©Copyright 2008 by Bradley J. Steiner - All Rights Reserved.

Physical And Psychological Factors Necessary For

Success In Close Combat

Introductory Comments

There are four general categories of “martial art” that are now being practiced:
Classical/Traditional

Sporting/Competitive

Theatrical

Combat/Defensive

Our lifetime focus has been upon the last of those categories listed: close combat
with and without weapons, and individual self-defense. We acknowledge readily
that each of those categories is equally valid and worthwhile; but we most
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emphatically insist that they are different. And we also insist that those factors of
mind and body that contribute to the individual’s preparedness to perform well in
circumstances in which the combat/defensive art is required are unique and are
generally unrelated to factors that are prerequisite for success in the other
categories.

To a degree there is of course some overlap. A superlatively fit and prepared

competitor will probably possess most of the potential physical attributes that a
defensive emergency would require. (He would not, however, necessarily possess
any of those psychological attributes demanded in such a predicament). A
combatant trainee in top shape, while being prepared to meet and do battle with an
enemy in combat, might fail to possess the wherewithal required for a protracted
competitive match. The combatant whose mindset was spot on for combat, would
have nothing in the way of readiness to compete and win in a sporting contest,
where there are rules, and where life and limb are not at stake.

Jackie Chan is a physical performer par excellence. He is a delightful human

being, and a joy to observe in action. Very few athletes in the world could do one
half of that which Chan does in his motion pictures. However, we feel confident
that

Chan, being a legitimate practitioner of the wu shu of China’s martial tradition

would acknowledge that that which he does in the movies is not what would be
recommended in hand-to-hand combat.

This monograph will address the physical and psychological factors that combat
preparation and participation requires. We have no quarrel with those whose focus
in the martial arts is on sport, or on tradition, or on theatrics; but those areas do
not constitute our area of concern.

Everyone understands and agrees that close combat and personal defense require
specific techniques — skills that must be learned and developed in order to most
effectively engage in the activity of individual battle. Debates go on in some
circles regarding just what types of techniques are best suited for close combat. In
this present work we are going to be only peripherally concerned with that
question, when and where it is discussed at all. What we do want to present is a
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description of those physical and psychological factors that make the techniques
which the combatant employs, effective. We want to define those attributes. Then,
we want to describe how they may be developed and maintained.

Virtually anyone who is concerned about developing real ability in close combat
and self-defense will benefit from this monograph. While we ourself teach what
we are personally convinced is the best approach to all-in fighting and personal
defense, with and without weapons, we appreciate that there are others who are
equally convinced that some other approach to combat training is valid. That’s
fine. And then there are those who train hard in one or another of the
classical/traditional or sporting/competitive arts, and who now wish to shift their
focus in personal training with their acquired skills to combative applications.
These individuals will find a great deal in this treatment that will assist them in
their efforts.

Those pursuing theatrical martial arts (ie stuntmen and actors, those involved in
reenactments, etc.) may find that a study of what is contained in this monograph is
helpful in enabling them to get a better “feel” for that which they wish to project,
as performers, to their respective audiences.

Bottom line is that this monograph is about that which the Pentagon calls, “Close
range interpersonal confrontations” — i.e. hand-to-hand or close combat. It
draws from the classical/traditional only that which works in battle. It avoids
competition and sport, and it is not concerned with appearances, esthetics, or
theatrics.

With the understanding then that we are concerned with one thing and one thing
only (ie combative/defensive training for the private citizen, fighting man, etc.
who is in search of this type of doctrine) we will begin.

The Critical Importance Of Developing

A Balanced Set Of Necessary Attributes In Combat Training

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NOT only sports but classical martial arts are distinguished by the fact that each

may be observed to demand or to require certain predominant physical attributes,

for optimum performance in the application of their respective skills, per se.
Thus, boxers need to be swift and agile on their feet, to be able to hit hard, to last
a long serious of rounds, and to be able to assimilate punishment. Wrestlers
require strength and great agility. Competitive judo players need great agility and
power, and competitive karate men and kick boxers require flexibility, and a
capacity to deliver speedy punches and kicks. Both judo and karate competitors
need endurance. Classical martial artists (ie ju-jutsu, hapkido, kenpo-karate,
taekwon-do, ch’uan fa, karate-jutsu, aikijutsu, etc.) invariably find that each
specific art has its own unique attribute requirements. (Not that those without
those attributes cannot train in the art, but in order for top notch performance to
be attained, very definite attributes need to be present in the trainee). For
example: The core classical styles or systems of Okinawan karate are the
SHORIN and the SHOREI schools. Speedy, quick and agile movement is the
typifying characteristic attribute or the shorin style. Raw, abrupt power is what
distinguishes the shorei schools. And . . .

Ju-jutsu demands an excellent capacity for the development of fine motor skills,
as well as adroit, meticulous timing.

Taekwon-do demands great flexibility and a good deal of acrobatic acumen.

Ch’uan fa (“Kung fu”) requires a good deal of inherent athletic acumen or its
advanced skills simply cannot be acquired.

Kenpo-karate demands a capacity for detailed practice of fine motor moves, and
for the mastery of meticulous detail in a very extensive number of
complex reactive skills.
And so on.
It is not necessary to go into subcategories and discuss which each particular style
of ju-jutsu (or of taekwon-do, or of ch’uan fa, etc.) demands (yes — each has
even more specific requirements of attributes which its practitioners need!).
Readers ought to understand the point here. Sports and classical methods tend
(each to a somewhat unique degree) to require a couple of very specific and
definitely observable attributes in the participants, if excellence and efficiency in
the activity is the goal.
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Combat, due to its chaotic, unpredictable, “anything goes” nature, necessarily

requires a balanced set of all round attributes. It is not enough to be strong. Nor is
it sufficient to be fast. Yet strength and speed are indispensable. Flexibility to an
extent is needed, but so is a high threshold of pain, and the ability to withstand
trauma. Accurate, precise actions — though not of a “fine motor movement”
variety — are essential. So is excellent coordination and agility. Coupled with all
of that, one must be mentally conditioned — and uniquely so. The kind of
“mental conditioning” that is required for excellence in competition is unrelated to
that which is demanded in combat. And just about 99% of the balderdash and
fanciful B.S. that passes for “mental conditioning” in classical systems is a
complete waste of time. It may be (and doubtless is) of value to those who enjoy
the mystical (or the quaint), and who participate in their martial art primarily for
philosophical/cultural purposes, for fitness, and for — let’s be honest — escape.
After eight or more hours in a cubicle, looking at a computer screen and listening
to the babblings of the mindless all around them, who can blame those who look
for escape into the “exotica” and “mystique” of the Asian martial arts? But that
is an aside.

Any given situation in which physical combat skills must be used against one or
more violent assailants or against a military opponent, etc. may require one or
another attribute that other situations would not require. Thus, in one case a
defender might need sheer strength initially, in order to resist an attacker. In
another case he might require fast or accurate movement, above all. But since
there is no way to tell ahead of time (as there is in sport, for example) what
particular attributes will be needed, the combatant trainee must cultivate and
maintain a balanced set of attributes. He cannot afford to develop one particular
attribute (say, strength) over another (say, agility) since he never knows
beforehand which particular attribute will be most in demand.

Broadly speaking, we recognize six physical and six psychological factors that
every student of close combat and self-defense would be well advised to develop
to the maximum, and to retain by constant review and realistic training and
practice. Before discussing each in detail, let us list them here:

PHYSICAL FACTORS PSYCHOLOGICAL FACTORS

1. Overall strength 1. Attack-mindedness

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2. Agility 2. Fear control

3. Speedy movement 3. High threshold of pain

4. Toughness 4. Determination

5. Technical mastery 5. Knowledge

6. Coordination 6. Courage

PHYSICAL FACTORS

OVERALL STRENGTH

There will doubtless come a day when anyone claiming that strength is
unnecessary in hand-to-hand combat “so long as you know how to use the right
kinds of technique and special skills” will be relegated to the same place that a
civilized, educated adult relegates a tea leaf reader. Unfortunately, that day
appears to be a ways off. Even as we begin this 21st century, there are still
individuals who will assure us that strength is of little or no consequence in any
situation, so long as you know “the secrets”.

The truth is that strength — raw physical power — is very important in any
combative engagement between humans. Size and strength are clearly understood
to be relevant in every sporting form of martial art, and that is why the contestants
are placed in weight classes. True enough, a smaller man is not always or
necessarily a weaker man. The point we are making is that even in sports, where
far less is at stake than is at stake in a lethal engagement, it is understood that
strength and size matter; and it is partially the presumption that the bigger man
will generally be the stronger man, especially when all parties concerned are
conditioned athletes, that is responsible for the weight classes in the various
“fighting contests”.

In hand-to-hand combat (not hand-to-hand “combat” sport) the possession of

strength or lack thereof can easily mean the difference between life and death.
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There are times when a battle becomes a literal strength contest, and only by sheer
dint of superior physical strength can one individual prevail over another. The
iron clad rule is: All other things being equal, the stronger man will win every
time.

This must not be taken to mean that strength is the most important single factor in
determining who wins a physical battle. As we said, all other things being equal
strength will be decisive. But the same thing may be said for speed, skill level,
attitude, etc. Assuming that one specific attribute only is the exclusive difference
between two combatants then, obviously, the one possessing the superior level of
acumen in that particular attribute will be victorious.

