©Copyright 2014 by Bradley J. Steiner - ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. SWORD and PEN Official Newsletter of the International Combat Martial Arts Federation (ICMAF) and the Academy of Self-Defense AUGUST 2014 EDITION www.americancombato.com www.seattlecombatives.com www.prescottcombatives.com LISTEN TO OUR RADIO INTERVIEWS! Prof. Bryans and ourself each did 1-hour interviews on the Rick Barnabo Show in Phoenix, Arizona. If you go to prescottcombatives.com, click on “home”. When “news media” drops down, click on that —— and there’re the full interviews! E D I T O R I A L Violence Sometimes Is The Best — And Only Solution THE bromide sounds so good and comfy: “Violence never solves anything!”. That’s why so many people accept it. That’s why they unthinkingly pass it on. That’s why, despite it’s being bullshit, the damn catch phrase has become almost a guide for those poor saps who now live in a feral world and who feel helpless to deal with it. “Well,” they tell themselves, “violence certainly is no solution. We’ve just got to find ways to encourage dialog with troublemakers, and talk out our differences.” The truth is that while always regrettable, recourse to physical force is sometimes desperately necessary and completely justifiable. This fact —— this concept —— was once understood as being axiomatic. No sane person questioned, for example, that the absolute right to self-defense existed for everyone; everywhere, and at all times. Today, a great deal of confusion has been allowed to permeate the minds of formerly sensible people, and we observe such horse manure as “zero tolerance for violence” being announced as policy in the public schools —— making a bully’s victim as culpable as the bully if that victim defends himself. Pure psychotic bullshit; and there’s no point in trying to put it differently. Ditto for any encroachments and encumbrances upon any person who is targeted by some two-legged bacterial mistake who initiates force, with or without a weapon, against another individual, and who is beaten into unconsciousness or killed for his efforts. There can be no “right to life” without an inviolate right to self- defense. Teach that to your children . once you’ve gotten it clear in your own mind. And so long as you respect the person and property of others, and conduct yourself as a responsible citizen, you have an absolute right to life. The possibility of being the victim of a violent attack has existed since the dawn of man on earth. It may well be more likely today for the 21st century urban dweller than it was in the stone age. After all, primitive man was normally too occupied with fighting the elements and keeping warm and sustaining a shelter and foraging and hunting for food to behave as mindlessly as today’s “wilders”, “flash mob” scum, muggers, bar fighters, home invaders, car jackers, etc. Disgracefully, modern uncivilized society just will not take the necessary steps to eradicate its sociopathic members. So the scum lives on. Instead of guillotines, electric chairs, gas chambers, gallows, and firing squads working round the clock to erase them from the face of the planet, untold numbers of normal, decent, responsible citizens and their children continue to be terrorized, maimed, intimidated, killed, and tortured by the violent criminal pestilence that we all must contend with. The truth is that there is NO solution to the problem of violence when it strikes (and it is always striking someone, somewhere) other than counterforce. Yes, we all should do everything possible to avoid trouble. We should never agree to fight with anyone, allow ourselves to be caught up in a heated exchange that escalates into violence, or raise a hand unless we have no safe alternative. Sometimes, like it or not, we have no safe alternative. Asking a mugger to let you go is not only unlikely to work, you probably couldn’t even speak the words with his forearm crushing your throat. And requesting a couple of home invaders to please leave is — forgive us — a dumb-as-shit thing to do. Blasting them to bits with a 12 gauge shotgun, or sending a few 230 grain full metal jacketed slugs into them, on the other hand, has an unparalleled track record of success. When you are out walking with your family and a few smelly sewer shits attempt to attack you, it is highly improbable that suggesting they join you for dinner will deter their sick objectives. Attacking them by surprise —— hopefully with a weapon to assist your efforts —— and leaving them half or totally dead in pools of their own blood is, however, an all but 100% guaranteed way of saving your loved ones and yourself from hellish violation. “But doesn’t pacifism offer a more humane solution?” “Pacifism” in the face of violent attack offers no