As many of you know, I am presenting my ideas at a black belt class this Sunday for an updated approach to Can-ryu ground defense for use in street situations (not sport-oriented). My suggested approach is to encompass the 4 tenets of Can-ryu.

Over the past few months, I’ve devoted considerable time and energy to challenging traditional ways ground defense has been handled, in addition to challenging my own ideas and concepts. One of the main differences between the old approach and the new approach I’ve been working on involves a shift in the paradigm.

The old approach, like many other more traditional styles of Jiu-jitsu (as opposed to BJJ) involved learning a set of defense against a specific attack on the ground with a compliant uke. There are two main problems with this approach.

1. Different body types. A defender’s body type, as well as the body type of the attacker being dealt with, heavily influences the effectiveness of different types of defenses. What works easily for one body type or against one body type may be completely useless for a different set of body types.

2. The quick-changing nature of ground attacks. Your proximity to your attacker is very close in a ground defense situation. Also, in many cases, more of your body is confined. This means that the attacker can feel your resistance and respond to it quicker than he or she might other types of attacks.

The new paradigm I am working with involves teaching a set of concepts and skills that can be combined and used in a wide variety of ground attack scenarios. The students then learn how best to apply them using their own unique body types. Because the new paradigm is more focused on learning to apply a set of concepts and skills more broadly, it also leaves more room for adaptation to variable attacks based on the way the attacker reacts to the initial defense.

As far as teaching goes, you can start from specific positions and compliant ukes so that students can learn the foundations, but ultimately, you want them to quickly move beyond these types of static attacks so they can have a more adaptable approach that is specific to the student’s own body type. This approach is covered in much greater detail in my book When the Fight Goes to the Ground: Jiu-jitsu Strategies & Tactics for Self-Defense.

In some of my recent posts, I referred to nerve motor and pressure points. There were a few questions about the differences between them, which I will address in this post. In the style of Can-ryu Jiu-jitsu, we teach the use of a pressure point system known as the Police Pressure Point System, which was developed by Professor Georges Sylvain, founder of our style.

After a great deal of research, Professor Sylvain selected what he believed were the most effective nerve points for police use, ones that he considered to be most effective on the greatest number of people. These nerve points are divided into ‘nerve motor points’ and ‘nerve pressure points.’

Nerve Motor Points

Nerve motor points are nerve points on the body that, when struck, cause some form of motor dysfunction. The solar plexus, causes motor dysfunction in the muscles that control breathing. The brachial plexus origin, located on the side of the neck, causes a disconnect to the brain resulting in motor dysfunction in the entire body, from a stunning effect to full unconsciousness. The lateral femoral located on the outside of the thigh causes motor dysfunction in the leg making it difficult to use or even stand on temporarily. Beyond motor dysfunction, most of these nerve points are also painful when struck.

Nerve Pressure Points

Nerve pressure points, on the other hand, cause pain as a result of pressure, but no motor dysfunction. The tip of the nose, for example, is made up of a series of sensitive criss-crossing nerves and when you apply pressure on it with a palm, the result is usually quite painful. The mandibular angle, located below the ear, behind the jaw bone, can cause extreme pain when you apply pressure with the tip of your thumb. The lateral thoracic comprises of a series of intercostal nerves located between each rib. When you compress these nerves against the ribs with a knuckle, kind of like playing the xylophone, it can cause a lot of pain.

Below is a couple of charts for reference. The points that are written in black are motor points while the ones written in grey are pressure points.

Some nerve motor and pressure points are easier to use than others, and not all the points are appropriate for use in all self-defense situations. But on the whole, the more your practice targeting them, the more effectively you’ll be able to use them in a real situation. That being said, as Professor Sylvain used to say, some people are just mutants and aren’t effected by certain points due to differences in their physiology. Also, people who are drunk or high are often less affected by nerve points.

This makes it that much more important to be able to use a variety of targets both within and outside the Police Pressure Point System. Nerve points are all well and good, but there are few people who can withstand a solid strike to the groin. And on the flip side, if all you know how to do is kick the groin, you are very much limited in your options if that first strike misses and your attacker starts protecting it.

