The Unbreakable Umbrella – A Review
I was checking out various videos on YouTube of people using a cane for self-defense one day and I came across some product videos for the unbreakable umbrella. Watching their videos on YouTube, it does appear to be unbreakable. But it is possible to fake these things.
I contacted the company asking them about their product, telling them a little about who I am and what I do, and they offered to send me one of their umbrellas on the house provided that I review it on my blog. I gleefully accepted.
The umbrella, on first glance, looks just like any other cane umbrella. This explains why it is possible for people to bring it on an airplane without creating a stir. You can’t even bring a cane on an aircraft nowadays without being able to prove that you need it.
It is noticeably heavier than the average cane umbrella, but it makes up for it by being ultra-sturdy. It’s made of ABS, a man-made composite material, not that that means anything to the average person. I decided to take it in to my dojo and test it out. I didn’t have a watermelon to split open like on the YouTube vid, but I ran a couple of the other tests. Here’s the vid:
It is suitable for use in self-defense techniques in place of a cane. The wide hook handle allows you to easily hook someone around the neck or legs. And as long as you keep the nylon wrapped up, it makes for an effective striking weapon. The only trouble in paradise is the cost. It’s carries a hefty price tag: $179.95 US. But this may be worthwhile for self-defense enthusiasts who would like to be able to use an umbrella to defend themselves should the need arise. With the fall starting here in Vancouver, I can expect to be carrying my unbreakable umbrella with me right up until the end of next spring, so I’m very happy to own one.
Kiai: What It’s For & How to Do It
The kiai is used on our dojo fairly regularly. We use it during breakfalls, in Jiu-jitsu circles, during tests, etc. Students are often confused about how to do a kiai so hopefully this blog will clarify things a bit.
The concept of the kiai goes back to ancient Japan. Samurai warriors were renowned for their powerful kiai in battle – a startling battle cry that was reputed to paralyze opponents with fear. A warrior who could release a powerful kiai would rarely be viewed as weak or fatigued by his opponents.
The Purpose of Kiai
The purpose of the kiai is three-fold:
1. To focus your mental and physical energy. (More details about this in The Benefits of Kiai for Sharpening Focus & Form for Breakfalls.)
2. To startle your attacker/ opponent
3. To draw attention to your need for help (in a self-defense situation)
When you learn to kiai properly the additional focus that it gives you helps reinforce your technique. You also learn not flinch and freeze at sudden loud noises, making it easier for you to quickly assess the source of the noise, whether it poses a threat and whether any response is required.
Meaning of Kiai
The word kiai is made up of the Kanji characters “ki,” meaning energy or spirit, and “ai,” meaning unification. Many East Asian people believe a force flows through all things, known as “ki” in Japanese and chi (or qi) in Chinese. Kiai is taken to mean “the harmonizing of ki” or “unification of spirit.”
How to Do a Kiai
The sounds martial arts students make when sounding a kiai are varied, including “Hai-ee,” “Huusss” and many variations. The exact sound of the yell varies from person to person. I encourage my students to experiment to find the best sound for them. When I teach women’s self-defense classes, I teach them to vocalize using a word that helps bring attention to their need for help, like “Nooo!” or “Stop!”. Whatever sound you use, it should emanate from your hara (your lower abdominal area), not your throat.
As for timing, the kiai should be sounded:
1. At the moment of impact of a technique, whether it be a block or an attack
2. When you are taking a blow to the abdomen
3. Anytime you want to accentuate an action you are performing
When I’m training, I don’t necessarily limit my use of kiai to the appointed times. Oftentimes, when I get in the zone with techniques I’m very familiar with, I find my kiai just comes out as naturally as breathing.
What You Learn from a Punch to the Face
In many martial arts, it is forbidden to punch the face while sparring. In our school, we allow it because you learn a lot from both punching to the face and being punched to the face.
In real self-defense situations, the head is a primary target. If you only ever deal with punches to the head in theory and not in practice, you won’t be at all prepared for what it’s like if you actually get punched in the head.
When I first introduce sparring to orange belts, it’s under very controlled circumstances. Students wear 16-oz boxing gloves and mouth guards and they spar at 10% intensity. Only punches and kicks to the shins are allowed. This gives them the opportunity to focus on one aspect of sparring at a time. At this stage, the most important thing to develop is the guard. When students are only allowed to punch, there are less different types of attacks to be ready for, giving them more opportunity to focus on using the guard to protect themselves from attacks.
The other thing students learn at this stage is mentally dealing with being hit in the head and face. Because it’s new to them, they start out flinching quite a bit, making it hard to defend. Also, when they take that first punch in the face, even though it’s a light one that doesn’t cause damage, it still fazes them and puts them on the defensive. After a few sparring sessions though, this reaction lessens as their mind begins to cope with the state of duress that comes from being hit in the face.
