The Critical Moment

© COPYRIGHT 2010 BY BRADLEY J. STEINER - ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
Sword and Pen – March 2010 Issue

[Reprinted With Permission]

American Combato
Seattle Combatives


WE are an admirer of the late Sir Winston Churchill. Please consider the wisdom and counsel in his words:

"If you will not fight for right when you can easily win without blood shed; if you will not fight when your victory is sure and not too costly; you may come to the moment when you will have to fight with all the odds against you and only a precarious chance of survival. There may even be a worse case. You may have to fight when there is no hope of victory, because it is better to perish than to live as slaves". WINSTON CHURCHILL

Indeed, the great Statesman was speaking in the context of war; his words referred to the position that the allied powers needed to take in order to cope with the axis powers, in WWII. However, as we so often remind our students and readers, self-defense is war in microcosm. Those principles that sensibly guide and direct nations, generals, and armies in battle are as valid and valuable to individuals who seek to master the art of individual combat — for self-defense.

One problem that is either rarely if ever addressed, or that is addressed inadequately in training individuals for self-defense is the matter of knowing exactly when to go into decisive action. When is the "critical moment", and how can one make certain that, when it arrives, one will do that which needs doing?

The flip answer of course is, "Go into action when you are attacked." Yes, but it is not always clear just when that actually is, believe it or not. Unlike motion picture fight scenes or instances when giving a demonstration of self-defense techniques, the critical moment may go unnoticed in the real world, and a defender may waste precious seconds. By way of example, take self-defense situations as they pertain to females. A female is in serious danger the moment an unknown male (or a male that is known to her to have a history of violence) blocks her path and prevents her from exiting an area that she wishes to leave, or when he puts a hand on her, making unwanted, unencouraged physical contact. The disparity of physical size, strength, and usual fighting acumen makes it imperative that a female take vicious, aggressive action, and take it then! To delay is to permit a potentially serious threat to escalate.

"But suppose the guy who blocks a female from leaving a place, or who takes hold of her wrist or arm, or who places one or both hands on her has no real intention of hurting her?"

Our answer is this: No one is or ought to be expected to be a mind reader. Any male who is old enough to walk to school on his own and come home after school on his own should be expected to have been taught unequivocally to keep his hands off females whom he does not know, and NEVER to attempt to force his will in any way upon any female (or anyone at all, for that matter). In any instance where this fundamental component of civilized conduct has not been instilled in a male, he proceeds to "do as he pleases" at HIS peril; not at the peril of someone who may fear harm from him. Certainly no female should lose a fraction of a second wondering if this ape is or isn’t intending to harm her, before — upon being given the evidence of his willingness to encroach upon her freedom of movement and her person — she ferociously neutralizes him.

This is what we would teach our daughter. This is what we’d teach your daughter. This is what you should teach her. This is what every female should be taught, in our opinion. And males ought properly to be made well aware of the fact that this is exactly what they are being taught.

And, while perhaps slightly different for males, essentially the same concept should be instilled in them, and instilled at an early age: Whenever anyone makes it clear that it is his intention to interfere physically with you, or/and to actually initiate violent physical action against you, neutralize him! We only wish that, as a child, we had been taught this. We learned it, however; and thank God that we did. But we’d have better better off (and some putrid human scum would have been adequately dealt with) had we learned it before reaching our late teens).

In training and in preparing mentally for self-defense, the elimination of all of those blocks that might interfere with the split second decision to “GO!” when the critical moment arrives, must be a priority mission. Simplicity and clarity is what facilitates the accomplishment of the task.

Simply put: In any self-defense situation it is the intended victim of the attack, or the person who is acting on behalf of that intended victim so as to protect him, who is the “authority figure” and — in a manner of speaking — the "field commander". He, and no one else, is the one who must make the decision to trip the wire. Outside command elements do not exist. In military combat situations the decision and the command to attack comes from the person who is in charge. In an emergency that involves a direct threat to you or to yours, YOU are in charge. Act like it!

Having a MADE UP MIND and establishing well ahead of time that violence directed against you will trigger terrifying, overwhelming, mercilessly brutal and ferociously destructive violence immediately is what you need. Do not kid yourself. Trying to weigh and measure every nuance and degree of the "intended threat level" that some extralegal punk-bastard intends to pose will not work. Whether a bully, a gang member, a mugger, a troublemaker, a kidnapper, a home invader, or whatever you care to posit as the threat, the answer — once it becomes physical aggression — is fierce and relentless retaliatory violence, until the danger to your or yours is neutralized.

Keep it simple, please. There is too much depending upon you tripping the wire in time, and in adequate measure to do the job for you to complicate matters! Every fraction of a second that you delay driving into your attacker and finishing him is a fraction of a second longer that he has to beat, torture, rape, kidnap, stomp, or murder you — or to do that to someone you love.

Be clear about what you must do — before you need to actually do it. Trying to "control" or to "arrest" is the responsibility of the police officer. Your responsibility is only to avoid trouble insofar as you are able to do so, not to agree to fight with anyone, never to initiate any hostile action, and — if and when given no choice but to act in self-defense — to do so; to do so with decisive, adequate violence so that whoever has chosen to attack you is rendered incapable and unwilling to continue on his evil course.

Only simple and direct actions — destructive and injurious actions — will reliably enable you to accomplish the task before you in a dangerous emergency. This means techniques that are intended for WAR, not for contests. It means savaging the attacker’s most vital target areas, and continuing to do so with every ounce of strength, viciousness, and relentless, driving aggression you are capable of mustering.

DO IT RIGHT AWAY! You will get no second chance, and there is neither a “round two” or a rematch during which you may have a chance to compensate for having failed to drop your enemy straight away! This is the real world. This is what you must learn, practice and, if necessary, apply in a dangerous self-defense emergency.

If we again use the analogy of war:

Look at the methodology and philosophy of most so-called "self-defense" methods as being analogous to the Vietnam War. Look at the methodology and philosophy that we espouse as being analogous to the Six Day War.

The moment that Israel knew that a threat existed the forces of that Nation were unleashed totally, and there was an immediate plan and effort to completely eliminate the threat — NOW! The disgraceful leadership (or lack, thereof) that treated the greatest and the best of America’s young people as sacrificial pawns in Southeast Asia during the Vietnam War resulted in our Nation failing to win a conflict that, had the proper leadership and command, coupled with the appropriate military tactical methodology been in force, would have been rather easily won within a year — if not within a month or two.

Having the knowledge and the power to do battle will avail you nothing if you lack both the WILL and the DECISIVENESS to use it fully, when necessary.

You must set this ahead of time. Establish that it will be the perception of imminent danger, manifesting in an overtly aggressive action by anyone possessing the apparent ability, the intention, and the opportunity to injure you, that will cause you to explode into action. All of this can be perceived within a fraction of a second, and — once it is perceived — may be acted upon with similar speed and decisiveness. See that you are prepared at all times to do this!

So many people train in the martial arts expecting that their increasing ability to do kata, to spar, to compete, to drill, to acquire encyclopedic technical repertoires, etc. will produce for them the confidence and the ability to do that which an emergency calls for if and when an emergency strikes. But these people are way off track!

Setting your mind so that, when the critical moment arrives — and not one fiftieth of a second later! — you go after your enemy like a ferocious, attack-trained guard dog, is the key! With a handful of good, battle-proven techniques you will almost always be able to wreak havoc on any adversary, so long as this mindset and decision is solidly in place.

See to it that it is.