When All Hell Breaks Loose (88 page)

CODY:
Mark, you mentioned the students attacking with a preemptive strike if necessary when they realize they are under attack. How could this be done, I mean, what are some of the techniques the Combato system teaches?

PROFESSOR BRYANS:
Yes, let's cover four basic strikes often taught to all beginning students—the
chop
, the
chin jab
, the
side kick
, and the
fingertip thrust
. First the chop. This weapon is formed by flattening the hand with the palm down, striking with the edge of the hand out. The impact of the blow should come from the edge of the hand near the wrist where the metacarpal bones meet the carpal bones. This will give more penetration and focus to the strike. Also, the entire outside edge of the arm, the ulna bone, can be used for the impact point. The throat and the bridge of the nose are great targets for this strike.

The
chin jab
smash is done by pressing the hand back as far as possible, so the impact point is at the heel of the hand. In this way the head of the attacker, when struck under the chin, is driven up and back, smashing and breaking the neck. This blow, like the chop, is done close in, half-an-arm's reach or closer. It's an upward strike with the primary target being under the chin. Secondary targets are the eye sockets, the nose, the temple, and the jaw hinge. The chin jab blow is done primarily off the rear side. The chop, with the lead hand, followed by a chin jab with the rear hand, is a practical application of these two basic strikes.

The third technique is the
side kick
, sometimes called the king of all self-defense moves. The side kick targets the knee joint or lower but the knee joint is ideal. It doesn't matter if it's the front of the knee, the outside of the knee, or the inside of the knee; the knee breaks relatively easy. Now, the kick is done in a side-facing position. The lead foot is lifted up about knee height, perhaps a little higher and close to the standing leg. It's thrusted out in a piston-type action stomping in a downward action through the knee joint. The impact is with the bottom of the heel or with the entire foot, although the heel is best.

The
fingertip thrust
is done palm down, while flattening out the hand and extending the fingers. Drive the extended fingers in a straight line into the attacker's eyes. This technique embodies simplicity, ruthlessness, and brutality and anyone can do it.

CODY:
OK, Mark, you talked about some simple, basic techniques that Combato offers but how do I practice? I mean, do I need a partner to practice with, can I do this alone in my garage; how would you recommend that someone learn these skills?

PROFESSOR BRYANS:
Well that's a great question, Cody. What you need is to
overlearn
some very simple skills and to practice them against an imagined attacker. The techniques can be done in the air, imagining the attacker in front of you, but at some point it will become important to have some sort of object to hit into such as a striking board, a heavy bag, or a striking dummy. You don't need a training partner but a partner can be helpful at times where you're working on certain types of counterattacks such as a front choke escape or a bear hug hold. In these cases, working with a partner should be done at reduced speed and there should be
no contact
with any of the blows involved, as they're very destructive. If it's effective for self-defense it needs to be destructive. You can't spar with combat techniques.

CODY:
So the entire family can partner up if desired and train together using these simple techniques?

PROFESSOR BRYANS:
Yes, but you can never make actual contact with a live person. Blows must be at a very reduced speed in the beginning, and all striking should be done on dummies.

CODY:
You mentioned using various types of striking surfaces. Can someone make his own striking board by just wrapping something up with duct tape?

PROFESSOR BRYANS:
That's my favorite kind, anything that can be improvised to smash into. You could even pad a doorjamb. The point is to get the
feel
for hitting something and developing the power to do damage to an attacker. This training, along with the right mind-set, will make it easier to smash into a real human when necessary. Three 2x4s can be glued together (make sure not to use any nails) and buried three feet into the ground. The boards are then padded with carpet, closed-cell foam sleeping mats such as backpackers use, or anything that will get the job done. The height above the ground is about six feet and the striking surface should flex dependent upon each individual's needs.

CODY:
What I've stated in this book is the need to practice motor memory skills, not just physical skills, so when someone is subjected to a real-time survival situation, they've gone through that scenario in their mind again and again and again and are more mentally and emotionally prepared to act. It sounds like this is true for Combato as well, is that accurate?

