Introduction to Martial Logic

The Jigsaw Juxtaposition

        
 The following post is an excerpt from the upcoming book Martial Logic by Paul Green




     You know I tend to read alot and do alot of research when I'm not teaching. I have alot of friends in the defense industry and sometimes I like to bounce ideas around with the ones that I respect. Often I'll look at a thread on facebook or some forum just to see what people are talking about and more often than not lately it seems to be things like which is better striking or grappling. At other times it's some dumb ass that thinks only striking works or vice versa with grappling and that the other camp is full of crap. The problem is in some instances both are right and wrong at the same time. It seems to me that it isn't what they are saying if it's in the proper context it's that they are not clarifying what they mean to the other people. This usually results in a big long thread with people arguing when they are basically saying the same thing but none of them have the ability to communicate what they mean to each other. The point of this section is to clarify where some of these tactics fit best and where they don't and compare the pieces of this jigsaw puzzle these legends in their own minds have created in regards to grappling vs. striking.
      Context is very important and there is no one catch all situation. I want to cover about three different situations where these things come into play based upon what the individual instructors are trying to focus on, or rather the group they are trying to teach. As far as which is better it really depends on what the hell you are doing. A mugging type situation is going to be inherently different from two guys at a party getting pissed off about something and decide to take it to the back yard. It's even more different when you’re in a professional setting such as police or security of some kind. These things affect what tactics make sense and what tactics don't fit. Let's take a look at each of the three.

The Self Defense Situation

       Now first I want to explain what I mean by a self defense situation. I mean they are all self defense situations but what I am referring to here is a robbery type thing or some type of attack where your best course of action is to flee for your safety.  In situations like this grappling can be kind of pointless. Let me set this up. A girl is at a party and has to use the bathroom upstairs. Everyone else is in the living room downstairs and in the kitchen. One of her guy friends is drunk and has a crush on her and has decided to make his move. He stops her in the hall as she tries to exit the bathroom and starts flirting heavily. She say he's drunk and she isn't interested right now or maybe she doesn't see him that way and just wants to be friends. Well he doesn't like that and there is no one around so he decides he's going to take what he wants. He just got turned down and his ego can't handle it so he tries to shove her back into the bathroom. Does she drop and pull guard and go for a wicked bad ass helicopter sweep? No, that wouldn’t be a wise move for her to do. She screams for help as loud as she can and claws the hell out of his face. Maybe she catches an eye and knees a groin and runs back downstairs for help and safety. You’re trying to get out of there why would you want to tie up with someone. The best course of action is getting out of there as quickly as possible. This is where incapacitating blows would come in such as eye gouges, groin attacks, throat punches, ear slaps, etc. The only way you may need to use grappling here is if you end up on your back and need to use leverage to get them off of you. Even then the right shot could get you out of there. This is also the situation where they are the most likely to have a weapon of some kind. If a knife threat is not already taking place it could be shortly so time is of the essence. A little awareness and avoidance training can go a long way in this situation as well but we will be covering that more in depth in another section of this book. This could also be something that could happen on the job if you’re a supervisor and you have a disgruntled employee were a verbal de-escalation technique may serve you better. Once again we will cover that in a different section as well. One of the ways I do see a grappling tactic being used here is if there is some type of edged weapon involved and you are able to capture the weapon bearing limb and control it while you perform some blunt force trauma with the other hand. If you’re talking about a situation where striking is better then, this is it. This is where it shines. In most instances here grappling is pointless when all you want to do is flee.

Get Your Scrap On

       This is about as common as water in the ocean. Big Merle and Cletus are at a party. They both get to drinking and having a good time and Cletus notices Big Merle talking to some girl he wanted to talk to. He doesn't like that at all and he suddenly thinks he should whoop Big Merle's ass for doing such a thing. Well Big Merle doesn't quite think Cletus can whoop his ass so they decide to figure it out outside past the tire swing where it's safe away from the pickup trucks (wouldn't want to ding those...I mean hell it's a damn truck!). So a crowd gathers around to see who can whoop whose ass. Both have friends there watching to make sure it's a "fair fight." Though sometimes you will, you’re less likely to see a weapon brought out in this situation. There are too many witnesses and too many people to scream foul. This isn't the old west anymore. I hear it said all the time," There are no rules in street fighting." My reply to that is this.......bullshit! I understand there is no referee (though sometimes there actually is a referee...seriously). However, even outside the fact that all states have some form of judicious use of force law that you need to memorize, in most situations like this there tends to be some form of social conduct involved. You see in this situation alot of times the fallout from the fight can be more dangerous than the fight itself. This is one of the ways that mma and street fighting are different. Both of these guys have friends there. If one guy starts "fighting dirty," meaning the use of the aforementioned eye gouges, groin attacks, etc. He becomes a social pariah. Rules or not if Cletus pulls that crap Merle's friends are gonna think he's a punk. Maybe they decide to jump in the fight now and beat Cletus down, then his friends jump in and you have a huge battle royal type deal. I've seen this happen at house parties. I've seen this happen in clubs. I've even seen it happen at sporting events. It's common when alcohol gets mixed with stupidity. There doesn't even have to be a girl involved it could just be the good old fashioned, “He was looking at me sideways." It could be my personal favorite," Hey mother fucker why you eye fucking me?" Someone could have just farted in the other person's general direction. Who the hell knows with some people? It could be a million different things that started it. My point here is depending on how this is handled it may not be over when the fight is over. If one side feels wronged then maybe the next week they are all out somewhere else and another fight starts based on the previous fight. Maybe this time someone gets stabbed or shot because egos are bruised. It sounds crazy but this is what happens every week somewhere in the United States and I bet it's happening all the time in other countries as well. Sure some punches will be exchanged but if Merle gets Cletus on the ground and controls him with something and talks him down and isn't hitting him or trash talking maybe some of Cletus's friends tell Cletus enough is enough and they break it up and go have a beer. I've seen this scenario play out alot as well. Hell I've done it! Do you see how different this situation is than the one before it? In this situation using grappling instead of trying to maim the guy got you alot further and could potentially stop alot of fallout from ever taking place. I can't tell you how many times when I was younger I saw guys beating the crap out of each other then an hour later they are doing shots together at the bar, mainly because one knew when to knock it off. In these situations you aren't trying to flee. If all you know how to do is strike and the guy covers up and dumps you on your ass you could be eating knuckles. No one has to be a grappling expert to tackle someone everyone pretty much knows how to do it. Do you need to strike?Yes! Do you need to grapple? Yes! Personally in these situations I prefer grappling because I can use it to limit the other person's offense and I usually have an arm free to convince him to stop fighting.

