Defend University/Women's Self-Defense Institute Newsletter July 2001

Welcome to our newest members from Arizona, Kentucky, South Carolina,
Alabama, Canada, United Kingdom, Norway, Germany, and Singapore.

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In this issue:

Use LIFO to Protect Your Kids from Carjackers
Never Count Yourself Out in a Fight
Real Life Reactions to Gunfighting Problems
56% of World's Guns Privately Owned
Remember the Good Old Days7
Dad’s Psychology Launches Legend
Be Careful What you Teach

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Use LIFO to Protect Your Kids from Carjackers

All of us have heard the stories on the news of every parent’s nightmare –
to have your vehicle carjacked while your child is still inside!  While
many cases end happily with the stolen vehicle found a short distance away
and baby doing fine, some of the worst cases involve kids who have been
dragged to their deaths or killed during the carjacker’s haste to escape.  

Remember LIFO -- Last In, First Out -- to help prevent this.  Make sure
the first thing you take out of the car is your child.  Alternatively,
make sure the last thing you put in the car is your child.  This reduces
the time when your child is in the car while you do not have physical
control of the car.  Don’t leave your child in the car while you retrieve
a cart, nor should you put your child in the car before loading your
groceries or other packages.  

Carjackings most often take place at red lights, gas stations and parking
lots.  Obviously, the criminals have to catch you when the car is stopped.
Be cognizant of people around you when you are stopping or parking.  This
is why I advocate coasting up to a red light and trying to time the light
so you never come to a complete stop.   Racing ahead to the next red light
just prolongs the time in which your car will be at rest – and a sitting
target.

Parking is a different story, however.  Try making a couple of passes to
see if there are any dodgy characters in the car park.  If it looks safe,
park and IMMEDIATELY exit the car.  If you have a child, get them out of
the car immediately, then attend to any packages, letters or other items
you might have to retrieve.

When leaving the store, I advocate using the shopping carts whenever
possible.  Strap your child in the cart.  The cart is a relatively stable
platform, protecting your child and allowing you a barrier if you need it.
Notice I said strap the child in.  I have personal knowledge of a near
tragedy that occurred to one small lad because his mother allowed him to
stand up in the cart.  She had to jank the cart backwards to avoid a
reversing car and the sudden change of movement flung the child out of the
cart causing him to land headfirst on the asphalt.  The child hovered in a
coma for days, but has since fully recovered.   This boy was one of my
students and is truly a joy, so I’m personally grateful for his recovery.

Speaking of cars, the other cars in the lot pose more of a threat to your
safety than a relatively remote chance of being carjacked (unless you live
in South Africa). I recommend that you park your shopping cart BETWEEN
your car and its neighbor on the driver’s side, NOT BEHIND your car.  A
common sight you can see in almost every parking lot is a child sitting in
the cart at the rear of the vehicle as mom or dad loads groceries into the
back.

Unfortunately, you are putting your child at great risk if another car
accidentally back into them, pinning them between the two vehicles.  You
are also in a dangerous position if you do happen to be carjacked because
the criminal will most likely have to back out of the parking spot to
escape. 

That’s why I advocate positioning the shopping cart on the drivers side of
your car.  You can point the front of the cart towards the back of the car
making it a little less inconvenient to load the vehicle.  This also puts
the baby closer to the door.  You can control the driver’s side and not be
more than a step or two away from baby.  While you are loading packages,
take a quick look around to check for any suspicious people.  THEN put
junior in the car seat and immediately get in the driver’s seat yourself.
If at any time there you are approached by a man or even a man and woman
team, you can instantly escape with your baby.

 This system might take some getting used to and it might even be a little
inconvenient, but it could help you avoid a tragedy.


Never Count Yourself Out in a Fight

Here’s a weird one for you.  A homeowner named Randall Winter put his RV
up for sale (same as a caravan for our UK friends).  A man named William
Oleary answered the advertisement and made an appointment to buy the RV.
While Winter was showing the vehicle, Oleary suddenly attacked Winter with
a five-inch knife, slashing Winter’s throat.  Winter somehow recovered
from the initial attack and counterattacked, wresting the knife from
Oleary and stabbing Oleary three times – once in the upper chest, once in
the upper back and once in the  shoulder.  Winter, fearing for his wife
and children, dashed into his own residence locking the door behind him.
For the next 12 minutes, the 911 operator stayed on the line with Mrs.
Winter while Mr. Winter held a towel to his throat to control the
bleeding.  Police responding to the call had no idea where Oleary could
be, the Winters could not see where he was.  The cops arriving had their
answer – Oleary laid dead as a doornail literally two steps away from
where the struggle ensued.  The coroner said either of the two upper body
stabs could have been the mortal wound.  Incidentally, Oleary was on the
run from a child pornography charge in Florida and may have been planning
to steal the RV.

