure at all that for the effort I put in, the injuries I got (which could have been much worse), that I got as much result/ effect as I would like. When I did and other people did certain things in this one incident it got much better results.

Now this was one night in which there were three seperate incidents that I will blog about later in the week because they were all quite instructive in one way or another.

I’ve put a tonne of items up for sale on ebay too, most titles starting at $0.99 – dont be put off by the items being in American dollars we ship worldwide and ebay will convert your payment for you.

http://shop.ebay.com/streetfightsecrets_dvds/m.html

and here is an awesome offer http://streetfightsecrets.com/SpecialOffer.aspx

7 titles for 20 quid or 30 bucks

Thats TITLES not discs, so regardless of how many discs that title is made up of, if you want it you can have it!

If it’s in the list on the left then you can have it as part of this offer,

1. Pick 7 titles from the list on the left that most suit your training goals right now.

2. Then just buy a voucher

3. Put a note with it when you make your paypal payment ( Its really easy, just follow instructions saying “add note to seller”) stating which 7 titles you would like.

4. Wait for 3 days in the UK or 7 days in the US for your pack to arrive.

Enjoy!

http://streetfightsecrets.com/SpecialOffer.aspx

There was a doorman I used to work with in Liverpool, every thursday night he was on with me on a club in Victoria Street.

Older guy, maybe 55. He was a black cab driver who just did a couple of nights a week. Really quiet, really polite.

I remember him telling me, proudly, that in 15 years of doorwork he hadn’t had to hit anyone.

At the time, I didnt really believe him to be honest.

I realised a few years ago, that it’s not great to have too many young guys on a door. Too much testosterone and hot headedness. The older guys would keep everyone balanced, take things less personally and be way more patient.

But I’ve been thinking about this guy in particular, because he made it a point of pride to go into work and never, ever hit anyone.

This then got me into a mindset of “challenging” myself to see just how much I could get people to do just with verbal commands and the LEAST amount of physical contact possible.

It’s changed the whole way I approach doorwork.

We know in principle that psychologically “you get more of what you focus on” and “the questions you ask determine the quality of the answers you get” and that of course, the questions you ask yourself CONTROL and direct that mental focus.

If you are training for and engaging in situations asking the question “WHEN will this go physical?” then the presupposition is that it WILL at some point go physical, unless the other person capitulates and walks away or some other factor enters the situation.

I have to sit back and wonder, really, really how many times was I absolutely forced into a fight in my life?

If instead of asking myself “WHEN should I hit this guy?”, I was asking myself “How much can I get done without ANY physical contact whatsoever?” I’m 100% sure I would have been involved in less brawls.

Doormen are the peacekeepers, the sober drivers, the big brothers.

These thoughts are rocking around in my head because it looks like I might be helping out to train new doormen at some point.

How does this affect the self protection practitioner?

Well, just be wary of training that presupposes that “verbal conflict WILL escalate to violence” because how you react in training will be how you react in the street.

Maybe you should be aware of your self perception of “trained martial artist/ fighter seeking to test their hard skills” should conflict arise to “master of communication/ applied psychology seeking to test their soft skills” to the limit.

Obviously there is a limit, if someone is REALLY determined, no amount of psychology is going to be more effective than a good solid tap on the jaw.

Ive only had 5 hours sleep sorry if this is drivelly but I wanted to get it down whilst the ideas were still fresh.