PROFESSOR BRYANS:
That's absolutely true, Cody. People want to be entertained by new things and complicated techniques but it's not the way to train for real-world self-defense. In self-defense, the motive is always defense, but the means to achieve this are by offense. Trendy training methods that are popular are not necessarily the best choice, as you know in your field. The things that you see in movies or the cage fights are not conducive to effective self-defense for a number of reasons. Techniques need to be simple, direct, destructive, and highly adaptable, allowing them to be used under a variety of conditions. Using complicated techniques—I don't care if the person is an expert tenth-degree black belt—is going to get the you-know-what kicked out of you if you attempt it against a street predator. You want to
keep things simple
and develop a few basic techniques. The four techniques we outlined—the chop, the side kick, the chin jab, and the fingertip thrust—need to be
overlearned
. The process is this; you begin by first learning the technique at a slow rate, perhaps watch it being done, and as you get the technique down you build up speed. But then you do hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of repetitions coupled with the right mind-set. The person's mind-set should be on the complete destruction of the attacker with an offensive spirit coupled with instant action. Techniques for effective, practical, real-world self-defense should be overlearned so they are literally more available as a motor skill to someone who's scared and pumped up with adrenaline. You need to attack and keep on attacking until the attacker is unconscious.

CODY:
No secret walk-on-rice-paper thing there, right? Just good old-fashioned work and common sense.

PROFESSOR BRYANS:
Absolutely.

CODY:
OK. Well, since this is an urban survival book based upon preparing the home, what should readers have at their house to protect themselves should the need arise?

PROFESSOR BRYANS:
One of the worst things happening in our society today is home invasions where attackers are coming into homes with the family present to do their dirty work. There are a number of ways that home invaders enter a home. One obvious way is that they kick the door down or perhaps pick the lock or break a window. Oftentimes, however, they manipulate their way into the home in some way. Children especially should be taught never to open the door to any stranger. Of course, the first thing to do in any encounter is to try to avoid it altogether by advanced preparation. First, families should develop specific signals to be used among each other that have various meanings depending on the circumstances. How, when, and what type of signals will be used is up to the needs and creativity of the family—and it could be at any level of the attack.

Let's say somebody is at the door and no one knows for sure what the person's intent is. The father or whoever answers the door could have a specific question that could be asked to the visitor that would alert family members that something wasn't right. The signal could also be a light left on or turned off that would signal there was a problem. It could be to the point where a gun is pointed at a family member's head and everything's at critical mass and somebody is going to make a move, deciding it's time to defend and a statement was made such as, "Geez, guys, can't we talk this over!" And the family knows when that statement comes out ending with the word "over" that they're going to make their move all at once. My family has a specific statement that we use in public. If my wife or daughter notices something that doesn't seem right, and says the signal words, I know to pay more attention to something that I'm not seeing.

CODY:
That's perfect! So you have many sets of eyes out there, not just one, if everyone's paying attention to what's going on.

PROFESSOR BRYANS:
You bet, and what a feeling to be on top of things to simply avoid an altercation altogether. In addition, the concept of a
safe room
is a great idea—where there's one room in the house where it would be very difficult for the attackers to break into. This doesn't have to be as extreme as the movie where the woman had a bank vault in her house, but if you have the money, all the more power to you. Having a good carpenter come in to beef up doors and windows in a specific room would be wise. If you're in the middle of building a home, you have all kinds of opportunities to make one small area that is defensible that could be used to retreat into if the need arises.

As mentioned before, the family could have a specific signal for retreating into the safe room. Safe rooms should include provisions that the family thinks are important for their scenario, especially after reading this book, and of course a cell phone or some sort of communications to allow for the alerting of the authorities. Safe-room provisions—in fact, everything regarding a family's preparedness—should not be advertised but should be kept private within the family. No one should know that you have this kind of thing going, which of course is just common sense. When I was a boy, my mother always had plenty of canned food on hand, and there was no emergency or survival situation going on; it was simply based upon common sense.