The Professional 

      You’re a police officer and you've just given a field sobriety test to a guy that failed it badly. This wasn't at a checkpoint he was weaving on the interstate so you stop him and you’re alone on the side of the road. You go to handcuff the suspect to arrest him but he yanks his hands away and resists. This is his third DUI and he doesn't want to go to jail. He decides to knock your ass out and run. They rarely think about the dashboard camera at the time. So what does the officer do? He pokes the guy in the eye and runs like hell screaming for help down the interstate right? Of course not, that even sounds stupid! It sounds stupid because this isn't self defense as we've defined it. This is a completely different situation. This is your police, security, bouncer type stuff. It is a little different than the other two. In this scenario the person you’re fighting may be trying to flee as opposed to just standing there and fighting you. As you can guess grappling and restraints become more important in these situations. I've seen people recently claim that restraints don't work and I want to address that in this section. If restraints don't work then every bouncer who ever broke up a fight is hallucinating. I must be clinically insane because when I was bouncing for 10 years all those fights I broke up and held the people outside for the police were figments of my imagination. That and every suspect who ever tried to keep from getting handcuffed all got away and the streets are full of them running around. Well obviously none of that is true. If someone says restraints don't work the reply should be," no...YOUR restraints don't work.  Here's the thing with that. There are alot of really bad restraint programs out there. They tend to teach overly complicated fine motor techniques that would never work under stress if being applied by someone who doesn't have alot of experience. So what happens is you get martial arts types that come from striking based arts with poor grappling that take these shitty programs. They can't get the stuff to work so instead of looking further they just dismiss an incredibly important part of training and their students suffer for it and have incomplete training. Part of me thinks they never wanted it to work in the first place. There's a form of cognitive dissonance called, "Adaptive Performance Formation." The term itself was coined by Norwegian social and political theorist Jon Elster.  Basically what it is referring to is this:

Someone wants something

They can't attain it

They convince themselves it isn't worth having and criticize it

       There's an Aesops's Fable that illustrates this called," The Fox and the Grapes." In the story the fox sees some grapes he wants to eat but they are too high and he can't reach them. He can't figure out a way to get those grapes so he just tells himself they aren't worth eating by saying they probably aren't ripe or are too sour or something. Frankly that's all it is. Forget about fine motor and go for gross motor. On a side note I find that it's normally the restraints they teach for hospital employees that tend to be the worst.

      The simple fact is in this situation if you got someone that doesn't want to go to jail and they are barreling down on you so fast you can't get a punch off or you got dumped on your ass because you thought you could get to a weapon and were standing too close and misjudged the distance you better damn well know how to grapple and if you don't know how to restrain someone properly then you’re going to be on the side of that road fighting all night long.

     So in conclusion you can see that these situations are very different. Someone who only teaches self defense to the public is going to have a very different view than someone who only teaches police, and neither of them are going to have the same view as someone who just flat out teaches people how to fight. All of them have something to offer in the context of what they do but what they do is different. It is a different tool for a different job. As long as everyone understands that then it's fine. When people don't understand that then you have a problem. When you have a self defense instructor trying to talk about police tactics or a defensive tactics instructor trying to apply their tactics to self defense when the rules of engagement are different, you get jacked up stuff like a military firearms instructor telling civilians it's better to be judged by twelve than carried by six when the fact is that is only a valid statement when those are the only two choices (that's rarely the only two choices). It's just apples and oranges. Hopefully this clarified some things and when you see those arguments on the internet you can laugh because you know where all the pieces of the puzzle actually fit.

