hiya maija,
i can tell you what i meant, and that it works for me (ha) lately. i've no end in
sight and sometimes go through philosophical tweeks from time to time.
an aside///
i really, without rebuttle (sp?), get the sound idea of redirecting someone's attention,
doing the pschiatrists thing of taking someone's attention elsewhere--"lets see what
the bar'man has and i'll buy you a drink" [richie-esque psychology]. i've sort of in-
advertantly done it growing up--with humor, even going so far as appearing un-moved
and acting like i was waltzing with a guy who moments before appeared to want to
clean my clock. all those incredible thought pattern interrupts based on some instinct and
perhaps an idea that it will be awful so why not try something stupid first, add a degree of
non-challent for mind-fook, and at very least it will serve for that. tactil. all that. i've done
everything from pretending i was distracted and mad at someone else, to feigning [with
success] a phantom gun [in more serious situations where i don't feel they have a real
one]. i always think the biggest muscle i have is my head--it helps that my head is so literally
fooking enormous. a great puss-pumpkin size head
.
all those REALLY sound and advisible things, i assume to be when there is some degree
of wiggle room by way imcomplete commitment on the part of another person. for whatever
reason [witnesses; confidence levels; whatever reason]
i think what i was thinking about when i wrote this bit above, was at times when there is no room
for rehearsals and preperations and skits either because one is too uncertain about how quickly things are going to go wrong or because of those jitters of now getting a real gage for 'if things are going a certain way'.
you're (uhm--just improvising now) walking home and
someone's calling out to you "oi.." but the tone is not ambiguous. or is walking toward you
in a way that is equally unambiguous [appearing]. what i have referred to as a lithmus test. now i think
it behooves a person to move away from the grey mode and [especially if far removed from
all that nonsense] allow oneself to get out of denial [on one end] and into the proper explosive
mode [on the other]. this is where i think [and this is what i've been teaching] the fence
really becomes important giving a verbal if there's time...'back off, leave me alone'...then [and i
got this straight from Richie's DVD on the fence] the 'tentacle' shove for no more ambiguity as
well as range...then explode. that's strategic for one's own preperation readying. the attacker has the
advantage of knowing where he stands already. this raises one's own meter to full--in those two
gestures [aside: not that the shove is even necessary if someone's running at you
]. i just
now that most interractions i've come across attempt to play on confidence first, probably showing
the lack of confidence that the person has as they prepare but want to make sure they have the right
target.
lately, with my bunch of uneasy guys that hide lack of confidence behind a few muscles and a bit
of bravado [something i understand from experience], i saw a need to [in the early phases of their training] stay away from the grey--which is more possible with practical confidenc [confidence from experience].
having said all that [long winded fart that i am]. i have lately, been thinking about all the times
i've 'picked my battles' and with my originally
'passive' personality have had moments of explosiveness. in my case my passiveness comes not as much from physical fear but spending the
first 15 years of my life being the family mediator who couldn't afford to be emotional. because it
sort of went against my inner core, it became redirected. moody outbursts when someone played
too much and put their hands on me. that was a domain i wasn't going to allow being 'bitched' in.
i carried bitterness and overcompensated my responses. so this influences how i train and teach i suppose, and must be re-evaluated every so often [for growth and good measure].
4 personality types:
passive--takes too much shit [in my case, when there's no physical threat]
passive aggressive--takes shit and indirectly turns it back through
for example///not training hard if not wanting to come to class
or 'gossiping as a rebuttle but not sticking up for oneself directly'
aggressive--in short, once passive and bullied but now a bully
assertive--immediately letting people now where they stand, politely but unappologeticallywith all that out of the way. i watched the above mentioned cake-icing personality with a discerning eye.
i'd watch and think, "no fooking way you're that nice...it's gotta be a counter balance of some sort, either for sanity sake for where you have to take things from time to time...or as a way to cultivate that
temper from which you can rely".
i thought it was a healthier (maybe not healthy) way to channel something negative into something positive--especially when perhaps the anger doesn't just flow naturally like some subterranian river of hate. i wanted my guys to have something that took them away from grey [in their early phases] such that they could be explosive, instead of pensive and pausing. a kind of clark kent act--that due to it's un-naturalness, could serve them as they attempt to conjure inner fire [lacking in most of them, but not all of them]. i had to base it off of attributes of my own personality and hope it in some way spoke to human nature.
cultivate the fire, add a fence for your own sake of seperating the ambiguity, then even if the guy fooking flinches, those fence like verbals, etc...can be internally added as a kind of mind pump script that says, "i'm now a character that i've created in a script that gives one unambiguous warning to make things less uncertain as to the terms...the second attibute of my character is that i don't wait, i become that crazy selfish fighter that doesn't stop until screams onlookers shout [joking now in case it doesn't translate] for mercy. joking but not totally joking. in fairness, i think all but a very few are in the 'lack of use' place, and need the build ups to ready them. rather than one dogmatic way to fire someone up. i try many angles whenever they arise, and hope to brainwash those that have come to me hoping techniques will save them. because i simplify techniques and targets, all i have left is the brainwashing part--coming from drills and this sort of thing. i can almost entirely say that my whole game for them
is having at least one memorable fence like verbal/and shove--and then it's all drills for explosiveness after that [almost entirely open handed cross/jabs under the chin and spinning the chin]...a few extras if
the person isn't being totally driven back, a few ways to protect oneself, but really not much more than
that. it's the core for me. that, and head controls, several low kicks--and a few drills for how to get away from a group. nothing more. i think more is sometimes less.
i have yet to really have effective drills for weapons--still working this out. but i've seen evidence that the stuff i've been teaching is having a successful affect on them. one of my guys, unfortunately, turned these strategies on a dishonest police officer trying to get handy with him. mixed success that minimally involved not being messed with again, getting some inner mental scars that didn't last but did affect his training, but because of the dishonesty of the officer--no charges [big surprise].
i don't know mate. i think what i'm trying to say is that i try and teach strategies for getting around what i sense most people have, a fear of that initial engagement that seems to dictate the confidence level for the rest of the fight. having moral high-ground, having a fire that lies not far beneath the surface. but then later when experience affords exhalation, perhaps becoming more like your teacher philosophically, with practical experiences to allow for this coolness.
Home 
]...but with the ambiguity of having officer-appearing lackies policing their collective areas. security in the U.S. is another word for authority-less drop out in polyester. maybe not so much in reality but in public perception. the semi circle patches on the shoulder mean--in short, " i can't really do shit". the full
.... it's kinda twisted Russell, I think i like it 
