Safety in Training

You should absolutely try these techniques with a partner. This knowledge is worth nothing until you’ve made it your own. However, you must learn to train with a combination of realism and safety. Never be afraid to practice a technique slowly. Keep this phrase in mind: Slow equals smooth and smooth equals fast. Of course, you do want to get to the aggressive, realistic attacks as soon as possible. But trust us, you’ll progress faster if you begin slowly and safely.

For this reason, start every technique slowly, with the attacker making a real attack, but at a slow speed and with minimal power. For instance, if you want to train against a choke from the front, your partner should place his hands on your throat and squeeze gently. You should feel pressure so that you can identify the danger, but the choke should not be applied with full power until much later in your training.

As noted earlier, if certified instructors are available in your area, we strongly recommend you take at least a few lessons with them. Not only can they teach you the techniques, they can provide you with some principles for safe training that will bring you to a higher level of proficiency quickly.

The following are additional notes regarding training to defend against weapons. First, NEVER use a real weapon. Various types of training weapons are available, including rubber hand guns, metallic but inert hand guns, and rubber knives.

Handguns: NEVER put your finger in the trigger—our techniques often cause damage to the trigger finger.

Knives: NEVER stab at the eyes, ALWAYS stab at the chest or neck. Even a rubber knife can damage an eye if the defender makes a mistake.

Sticks: Use padded sticks at the beginning of your training. If you decide to graduate to wooden or composite-material batons, train slowly until your technique is correct.

Terminology

There are a few words and phrases in this book that might require definition. Many of these phrases are used because we try to avoid terms like “right” and “left.” “Right” and “left” become confusing for people fighting in a left-handed stance, and they sometimes stop the mind from being able to switch sides. We’ve surrendered to common usage, of course, and we DO use “right hand” and “left hand,” often for the sake of clarity, but we also use some of the terms below.

Live side - the side of the body from which you can easily launch more attacks. Stand in a fighting stance with your left foot forward and your hands up: Your right side is your live side.

Dead side - the side of the body from which you cannot easily launch as many attacks. Stand in a fighting stance with your left foot forward and your hands up: Your left side is your dead side.

Inside defense - any redirecting defense in which the defending limb moves inward toward the center of the body.

Co-author John Whitman (right) defends against a knife attack on the attacker’s “live side.”

Co-author Darren Levine (right) bursts forward with his feet to the rifleman’s “dead side” to grab the weapon.

Outside defense - any redirecting or stopping defense in which the defending limb moves outward from the center of the body.

Inside arm or leg - this term refers to the limb or body part that is closer to the attacker; it can also apply to the “inside hip,” “inside foot,” etc.

Outside arm or leg - this term refers to the limb or body part that is farther away from the attacker; it can also apply to the “outside hip,” “outside foot,” etc.

Burst - any explosive movement (usually, forward) of the feet. We “burst” in when we do gun defenses, stick defenses, etc.

Guard - a ground position in which one fighter is on his back and the other is on top inside the bottom person’s legs. In this case, the top person is in the bottom person’s guard.