solution. In fact every decent, rational person on earth is a pacifist, UNTIL HE MUST DEFEND HIMSELF OR ANOTHER INNOCENT PERSON. Then, he is either a solidly committed fool (using the excuse of being a pacifist to justify his allowing evil to prevail) or he is a right-thinking and right-acting human being, and he acts immediately to destroy the aggressor. As a man it is embarrassing to us when males lack the backbone and will to learn how to defend themselves and their loved ones. “Too much trouble”. “The time isn’t right”. “Too expensive”. “No time”. “Next month, maybe”. Etcetera. What kind of “men” refuse to learn those skills and to master those weapons, tactics, techniques, and attitudes that men throughout history have always needed? Oh, well . it’s a rhetorical question. Remember this, though: Once trouble strikes it is too late to learn what would have saved you if you had taken the time and invested the effort to acquire it when you could have acquired it. Sometimes violence is the best —— the only —— solution. And may God help you if you lack the capacity to use it . should that time come in your life. Bradley J. Steiner Four Tips For Effectively Preempting Your Adversary THE preemptive attack, launched the very second that you realize the individual you are facing intends you harm, is —— when violence cannot be avoided —— the key tactic for winning the encounter. Sometimes counterattacking (ie taking action that is defensive before it turns offensive) is necessary. Thus preemption cannot solve every interpersonal threat; it is always possible that you might be attacked from outside your range of vision (from behind, or to your right or left rear flank). However, whenever possible, your means of self-defense should be completely offensive, and it should take the form of a vicious and relentless preemptive action. We offer three tips that will contribute immeasurably to your own preemptive attacking capability: Tip #1: Always drive your initial blow into your assailant’s most readily accessible vital target area using your closest natural weapon. This enables you to attack with maximum efficiency, taking only the barest minimum amount of time, telegraphing nothing, and doing some immediate damage. Do this successfully and defeating your adversary will not likely be difficult. Followup must of course be immediate and consist of continued damaging actions. Stop only when your adversary has lost the will and the ability to endanger you further. Tip #2: Always get your entire body behind your initial and your followup moves. This insures optimum power. It enables you to have the dual advantage of striking your adversary’s vital target area, and doing so with maximum power behind your natural weapon’s impact. Tip #3: Follow the proven military strategy of “occupying your enemy’s ground”. Back in the 1970’s we realized and began to emphasize to students that “self-defense is war in microcosm”. Every known military strategy and tactic of warfighting bears relevance to, and may be applied in, personal close combat —— with and without weapons. (As an aside: This should be a lead for you in how to hone and cultivate all of your hand-to-hand and close quarters battle skills. We suggest reading The Art of War, by Sun Tsu, On War, by Von Clausewitz, and manuals and books on guerrilla warfare.) In preempting your adversary look at the spot where he is standing as his “ground”. As you drive into him, your objective is to occupy that spot where he is standing. This drives him back off-balance and prevents him from recovering under your attack. Continue this strategy, always driving your enemy backward and always “occupying his ground”. Do not relent. When he falls or is driven back into a wall or other substantial obstacle, keep pounding, kicking, biting, gouging, and attacking him. Tip #4: Make your first initial strike to your opponent’s facial/head/throat target area whenever you can —— as fast and as powerfully as possible —— without telegraphing. We might add: with a well-formed, effective natural weapon. The half-fist (see our article in www.seattlecombatives.com describing this blow in the “Monthly Instruction” section) is excellent against the throat. The handaxe, chinjab, finger thrust to eyes, and sometimes even a straight regular fist blow to the nose, and the straight heelpalm thrust are all excellent surprise blows which open the attacker up to a decisive followup. Sometimes one of these blows will — by itself — end the encounter; but never count on a single blow. The face when struck with just about anything will effectively distract and/or disorient. It also almost invariably throws the opponent at least somewhat off-balance, making him for at least a second or two 100% vulnerable to whatever you do next.