The Martial Intellectual

   You know some people may look at that title as a good thing. A martial intellectual. You know the truth is it can be a really good thing if it's done correctly. Unfortunately sometimes people get so into what they are doing they can lose the connection they need to benefit the very people they are trying to help. When you try to bring this to someone's attention it can be the most frustrating thing in the world and alot of times there is no nice way to go about it.
   For me a martial intellectual is something I don't want to be I'd prefer to be an artist. Famed writer Charles Bukowski once said, An intellectual is elitist by nature. They take things that are simple and make them hard to understand so they can only be enjoyed by other intellectuals. An artist however takes something hard to understand and makes it easy for everyone to attain." I'd much rather be a martial artist.
   Have you ever listened to someone give a lecture that obviously loves the sound of their own voice more than you? Have you ever worked with someone who takes 15 minutes to explain something you could've explained in 2 minutes? If so then you have a good idea of what I'm talking about here. Now imagine you just got a job as a cop fresh out of the academy and you don't really know anything and you walk into a class taught by one of these verbal masturbation aficionados.  You may know how to throw a punch when you walk in that door but you won't know how to wipe your ass when you leave. I wrote an article years ago about a similar situation where people that were pretty good fighters before learn how to fight badly by taking certain martial arts. This article isn't about quality of techniques in a given art this is about learning. I'll give you another example. I currently have a 4th Dan in Judo. When I was coming up through the lower ranks we had to learn the Gokyo no Waza. This is 5 different sets of throws you learn on the way to your 1st Dan belt. There is a throw in the first set called O Goshi. O Goshi is the main hip throw you always see done. Then later on there's Harai Goshi but they aren't in the same set. To train these throws separate leads to memorization not learning. The gokyo no waza though it has some great techniques sucks as a teaching model. First of all you have to learn the names of the throws. The problem is that judo throws don't have names what you are actually learning is a description of the throw...it's instructions. As an instructor your supposed to be giving those. So if your not traveling to non english speaking countries why do you need to know the descriptions in japanese? The functional answer is that you don't and you shouldn't have to learn them. It just sounds impressive for you to know them. Kind of dumb isn't it? I bet you would learn Harai Goshi alot easier if I said, " Hey sometimes when your doing that hip throw the person can slide off your hips and counter you so if you feel that swing your leg back and up and flip them over it. Makes alot more sense that way doesn't it? Oh but the martial intellectual can't handle that because they don't get to say japanese words and make you feel less intelligent than them for not knowing them. By the way I did learn all the techniques in japanese.
   So you see that stuff in traditional but oddly enough it's even worse in modern martial arts. Enter the reality based martial intellectual. These are the guys that read all the science books and know all the statistics. They know everything you can't tell them anything. First of all I want to say it's good to do that research I do it myself. That is definitely a good thing. It can help you maximize the efficiency of your programs tenfold. The problem is when they don't keep it in it's proper perspective and become an educated idiot. That means book smarts but no common sense. I use science and statistics to keep my programs current. However when I'm talking to others whether it be through an article or teaching a class in person I try to simplify my language. This is not to say that people are dumb by any means but this isn't there field it's mine. If I went to their job I probably wouldn't know shit either. I can have all the knowledge in the world but if I can't transmit it then it's useless. I have friends who have written books and I know they are brilliant people. When I read their books I have no idea what they are talking about. I can tell how smart they are when I read their work but it's all wasted because they can't communicate with the public. Whenever I teach police I usually give a 10 minute talk about the program and use some psychological terms but they are functional and the only reason I do it is to explain why what we do is different than what they may have seen in the past. I've read articles in the past where these guys get so into themselves they actually come up with new terms for things like saying doctrine instead of concept so they can correct people about it and expect them to know it. Frankly, that is irrelevant bullshit. It isn't helping anyone defend themselves to know it. It's nothing more than the martial intellectual verbally masturbating for themselves and they don't even know it. I almost called this article Your So Smart Your the Dumbest Mother Fucker I've Ever Met. Always use the terms people are the most familiar with not what makes you look the most intelligent. It's about helping them not you. Maybe verbal masturbation is too spot on I should say non physical self gratification so they will feel better about it.
   About a week or so ago I posted on a thread. Now I generally hate posting in groups and try not to join them because no one ever learns anything from them. It's just a bunch of chiefs with no indians trying to one up each other. It's a complete waste of time. I can't even remember the original post but it got around to whether or not there was a growing MMA style threat that police needed to account for in their defensive tactics. Now the fact is that is a real threat. Defensive tactics programs all over the country have had to account for it. 20 years ago you didn't see alot of groundfighting in police training now it's everywhere. Why? It's because of MMA. I had to work a defense for rear chokes and strangles into my program because I had several officers have incidents where they were on the ground cuffing someone and another person came from behind and yanked them off the assailant by using the so called rear naked choke. Now was this around before MMA? Of course is was it's been in the Judo syllabus for a hundred years. Was the attacker an MMA fighter? Probably not he probably just watched pay per views. Most of these attacks probably aren't by the actual fighters themselves usually wannabees. The students however know these as MMA attacks that weren't being done 20 years ago so if it is or if it isn't doesn't matter. It's how they know it and that's how we'll deal with it. Well there was a guy on that thread. Actually a brilliant guy and from what I can see has a good program as well. However he is a martial intellectual. His point of view was that MMA techniques used against officers are not on the rise. He had this whole breakdown of skilled, experienced, and some other thing. The fact that officers I teach see these attacks on a weekly basis didn't matter to him he was right regardless. Demanded proof as if he was some governing body of whatever. It seemed really odd to me and I became annoyed by it. If you push me I'm going to push you back so eventually I just left because talking to this robot was pointless. I had other friends there and didn't want to start a war plus I was starting to lose my cool over the idiocy of it all and wanted to keep things professional. The fact is it doesn't matter if the guy is skilled or experienced or anything else. It doesn't matter if he was in the octagon or just watched pay per views. If you don't account for that type of attack in your training you will be undone by it. It's becoming more common I get questions about it daily. The guy actually agreed with me at one point on certain types of training for it but he continued to hurl back handed insults to save face for some reason. My point is that whole thing was over irrelevant verbiage. It was pointless and stupid it was a martial intellectual at his worst. People know the term MMA they don't need a history lesson on the origin of each move. They don't need a complicated breakdown of three things when one will cover it. They don't need your bullshit they need your help. Answer these questions:

Does knowing this term make me a better fighter?