Tags: motor points | pressure points

I was recently chatting with a Shorinji Kan friend of mine in Toronto who is preparing to test for brown belt in his style. He was saying that he felt that he was ready for the physical rigors of the test but was somewhat worried about the mental pressure and intensity he was anticipating from his ukes (attackers) during the test. I replied, “It’s all about intention.”

If your intention to defend yourself is stronger than your attacker’s intention to see his or her attack through, more than likely, you will prevail. My favourite analogy to explain this is that of the alley cat vs. the doberman.

A doberman is a big dog that could easily rip a cat to shreds in terms of a physical contest. But have you ever seen an alley cat fight? In comics or cartoons, an alley cat fighting is usually portrayed as a whirling mass with sharp claws sticking out violently. This is a pretty accurate depiction. An alley cat also hisses and squeals an awful high-pitched noise while it fights. So sure, the doberman could make short work of the cat, if it wanted to. But the doberman isn’t stupid. It realizes that if it did go in for the kill, it would take many scratches in the process. It could lose an eye or it could take one on the nose, damaging its sense of smell that it relies on for survival. Seeing the risk, the doberman shies away, because it simply isn’t worth it.

Another good analogy is the human vs. the wasp. Many people when encountering a wasp will uselessly flail their arms and run away to avoid a wasp. But why? Humans are massive compared to a wasp. Even if it did try to sting us, we could destroy it with one swift smack of our hand. As with the previous analogy, it simply isn’t worth being stung. So we choose to run away in a comical fashion.

So let’s apply this to our mentality when defending ourselves.

When I teach women’s self-defense classes, I tell the students, it’s not about being stronger than your attacker – that’s not likely to be the case. It’s about being an unappealing target. This starts before an attacker even makes a move. For example, I tell women that if they’re taking money out of an ATM and they feel like they’re being watched and sized up as a target, immediate hit cancel then yell and swear, maybe even kick something saying, “I TOLD HIM TO PUT MONEY IN OUR ACCOUNT! THAT &@#$* IDIOT!!!” This accomplishes 2 things at once. It communicates that the woman has no money to be stolen, plus it shows that she’s no pushover and might fight back or yell enough to bring attention to the situation if he makes a move on her. The woman has successfully made her potential intention stronger than that of her attacker’s.

But then if an assailant decides that the woman is worth attacking in a different kind of context (it certainly isn’t worth taking any risk just for money or material possessions) the woman has to become an alley cat. I teach women to yell loudly and aggressively, using words that communicate that she is in trouble, like “STOP!” or “NO! LET ME GO!”, while combining it with strikes to vulnerable targets.

This plays on the psychology of the attacker. Most attackers who physically prey on women are not looking for a challenge. They look for easy victims that reinforce the perception they are trying to create that they themselves are stronger and more powerful. They also don’t want to get caught. This naturally limits the risk he is willing to take and the defending force he is willing to face in the assault.

A woman can make further increase her intention by raising the stakes in her own mind. She can do this by thinking about the situation like she is not simply defending herself. She can imagine that the man will attack and rape her daughter, mother, sister, anyone she cares deeply about, when he is done with her. Alternatively, she could imagine that this man will take away her ability to do the one thing she loves most in life. If she is an athlete, he could paralyze her. If she is a writer or another kind of academic, he could cause her brain damage. By thinking in these terms, women can increase their intention to fight back to a degree they couldn’t normally summon up in their day-to-day lives. And when a woman fights back with that much intention, you better believe that the attacker would think twice.

Now to bring this into a grading context like my friend is anticipating.