In real world combat how often is it ever true that there is equality between
adversaries? In order to be prepared for anything it is necessary that you be
prepared for everything.

You would always prefer to be stronger than whoever it is you find yourself
confronting in a hand-to-hand situation. By itself your possessing greater strength
than your adversary is certainly no guarantee that you will be able to defeat him;
but possessing all of the strength that you were realistically able to develop will
certainly boost the odds of your effectively being able to utilize whatever skills
you possess, and whatever tactical know-how you’ve acquired.

You want to be strong.

Strength is best cultivated by emphasizing development of the major muscle

groups. This means, primarily, legs and back. Secondarily, the chest and the
shoulder areas. And if you are wondering “What about the arms? Don’t I need
them for hitting, and aren’t my hands vital for grabbing and clawing?” remember
that you cannot possibly develop the major muscle groups of the body via basic,
heavy weight training, and fail to develop powerful arms, a strong grip, and finger
strength. Gripping, holding, and pulling a heavy barbell (or heavy dumbells) will
do everything required to build and maintain powerful hand and finger strength.
And the best possible way to insure that you’ve got powerful arms is to do basic
pressing, and basic rowing. A little standard barbell curling or dumbell curling is
okay — but nothing will build really powerful, thick arms as well as heavy
pressing and heavy rowing: two core, fundamental basic exercises for the major
muscle groups.
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All round training for all round strength development really means an all round
bodybuilding routine. And, in a nutshell, this means:

• A heavy pressing movement (upright)

• A heavy rowing movement

• The squat

• The dead lift

• The bench press

• A barbell or dumbell curling movement

• Weight-resistance assisted abdominal exercise

The addition of a calf exercise, pullovers, dumbell lateral (or forward) raises,
shoulder shrugging, or weighted chinning may — interest, energy, and time
permitting — be included with benefit. But the core workout (ie the seven
exercises listed) are the “musts”. And, if time is truly short and only the briefest
workout can be taken, then standing presses (military, behind the neck, or with
dumbells) and squats will do the trick! (Presses and squats, incidentally, were the
key exercises in building “The Strongest Man In The World” — the late, great
Paul Anderson. So don’t feel deprived if you find yourself able to “only” press
and squat on any given training day. It worked pretty well for Paul Anderson!

Tips for getting the best possible results:

All round strength is built by working very hard on the basic, simple exercises,
and not doing so too frequently. For an individual engaged in serious close
combat and self-defense training (ie attending at least two and normally three hard
practice sessions weekly) two total body workouts per week are normally plenty.
Three workouts a week is the maximum number, and each of these should be a
total body workout. Two or three “sets” per individual exercise are enough, and
repetitions for building strength and all round fitness are best kept to between six
and eight per set. Calf work and abdominal exercises may profitably be done for
between 20 (calf) and 40 (abdominal) repetitions per set. Keep workouts at
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ONE OF THE GREATEST ALL ROUND MARTIAL ARTS MASTERS WHO EVER LIVED:
JON BLUMING. BLUMING, WHO HOLDS A 10TH DEGREE BLACK BELT IN JUDO,
ISSUED BY THE KODOKAN JUDO INSTITUTE, AND A 9TH DEGREE BLACK BELT IN
KARATE, BUILT HIS STRENGTH AND ALL ROUND FITNESS IN LARGE PART
THROUGH DISCIPLINED WEIGHT TRAINING. JON BLUMING APPEARS IN THE
CLASSIC TEXT BY THE LATE DONN DRAEGER, JUDO TRAINING METHODS. THERE
ARE PHOTOS IN THAT BOOK SHOWING JON IN HIS PRIME IN THE KODOKAN’S
WEIGHT ROOM. BLUMING SERVED AS A DUTCH COMMANDO DURING WWII, AND IS
RECOGNIZED THROUGHOUT THE WORLD AS ONE OF THE GREATEST AUTHORITIES
NOT ONLY ON THE CLASSICAL/TRADITIONAL PRACTICE OF MARTIAL ARTS, BUT ON
HAND-TO-HAND COMBAT, AS WELL.

around 60-90 minutes duration, with two hours being the limit — for advanced
and extremely serious men, only. And even the most advanced and dedicated
trainees who are involved in fulltime employment and/or other pursuits on a daily
basis can rest assured that a hard hour of training, two or three times a week, will
give them what they’re after.

Work exercises correctly and use full range, complete movements, even if this
forces you to employ less weight.

A well balanced diet and plenty of rest and sufficient sleep contribute to an
effective strength-building program, and always help to maintain strength, once it
has been acquired.
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You need strength!

Question: “Do you recommend gym or home training?”

Answer: Home training offers so many advantages over gym training that we’d
suggest this option for almost everyone. The advantage of gym training lies in the
possibility of your being able to attend a facility where truly valuable equipment
(such as the justifiably popular Nautilus machines) are available, and — this is
critical! — where someone other than a fool is doing the instructing and teaching.
“Health clubs” and the popular mass fitness facilities are, in our opinion, a waste
of money and time. A good gym (harder and harder to find, nowadays) is a very
good thing; but if you can’t find one of those, then a barbell/dumbell set in your
bedroom — providing you use it — makes umpteen times the sense!

Caution:— There has arisen in the martial arts field a number of individuals of
questionable character who, being blessed with excellent genetics, really know and
have done little in the physical training field, yet who offer themselves as “fitness”
or “strength training” experts. Beware! The fact that someone is himself
powerfully built no more makes him an expert in physical training than does a
state of perfect physical health make him a physician!

If you are concerned about training yourself for real world combat and self-
defense, then you will get started on a good weight training program now, and
stick with it for the rest of your life.

AGILITY

We would say that “agility” means being able to move quickly, and easily. It is, in
essence, perfect physical self-control when in action.

Agility is a key factor in being physically prepared for combat. While agility
might to an extent diminish with advancing age, this is not necessarily a problem
for the person who sticks with physical training and with the practice of those
skills that he wishes to retain competence in. There are so many documented cases
of older individuals being able to speedily and deftly dispatch one or more
adversaries when attacked, that we’d say “Don’t worry. If you train your body
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properly and stay in shape, you’ll possess the agility that you require in any
emergency.” One of our own beloved teachers, the late Charles Nelson, acquitted
himself beautifully when past 70 years of age on one occasion when he was
attacked by a scumbag of around 20 years of age, who was, additionally, high on
drugs! The late Jack Dempsey — when in his 80’s — knocked two young pieces
of street filth unconscious, when the two attempted to rob the former world
heavyweight boxing champion.

Paul Weston, noted retired detective, and defensive tactics and firearms instructor
for the New York City Police Department, wrote about Isadore (“Izzy”) Cantor, a
long-time-ago instructor of unarmed tactics at the NYPD Police Academy during
Weston’s recruit days. Cantor, a man barely big enough to meet the then
minimum height requirements for a New York City cop, invariably began the
teaching of new recruits by telling the younger, larger, more athletic fellows that,
despite their size and strength, not a one could physically take him (Cantor) into
custody. The largest and strongest recruit was then asked to try. When he did so,
Cantor subsequently eluded the fellow’s efforts and then threw him with a ju-jutsu
technique. Cantor was, at the time Weston attended the academy, near retirement.
He was as agile as a cat, and had not the slightest problem utilizing the skills he
knew, because he had retained them through ongoing practice and the
maintenance of a high level of personal fitness.

You can do the same. If you want to be able to defend yourself, you’d better.

You need agility.

SPEEDY MOVEMENT

This is related to and somewhat facilitated by — but not the same thing as —
agility. Plainly put, what we are now addressing is the need for the combatant to
move fast in any confrontation. Speed is not merely the result of the development
and maintenance of agility, per se. It results from — a) Utilizing techniques that
are optimally efficient, b) Possessing the ability to go into action without
“telegraphing” your intention to do so, and c) Being able to use your entire body
effectively so that anything executed is executed with no wasted energy (thus
allowing all available energy to optimize speedy performance).

Nearly every individual in the martial arts learns, practices, and attempts to
develop for practical application movements that are far too complex and
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needlessly elaborate. Even a magnificent physical performer like the legendary

Bill Wallace (“Superfoot”) would be ill advised to attempt one of his
astonishingly beautiful high area spin-kicks in a deadly hand-to-hand engagement.
A simple direct stomp kick to the knee would make more sense (and Wallace
would be able to do it faster than he would his more visually impressive high and
spinning kicks). Common sense (let alone, mathematics) tells us that the shortest
distance between two points is a straight line, so necessarily a movement that
simply slams straight into its target will get there faster if we assume that it
commences at the same instant a movement that follows some circuitous route to
that target could ever arrive. “Even for ‘Superfoot’ Wallace?” Even for
superMAN. Facts apply to everyone. That’s why we call them “facts” and not
“opinions”!

Optimal efficiency leads to speedy movement. Basic, simple, uncomplicated,

direct, very destructive, and easily learned techniques are the sine qua non of
combative doctrine.

