July 2003
Volume 5, Issue 1

"I see the continued appearance on the scene of "fads and fashionable trends" that quickly capture the market and fade away a couple of years later. Truly proven Arts and systems, built on solid foundations, will endure and prosper".

-Grandmaster John Pellegrini, ICHF   

Inside This Issue	"What Works"	Congrats!
Interview with Grandmaster John Pellegrini	PROTECT	Photo Gallery

We teach law enforcement people from time to time, and we often find that those who gone before us have taught them differently. That's okay. There are more good ways than one.

But something does come up frequently, and that's finding out that what they've been teaching is based only on gross motor skills.

First off, there's good logic to this.

One, when you're frightened, pulsed with adrenaline, you loose the ability to accomplish fine motor skill activities. This means joint locks, precise striking. So, therefore, many believe, all the training you receive should be gross motor skill activity. Punch, tackle, hammer, bite.

The problem with this thinking is simple. Gross motor skills are generally all strength oriented. Meaning, for many, especially smaller men, women, there's no need to train at all. Lift weights.

But, even if you do lift weights, that only goes so far. You can only get so strong if you are small. You're not going to grow from a five two, one hundred pound woman, to six-two and two fifty. You might make two fifty if you eat enough, but you sure won't be in any kind of shape.

Point is, gross motor skills should be taught, and they are important, but they won't do you a bit of good if your attacker can take a base shot to the head. At some point, some precision becomes necessary. Even gross motor skill fanatics try to give you targets. Eyes, throat, groin, knee.

The bottom line is this. You have to have some of both.

Officers who train once a month, once a quarter, often train because they have to. Not because they think they need it. They usually think because they are in authority and have a gun, the need will not arise.

They're mostly right. But, sometimes they are wrong.

Also, many of the arrest procedures we've seen don't work. Hammer locks with the arm resting on top of the tricep, which is easy to lift out of, even by someone not so strong. Arm bars that require strength and push against the elbow, one of the strongest points of the body. Strikes using the classic "Karate" punch, turning the fist over, striking someone in the middle of the body. This is a lousy punch for most people, and was not the original karate punch. It was changed to the full turn over style of punch so children could practice it without delivering as much damage. A "thumb up" punch is far more effective. Kicks to the knee can hurt, and may stop an opponent, but I've actually seen someone kicked directly in the knee, hard, and they just kept coming.

So, what's the point?

The point is this. Gross motor skills are important. But if it all boils down to just whacking and wrestling someone to the ground, then you don't need to take anything, just fight like crazy and hope for the best. You had that much knowledge the day you were born. If it were all that effective, we'd all be black belts instantly, and thousands of years of martial arts, many of them battlefield tested, are useless and have always been useless and are a waste of time, so why bother?

I've unfortunately been in fights when I was younger, and I can attest to the fact that the vision does in fact narrow, the brain doesn't think about what it should do, and punch and kick are pretty good ways to protect one's self in that first instant. That's what we teach anyway. But the first instant may not be the whole fight. You can hope it is, but it may not be.

Training at its best should teach you confidence, it should be reality based, and therefore contribute to greater self-control, and therefore greater control of one's actions. This can't be certain. After all, training is training, reality is reality, but it's worked for me a number of times, as well as for others I know, and for cops I've trained who've written me or told me how techniques taught by me have helped them, or saved their lives.

But, there is another side.

The time factor.

And what I said earlier about most cops really not wanting to show up in the first place. And there's pain in learning techniques, and unlike on television shows where the cops are all sleek and competent, frankly, many are in lousy shape and are totally uninterested in being in better shape.

Bottom line, gross motor skills, as well as fine motor skills, are in my view the right way to teach. I like a combination of both, keeping it simple with lots of repetition. But, none of this is going to help if the students aren't interested.

You can only hope that at least one person listens, learns, and if the need arises, can manage the technique or techniques well enough to at least survive or save the life of someone else.

Police organizations ought to require their officers be in a certain condition if they are going to be in the field (some do, but many don't), and that they not only train with firearms, but with competent hand to hand instructors. Self defense of this nature is far more likely than the need to shoot someone.

They should have to train no less than twice a month, and should be tested on the material three or four times a year. This is common sense. Not only because it protects the officer, but a higher level of confidence might allow an officer to handle a situation with neither gun nor force. Having some real knowledge of self-defense would keep officers from being injured, it would keep many offenders from being badly injured, and save the law enforcement organizations from having to deal with a lot of law suits.

Without training, a simple arrest could turn into something ugly for both officer and the perpetrator, where, otherwise, a simple control technique might end the whole affair without escalation.

If you spend all your time doing point tournaments, you're probably fooling yourself about your self-defense skills. If you train to do co-operative throws and joint locks all the time without an understanding of real intent on the part of an attacker, you're also wasting your time.

What works is this?

Training. A lot. And training with useful, worthwhile techniques. They may not be easy to learn.

The arm bar using the triceps tendon can be more difficult than it appears, but once understood, it's so easy as to make you feel silly about not being able to do it in the first place. Even under stress.

But, if you prefer. Lift weights. Stay young forever. Sling your arms and tackle.

Me, I'll train. Knowing full well it may not always be the answer, because no matter how good you are, even monkeys fall out of trees, but, if I train enough, I'm less likely to fall.