Your ukes who will attack you during your grading will definitely be putting pressure on you as that is what they have been commanded to do to test your skills and intensity. When you’re facing intense circles or V’s or multiple attacker situations, make your intention stronger with a loud kiai. It may not psychologically affect your attackers in your particular situation because they’ll all be fairly experienced martial artists that are used to hearing kiais (though it does have a greater affect on students from the lower ranks). A kiai does, however, put more intention into your weakeners, the strikes you use to soften up your ukes, so you can take them down. When they feel a solid weakener, they’ll loosen up because they know if they don’t, they’ll get it twice as hard the next time. As a result, your intention to defend becomes stronger than theirs to attack you.

Good luck to all the Shorinji Kan-ers who are up for gradings this and next month!

Tags: belt tests | intention | self-defense

It is amazing to see the difference that good perception makes when it comes to martial arts and self-defense. People with greater perception are able to see openings that others are not able to detect.

Try the following perception test and see how good yours is:

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Tags: multiple attackers | perception | tunnel vision

Every time I teach a women’s self-defense class, inevitably one of the women will leave the class and want to show their boyfriend, husband, brother, father, male friend, etc. what they’ve learned. It is something I discourage women from doing for 3 reasons, which I’ll cover here.

1) You don’t have the element of surprise.The techniques that are taught in a women’s self-defense class, like the one I teach, are designed to make use of the element of surprise. If you tell a guy, “Grab me and I’ll show you how I can defend myself,” they’ll do exactly as you ask, but they’ll be ready to try and counter you because that’s what you asked for. A real attacker is usually looking for an easy victim. If you’re attacked, your goal in self-defense is to make it so you aren’t an easy victim. Mounting any sort of defense in combination with yelling things to make it clear you’re in need of help, is known to disrupt most attacks. Your would-be male attacker friend is just trying to stop you from defending yourself. There are no real negative consequences to his actions here, particularly, because of the next reason I’ll cover.

2) You don’t want to hurt him.In the self-defense class that I teach, I bring in male “attackers” who will grab the women and react appropriately to their strikes when they strike on target, without the women having to hit them with full power. When you try the moves on some male acquaintance though, they won’t react the same way… unless you hit him for real. But of course, you don’t want to actually hurt him, so ultimately, you’ll hold back on your strikes and he’ll keep holding on, then maybe take you down, and conclude at the end, “Well, I guess your self-defense doesn’t work.” And even worse, you might question its effectiveness too, which doesn’t help you at all as it might make you hesitate to fight back if you’re attacked.

3) You never know if you’ll have to use it on that same person.The majority of assaults on women are by a man that you already know. While it’s unlikely that your father, brother or close friend will attack you for real at some later time, there is a little less certainty beyond that. Someone you’ve recently started dating might seem okay, but until you’ve really gotten to know him, you don’t really know. That holds true for male friends that you’re only loosely acquainted with. For this reason, it’s better to keep your knowledge to yourself, so if you ever have to use it, they won’t know what to expect.

For all the above reasons, it’s really better off that you don’t try out the self-defense moves you learn from a course or martial art on men outside the training itself. Unless of course, they do something that warrants it.

Tags: self-defense | women

Last weekend, I went to Sicamous, BC for the annual Hiscoe/Can-ryu Jiu-jitsu seminar in the Okanagan. We had some fantastic instructors featured including Steve Hiscoe Shihan, 8th degree black belt in Can-ryu, 20-year RCMP veteran police officer and RCMP trainer of trainers. Steve’s topic this year, at my request, was the updated knife defense curriculum.

In Can-ryu Jiu-jitsu, our knife defense, like all our other core techniques follows 4 basic principles: 1) simplicity, 2) gross motor skills, 3) commonality of technique and 4) awareness of the potential for multiple opponents. This is to say that our knife defense is meant to be simple enough to be learned fairly quickly. It uses gross motor skills, which are easier to use, even in the high stress situation of a life-threatening attack. It relies on commonality of technique, using similar techniques for various situations so you’re less likely to freeze up trying to “think” of what to do. And lastly, it is adaptable for use against multiple attackers.