The ridiculously inappropriate actions, in our opinion, that those who advocate
utilization of that sporting form of handgun shooting known popularly as the
“new technique of the pistol” stand in stark contrast to the skill of POINT
SHOOTING — which is true combat pistol shooting at close quarters. The so-
called “Weaver” stance (we prefer to call it the “Fitzgerald” stance, after the
individual whom we believe first illustrated it in his classic tome, SHOOTING) is
all wrong for close range, quick reaction work, as extensive combat experience in
Shanghai (during the early years of the 20th century) and in world war two
(during the 1940’s) proved conclusively. Why? One reason is because point
shooting is simply more efficient. It’s simpler. And in combat, simple is best.

Simple is speedier.

Learning how to act swiftly without giving away your intended action in a combat
situation is a skill that is VITAL, and that — incredibly — is deliberately
contradicted by nearly all of the classical/traditional and sporting/competitive
doctrine that exists! Yes, the use of feints and deceptive moves is taught in most
“martial arts” circles; however, it is taught as a component of SPARRING or of
“squaring off”, and it is applied only after GETTING INTO AN “APPROVED”
FIGHTING STANCE or formal “position” that indicates a readiness to act.
This is all wrong for combat purposes.
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Real world self-defense abilities involve being able to launch a vicious, destructive
attack from any nonchalant position, or in any “daily life” context, and to do so
without giving the enemy the slightest indication or hint that action is about to
take place, beforehand.

Any action that is taken is taken with greater efficiency and with greater speed
when the entire body works as a perfectly coordinated “machine”, with every
component serving the objective of the correct rendering the action being done.
Learn to use your body as a unit. You’ll be able to move a lot faster that way.

You need speedy movement.

TOUGHNESS

We must be very clear about one thing. Toughness is not to be equated with
“toughguyness”. A toughguy is a lout, a punk, a sewer rat, and a misfit that the
world would be better off without. Toughness, on the other hand, is an extremely
desirable attribute for anyone; it is an essential attribute for the combatant.

Violent criminals are toughguys. If the intended victims wish to be able to defend
against violent criminals, then they — ie the intended victims — must acquire
genuine toughness.

When William E. Fairbairn’s wartime British classic ALL-IN FIGHTING was

being reviewed for publication in the United States by Appleton-Century, the
question of what title the book ought to carry came up (“ALL-IN FIGHTING”
could not be used). What title did Fairbairn, who was about the greatest living
authority on the subject of close combat in the world at that time, select? It was
“GET TOUGH!”. “GET TOUGH!”, get it? Fairbairn knew very well how
important it was (and still is!) for anyone training to confront a deadly enemy to
become at least as tough (preferably tougher) than that enemy.

Take your cue from Fairbairn. Get tough. You can’t be a milquetoast and expect
to be able to employ close combat actions against a vicious and determined
enemy.

One of the core elements in that set of attributes demanded for success in close in
hand-to-hand combat is toughness. Make no mistake about it. Do not be deceived
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by such nonsense as “being neither victim nor victor” or about “not needing to
stoop to the attacker’s level”, etc. If you wish to be able to handle a monstrous
assailant, then you’ll need to become capable of being “monstrous” yourself.

At this point, largely due to the infestation of the “ultimate challenge” type so-
called “martial arts” (to include “cage fighting”, MMA. ad nauseum) into our
culture, we must say the following:

We absolutely reject and resent the pseudo “toughness” (the “machismo”, if you
will) of the types associated with the sort of events we referenced in the
preceding paragraph. These individuals are egotistical, arrogant, belligerent,
and generally aggressive. This is 180-degree opposite that which we are
espousing. Our ideal is the gentleman-warrior. A man who, though very willing
and able to employ the most viciously brutal, foul methods without compunction
IF AND WHEN NECESSARY FOR LEGITIMATE SELF-DEFENSE, conducts
himself in a quiet, respectful, calm, civilized, nonaggressive manner, and who
values peace and calm, even as he accepts the need to be prepared to deal with
the possible intrusion into his life by uncivilized, violent human predators.

Anyone issuing challenges, beating his chest, spitting out venom, and presenting
himself at every opportunity as a “rough”, “tough” hombre, is, in our view, little
more than a rabid dog. And you need only ask yourself what must be done to a
rabid dog in order to discover that which is, in our mind, anyway, one possible
solution to individuals such as those we have just criticized, running rampant in
even a semi-civilized human society.

“Tough” — by our definition — goes perfectly with being a healthy, decent,

educated, and dignified modern adult man. “Toughguys”, on the other hand,
belong in prison yards.

You don’t want to be a toughguy; but you sure had better become tough if you
want to enjoy one of the key attributes necessary for success in close combat.
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“TOUGH”. THAT’S ONE WAY TO DESCRIBE A U.S. NAVY SEAL. SUBJECTED TO THE
HARDEST PHYSICAL TRAINING IN THE AMERICAN MILITARY, THE SEAL TRAINEE
LEARNS WHAT GENUINE TOUGHNESS IS BY BECOMING GENUINELY TOUGH. SEALS
PRIDE THEMSELVES ON BEING “QUIET PROFESSIONALS”, NOT “TOUGHGUYS”.

You need toughness.

TECHNICAL MASTERY

We said earlier that “skills” and “techniques” would not, per se, constitute much if
any of that upon which we would be focusing in this Monograph. We do need to
make the point, however, that mastery of technical skills — of the right kind of
technical skills — is certainly not to be overlooked entirely as one of the essential
factors that success in personal defense and close combat demands. Never before
in the history of “martial arts” in this Country has this particular point been so
relevant, and so much in need of being made.

We began this treatment by enumerating the four categories that we have defined
as including all of the possible approaches to martial arts study in the modern
world. It is important to remember that in their origins all martial arts were in fact
MARTIAL arts — i.e. they were arts that were “of or pertaining to war”. With the
progress(?) of human society, and with the inevitable diminution of the need for
the arts of war as developed in various cultures of old, where unarmed combat,
and where the use of hand-held bludgeoning and edged and piercing weaponry
was preeminent, the original “martial arts” (not only of Asia, but of Western
Europe, etc., as well) declined in use for their originally intended purposes. They
gradually evolved into esthetic practices (like the internal arts of China largely —
though not entirely — have; like the numerous ju-jutsu of Japan have; like
wrestling and boxing have, etc.) and became activities only peripherally intended
for “self-defense”. A sporting aspect developed, too, as a direct result of the
watering down of the skills; the watering down of which, logically permitted them
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to be employed in contests as opposed to being restricted to warfare. The physical

fitness benefits of practicing these arts for all sorts of people who are not
“warriors” is enormous, and their recent evolution into “fitness activities”, while
regrettable in the eyes of some (like our self, for instance!) must nevertheless be
objectively acknowledged as being not an entirely bad thing.

Theatrical “martial arts” have become, in our opinion, a unique classification of

techniques, fully deserving respect unto themselves. The incredible demonstrations
of terrific physical agility that television and motion picture “fight scenes” now
evidence is proof that those who supervise their renderings and those who actually
perform them, are uniquely talented people. Few are aware, for instance, that the
late actor Toshiro Mifune — a genius at portraying the samurai character and
skills — was not himself a “martial artist” per se. Rather, he was instructed in the
performance of that swordsmanship and ju-jutsu which he so ably displayed in his
various roles, by experts. They guided him into beautifully enacted sequences of
theatrical combatives.

Chuck Norris, while doubtless well able to handle himself in any difficult
situation, certainly would not attempt to do so by employing those “fighting
skills” that we see him so beautifully execute in his role as a Texas ranger. Norris
is an expert not only in the tang soo do with which he garnered great acclaim as a
world champion competitor; he is also a great theatrical martial artist.

Bruce Lee comes to mind here, too. In fact, Lee deliberately arranged for his
motion picture fight scenes to be spectacular. Being a genuine expert in Chinese
ch’uan fa, however, Lee knew very well that those theatrics bore no relation to
real world combat. (In a demonstration once, in New York City’s Madison Square
Garden, Bruce Lee responded to a request to demonstrate some practical self-
defense by throwing a lightning fast fingertips thrust to his opponent’s eyes).

Jackie Chan is, in our view, the “ultimate” theatrical fighter! His demonstrations
are so terrific and spectacularly entertaining that they literally “make” the movies
that this great martial arts man stars in! Anyone who thinks that Chan’s silver
screen performances depict practical close combat is very misinformed.

Then there are those theatrical combatives that approach (but do not fully reflect)
real world combat. Stylone’s hand-to-hand scenes in FIRST BLOOD were
excellent. But they were theatrical. You cannot look to the movies for real world
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personal combat instruction. Under the advice and tutelage of the deservedly well-
respected combat karate sensei, the late John Kuhl, Burt Reynolds utilized some
pretty good stuff in some of his fight scenes, here and there. Kuhl, who also
worked as Reynolds’ bodyguard, taught terrific combat skills and truly “knew his
stuff”. Realistic as some of that which he had taught Reynolds to perform on
screen, however, the skills were not entirely practical or realistic. They were
theatrical.

All right. The fitness/esthetics/sporting/theatrical aspects of the martial arts (all of

them being, in reality, as non-martial as one can get) are legitimate and valuable.
But the COMBAT trainee — the aspirant to self-defense ability — needs a very
different and quite specific body of doctrine. He needs to master viable combat
skills.