As the attacker, by actually punching to the face while sparring, you learn to do it for real. When you only ever spar stopping your attacks just short of the face, your muscle memory develops to do this naturally. A former student of mine who was a 2nd degree black belt in Taekwondo discovered this in a situation when he was forced to defend himself. He tried to punch his would-be attacker in the face and his punch stopped just short of the guy’s face. Fortunately, the attacker took this to be a show of skilled restraint and decided it wasn’t worth it to get in a fight.
While many people don’t like the idea of punching to the face or being punched to the face, it is an important aspect of self-defense. The key to alleviating students’ fears when it comes to this is starting out in very controlled circumstances then upping the ante gradually as their skills improve.
Defending Against Multiple Attackers
Students who are preparing to go for their green belt in my dojo are introduced to the concept of defending against multiple attackers. These students have usually been training over a year and have become comfortable with the rigors of sparring in a one-on-one context. But it’s always amazing to me how differently they react when thrown into the ring with two attackers for the first time. It’s an entirely different experience.
A number of new factors enter the picture with the introduction of a second attacker due to the high stress nature of the attack. They are as follows:
Time Distortion. If a defender has no experience dealing with combat stress, time appears to pass very quickly when under attack. If a defender has experience training under high stress conditions, however, time seems to pass very slowly. Since our students have already been exposed to one-on-one sparring for a number of months, they have some degree of experience with combat stress, but with two attackers the stress is ramped up and it’s like starting from scratch.
Tunnel Vision. When a person is under attack, she will focus on what she perceives as the principal threat. It is a zoom-lens like effect that is created by the mind, NOT the eyes. When the mind goes into tunnel vision, it’s very easy for multiple attackers to triangulate a victim, making it hard for her to defend. By training in high-stress sparring against multiple attackers, students can learn to keep a broad focus so they stay aware of all the threats that surround them.
Auditory Exclusion. When under the stress of an attack, a person’s hearing can become impaired to varying degrees depending on how much experience he has dealing with such conditions. This impairment can prevent him from hearing things that are happening around him, further impeding his ability to deal with multiple attackers.
All three of these factors can affect a person under attack, whether it’s against one attacker or multiple attackers. But when more than one person is attacking, these factors can make the situation particularly dangerous.
When we do high stress sparring against multiple attackers, we use a number of safety measures to protect both the attackers and defenders. The instructor leading the exercise is equipped with a whistle to ensure immediate halt when she sees a potential safety threat. Certain kinds of attacks are prohibited, including biting, eye gouging, attacks to the knees, back of the head and neck, as well as the spine and kidneys. Extra protective equipment is also used, including boxing helmets, 16-oz boxing gloves, mouth guards, shin guards, groin protectors, and chest protectors.
I was pleased with my students’ performance in their first exposure to two-on-one sparring. Each time they were a defender, they learned something different, whether it was employing pushing and pulling to keep one attacker between the other, trips and sweeps to take an attacker down, or simply using various punches, kicks and strikes as tools to incapacitate their attackers.
Pressure Point of the Day: Brachial Plexus Origin
This video demonstrates the full effectiveness of a strike to the brachial plexus origin (located on either side of the neck). We target this nerve motor point regularly in Can-Ryu Jiu-jitsu in self-defense techniques.
The first time I saw this video was on Professor Sylvain’s (founder of Can-ryu Jiu-jitsu) Police Pressure Points training video, for which I was used to demonstrate the application of various strikes. It continues to be the best example of the effects of a strike to the brachial plexus origin that I’ve ever seen.
We teach a number of striking methods to this area, employing elbows and forearms in a variety of ways. An important thing to remember when striking this location is the use of what we call T.O.T. (Time-On-Target). This involves leaving your strike on the targeted area for ¾ of a second to allow the fluid shock waves to transfer from your striking surface into your target. This greatly increases the effect of the strike to the brachial plexus origin or any other nerve motor point for that matter.
And what are the effects? Here’s a breakdown:
Light strike: Momentarily stuns the brain. (We call this a ‘brain burp’ in training.)
Moderate strike: Split-second knock-out. (I’ve experienced this myself a couple of times in training.)
Strong strike: Full knock-out with a stunning effect that can last for a period of time afterwards (as demonstrated in the video).
What makes a strike to the brachial plexus origin really useful for self-defense is the fact that it is easily court-defensible. This is because it is a non-injurious strike that is considered not to cause any long-term damage. It is therefore seen in the eyes of the courts as a “humane” way of incapacitating an attacker.
So sure, the pimp in the video was feeling the effects of the strike as he eventually walked away, but he was walking away.
We're proud to announce that Lori O'Connell Sensei's new book, When the Fight Goes to the Ground: Jiu-jitsu Strategies & Tactics for Self-Defense, published through international martial arts publisher Tuttle Publishing, is now available in major book stores and online. More about it & where to buy it.