Our knife defense system uses a simple block that protects the arteries and is adaptable for various types of attacks, (i.e. slashing, stabbing, etc.). You use that block as many times as is necessary to either get away or to find the opportunity to close in and control the knife arm at the elbow. Once you have control of the knife arm, you hold on for dear life then use your legs to attack the person, using knees to the groin, shin kicks, foot stomps, whatever is necessary. Once the person is weakened, a simple takedown can be used to get the attacker to the ground.

Here is a short video of Steve Hiscoe Shihan demonstrating an inside block against a left-handed attacker:

Here is another video in which Steve Hiscoe defends against multiple attacks from different angles:

It was an excellent seminar and all who attended appreciated the effectiveness of this system. Thanks to Steve and all the other instructors (including Michael Seamark Shihan, Phil Wiebe Sensei, and Julian Sensei) who led classes at the seminar!

Tags: knife defense

The other day, one of my students who is a member of the RCMP (Canada’s national police) came to me and told me of how he recently had an on the job experience in which the importance of using a distraction was emphasized.

This student is not large, but still has to apprehend people all the same. In this recent incident, a very drunk man was walking in the middle of a busy city street during rush hour. He first tried to talk the man off the road, but he was resistant. My student had to arrest the man for his own safety so he asked the man to put his hands behind his back, while he took hold of his wrist. The drunk man, however, was resistant and pulled his arms into his body, saying no and refusing to cooperate.

At this point, my student kicked him in the shin. The man, distracted by the sudden pain, relaxed his arms, making it easy for my student to get control of his arm, take him to the ground, then cuff him.

This is a perfect example of how a distraction can be used in a law enforcement scenario. It also works well in a self-defense context. The reason why it works is because the conscious mind can’t focus on two things at the same time. The sharp pain caused by the shin kick caused the man to distract his focus from his resistance to the more immediate shock of the pain. It need not be a shin kick specifically though. It can be a strike to a nerve motor point, pressure to a nerve pressure point, a pinch to a sensitive area, a strike to the groin, etc.

The shin kick is one of my favourite choices as a distraction (if you’re wearing strong shoes). Because it is low, people often don’t see it coming. When you use a shin kick, your hands are free for defensive purposes. Also, in my student’s case, he was very visible in the public eye, dealing with his suspect in a busy city street. The shin kick in this case is pretty innocuous and doesn’t look overly violent, even though it performs the task effectively. It is much more subtle than using fists, knees or elbows.

Anyway, I was very pleased to hear how this student applied our martial art effectively to accomplish what he needed to do on the job, only using as much force as was necessary to nullify the situation. Does anyone else out there have any similar experiences using distraction strikes that they would like to share?

Tags: distractions | self-defense

Last post I wrote about the 2 things you must know to effectively defend yourself in a multiple attacker situation. Beyond the development of the mindset and tactical skills needed to handle such an attack, it is also important to actively condition yourself to be on the look out for multiple attackers even when you’re dealing with just one.

Much of the self-defense training in the martial arts is done against a single attacker. Partner training is fine, but to be ready for potential multiple attacker situations on the street, the student should train their awareness of their surroundings, even when working with a single partner. What this means is even when doing hold escapes or whatever techniques with a single partner, you should always train thinking that there are likely other attackers.

Here are 3 practices we observe in Can-ryu Jiu-jitsu that help your awareness of multiple attacker situations:

1. When throwing or taking a person to the ground, you should always keep your head up. This is also a technical consideration as you are more likely to be taken to the ground while throwing if your head is down.

2. When doing after throw techniques or controls, be sure to keep your head up while applying them.

3. When stepping away after taking a person to the ground, always look behind you.

If you’re going to adopt these practices, try to do them consistently in training. Make it habit so that you do it without thinking. It’s one thing to keep these ideas in your mind, and another to have them ingrained in your defense structure. As they say, the way you train on the mats is the way you’ll fight in a real situation.

The other night, some of my students and I ran through a high-stress sparring drill in which the defender had to defend against multiple attackers. There are a number of different tactics a person can use in a multiple attackers situation depending on their body type and how the situation unfolds, but there are two overarching concepts that are common to everyone are as follows: awareness,positional strategy and heart/aggressiveness.