Does understanding certain verbiage help me defend myself better?

Is there a simpler way to say this than what I'm hearing?

If you answered no to the first two and yes to the last one then someone is wasting your time verbally flogging the dolphin on your dime. Martial arts have been around a long time. You can study book after book and more than likely all you are going to do is learn new terms for old terms because until you can learn some terms that are going to make people's knees grow on the back of their legs what you know isn't that big of a deal. If your a martial intellectual get over yourself your not that smart. People have been defending themselves for thousands of years without you. They have been doing it forever without your groundbreaking verbiage. The fact is correcting people and all that stuff just makes you look like an ass and outside your circle nobody cares what you think and they do just fine. Outside my circles no one cares what I think either and that's just fine with me. So guys if you run into one of these verbal masturbators try not to get too offended by them. Instead pity them and all the free time they must have to come up with all that irrelevant pointless bullshit they cling to. Oh yes......... and have a nice day.

How Society Protects Rapists

  So here we are to share some truth. It may be a long one so grab some gin and vermouth. I'll try to throw in some controversy because I know you have a sweet tooth. Now that I have your attention I want to talk with you about a serious subject. Our society protects rapists with a blanket of it's own ignorance. You see the dynamics of sexual assault have changed over the last 30 years or so. The majority of the public and even some police officers and district attorneys and especially potential jurors have no idea what a "real rape" even looks like in the 21st century. Because of this it affects behavior,arrests, and convictions. It affects every facet of the legal system. We can't fix a problem we don't understand. Before I continue I want you to read this:

Where a vigorous woman alleges ravishment it is to be expected that signs of violence such as wounds, bruises and scratches will be present and their absence should induce a moderate degree of skepticism unless the girl avers that she fainted from fear, became panic stricken or was otherwise rendered incapable of physical resistance. The acts and demeanor of the female immediately after the alleged commission should be subjected to very critical investigation in these cases.
                                                                              
                                                                                      -Fundamentals of Criminal Investigation 1970


Generally, the actions and the appearance of a legitimate rape victim leave little doubt that a crime has been committed. Under such circumstances, the victim is highly agitated, emotionally distraught, often in a state of hysteria and may have sustained injuries, cuts, bruises or wounds. The victim’s clothing is often ripped or torn off as evidence that it was forcibly removed and if the rape occurred outdoors, the victim is generally thrown to the ground and her outer garments stained or soiled. Questions may reasonably be raised concerning the validity of rape charges in which none or only a few of the above manifestations exist.

                                                                             -International Association for Chiefs of Police 1995

Notice in 25 years almost nothing changed if anything at all. Most today will still read those statements and think that it looks about right. Today this is the common stereotypical view of rape and sexual assault. Unfortunately in the above statements there is almost no ounce of truth to any of it. Those two statements above are completely false and I can prove it. I will take this article and use statistical fact to absolutely DESTROY the above statements. As I said before almost nothing in those statements are true in any way, shape, or form. Now for the proof.

To summarize here is what we are going to show you

Most rapes are done by strangers - False
A weapon is normally used - False
There's alot of physical force and violence - False
Victim reports rape immediately - False
Victim is hysterical - False
Victims remember everything correctly and never fabricate - False
Takes place on bad side of town or dim area - False
Committed by minorities - False

That's right almost none of those things happen the majority of the time. Now that isn't saying those things don't happen sometimes because they do. What we are saying is those cases are the minority as compared to all cases. This misconception is so bad that often even rape crisis centers give out  misguided advice like always walk in well lit areas or take a self defense course. Now those things will help some but will be useless to most. It won't hurt anything to walk in a well lit area or take a self defense course. I even teach women's self defense courses from time to time. It goes back to the old axiom it's better to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it. I think it's great to take a great self defense course my point is don't let it give you a false sense of security or that it is going to fix everything because it definitely won't.

In reality, most sexual assaults are perpetrated by someone known to the victim, without a weapon, physical violence, or signs of physical injury. Very few victims report the sexual assault to the police, but if they do, it is often after a delay of days, weeks, months, or even years. Many victims have a number of factors that limit their perceived credibility: they are often young, homeless, runaways, or transients, have a mental or physical impairment, are belligerent, and/or abusing alcohol or controlled substances. Victims often omit, exaggerate or fabricate parts of their account, and they may even recant altogether. They are not typically hysterical when interviewed by medical professionals, law enforcement investigators, prosecutors, or others.

So why do people believe this crap?
Because the sexual assaults that were reported to law enforcement in the past (e.g., 1970’s) tended to look a lot more like this stereotype than they do now.Because the media tends to portray sexual assaults that fit the stereotype. Because we prefer to keep the issues simple, and not re-examine our assumptions. Because we want to feel safe from threat of sexual assault.