We know, thanks to the experiences and research efforts of such men as William
Fairbairn, Eric Sykes, Rex Applegate, Dermot O’Neill, and others, the kinds of
martial skills that may legitimately be regarded as possessing viable MARTIAL
value in hand-to-hand combat, today. In many instances these actions are not new,
but derive from classical/traditional methodologies. The problem is that they have
become so buried beneath acrobatic and complicated, esthetically appealing
histrionics, and so often watered down and utilized in poor or useless ways, that
the discipline of combat arts must, per se, be isolated as a unique study, and then
its methods integrated effectively for modern use, if people who are looking for
actual battle skills are to be able to find them.

We like to think that we have accomplished a sizable degree of this “isolation” and
“integration”, and that we have, additionally, succeeded in formulating a most
viable modern system: AMERICAN COMBATO (JEN•DO•TAO)™ that builds
upon proven wartime principles and concepts to expand the brief wartime courses
and present a comprehensive, in-depth, modern all combat martial “martial art”.
We appreciate that others may have done similar work, and while we are unaware
of any methods or systems that approach the sophistication, completeness,
integration, and utter reliability of AMERICAN COMBATO™, we feel confident
that even those who follow other approaches than our own will agree that one of
the crucial factors for success in close combat and self-defense is the acceptance of
the following type of techniques as basic to a reliable combat system:

• Open hand blows (with a relegation of closed fist striking to the hammer fist
 -18-

primarily, and to clenched fist punching, only secondarily and rarely)

• Elbow smashes

• Knee blows (never in the “roundhouse”, but always in the direct manner — to
the testicles or the face (when the enemy is doubled over)

• Fingertips thrusting, jabbing, and clawing

• Biting

• Low stomping and low front area kicks (never high, jumping, or acrobatic
kicks!)

• Eye gouging, ear ripping, lip tearing, and nose penetrations

• Head butting

• Use of any and every sort of weapon or object at hand to distract and/or to
inflict injury — regardless of whether or not the enemy is himself in
possession of any weapon

• Murderous, unrelenting, ferocious, and reflexive followup whenever employing

any skills

A boxer, wrestler, kickboxer, judo man, competition karate man, etc. would likely
be able, at least to a significant degree, to defend himself in most situations when
a solitary, unarmed attacker whose approach he is aware of ahead of time, occurs.
That is irrelevant for our purpose now.

We are concerned exclusively with combat and with self-defense, and our
objective is to zero in not on what might work, but on what evidence has proven
that which works, in real combat.

One of the key factors for success in real combat is technical mastery — but it
must be mastery of reliable, battle proven techniques. “Any” so-called “martial
arts” techniques will not do. You need the right techniques. Then . . .
 -19-

You need technical mastery.

COORDINATION

While the physical actions that close combat involves are uncomplicated, they are
still specific movements — techniques — and because they are skills, it is
necessary that their user possess a degree of coordination (the better his
coordination, the better his technical performance) in order to do them as
correctly as possible.

Coordination in general will be facilitated by a good all round exercise program.

Specifically, coordination can be assisted by the practice of rope skipping.
Moderate amounts only. One needn’t skip for lengthy sessions. Three to five
minutes as a brief warmup before a workout with weights or before a practice
session in combative skills will be enough. Another excellent exercise for
coordination as well as general conditioning is rappelling. It may be difficult to
secure the right facilities to practice this activity, but it is a good combat
conditioner. The old boxer’s speedbag training routines are good for hand/eye
coordination (and little else).

Perhaps the best way to cultivate a high degree of coordination for combative
training with and without weapons is to practice the combative activities
themselves, as often as possible. By committing your skills to motor memory you
will naturally improve your ability to coordinate your entire body in the execution
of the skills. This works with unarmed combatives, knifework, stickfighting,
tomahawk combat, and the use of firearms. Practice a lot and practice seriously,
and your coordination will improve drastically.

TIP: We have found that one of the most tricky skills for individuals to master,
and to apply in a smooth, coordinated fashion, is what the Japanese call “tai-
sabaki”. In plain English: Body shifting and movement, and displacement of
oneself in a flash, so that a sudden incoming attack misses you. At the same time
you retain solid balance and end up in a position of balance and strength from
which your own attack may then be launched.

To the end of teaching this body shifting, we employ a 15-step drill in American
Combato™ that enables the student to master all of the proven evasive steps,
dodges, and combined parrying-while-moving-away, that is so necessary in real
 -20-

emergencies. We created this drill by combining the body shifting actions of ju-
jutsu with several adopted from kenpo-karate, and one or two from wrestling and
knife fighting. Just remember that drilling in some good, basic evasive steps (ie
pivoting, side-stepping, etc.) while parrying and then instantly following up with
an attack, assists in the development of coordination.

If you enjoy sports (we frankly do not) then you have an advantage. By
participating in almost any sport you automatically contribute to the cultivation of
coordination. And here we should point out that the type of coordination
demanded of the combatant is coordination while executing some physical skill
with considerable speed. Surgeons require coordination, too. So do electricians,
plumbers, dentists, and sculptors; but it is a somewhat different kind of
coordination.

Since you now know that coordination is a necessary factor for success in close
combat, and you have been told how to achieve it, you would be wise to pursue its
acquisition.

You need coordination.

PSYCHOLOGICAL FACTORS

Important note:— Psychological factors certainly constitute, at a bare minimum,

50% of what it takes to be effective in personal combat. It is our professional
opinion, in fact, that in most if not all cases, psychological factors constitute 80-
90% of that which is required for victory in serious, all-in combat. And quite
often, we would suspect, the “mental side of it” is fully 95-99%.

Doubtless some readers will think that we are exaggerating somewhat, or that we
have, for whatever reason, some kind of “bias” here. Therefore, we are happy to
explain one of the reasons for our conclusion:

In our studies and researches of violence, violent combat, unarmed and armed
battle, actual self-defense emergencies, etc. in every conceivable venue, we have
quite often encountered evidence of completely untrained persons emerging
victorious over one and sometimes more than one dangerous adversary. The reason
invariably could be seen to be attributable to MINDSET. It was the individual’s
 -21-

psychological state and ATTITUDE that saved him (or her).

On the other hand we have been exposed to numerous reports of highly trained
black belt experts failing to defend themselves. Their failure was due 100% to
their inadequate level of mental readiness and conditioning. Their obvious
abundance of skills (technically, often a hundred times what was needed to have
handled the predicament in which they were defeated) was useless to them solely
because of their lack of mental conditioning for combat.

In other words, it’s possible to handle a deadly emergency if you have nothing but
proper mindset. It is IMpossible to handle a deadly emergency if you have great
physical skill but lack mindset.

ATTACK-MINDEDNESS

Here we have a key factor that was powerfully emphasized by Fairbairn and
Applegate during WWII, and that flies in the face of the teachings of so many so-
called “martial arts”: Attack-mindedness.

While students of karate, ju-jutsu, aikido, and so on are routinely and forcefully
admonished to “Never make the first move!” those who truly understand violent
combat will agree that making the first move whenever possible, and attacking
the attacker, is the way to go! That is the way that wins real combative
engagements.

We first publicized this point and stated it plainly in the 1970’s in THE
TACTICAL SKILLS OF HAND-TO-HAND COMBAT (recently reissued and now
available from us in a new edition).

By becoming “attack-minded” we do NOT mean that you should become

aggressive in your demeanor and personality, or that, under any circumstances,
you should agree to fight with anyone or — worse! — actually ever start trouble.
That is unthinkable and despicable, and we have never advocated or condoned
unprovoked and unjustifiable violence at any time. We mean that, once faced with
the imminent danger of being injured or killed, you must seize the initiative and go
after your attacker immediately, striving to preempt his onslaught, and to
 -22-

neutralize him forthwith, before his attack gains sufficient momentum to damage
you.

ONE OF FAIRBAIRN’S PUPILS IN SHANGHAI WAS THE MAN WHO BECAME A LEGEND
IN HIS OWN RIGHT, AND FOR HIS OWN SYSTEM OF CLOSE COMBAT: DERMOT
(“PAT”) O’NEILL — SEEN IN THE BACKGROUND, HAND ON HIP, SUPERVISING TWO
MEMBERS OF THE FIRST SPECIAL SERVICE FORCE AS THEY TRAIN IN A WEAPON
COUNTER. O’NEILL, ALTHOUGH A VERY HIGH RANKING AND WELL RESPECTED
JUDOKA, THREW OUT EVERYTHING BUT THE NUTS-AND-BOLTS “DIRTY STUFF”
WHEN TRAINING MEN FOR WAR. LIKE FAIRBAIRN, O’NEILL EMPHASIZED THE NEED
FOR EXTRAORDINARY AGGRESSIVENESS — ATTACK-MINDEDNESS — IN THE MEN OF
THE “DEVIL’S BRIGADE” WHOM HE TRAINED.

Once faced with no choice but to “bash or be bashed” your safety, protection, and
opportunity for defense lies in your being ready, willing, and able to mobilize
your mental and physical resources toward the goal of immediately stopping your
enemy. Hesitation will get you killed; and if you are not “attack-minded” you will
almost certainly hesitate.

We like to put it this way when explaining it to our personal students: “YOUR
MOTIVE IS ‘DEFENSE’; BUT YOUR MEANS, IN ORDER TO BE
UTTERLY RELIABLE, MUST BE ‘ATTACK’.”