Awareness. You must stay aware of your surroundings by constantly scanning around you to make up for the effects of adrenaline that can cause you to experience tunnel vision, auditory exclusion, etc, when you’re under the stress of an attack. Read Conditioning the Mind to Look Out for Multiple Attackers for more details.

Positional Strategy. The most important tactical aspect of defending against multiple attackers is to position yourself so that only one person can effectively attack you at a time. Basically, you want to avoid being “monkey in the middle.” You want to avoid moving between your two attackers if it can be avoided.

Heart/Aggressiveness. Being on the receiving end of a multiple person attack, you are at a severe disadvantage. You have to make up for it by engaging the attackers aggressively in the hopes of keeping the fight on your terms. By being aggressive, you might also cause your attackers to hesitate, which can give you an opportunity to exploit them in a weak moment. But it’s not just about being aggressive. It’s about having an abundance of heart, a never-give-up attitude that keeps on fighting in the face of insurmountable odds. You want to have the mindset that no matter how many times you get hit, how hard you get hit, or how disadvantaged things may seem, that you WILL keep fighting and use any and every opportunity you get. Anyone out there a Star Trek fan? Captain Kirk has this idea down.

Beyond the two overarching concepts, there are lots of different types of tactics you can use to survive a multiple person attack: throwing/tripping attackers to the ground, pushing them into each other, holding one while kicking another, attacking unexpected targets, using reach advantage strategically, etc. And this list doesn’t even take weapons attacks into account. But no matter what you do have to, if you should try to be aware of your surroudnings and defend yourself with heart and sound positional strategy,

Tags: multiple attackers

Last week I wrote a post about the usefulness of open hand strikes vs. punches for self-defense. This week, I’ll discuss 5 specific open hand strikes that I teach for self-defense and how they are useful.

Here is a video of the 5 open hand strikes I will discuss:

1. Straight Strike. A straight strike using the base of the palm is best used to the bridge of the nose. This can cause a lot of pain, as well as the tear ducts to empty. It can also break the nose. In a social situation self-defense situation in which you don’t want to injure a person seriously, you can place your palm on the tip of the nose and vigorously press it back and forth as you push your palm into the nose. The resulting pain from pushing into the many small nerve endings in the tip of the nose can be an effective way of pushing someone away.

2. Open-hand Hook. The body mechanics of this strike are similar to that of a hook punch. It looks like it’s just a big old slap, but it’s much more than that. The difference is that you get greater reach and that it causes knock-outs in a different way. This strike causes a concussive effect on the brain, which can effectively stun a person or knock them unconscious. Think of the skull as being like a pickle jar, while your brain is the pickles. When you hit the skull hard it rattles the pickles against the inside of the pickle jar” (i.e. your brain on the inside of the skull), which is what causes the stunning effect. Also, if you happen to hit the ear, you can break the ear drum and cause a lot of pain. Even if it lands only on the face and not the head, the resulting “smack” can be distracting enough to give a person pause.

3. Ridge Hand Strike. We most often use the ridge hand strike on the brachial plexus origin, a nerve motor point that results in stunning and potentially knock-outs when struck. When attacking this area, we use the inside of the wrist bone, rather than the hand itself. A ridge hand strike using the inside knuckle as the striking surface, can also be used to attack the nose when on an angle or the temple from straight on. Warning: a strike to the temple has the potential to be a fatal blow and should only be used in life-threatening situations.

4. Back Hand Strike. We use this strike also on the brachial plexus origin, using the back of the wrist bone.

5. Open hand Uppercut. This works in much the same way as a traditional uppercut. You need to close to your attacker to use it. When you strike the jaw right on target, the impact can stun or knock a person out, as is evidenced in many professional fights. It is said that this is caused by the temporal mandibular nerve, located directly behind the “hinge” of the jaw. Essentially, the jawbone slams back against the nerve, basically causing a form of sensory overload that can shut down the brain.

Tags: open hand strikes