From 1972 to 1976 71% of all sexual assaults reported to the San Diego Police Department were by strangers. But from 1992 to 1996 76% of all sexual assaults reported were committed by someone the victim knew. That number has stayed around 75% give or take a few points every year since then. Did you know that 32 % of all women who are sexually assaulted maintain a relationship with the rapist afterwards? It's true. Did you know that 25% of all women who are raped will have consensual sex with the rapist at a later time. That's jacked up isn't it? You see the reason making sure your walking in a well lit area doesn't help most of the time is because you will know the attacker and let them get close they don't have to sneak up on you. The numbers in Tucson are a little lower but still comparable in 1999 the number was 66% and has stayed pretty much the same since then. You see most of the advice given today about rape prevention is still geared more towards stranger danger which is very outdated and as the statistics show isn't very accurate. This is why we need to get the word out. We have to change this misconception. When studies these things I read about a woman who was raped and murdered by a coworker. This happened at the University of Illinois. The primary response from the college was to install better lighting. This does absolutely no good at all since this woman was attacked by someone known to her. Once again it can save some because yes women do still get raped by strangers but it doesn't address the overall problem.

Even the news media can be a problem with the misconception not on purpose of course but it happens. Here is the problem with that. There are so many rapes that take place in large cities in a given day that they can't report them all in a 30 minute newscast. So the only ones that tend to make the cut are the particularly violent ones that fit the stereotype thereby passing the misconception onto the public without realizing it.

People believe what they want to believe. They want to believe people they trust aren't capable of this stuff. They want to believe this only happens to other people or people that engage in certain behaviors.None of this is true it can happen to anyone anywhere even in your home home by people you trust. The truth is 1 out of every 6 women will be raped in their lifetime. For that matter 1 out of every 33 men will be raped. Statistics can be higher in certain populations. Now this is very shocking but here are the actual statistics

36% of all women in the US Navy are raped
34% of all Native American women are raped
27% of all girls in college are raped

That's pretty jacked up and some of you are probably saying where is he getting all this info and how do I know it's real numbers. The numbers are real I'll cover the source at the end of the article. For now let's get back on track.

Let's look at the next issue. How often is a weapon used in rape cases? How often is physical violence used?
That can differ a little based on if it's a stranger or not. Get ready for the bullet points.

Percent of Weapon Use:    Non Stranger 3% Stranger 16%
Choking and Beating:         Non Stranger 7% Stranger 16%
Hitting or Slapping :           Non Stranger 13% Stranger 28%
Twisting and Holding:         Non Stranger 68% Stranger 72%
Threatening:                       Non Stranger 33% Stranger 54%

As you can see actual violence during a rape is very low percentage. The reason I point this out is because of the 2 statements at the beginning of the article. Just to refresh your memory I'll post the first one

Where a vigorous woman alleges ravishment it is to be expected that signs of violence such as wounds, bruises and scratches will be present and their absence should induce a moderate degree of skepticism unless the girl avers that she fainted from fear, became panic stricken or was otherwise rendered incapable of physical resistance. The acts and demeanor of the female immediately after the alleged commission should be subjected to very critical investigation in these cases.

The second one is even worse scroll up and read that one. So you see most of the time weapons aren't used. Choking,beating, hitting, and slapping is in the minority as well. Threatening doesn't leave marks. Twisting and holding  may or may not leave a bruise. The 2 statements law enforcement uses to judge rape are false. Society also shares this same view and we've shown you several reasons why. Do beatings happen? Of course they do. Are weapons used? Yeah sometimes they are used. Our point is the absence of these things shouldn't cause skepticism when a woman says she's raped because that absence is actually the norm. Our view of rape needs to change in this society. For God sakes at Fort Collins Police Department in Colorado in 1998 100% of all rapes reported when the attacker was known to the victim a weapon was NEVER used. That's right for an entire calendar in reported cases it didn't happen. That is very important info. So why don't these women fight back? Well here are some reasons
:
The rape is committed by someone the victim knows (rather than a stranger)
The perpetrator does not use physical force or violence to commit the rape
The victim is concerned about preserving the relationship with the offender
The victim is concerned about the offender’s judgment/opinions
The victim has been sexually assaulted in the past

How do they resist when they do resist?

11.2% Run
11.2% Scream
45.7% Cry
69.6% Struggle
76.6% Turn Cold
83.3% Reason and Plead

You see the picture start to take shape and only 1 of those could possibly leave signs of injury thereby ripping the original statements apart which is the point of the article. I also want to add that 1/3 to 2/3 of all rape involve alcohol or some other drug.There is a huge double standard with that in our society. When guys drink society expects them to be out of control but if women do it they are considered slutty. That just ain't right. Our entire culture is geared the wrong way.When it comes to sex men are seen as the aggressors and the women the gatekeepers. These men believe women are supposed to say no at first but not because they mean it. They just say it because it's expected and they are supposed to push to "see how far they can get."
They get to see it as a game of cat and mouse. This is also seriously messed up. This doesn't mean all men are rapists of course but it gives way to a culture that perceives aggressive men as normal which compounds the problem..

Do victims usually report the rape immediately?