Action, as you have perhaps heard it said, is always and inevitably faster than
 -23-

reaction. Hardly a revelation. Yet, what an individual is attempting to depend

upon for his protection when utilizing most of that which is taught in the “martial
arts” is a wholly reactive strategy. In effect, he plays a kind of “catch up” game.
He waits for his assailant to attack him, and then he reacts to whatever specific
action that assailant has chosen to initiate.

WRONG! In those few instances where the traditional strategy may have worked,
the attacker was slow, obvious, and a foolishly inept rank amateur in violence.
Never assume that this will be the case! Train always with a sense of desperation.
Assume always that your attacker will be your superior, and that he will be
experienced, armed, committed to your destruction, motivated to pursue you
should you avoid his initial move, and that he likely will be accompanied by one
or more fellow assailants. That will see you through whatever may transpire in
any real world situation, if it is within the realm of possibility for you to survive
in the predicament. There are never any guarantees — but if victory is possible to
you, then attack-mindedness will insure that you stand the greatest chance of
employing your skills so that you will be victorious!

To some decent people the idea of becoming attack-minded is repugnant. While

we certainly can understand and appreciate their feeling (we despise violence, too)
we must insist that, if they wish to be truly able to defend themselves, they
nonetheless overcome their aversion, and become attack-minded despite their
initial reluctance!

Remind yourself whenever you practice and train that the violent offender,
whether mugger, troublemaker, or military opponent, will himself be very attack-
minded. He will not hesitate to go after you. So if it is your position that “attack-
mindedness is unacceptable” then you seal your fate, and relegate yourself to a
position in which you will only be able to defend yourself (if you are indeed able
to defend yourself, at all) against the most amateurish, inept, clumsily mounted
attack.

We see no point in training in self-defense in a manner that provides little hope of

attaining and maintaining practical ability. Train the way real world combatants
who (during WWII, for example, and in certain instances during the Cold War)
were properly trained by the military and intelligence services to dispatch a
dangerous foe. Do not waste time on fantasy skills, flowery acrobatics, and
esthetically pleasing crap, laced with a philosophy geared toward harmonious
 -24-

relations with friends and intimates.

So much of that which passes for “self-defense training” today is, in effect,
conditioning for suicide. Cultivate a non attack-minded attitude and you are
preparing not to “defend yourself” (no matter what the “sensei” or “sifu” tells
you!), but to DIE.

There is no “nice” or “sanitized” way to handle a dangerous physical opponent.

It’s him or you, and you need to make up your mind that in any given situation
where you have no choice but to do battle, YOU WILL PREVAIL. And the only
way to prevail in any combative engagement is to go after your enemy, and
defeat him with savage and merciless violence. You must attack him. And in
order to be able to do that you must become attack-minded ahead of time.

The moral justification for attack-mindedness in self-defense or war is obvious to

any sane mind. You are hardly being “moral” if you decide that your enemy’s life
is worth more than your own. You are being a lemming. Remember, too: In any
self-defense situation you are not the one who causes the trouble. The one who
attacks you is the cause. Any damage or injury that any assailant sustains in any
confrontation with his intended victim is his own responsibility. It may not
perhaps be the case that everyone will agree with this, but “everyone” will not be
at risk of being injured or killed when you or your loved ones are under attack.
YOU and THEY (ie your loved ones) will be. So never mind what anyone else
thinks or says about the proper place of extreme aggression and attack-mindedness
in self-defense. Let them exercise their philosophy when they and when their
loved ones are at risk.

We have spent this time emphasizing the righteousness of attack-mindedness

because our decades of teaching experience has shown us how important it is to
assist students in overcoming their reluctance to become attack-minded.

In self-defense emergencies it is almost a certainty — every time — that the

attacker will assume that he will either encounter zero or very flimsy resistance
from his intended victim. Otherwise, he would not initiate violence against that
victim. This provides an enormous advantage to the would-be victim if only he
realizes and capitalizes upon it: First, he has the obvious element of surprise in
his favor merely by proceeding to undertake a fierce defense when he is
attacked; and second, if he is truly attack-minded and proceeds to pursue his
 -25-

assailant with dangerous intent and skill, the fact that he is doing so by
surprise will almost certainly guarantee his (ie the intended victim’s) success.

In Fairbairn’s great classic WWII course, “SILENT KILLING”, he emphasized

that instructors, after completing merely the first two sections of the course, stress
to the wartime trainees that, providing they attack first and keep on attacking, the
relatively few techniques that they have been exposed to in their first hours of
instruction will be enough to enable them to defeat even a trained adversary.
Every modern student of personal defense and close combat should make it his
business to study and absorb the valuable material to be gleaned from Fairbairn’s
wartime program, no less than from Fairbairn’s published books. One crucial
point that every student should see that he understands, appreciates, and APPLIES
is that his ability to “attack first and keep on attacking” is contingent upon his
having made himself ATTACK-MINDED.

Because this is so important we shall now present some training suggestions that
we know will help you to become attack-minded. You may employ one or all of
these suggestions, and we hope that you do. The beneficial results that you will
experience for doing so will be more than sufficient reward for your efforts:

Developing Attack-Mindedness—

1) Cultivate a hatred for bullies, troublemakers, and violent offenders of every

kind. Dwell on their despicableness, and remind yourself of the fear, pain, and
suffering that they cause.
Think back over your own life experiences. Think about what you’ve observed.
Ask others to describe their experiences with troublemakers, etc., and get them to
recount their experiences in detail to you. It’s easy to attack an object of hatred.

2) Think about whoever you love and are close to. Imagine the effect on them if
you are injured or crippled — or killed. Then remind yourself that anyone who
threatens harm to you, also threatens harm to those about whom you care.

3) Give yourself opportunities in training to see and to feel how formidable you
are. You will be more confident about attacking if and when you know for certain
that you possess the capacity to do the damage that needs to be done.
Appreciate the strength, speed, and physical efficiency that you have cultivated
 -26-

and that you continue to develop. Realize that you can dominate and destroy an
enemy . . . and when you do, it will make you much less reluctant to undertake
the action if ever you must do so.

4) Master the SURPRISE ATTACK.

Realize how formidable an attack without warning is against anyone, regardless of
his size, strength, knowledge, or experience.
Appreciate and constantly remind yourself that the odds are always stacked
heavily in your favor whenever you take your enemy off his guard.
Determine to make the element of surprise one of your key strategies. Think of
your increasing ability to employ it as a “secret weapon”.
If you train and practice before a full length mirror you can learn to project
misleading gestures and facial expressions perfectly, and you can adjust your body
language so that you can literally set up whoever you are interacting with, if you
need to do so. You will possess increased confidence in your attacking capabilities
when you observe how well you are able to orchestrate them, whenever necessary.

5) Situational awareness (alertness) helps to ready your mind for attacking in two
ways:
a) It upgrades your mental state so that you are very, very difficult to approach
and to take off your guard. Thus you will reduce your chances of needing to be
totally reactive (rather than proactive) in any emergency.
b) It primes you so that you are well able to pre-empt an offender. You will know
what’s coming, and you will know that you know what’s coming! This makes
alertness an actual first step in becoming attack-minded, because it makes the act
of attacking, when your level of alertness has done its job of warning you, easy.

6) Develop extreme offensive and offense-based skills and techniques.

Avoid at all costs the dangerous “defensive” mindset in which you quite literally
cut your engines and wait for any apparent hostile to betray the specifics of the
attack that he has in mind by getting the opportunity to carry most or all of it
through, before you respond! This is exactly what 99% of the popular ju-jutsu,
hapkido, kenpo-karate, etc. etc. etc. “self-defense” systems encourage; and it is
WRONG!
Cultivate real world offensive combative actions. Master them. Commit them to
motor memory. Concentrate on attacking actions!
Drilling the fast, reliable, combat-proven techniques is what you want to do.
These include but are not limited to the following: open hand chinjabs and
 -27-

handaxe blows, fingertips thrusts and jabs to the eyes, low knee/shin/instep kicks
and stomps, elbow smashes and jabs, head butting, biting, tiger-clawing the face,
seizing/cawing/grasping (ears, testicles, lips, nostrils), an so on. These techniques
— and similar types of techniques — are the one that will save you.
Obviously, you must develop defensive or counterattacking abilities for times
when, unfortunately, you are taken by surprise (from behind, for instance). But
even these skills must stress this principle:

TURN THE SITUATION AROUND AS SOON AS

YOU CAN AND BECOME THE ATTACKER. YOURSELF!

Patton’s words are apropos here: “Don’t worry about your flanks; let the enemy
worry about his flanks!”

7. Take the steps necessary, through simple researches of your own, to verify the
truth of that which we herein espouse. Don’t take us on faith — check it out. Read
newspaper account, police reports, and study military history. Speak with cops,
with crime victims, with men who have had actual close combat experience in
war, etc. Every fact you unearth will confirm what we say. Our teachings are not
based upon our personal opinions, tastes, or preferences. They are based upon that
which decades of experience, research, and study has unequivocally confirmed to
be true. And we urge you to undertake your own researches and studies and see
for yourself.
There is no mystery or mystique here. Just hard-won, utterly true, combat-
validated real world tactical information that you can stake your life on.

