Jan 03 Dennis Jones – Dealing with Armed Attackers

This interview was published in December 2007

Since I started writing these articles for MAI a lot of people have asked me about weapons.  Often they’re martial artists who are concerned about getting attacked by someone armed with a tool; either a blunt one or, god forbid, a sharp one.  Any situation, even one involving a weapon brandishing idiot, especially now-a-days, is not to be taken lightly.

The mental and physical preparation for an ‘armed experience’ should not be undertaken in a perfunctory manner.  There are times when it’s good to have fun whilst training – and there are other times when you must be as serious as possible.  However, before I go through some of my experience, I think it’s important that we look at the whole question of self defence.

In an interview in August 2006 with Jamie Clubb, I talked a little about self defence.  I took a particular position on the subject and believe it’s relevant to this article:

It’s natural to try and get through life without any hassle.  At Seni 06 when I did my seminar, I noticed how many people listened to me talking about street fighting.  Some people just want to know how to knock someone out easily; where to hit and how hard etc.  There are a million techniques and lots of clever ways of doing things, but street fighting is very simple.  To be good means lots of hard purposeful training and ‘bottle’ and an experienced teacher that’s understands this; will help you no end. 

Now going back to self defence, if you look at the people who trained on my seminar or even the people that didn’t train but just stopped for a minute or two and chatted, it was obvious to me that every one of them was a survivor. As for the strategies they used to get them through life,  it must have worked for them, because they were there talking to me.  At the time I wondered why they felt compelled to have a chat about self defence.  Perhaps it’s that 1960s thing with Charles Atlas, the advert on the back page of all those old magazines, the one that asked, ‘What are you going to do when the bully kicks sand in your face?’  The adverts had something to do with a sandy beach in California and there ain’t too much sand and sun in the UK but we all knew what the advert was about.  The magazines played on the timidity aspect.  People don’t want to have to say sorry or back off, especially if they’re in the right; they want something else, something better.  Often these people come to people like me to improve their confidence and in a strange sort of way that’s where most martial arts are coming from today.

When you look at life, the majority of people don’t have a need or desire to learn how to defend themselves.  I know there are a few women and men that are interested in the ‘don’t walk up the dark alley’ and that sort of preventative self defence.  Then there’s the other sort of information similar to what I read in a book years ago.  It was full of sub-headings followed by two or three pages on each topic: ‘Self-Defence is Ninety Per Cent Mental’ and ‘Self-Esteem: The Foundation Of Self-Defence’ and so on.  The book was Aikido based but it had moved a long way from just a physical response to a situation, it’s certainly wasn’t like Morihei Ueshiba’s Aikido book ‘Budo’.  Also there are some people around that are only interested in tricks and that’s about it, except of course the remainder, the normal martial artists and I’m sure most of them don’t think that it’s all about fighting per se.

It seems to me that a lot of martial artists are not really asking “Does it really work?”  They take it for granted that it does and don’t bother trying to find out.  For example over the years in magazines, as well as, the Chinese whispers that permeate the martial arts community, like me you’ve probably have heard lots of people say, “The kubotan really works, it does the business!”  Now I got confused with all this because I kept saying “How the hell do they know it really works?  The talk was no different than me saying a beer bottle really works… sorry that’s a bad example; with the beer bottle I should say “I know it really works because I’ve seen it!”  Going back to the kubotan, well it’s like a religious mantra we all have to say: “say it one more time, ‘It really works’”  When you boil it down though, often when someone says something really works, the information comes from: “my instructor told me”. 

I remember around the early nineties we had a course for bouncers.  The nightclub brought in this guy to teach us self-defence.  He gathered us around him and said “Right let me show you an arm lock using a kubotan”.  Showing us a small piece of shiny metal he then picked on me and said “I am going to put you in an arm lock.” Staring at him I said ‘No!’  He got the message.  He had tried to make me look like a  idiot and I wasn’t going to have it.  Because he had a weapon in his hand it entered my mind to pick up an ashtray and smash him in the face with it if he started trouble with me!  Another bouncer seeing I was pissed off volunteered to be uke.  So, this guy had this Kubotan and started showing everyone what you could do with it.  “You can do this and you can do that” he kept saying.  At one point in his demonstration he swung it around and around in a big circle in front of him and said “You can keep six attackers away from you!”  I was looking at him and thinking “yeah you can’t really do any of that and you certainly couldn’t do that to me unless I let you”.  The upshot of this was three-quarters of the bouncers got Kubotans, as well as both the managers but not one of them, over the next five years, ever used it.  I suppose it was more a comfort or lucky charm thing, similar to a friend who for good luck had a 5.56mmm NATO rifle round hanging off a chain around his neck.  However, I felt more comfortable with a large Maglite torch, which was much better to have in my hand when I walked back to my car at three in the morning than a small piece of metal.  Now if the kubotan was sharp…   