Since we talked about sources earlier the 2 main sources for this article were the National Violence Against Women Survey and the National Women's Survey. Within a few points they all converge on these statistics and this next one is no different. Only 16 to 19% of women who are raped reported it at all. Out of that percentage less that 25% of that number reported it immediately. That means less than 5% of all women who are raped report it immediately. Remember that number because I'm building to something.There is also a misconception that the rapist will be a minority and I want you to know that most rapes are intraracial. That means they rape within their own ethnic groups. If your a white girl your more likely to be raped by a white guy just so you know. Getting back to why women don't report rape let's look at it:

22% cited fear of the perpetrator as the reason for not reporting
18% stated that they were too ashamed or embarrassed
18% felt that the incident was minor, and not a crime or a police matter
13% believed that the law enforcement agency could not do anything
12% were concerned that officers would not believe or blame them

That really sucks because the fact is that men who rape and get away with it are more likely to do it again. Dr. Davis Lisak and Dr. Paul Miller surveyed 1,882 men with an average age of 28 who attended college part time(the college wasn't named). Of these 1,882 men 120 of them had committed 483 sexual assaults of women they knew. none of those assaults were ever reported.

There is a real disconnect between what society believes is "legitimate" rape and the truth. If the policy we showed you at the very beginning of the article continues to be believed then many more women will be raped and many more rapists will continue raping with impunity. When crap like that is believed then rape victims do not get believed when they come forward and arrests are not made and rapes continue when they could have been stopped. That untrue statement is very damaging in many ways. I want to give you a scenario.

A woman has been raped by a neighbor she's friends with and has known awhile. Police come to the scene and interview her and they follow through and arrest the neighbor. Then they start to collect evidence.

They collect fingerprints, hair samples, fiber samples, semen, saliva, footprints, maybe tire marks and other things of the like. They can absolutely prove he was there and that a sexual act took place and they go to trial with it. So what happens? Well it's an easy not guilty verdict and the victim gets victimized again. The rapist walks free. Why?

Well you see since it's a given they knew each other already the identification of the suspect should not have been the primary issue. You see a good defense attorney will use the consent defense. It will be her word against his and she doesn't have any bruises, cuts or marks on her body, no clothes torn. She probably didn't call the police right after either. Remember those misconceptions that are prevalent? They will be prevalent in a jury too. So let's back up and try that again.

A woman has been raped by a neighbor she's friends with and has known awhile. Police come to the scene and interview her and they follow through and arrest the neighbor. Then they start to collect evidence.

They collect all the identification evidence mentioned in the previous scenario but this time they also:

Photographs of any genital and non genital injuries
Documented complaints of pain
Evidence of prior similar acts
Suspect statements made in a monitored phone call to victim
Any crime scene evidence that could support a struggle
Records of communication with dispatch
Interview with first person victim told of assault
 Detailed information from the victim, describing thoughts and feelings during the sexual assault, as well as any sensory and peripheral details that can be recalled
Detailed information from others, to describe the victim’s behavior after the sexual assault, and contrast it with the victim’s typical behavior before the sexual assault

Any number of these can help beat a consent defense. On top of that a prosecutor having statistics like these to change jury perception of what is normal and what is abnormal their case will be stronger.

In closing this ignorance helps rapists and hopefully we've helped in some small way to help you understand just how much damage has been done to our society and even our justice system due to lack of understanding of the real issues. If you found this article informative I can tell you that it's just the tip of the iceberg. This info came from a course I took called What Does Rape Really Look Like that is offered by End The Violence Against Women International. There is much more info there than I can put in this article. You can look into those online courses at www.evawintl.org. We've got to work together to change this perception and make real help available. Thank you

Ground Survival 101 Course

    I decided to put together this course after seeing so many flawed ground programs being taught by so-called reality based instructors. As in most modern self defense courses they attempt to innovate in the wrong area and in alot of ways over think the problems. Now alot of these guys are my friends but the fact remains they still got it wrong. This course is a part of a more comprehensive  called Stonewall Tactical Judo that we also teach. This one however focuses solely on ground survival.
    Typically what I see are courses geared towards only protecting against the lowest common denominator of criminal. This is a huge mistake. Attacks are as random as people. You simply cannot predict exactly how someone can attack you or how they will react to your defense.Too many out there try to take shortcuts and try to tell you that you can just bite them or poke them in the eyes or twist their heads or something like that and complete ignore geometry. Now don't get me wrong I've seen these things work but I've also seen them fail miserably. Everything works sometimes and nothing works every time. The fact is as educators,warriors, or whatever term you would like to use our job is to give you the best ways of protecting yourself with the lowest possible amount of flaws for the highest rate of success and take every possibility into account. Now let's say someone is straddling you and punching down against your face and you buck your hips to make them post their hands on the ground. You reach up to grab their head and do the head twist. All they have to do is sit straight up and you can't reach their head. Then your laying there on your back with your arms stuck out and your head unprotected. That isn't going to end good for you. You can't bite them at that point either. If that was all you had your in alot of trouble and it can happen I've seen it many times. As a grappler myself with over 30 years experience on the mat I can tell you a little fact. The first thing a grappler with real experience will do when they put you on your back is completely immobilize your head and arms. Bye bye grabs, pokes, and biting and all the other things they tell you will work on anyone. Scary thought isn't it?
     Well here is the deal with our program. By learning just a few body movements you can escape these positions easily and the escapes we teach WILL work on everyone not just the lowest common denominator attacker with little ability when you apply them correctly. Anyone can do these techniques, but we don't just stop with techniques.
     You see that takes us into another issue which is improper training. Many seminars you will attend will show you an escape. Let's stick with the full mount example. Let's say you learned an escape in a class. So now you've reversed this bad position. Now what? Well in most classes you would move on to the next technique. Once again....that's a big mistake. Just because you rolled someone doesn't mean the altercation is over. How did you get into the situation? More importantly...how are you going to get out of it? What do you do if your getting out of one position and they switch to another one do you know what to do?
    You see an attack is like a disease. When you deal with just a specific attack and move on such as some type of pin, or strike, or choke, or whatever you dealing with a symptom of the disease and not the disease itself. When your escape is facilitated that is the point your looking at something quick to end the threat. Remember what the law states. The law can differ slightly from state to state so check with your attorney general's office on the judicious use of force laws for your state but they tend to be similar to this: You can defend yourself against a person until they are no longer a threat. Basically in our context that means if you roll someone off of you and straddle them and continually bash their face in and they are defending then you've become the attacker. Then even if they attacked you then you can still go to jail for assault. I don't make up the laws I'm just telling you what they say. You can generally strike them but you can't just keep doing it over and over. We however can show you how to end the threat without ending up on someone's Iphone explaining yourself in court.
     Just to review with this course we can show you a few simple body movements that will get you out of these bad positions against attackers of varying skill levels not just the ones that don't know anything. We teach you how to deal with attacks as they change and you learn how to string things together to become more proactive in your defense. We can also show you how to do it within your states use of force policies. The best part is we can do it in 2 days. If you want a real solution to the problems we've presented then contact us on the Contact Us page.