8. Learn to welcome that (initially!) most unpleasant sensation of fear. Fear is

your great ally. It is your energizer. It is your hidden weapon. It is your “ace up
your sleeve” when the chips are down.
Let the onset of fear trigger white hot hatred for any physical opponent, bully,
troublemaker, or tormentor whose presence has caused you to feel afraid. How
dare that bastard encroach upon your life! How dare that scum threaten to deprive
your loved ones! How dare that piece of s— raise a hand against you for no
reason but the sheer delight of tormenting you! Damn him! Damn him! DAMN
HIS DAMNED SOUL! Now that’s the way you want to start thinking and feeling
about violent sewer scum. Being able to attack ferociously and without the
slightest regard for the enemy’s well-being is only a heartbeat away, once you’ve
settled on that philosophy!
 -28-

9. Dehumanize your enemy.

In training for warfare this task is (or ought to be) accomplished, as it was —
properly — in the second world war, by the command structure of the
individual’s branch of service. Preparing the fighting man to engage and destroy
his country’s enemies is always easier when the fighting man is led to regard the
enemy as vermin. In the case of the individual whose intention it is to ready
himself so that he can go after his foe without a tremor of hesitation, and apply
everything inside of himself to destroy that foe, the task of dehumanizing the
enemy must be accomplished by himself. (Note:— Good teachers who understand
the principles of suggestion and hypnosis, and who are trained and experienced in
applying them — and who are also highly experienced professionals in the combat
arts — can help students a great deal in this regard).
See your opponent as less than human — as an object — and generating a fierce
attack against him will become easy to do.

10. Desensitize yourself.

“Sensitivity” is a big deal these days. It goes with the feminization of our society,
and it is evil and it is sick.
A combatant who is reluctant to attack and savage his enemy because he “feels his
enemy’s pain” will soon be feeling his own damn pain — and a helluva lot more
intensely than he ever “felt” his adversary’s!
The recent illness that has infected the martial arts industry and that is passed off
as “humane self-defense” or as “non-injurious self-defense” ought properly to be
discarded with tea leaf reading and rain dancing. Entirely aside from the fact that
it is technical bullshit, it is mentally conditioning those who already have the
wrong idea about what combat entails (or they’d never even consider studying
such crap) so that they are delivered — DISARMED — INTO THE HANDS OF
THE FIRST DANGEROUS PSYCHOPATH WHO DECIDES TO KILL
THEM.
Combat requires that you be ruthlessly insensitive, and that means that you not
care one iota about the pain, disability or whatever injury your adversary may
suffer, because your only concern is stopping him from crippling or killing you.
Some murderers are very young. Kids twelve and thirteen can be dangerous,
vicious animals, and when they attack they deserve to be treated as such . . .
dispatched like rabid dogs.
While callousing the hands may not be necessary in the modern study of close
combat and self-defense, callousing the attitude IS! And that means that you need
to desensitize yourself and, when and if attacked, revert to the fierce and to the
 -29-

animalistic . . . handling your attacker like the insane, wild beast he has, by his
actions, declared himself to be.
A desensitized man is a potentially very dangerous man. And that’s exactly the
kind of man you want to be if ever you need to fight for your life in lethal
combat.

You need desensitization.

FEAR CONTROL

We first coined the term “fear energy” years ago, and used it in the column we
then were writing monthly for Handguns Magazine (ie “Defensive Combat”). We
were naming that phenomenon that is essential to the successful combatant when
engaging in deadly violence, if he wishes to be able to effectively employ his
battle skills — with or without weapons — and if it is his intention to avoid
“freezing” at the critical moment of truth.

Fear control, not, please note, “fearlessness”, is the psychological factor that you
will develop and employ if you are in the combat arts for the purpose of real
world, practical application. But before employing it, you must understand what it
means.

Nature has provided living creatures with a fear mechanism. In effect fear is a
survival mechanism. Once experienced, fear changes the organism that has
experienced it. In a fraction of a second a fearful man or beast becomes
“charged” with adrenaline and with a psychophysical capacity for extreme
exertion and powerful resistance to shock and trauma that he would not otherwise
experience, and that he cannot “fake” or “create” fully, merely by an act of will.
Nature provides the fear reaction. Nature gives the organism that experiences fear
a most invaluable gift, or boost, or head start, if you will, in the direction of being
able to either . . .

• RUN

—or—
 -30-

• FIGHT

In human psychology the term that is employed in referring to this phenomenon is

the “FIGHT OR FLIGHT RESPONSE”. Understanding and using that response
capacity is critical in the study of personal combat.

Nature provides that enormous — and immediate — capacity for fight or flight
upon perception of that which is evaluated by the individual as a threat to the
individual’s well being, safety, security, or survival. What Nature does not
provide (except possibly in animals) is the decision whether to fight or to flee.
And it is that decision — that choice of how to utilize and what to do with the raw
FEAR ENERGY that comes with the fight or flight response — that the student
of close combat must make AHEAD OF TIME, so that in any emergency his
decision has already been set, and his use of that powerful fear energy will bolster
his counterattacking efforts.

Ironically, one of the great blocks to acquiring mastery over fear energy (and thus
being able to fully appreciate and to utilize fear as the powerful ally that in fact it
is) is the type of mental conditioning that is often attempted by incompetents who
purport to be teaching martial arts. First, many so-called “teachers” advocate that
the attainment of a mental state of calm and “fearlessness” is not only possible in a
dangerous, life threatening emergency, but they posit such a state as being readily
attainable through the learning of that which they teach as being — arguably —
“effective fighting techniques”. Whether in fact one or two exceptional individuals
actually can achieve the ability to confront sudden, deadly violence and to remain
without the slightest tremor of fear while doing so is irrelevant. The fact is that
humans, in general, cannot. Fear is the normal, natural, healthy, life saving
energizer that ought NOT be resisted or thought of as “something to be
overcome”. The inevitability of fear, and the cultivation of that attitude and
understanding that enables the one who experiences fear to USE IT
EFFECTIVELY is the proper goal in combat arts training, ad when teaching
people self-defense.

We recall with great amusement one advertisement for a well known and lucrative
martial arts school in the New York City area, back in the 1960’s and 70’s, that
proclaimed, “BE SILENT AND FEARLESS!” (presumably after studying at this
particular school). Just about the exact opposite of what you want to be in an
emergency! You want to GROWL AND SCREAM WITH A FIERCE WARCRY
 -31-

while in the same instant DIRECTING YOUR FEAR ENERGY IN THE MOST
VICIOUSLY FEROCIOUS AND UNRELENTING COUNTERATTACK YOU
CAN MUSTER, THAT PREEMPTS YOUR ASSAILANT BEFORE HE CAN
CRIPPLE OR KILL YOU! “Silence and fearlessness” be damned.

IN THE ABOVE PHOTO FROM FAIRBAIRN’S CLASSIC WARTIME TEXT, HANDS OFF!,
WE SEE HIS DAUGHTER — DOROTEA — APPLYING AN ATTACK TO THE CAROTID
ARTERIES/WINDPIPE OF HER DAD. WHENEVER TRAINING WOMEN, FAIRBAIRN
EMPHASIZED EXACTLY THE SAME THING HE EMPHASIZED WHEN TEACHING MEN:
USE YOUR FEAR TO GET AGGRESSIVE AND GO AFTER YOUR OPPONENT!
LIKE EVERY INSTRUCTOR OF REAL COMBAT WHO KNEW HIS TRADE, FAIRBAIRN
NEVER TAUGHT PEOPLE THAT THE GOAL OF THEIR TRAINING WAS TO BECOME
“FEARLESS”. NOR DID HE EVEN SUGGEST THAT SUCH A GOAL AS FEARLESSNESS
IS POSSIBLE OR DESIRABLE. HE TRAINED PEOPLE TO ATTACK IN SPITE OF FEAR.
Fear is your ally. The unpleasant nature of feeling fear, and the fact that so many
people have in their past, when having felt fear, chose to react ineffectively in its
throes and suffered real loss, pain, and humiliation, accounts for their resistance to
fear now. Is this you? If so, consider what we are presenting to you here. We are
telling you that you must stop resisting fear. You want to be fearful. Fear is your
ally. Fear provides you with power, with energy, with resilience, with the ability
to move, act, function, and prevail in situations and in circumstances where its
 -32-

absence would surely leave you helpless.

Training cannot duplicate combat conditions. And training needn’t duplicate

combat conditions, providing that which is being practiced and taught
accommodates the psychophysical and circumstantial phenomena that we know
from past experience will affect that which you will be capable of doing in real
combat. Practical skills can be learned safely. If in fact they are practical, then the
state in which you will find yourself in combat will facilitate their application,
rather than inhibit it. But that all important mental component cannot be
neglected. Training cannot produce the fear (or the fear response) that immersion
in real danger will produce. However, if you will understand, appreciate, and
know ahead of time that which you will inevitably be feeling in a real
emergency, and if you will EXPECT it, and then, if you will practice hard
and train, and DECIDE WHAT YOU WILL DO WITH THAT FEELING
AHEAD OF TIME you will be mentally conditioned — when the moment of
truth arrives — to use it to your great advantage!