Unless you are in a real situation it’s impossible to know if you are aware or not!  The funny thing is there is a fantastic gulf between training and what happens for real.  When I came back from a certain nightclub the other night, I was a passenger when we passed two men, one sitting on top of the other one. The guy on top was lifting the other guy’s head and smashing it into the kerb.  I could hear his head smashing on the concrete as we drove by.  We were doing about 30mph and I said “We’ve got to stop and sort this out; he’s killing him”.  My mate stopped and reversed.  We got out and shouted “Oi!  We’re getting the police.”  The guy jumped up and as I walked towards him he took a few steps back.  As I got nearer, getting ready to launch my attack, he stared at me for a moment and then making his decision ran off.  Now if we hadn’t stopped I believe he might have killed the guy who, even though we had intervened, was in a bad way.  He was unconscious and we had to get an ambulance.  Now all my training and experience is geared up for this sort of situation.  This is normal for me and has been for years yet the feeling I had when I thought I was going to have to punch this bloke out… it’s like no other feeling on earth and it’s getting that feeling across in a lesson is difficult.

To help you get that feeling, you can role play, but there is no right response that is a common denominator for everyone.  People often ask me, “When do you hit somebody?”  Now I could give a bull**** answer, but I can’t actually say when the right moment is for someone to hit somebody else [out in the street] because I’m not them and I don’t know what’s in their heart.  Most people will go through life without ever having to hit anyone.  Quite simply they have no use for violence at all.  Imagine you’re teaching a 33 year old man.  He has never had to hit anybody so you end up teaching someone who’s already got a survival strategy mapped out in his head – he’s made it to 33 and survived!  His problem isn’t really “When should I hit someone”, his problem is with himself.  He is actually criticising himself, so when he asks the question ‘When should I hit?’  He should answer his own question with another question ‘Why am I asking?’  But I can’t answer it for him because he’s really talking about changing his own personality.  (Usually because someone has convinced him that he stands a good chance of being attacked and hurt at any moment.)  As a martial arts teacher you can give a legal definition; you can teach movement and techniques but changing someone’s personality is altogether a totally different ball game!  

Looking at the question ‘when should I hit?’ – lots of instructors talk about violation of personal space as a trigger for a response, but that can be an odd one.  Many people go through life letting other people invade their personal space.  If you go to a nightclub 99% of people are not going to give you any trouble but they’re always in your space!  However, when someone has decided to have a proper go at you, they often work out your personality and then invade your space!  Its simple, no one is going to give a psycho a hard time are they?  Victim selection has evolved over thousands of years, it’s in his genetics and the thug is probably going to get it right. 

Often an instructor will try and work on the personality of your typical (as they see it) victim, changing them into ‘non-victims.’  However, the vast majority of ‘victims’ live from week to week without any violence in their lives.  Playing around with someone’s mind can cause havoc and I wonder how many ex-students are screwed up because of their martial arts training?  

A lot of martial artists use the ‘victim angle,’ and playing to the inner Clint Eastwood that each of us posses in varying amounts, we are duly informed that we don’t have to put up with bad attitudes.  Now all this is about how we see ourselves in relation to everyone else, but as I see it if you’re naturally inclined to avoid trouble because you get scared, then who am I or for that matter anyone else, to take it for granted that we have the right to change how someone thinks.  As I see it, a martial arts teacher should, when training a pupil, teach them how to fight including the mind set of a fighter.  They should also pass on (if they want to) their own personal experience, but I believe they should never try and get into the head of a student in an attempt to manipulate a personality change.  To be continued next month.

Steve Rowe

Steve Rowe is a highly successful Martial Arts instructor - an International Neigong, Qigong and Tai Chi Teacher and an 8th Dan Karate with many other senior dan grades in other martial disciplines.

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