Stonewall Tactical Judo

First and foremost Stonewall Tactical Judo is a modern day fighting system. It isn't so much based on classical judo as it is based on American Combat Judo from 1944. Though based on Jujutsu it includes more modern and scientific developments in self defense as well as learning strategies. It also draws from other systems such as Catch As Catch Can Wrestling, Boxing, Muay Thai, and other modern systems from all over the world.
     So why call it Judo instead of Combatives or something else? Well frankly with all the saturation and marketing behind it as well as the so-called reality based self defense movement the term "combatives" has lost it's meaning for me. What people are actually teaching today is more like combat martial arts. Combat martial arts basically means your doing the same old mcdojo tactics but your more aggressive with it. People are just taking whatever they do and slapping the word combatives on the end of it for marketing, it just doesn't mean anything anymore. The simple fact is that if you look at the upper level kata of Judo you will find disabling blows,knife defenses, stick defenses, and gun defenses. Does that sound familiar to you? Yep it's everything they teach in modern self defense today. By the way I didn't just pluck the word judo out of  nowhere. I have a 4th dan in Judo and a 6th Dan in Jujutsu as well as a Professorship( Kyoshi Sho). I also have a 5th Dan in Ninjutsu but hey  let's stay on point. Now we don't use the same weapon defenses they teach in Judo I'd like to think we are a little more evolved I'm just saying the blueprint was always there. Actually, W.E. Fairbairn was a Judo exponent as were most of the original "combatives" guys.
    If you've looked at the rest of the site you will notice I teach police departments all over the country and we are going international soon. This system uses the same teaching methodologies as I employ when teach defensive tactics to police. If you read the testimonials over on the S.T.A.R. Method page you will see this teaching method works wonders for these officers. Taking these ideas and applying them to martial arts will get you much better and much faster than you will see in other so- called combatives or reality based systems. I've always disliked the term reality based self defense because it is subjective and situational. We start you out learning verbal de-escalation then managing awareness and avoidance. You can't be attacked if you aren't there. Then we teach you basic self defense. You will be able to reasonably be able to defense yourself after just a few classes. Not a couple years like other systems. Once you have a firm foundation then we can add other things. Want to see us in action? if your in the North Alabama area contact us through the contact us link about a private class. Outside that area you can contact me through the same link about hosting a seminar at your school. You will definitely notice a huge difference in quality. Let us show you that difference.