Few people in the martial arts understand this, and very few people are ever
exposed to this during decades of training in whatever martial arts or “fighting
skills” they may be studying. Please . . . read and reread this section of our
monograph again and again. One this message “sinks in” and you feel its
inevitable truth, you will be six laps ahead of most “black belts” in your ability to
deal with real, dangerous violence.

Fear “charges up” your body. What occurs when you experience fear is a complete
shutdown of your body’s capacity to render what are called “fine motor
movements”. However, at the same time you experience a powerful boost in your
capacity to generate gross physical actions (ie to employ your large muscle
groups, and to employ movement of your body as a unit of force). We like to put
it this way when addressing students:

“YOU WILL LIKELY FIND YOURSELF UNABLE TO DIAL A

TELEPHONE IF SOMEONE ATTACKS YOU IN YOUR ROOM, BUT
YOU WILL BE EASILY ABLE TO PICK THAT TELEPHONE UP AND
SMASH IT INTO YOUR ATTACKER’S FACE!”

All good combat actions, with and without weapons, are built upon and around
the limiting factors that combat stress imposes upon the body, as well as upon the
 -33-

advantages and capacities that combat stress provides. In the use of the handgun
we see good training following the precept of crouching and pointing while
riveting your eyes on the enemy. The reason for this is not because you cannot
use careful, aimed fire when at a range or when competing in shooting contests.
Rather, it is because when you are in an actual close combat situation you will
find that only skills that accommodate your intuitive, natural, unalterable
reactions will save you.

The chinjab, the handaxe chop, low stomping kicks, the tiger’s claw, elbow
smashes, biting, head butts, etc. all accommodate the physiological capacities that
the fear response inevitably triggers, while avoiding the limitations in movement
and tactics that the fear response inhibits. This is why we urge the skills that we
urge, and this is why knowledgeable combat teachers will never train their
students in “competition” or “classical” techniques, per se. Combat requires an
approach to physical and mental conditioning that is unique.

In any dangerous emergency where you have at least a moment to realize what is
happening you will feel fear. That’s good.

Determine to use fear. Take the powerful capacity that it gives you and make it
work on your behalf to save your life and to save the lives of those you love.

You need fear control.

HIGH THRESHOLD OF PAIN

Many people associate a high pain threshold with physical strength. They envision
someone who is powerfully built and athletic possessing a high tolerance for pain.
However, the truth is that there is no necessary correlation between physical
strength per se, and a person’s capacity or determination to tolerate pain.

It’s all in the mind.

Here is a true bit of history:

During the famous “Gunfight at the O.K. Corral” (the real one, not a Hollywood
 -34-

reenactment) an unfortunate individual who had nothing whatever to do with the

fighting was hit by a stray bullet. He was taken to the town doctor where, after
being treated for what the physician recorded as being a minor, relatively non-
serious gunshot wound in the leg, he died. The doctor further wrote that the
reason the man died was because he had expected to die. He was frightened to
death after having been shot, and he literally passed away because he was certain
that he was doomed.

It’s all in the mind.

There have been numerous instances where individuals have withstood that which
normally would have been expected to be a lethal injury; yet, because of will
power, determination, and a plain refusal to “shut down”, these persons survived.

Obviously, there are limits. Will power and the highest threshold of pain
imaginable could not, for example, enable a man to live through decapitation, or
through having his body blown in half. However, it is truly astonishing what a
high threshold of pain and a refusal to stop even though seriously injured, can
allow some people to withstand.

Here is a near-certainty: If you are ever involved in a situation in which you find
yourself needing to physically fight for your life either bare handed or with
hand-held weapons, you WILL be injured. Anyone who anticipates attaining a
level of skill and “expertise” in combat techniques that will permit him to emerge
victorious from brutally vicious engagements with murderous adversaries
unscathed, is deluding himself. It won’t happen. Skill is not magical, and no
amount of skill in anything can enable anyone to defy reality.

We realize that our statements here may be very unpopular with many people who
enjoy that which hey have been led to believe by some martial arts “teacher”, or
through studying one or another DVD or book about some unusual form or style
of self-defense. Please believe us. The reality is this: Close combat is dangerous
and risky. Even experts and highly experienced combatants get seriously hurt,
injured, and killed in actual battles.
 -35-

ONE OF THE GREATEST TEACHERS OF CLOSE COMBAT IN ALL OF ITS ASPECTS,

THE LEGENDARY COL. REX APPLEGATE. HERE HE IS SHOWN IN THE CLASSIC
“KNIFE ATTACK STANCE”. ONE OF THE AUTHOR’S TEACHERS, APPLEGATE ALWAYS
EMPHASIZED THAT COMING THROUGH SERIOUS HAND-TO-HAND ENGAGEMENTS
WITHOUT GETTING HURT IS JUST ABOUT IMPOSSIBLE. READERS WHO OBTAIN AND
STUDY APPLEGATE’S CLASSIC, KILL OR GET KILLED, CAN READ APPLEGATE’S
ADMONITIONS ABOUT THE REALITIES OF HAND-TO-HAND FIGHTING FOR
THEMSELVES.

The individual who anticipates injury will be far less likely to react to being
injured, when he is, with shock and amazement. Therefore, expect to get hurt in
any combat situation.

But beyond expecting to get hurt, you need more. You need, in essence, to be
conditioned to IGNORE the fact that you have been hurt. To “block it out” in a
sense, and to be so intently focused on generating your own attack that you are
undeterred by whatever injuries you have sustained.

One of the best ways to develop this kind of mindset is by participating in boxing.
Boxers are genuinely tough. They all know that they will be hit when they fight,
and they learn to expect it, and to ignore it. They learn to concentrate on hitting
the other guy.

The Marine Corps has always incorporated a method of training that duplicates the
benefits of learning to stand up and get hit while hitting back, without developing
the bad habits that strict boxing teaches (technique-wise, for combat; we certainly
are not denigrating boxing as an art). The Corps’ method is to have recruits
 -36-

engage in “pugil stick” bouts.

WHILE NOT A “PERFECT” METHOD OF TEACHING A MAN TO IGNORE PAIN AND

INJURIES AND KEEP ON FIGHTING, PUGIL STICK BOUTS, SUCH AS THOSE
TRADITIONALLY USED IN THE MARINE CORPS TO CONDITION RECRUITS FOR HAND-
TO-HAND COMBAT, ARE EXTREMELY EFFECTIVE. THE WRITER LIKES THIS TRAIN-
ING METHOD BECAUSE, UNLIKE BOXING TRAINING, IT DOES NOT RESULT IN THE
ACQUISITION OF POTENTIALLY BAD HABITS FOR ACTUAL UNARMED COMBAT.

Such training is excellent. However,there is one supreme method, rarely if ever

utilized, that we feel should become The “mental conditioning method”. It is
hypnosis.

We have been a licensed hypnotherapist for more than 20 years, and we are a
Fellow in Clinical Hypnotherapy. This is not why we take the position in regard
to the desirability of utilizing hypnosis that we do take. The opposite is true. We
began a study of hypnosis and mind control methods more than 40 years ago
because we believed that it was crucial to effective combat training to condition
and train the mind, as well as the body. When we came to realize that hypnosis
is the “ultimate tool” (and it is!) for actually inculcating that which is necessary
and excising that which is detrimental in the human psyche, we became sold. The
method of class instruction that we originated and have been using for decades is
rooted in our understanding of how to employ hypnotic principles (ie the power of
suggestion, among others) when working with a group. AND IT WORKS!

We know, from personal experience, that hypnosis can provide the key to
elevating anyone’s threshold of pain, when utilized correctly.
 -37-

Hypnosis per se is not the only way it can be done. Readers are urged to
understand that intensity of focus can achieve a considerable degree of heightening
in one’s threshold of pain, in any combat situation.

A person who is worried or concerned about being physically injured, about being
killed, about “losing a fight”, or about being humiliated, etc. will never — so
long as this worry and concern is present in his consciousness — be able to
unleash a 100% unrestrained, all-out, total ATTACK against his adversary. Yet
one cannot “order” such things to “leave” one’s mind. What one CAN do,
however, is OVERWHELM and OVERCOME that which is undesirably being
held in one’s consciousness, and literally “blast it out of the way” by
FLOODING ONE’S MIND WITH AN ALL-CONSUMING OPPOSITE IDEA!
Therein lies the key to mastering proper mental focus for close combat: Get your
mind focused fanatically on the destruction of your foe to the exclusion of all
else. In such a state of mind — almost “frenzied” — you neither feel nor notice
pain. This does not mean that you are invincible. You can still be knocked out and
you can still be killed. You can also still be injured somewhat less severely. But
you will never notice any of this while it is happening, because you will be
fanatically driven on one path and on one path only; and unless you are knocked
unconscious or killed, you will simply be just about totally unstoppable in your
own onslaught! You will not, in this state, take notice of any pain.

Remember this: pain is subjective; it is injury that stops humans. (This is one
reason why control holds, pain compliance grips, and “pressure points” are a
collectively laughable and buffoonish way to train in and for serious self-defense.
Such skills, which do not injure, but that merely hurt, work only against relatively
nondangerous adversaries. Police may have some use for these types of skills, but
private citizens who need to defend themselves don’t, and they shouldn’t waste
their time trying to learn them. Nor should soldiers and marines be saddled with
such suicidal [for the warrior’s mission] crap.)