Two items to note from this bizarre story: 

1) Never, never, never give up during a fight.  We have seen many a fight
turn on one lucky punch, a sudden reversal, or a sneaky submission hold or
choke.  High-ranking martial artist Robert Pickett says the winner is
usually the person who gives up last.
2) Stabbing with edged weapons is inherently more lethal than slashes.
Lt. Col. David Grossman attributes the phenomenal success of the Roman
Army to their unique style of thrusting with the short sword versus the
slashing attacks favored by most swordsmen.  Instructional manuals from
Renaissance swordfighting schools claim that a stab of just four inches or
more into the human body will produce a mortal wound.  I also remember
training with a very, very good knife fighter who was shocked when I used
a stabbing attack.  He admonished me by saying, “What are you trying to
do, kill the guy?”


Real Life Reactions to Gunfighting Problems

Gunfighting instructor Walt Rauch has been teaching realistic "live-fire"
person-on-person self-defense exercises since 1990 employing tools such as
lasers, paintball guns and now Simunitions and marking cartridges.  He has
seen certain common actions over and over from students over the last
decade. To read more about his observations, go here:

http://www.defendu.com/gunreact.htm

56% of World's Guns Privately Owned

More than half the world's 551 million firearms are legally owned by
private civilians rather than governments, with fewer than a million in
the hands of insurgents, a new U.N. study on the global arms trade said. 


Remember the Good Old Days

Occasionally, historical readings remind us that bullies and intimidators
are not a modern phenomenon.  It’s just our reaction to them that’s
different these days.

In “The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt”, Edmund Morris documents several
encounters Roosevelt had with thugs, bullies and criminals.  He relates
one, in which Roosevelt is forced to seek shelter in a rowdy bar to escape
the cold on a trailride.  Inside is an armed man who has already shot
three holes in the bar’s clock.  Roosevelt tells the story in his own
words: 

“…As soon as he saw me he hailed me as ‘Four Eyes’, in reference to my
spectacles, and said, ‘Fours Eyes is going to treat.’  I joined in the
laugh and got behind the stove and sat down, thinking to escape notice.
He followed me, however, and though I tried to pass it off as a jest this
merely made him more offensive, and he stood leaning over me, a gun in
each hand, using very foul language…In response to his reiterated command
that I should set up the drinks, I said, ‘Well, if I’ve got to, I’ve got
to,’ and rose, looking past him.  As I rose, I struck quick and hard with
my right just to one side of the point of his jaw, hitting with my left as
I straightened out, and then again with my right.  He fired the guns, but
I do not know whether this was merely a convulsive action of his hands or
whether he was trying to shoot at me.  When he went down he struck the
corner of the bar with his head…I took away his guns, and the other people
in the room, who were now loud in their denunciation of him, hustled him
out and put him in the shed.”  

The story continues that man left town on the next morning’s train, rather
than retaliate.  I suppose the modern epilogue would have the man suing
Roosevelt for unreasonable force and suing the tavern for continuing to
serve him when he became obviously intoxicated.

Dad’s Psychology Launches Legend

Royler Gracie is practically a living legend on the Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu
and mixed martial arts circuits. His father started Royler (pronounced
HOY-ler) in his first tournament at age 7 with an unusual bit of
motivation.  His father told him to “go in there and have fun” and
promised Royler $5 if he won – and $10 if he lost.  It must have worked.
Royler has fought hundreds and hundreds of fights over a 28-year period
(he has 300 fights and competition bouts recorded on video or film, but
never recorded his lower rank bouts).

Be Careful What you Teach

Since the Rape Escape videos have made their debut, I’ve noticed an
interesting phenomenon – everyone wants to help out by showing me their
solution to the problems.  

A couple of interesting observations during these impromptu training
sessions: 1.) Some instructors are more interested in showing me what they
can do personally versus a solution that would be more suitable to
students (particularly the non-martial artist females to whom the Rape
Escape system is aimed); 2.) People want to show me techniques that have
little or no applicability to how a sexual assault develops (they want to
give the answer to a question that is usually never asked); and 3.) They
try to show me a solution that is so complicated that they sometimes can’t
perform the technique.  Seriously, I’ve had people want to show me a
solution – then they forget the technique or they can’t make it work.
It’s happened a couple of times…the guy says “okay, you stab me with an
overhand knife attack and I go like this…I mean, like this…wait, I know
this…”

Not that many of you are surprised at this.   But it’s useful to take a
moment and evaluate your curriculum.  Can your students learn it, remember
it and use it?  Is it a realistic response to a realistic attack?

Noted fighter, instructor and trainer, Tom Proctor was recently asked to
review some instructional tapes previous to their release.  Tom is
pleading with the distributors to reconsider because of the unrealistic
nature of the techniques in the videos.  “Someone is going to get killed
using the techniques being shown”, he said.

Get out there and test your techniques.   And no fair using your own
students if you run a school -- the Sensei/Sifu Factor ensures that none
of your students will actually try and spoil your technique.  Great for
your ego, but you need to work with someone who won’t be as compliant.  

After YOU can make them work against realistic attacks, can your STUDENTS
make them work?  And for those of you studying with various instructors,
can your fellow students make the techniques work?  In other words, just
because you can’t do the techniques because you’ve just started, are there
plenty of other students who can do them? Maybe instructor might be able
to pull them off because he/she is an athletic freak of nature or a Jedi
Knight, but it must be transferable to the students.  YOU need to be able
to remember it and pull it off during combat, not your instructor.

Brad Parker
Defend University/Women’s Self-Defense institute
www.defendu.com