The Falling and the Fallen

    It's 4:31 in the morning and I can't sleep.I'm angry I'm just really angry. I'm not sure how this article is going to go but I just know I have to write it. It could go into a million different directions or none at all. I'm so angry I'm on auto pilot. As alot of people have I've been following this Amanda Todd story. A 15 year old girl being bullied into committing suicide. There is no excuse for that there never was at all. I remember when I was 15 and being bullied myself. I wanted to commit suicide. I had to be on medication for a couple years. You see this isn't new it's the same old shit that's always been. With the same old lame ignorant excuses. I've paced the floors this morning and even came close to crying a little because I look at the society we've built and find it disgusting. I think everyone is bullied at one time or another. It surprises people when I tell them I was bullied but it's true. Since then of course I became a martial arts champion, worked as a bouncer and bodyguard for many years, and now I teach police hand to hand combat for a living. But hey we are our own creation and we all started somewhere. I was bullied for simply being a freshman on the football team. I had my food tampered with and poisoned. My tires slit on my car. Several once tried to hold me down and sodomize me with the armrest off a pair of crutches. One  of the other players was injured and they actually took his crutches away from him to remove it. For no other reason than they could. They couldn't hold me down thank DNA I'm a pretty big guy and strong as an ox but they sure as hell tried it. This was back in 1988 I believe. The teachers all knew it was going on and did nothing. They like the other students considered it a rite of passage. Schools have always supported bullying that isn't new. Schools support bullying now more than ever. They support it  by using a strict no tolerance policy on fighting. In other words if you give a bully what they deserve your going to be kicked out of school. So bullies use that for leverage. Kids have to take that abuse because if they fight back then they are going to be expelled and bullies know it. There is no stand your ground policy against bullying like there should be. If they just tell a teacher they get beat up worse. It gets worse if parents get involved. That is the reality of it. All the teachers will do is have the parents talk to them which is meaningless. There is currently no real punishment for bullying. There is no real deterrent as long as the bullies are slick.
    People are so self absorbed these days they aren't going to act on anything unless they are afraid of losing something. People claim they work too much these days and don't have the time to watch their kids. Really? If the parents could be arrested and put in jail for things their children done I'm pretty sure they could find a little time to watch their children and be better parents and make sure their children are on the correct path to becoming good responsible people. If that bully lost something important to them and had to really pay for what they did they may not do it anymore. Fear isn't just a tool for them. Self absorbed adults are producing self absorbed children with no concept of reality, a false sense of entitlement, misplaced priorities, lack of personal responsibility and ethics. You see....we got soft. We got so progressive in our thinking that we out thought ourselves. We listened to and became a society that is nowhere near as smart as it believes. We are failing our most precious asset....our children. We are failing them by not guiding them, by not being there, by not paying attention, not setting boundaries, and not being real parents.
    Years ago I remember when President Clinton was in office. He was considering making school uniforms mandatory for all public schools. The reasoning was that many children were being attacked and murdered for a certain brand sneakers and other trivial things. If everyone wore the same thing then they would have to be judged on their merits as a person and not what they wore. I thought it was a great forward thinking idea. I think to some degree that it would have worked. Not completely of course but I think it would've curbed alot of things. The hell that was raised over it was immense. Even though it was just an idea the parents decided the government was going to try to force them to pay for the uniforms. Which  no one really knows if that's true one way or another because it never made it to that stage as far as i know but they used that as an excuse and raised hell anyway. The kids railed against it because it supposedly kept them from expressing themselves and all that stuff. It ended up not happening because the kids didn't like it and MTV buckled to the kids and it went downhill from there. It was the lamest excuse I ever heard. Forget the other 16 hours in the damn day. They said it would keep them from expressing who they are. Well first of all your kids so you don't even know who you are yet. Most adults don't know who they are either and if they did they would be horrified. If you don't know who you are then you can't really express it so shut up. The purpose of school is for learning not expressing yourself or socializing. In North America our schools produce some of the dumbest people on earth and they are worried about expression. Asia is destroying us in math and science because our priorities are completely out of order. Your worried about expression? What are you trying to express?...That your a moron that doesn't know what really matters? That your parents don't know how to instill the correct values in you? If that's the case then good job message received.
     What happened to Amanda Todd should never happen to any child.She should've been able to go to school and feel safe. When she made mistakes she should've been able to talk to an adult. When she got suckered by a pedophile on webcam where was the investigation then? When someone posted child porn on facebook where were the arrests? She had to move three times so obviously some adults knew about it. Where was the staff at the school when kids from another school came onto school property and assaulted her. There was no teacher around what the hell? We may never know these things. What really bothers me is some of the responses I see from trolls about her death.If this girl's death doesn't rip your heart out then you aren't a real person your just scum. Some of the things I've seen should never be uttered by an adult in reference to a child. To me even worse are the ever pretentious armchair activists.These are the ones that say things like," well your posting all the stuff about this girl that flashed a guy and had sex at 13 but what about the starving kids in Africa." Well here is thing thing with that. You can actually feel bad for both asshole. People that say things like that don't care about children in Africa they do it to attempt to sound intelligent. They fail miserably. They are the people that talk yet do nothing. They are the bystanders... the ones who say someone should have helped but never think of helping themselves then explode with faux outrage when something happens. I have no use for these people.
     Now I'm about to say something and bring this to a close. Whenever I say you in these statement I'm including myself as well since I'm a part of this society. There's alot of things wrong with this society but we can fix this one we can fix bullying. We can fix it by modifying existing laws and creating new ones for more accountability. We can give this society a dose of reality and we can hold ourselves accountable for our failings. We can take more time with our children and instill proper values. We need stricter laws for when these values are not upheld. People need to know they will truly pay for what they've done our children must be protected.
     Each and everyone of us should mourn the loss of Amanda Todd and every child that suffers the same fate. We should do it because as a society we killed them. We failed to protect her. We built a society that allowed a pedophile( I'm assuming it was an adult or at least a much older kid) to have access to a 13 year old girl and extort her. We built a society that through our tax money helps pay the staff that wasn't around when she was beaten at her school and they still have a job. We built a society that covets things and not people. We built a society that allows television to dictate reality. We built a society that allows our children to be sexualized, We built a society that robs children of their childhood. We built a society that doesn't guide it's children and show them the right path because we are on the wrong path, We built a self centered society that allowed Amanda Todd to be abused and bullied to the point she took her own life to escape from it. Don't just sit around talking about how sad this is or how it's a tragedy. Instead look in the mirror and make a change. We can do better and we've got to do better we have too much at stake.
     Finally to Amanda Todd though you aren't here anymore I have some words anyway. I'm so sorry we failed you. As a society we should have been there for you and we failed. We didn't keep the bad people away. We didn't have our priorities right. From the bottom of my heart I feel society owes you an apology and I intend for you to have it. Though you aren't here understand that you are everywhere. I know this tragedy has touched many I only wish you could have known how much you mattered.Though cells may die  energy is forever and now you are a part of us all. In a safe place where no one can hurt you anymore.

                                                               R.I.P. Amanda Todd