An aroused, determined, murderously furious and hell-bent human combatant

does not care about or notice “pain” per se. Therefore, this is your speedy route to
the heightened threshold of pain that combative engagements demand that you
possess. Master the art of total mental focus on the destruction of your enemy
whenever you must defend yourself. Be ready to explode with terrifying focus and
drive, and to — literally — take the attitude, “I will die killing him!”, in any
 -38-

emergency that demands your decisive action.

Don’t be afraid or hesitant about “being hurt”.

You need a high threshold of pain.

DETERMINATION

Effective combatants have a “made up mind” in regard to how they will handle
violence, should it come to them. Then, when and if it ever does come to them,
they have no hesitation about going 100% into action against whomever they must
engage.

They are determined.

Determination is of course a very personal thing, and in the throes of combative

rage many who have been taught a lot of nonsense about such foolish things as
“force continuums”, “moderating punishment”, etc., may well automatically self-
correct and simply go for broke, committed and determined only to destroy the
enemy. Still, training in the wrong thing can produce very wrong results. So, the
best course of action is to do everything right from the start. There is only one
simply choice in any physical conflict: WIN or LOSE. Determine ahead of time
that, should trouble come to you, you will win, period.

The successful soldier, marine, or other fighting man is always a determined

individual. The made up mind is the characteristic in force whenever a genuine
professional enters battle. No more talk. No attempt to disengage. No more wasted
efforts at avoidance. Now — right now — the thing to do is attack and win.

Determination casts all worries about personal injury, potential “legal” problems,
humanitary considerations, etc. aside, and it simply compels the individual who
possesses it straight on, toward the completion of his task.

You need determinations.

KNOWLEDGE

“Know your enemy and know yourself” the great warrior-sage SunTzu counseled
 -39-

thousands of years ago. It is excellent advice. Follow it.

“Knowledge” should be a lifetime pursuit for the serious student of close combat
and self-defense. Specifically, the knowledge that he should always be in pursuit
of, and never be satisfied with, no matter how much of it he manages to acquire
includes:

• Knowledge of his personal shortcomings —

mentally and physically

• Knowledge of his personal strengths and assets —

mentally and physically

• Knowledge of all aspects of all potential enemies:

military, criminal, terrorist, etc. — their mentalities,
their ideologies, their physical abilities, their
armament, their experience, etc.

• Knowledge of physiology, kinesiology, anatomy,

psychology, and even criminology and military
science, is all applicable

• Knowledge of correct training and conditioning methods —

for the mind no less than for the body

• Knowledge of techniques of combat — ie which are the

best to use, which are the best of these for oneself,
and which might one expect one’s enemies to
employ against one

• Knowledge of the law and of the legal aspects of

self-defense

• Knowledge of personal, home, family, business, and travel

security and protective tactics and procedures

The only caution that is appropriate and necessary here is that of warning the
reader that practical ability cannot come from “reading” or from learning
 -40-

“about” close combat and individual defense. Practice, and lots of it, is
necessary. And we urge every one of our readers not to fall into the trap of the
martial arts “lunatic” who spends all of his time “philosophizing” and discussing
theory and related matters, while never getting out and really training hard.

The martial arts is crammed with self-deceivers who literally live this way, and
they are only fooling themselves. Don’t be one of them!

Make up your mind to train hard and to train regularly. And make up your mind
to do so in light of your ever-expanding knowledge regarding all subjects relating
to that which you do. We’d suggest building a personal library, over time, and of
using your library just as you use your weights and your striking post, to further
increase and to enhance your all round confidence and ability. That’s the
professional’s way of doing it.

You need knowledge.

COURAGE

Courage . . . “balls”, “stones”, “intestinal fortitude”, “moxie”, “guts”, “valor”,

“chutzpah”, “boldness”, or whatever-the-hell anyone chooses to call it — simple,
straightforward, unadorned physical and moral COURAGE is a conspicuous
attribute of all good fighting men, and of those private citizens who, in a critical
hour, respond with the force and fury required to stop a dangerous attacker.

There are two schools of thought regarding courage. One insists that courage is
inherent. One is either born with it, or one is not. And if one is not, then one is
for all practical purposes out of luck. The other school of thought — the one that
we most strongly subscribe to! — holds that courage is an attribute that can be
developed. What’s more, it is an attribute, the propensity for which in impressive
amounts, every human being possesses. Many people are unfortunately taught to
act in noncourageous ways, and they are enjoined by their parents, teachers,
“friends”, neighbors, and others, that passivity, compliance, sheeplike inaction,
and so on, is “good”, or is “the best way to avoid trouble”.

Many good and decent people who, as children, find themselves bullied by some
of their contemporaries (who, as bullies, prove themselves to be the unforgivable,
virulent scum of their own generation), simply don’t know why this filth is
 -41-

behaving as it is, and they haven’t a clue what to do about it. They are, as victims,
not violent or troublesome, themselves, and with no one to explain what evil is
and how to deal with it, they simply conclude that something is wrong with them.
They sometimes conclude — erroneously — that they lack courage, that they are
cowards. Ironically, the cowards are the bullies and the troublemakers, who
carefully select their victims, and who delight in tormenting those whom they are
confident they can dominate. Victims are victims, period. It is certainly not
cowardly to be afraid, and it is not cowardly to be unable to fight back. It is
simply unfortunate. AND THIS MISFORTUNE CAN BE CORRECTED. The
best way is to find a good close combat teacher who —

• Lets you know the scoop, and brings you up to speed on the nature of bullies
and violent troublemakers,

• Teaches you unequivocally that you are justified in hating this kind of living
garbage — and you should,

• Trains you how to turn the tables on this kind of low-life filth and beat its
worthless head in — or worse.

We submit that this is the formula for inducing courage in youngsters who have
been led to believe that they lack courage, and that they are less “manly” than the
putrid muck that victimizes them at every turn. That 99% of today’s parents
would recoil from our thesis hardly disturbs us! In fact, it proves our point about
parental neglect being one of the reasons why some children never learn how to
deal with bullies.

The same thing may be said for — and about — adults who find themselves
wondering if they are or are not “men”, since they are afraid in confrontational
situations, and they don’t know what to do if or when they are set upon violently
by extralegal garbage.

Many if not most people who come to the martial arts do so because they are
humiliated and afraid. More precisely, they have been humiliated and frightened
by members of their species who are unconscionable scum, and they desperately
want to be able to overcome their fear and trepidation, and become able to cope
with such atrocious vermin in the future.
 -42-

We hope that our reader understands this. He is not, no matter what he may
have been made to feel or to experience in his past by any predatory punk or
punks, a “coward”. He possesses the same potential for the cultivation and
exercise of courage that any Medal of Honor recipient has ever possessed! He
simply needs to learn that fact; and he learns it by understanding the truth and
accepting it.

Here’s a tip: If you wish to develop courage, start doing things that you are afraid
of doing. Not anything illegal, and not anything really dumb (like jumping off a
roof); but start doing things everyday that challenge you and cause you feel fear.
As you start to accumulate experiences of “having been and done” your self-
confidence will shoot through the roof. You will wilt less and less and ever less in
the face of a challenge. This will contribute to your courage, in time.

Here’s another tip: Any time you think something, it motivates some kind of
action or behavior. Any time you act or behave in some way, it motivates your
thinking. In any crisis you therefore can be PROMPTED INTO ACTION BY
YOUR MINDSET, or your can acquire the right mental focus by FORCING
YOURSELF TO ACT. Act fiercely and courageously by propelling yourself
ferociously into action in a dangerous emergency, and you will think and feel
fierce and courageous. Think and feel fierce and courageous, and you will easily
be able to propel yourself into action against a dangerous foe.

You are potentially as courageous as anyone who ever lived. The only problem is
coming to realize that fact. Once you do realize it, you are way ahead of the
combative “game”.

You need courage.

SUMMING UP

Combat is dangerous, risky, and frightening. To be prepared for it is the objective

of training in close combat and self-defense skills — ie combat martial arts.
However, skills training is no enough. Skills must be supported by psychophysical
attributes and capacities; attributes and capacities of a very specific kind. That
which the sportsman or classicist requires is different from that which the
combatant requires.
 -43-

We have tried in this treatment to address the matter of those factors and attributes
which combative ability requires so that readers who have taken up a martial art
for the purpose of serious defensive ability will know what they need to do in
order to acquire that which they are after. Rarely, if at all, will any “martial arts
teacher” or “self-defense instructor” cover these items, even peripherally, during
the course of teaching his students. Frequently, martial arts teachers have no
knowledge of these things, themselves.

We sincerely hope that your reading of this monograph has been helpful to you,
and that successive re-readings will continue to assist you in your efforts. Whether
you are our student, personally, or not, we wish you good luck in your pursuit of
self-confidence, combative skill, and self-defense ability.

Good luck!

Yours in defense,

Prof. Bradley J. Steiner

©Copyright 2008 by Bradley J. Steiner
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

For information about training in AMERICAN COMBATO (JEN•DO•TAO)™,

about additional monographs, other publications, or additional copies of this
paper, contact:

Brad Steiner

P.O. Box 15929

Seattle, WA. 98115

U.S.A.