Going Biblical

Our gym has a couple of biblical sayings painted on the walls. They are there for a reason as they represent the mindset and philosophy of what we stand for. The sayings are:

"The Guardian of Israel will not sleep nor slumber" (Psalms 121), and "My rock that trains my hand for war, my fingers for battle" (Pslams 144).

It is easy to get caught up in the religious and metaphysical aspect of any biblical statement, and especially these two. But if we take a second look, can we actually learn something practical from them? The answer of course is: yes we can!

Think about what we do at Masada each and every day. We train. We train hard. And we do so with a purpose. Many heard me speak of the Sheepdog mentality, a term coined by Lt. Col. Dave Grossman who spoke of sheep (general populous), wolves (the "bad guys") and the sheepdogs (the protectors of the sheep from the wolves).

We teach skills that can hurt, maim, and even kill another human being. But we never take it for granted, and furthermore we teach how to utilize those skills in order to protect ourselves, our loved ones, and our community. It may not be Israel in the pure sense of the saying, but for us, Israel refers to our brothers and sisters here in the USA, just as much as it does in Israel the country.

To drive this point home even further: we have all heard in recent days about the "Knockout Game".  What few realize is that the game has been around for a while. It is not a new thing. And it is not a game, but rather a racially motivated hate crime. Targets are black people, Jews, and other minorities. Our "Israel" is right here in our back yards, and we vow to guard the people we care about.

But it is one thing to want to guard and protect, and another to have the skills to actually do it. At the end of the day, that is what we do at Masada. We train. We train your "hands and fingers" for war. We provide you with skills, a gym to get stronger, and drills to improve your situational awareness  and tactical analysis abilities. We train. We teach you how to strike and kick, and how to defend against various types of attacks. We train.

So we dug deeper, can the scripture, that has been handed down from generation to generation give us actual skills? We found out that the list was long, from describing strikes to weapon fighting skills, and even tactics for how to wage war. But we liked one specifically. This one is taken from the Talmud, which is the basis for Judaic law. The statement is Aramaic and reads "דבתר רישא גופא אזיל" which translates into: After the head the body goes. Or, the way we say it in classes, where the head goes the body follows. When trying to control another person, control their head and you can take them down, pick them up, or take them out all together.

So stay sharp, train your hands for combat and your fingers for war and guard your "Israel".

As always, stays safe. 

Tzviel 'BK' Blankchtein

Masada Tactical

Soft, Hard, or in between?

Fighting, at its core, and as we concluded after watching thousands of hours of videos and reading reports from police, military, and other experts, boils down to brawling.  Thats pretty much it.  One can spend years practicing an art, but when the moment comes, and that primal instinct kicks in, we do what every animal has always done: we brawl.

When we teach self-defense in our classes we realize a few critical things:

1. For most, the minimal training they receive by us is all they will ever get.  
2. Most people won't, nor should they, ever get into a fight.
3. Many of our members, even after all of our best intentions and efforts, will just not be as proficient as others.

Reality is that when we teach a skill we try to make sure two things happen: 1) our students cause as much damage on their opponent as they can, and 2) they cause as little damage as they can on themselves.  Because at the end of the day, when you fight you will get hurt.  It's the nature of the encounter, and we must expect it, accept it, deal with it, and move on.

Our body, as is that of your opponent, is comprised of different types of tissue, from hard substances such as bones, to soft components such as organs, and some are in between such as muscle tissue (which some have more than others).

whoever designed our bodies (I will not dwell into evolution, creation, or other theories here) did a pretty awesome job.  It's amazing to learn how everything works, and how every little aspect of our being has a function and a goal.  For example, our skull is designed to protect our brain.  It is a strong bone.  It does a pretty good job at its intended mission.  Which is why punching at the skull makes little sense…unless of course you want to break your hand.  

Going back to our previous point, if you want to create as much damage on your opponent as possible, while minimizing how much damage is done to you, you must be accurate in your delivery of strikes.  You must allocate the right tool to the right target.

Hence our rule: if you are targeting something hard, hit with something soft.  If you are targeting something soft, hit it with something hard.  A few examples: if you are striking at a bone, hit with a meaty part of your limb (palm, bottom of your fist, etc.).  If you are hitting at a soft target, like someone's gut, then hit them with a hard weapon, such as your fist or knee.

Hitting a hard surface with another hard surface will degrade the fight into a physics equation where the more dense material will remain intact while the less dense will break.  It is as simple as that.

Lessons to take away:

1. when your instructor tell you to strike in a different manner, or to defend in a slightly different angle, listen to him/her!
2. stop punching at your partner's head.  you'll break your hand if that was a real fight.
3. don't punch at their behinds either…it's sexual harassment…not an effective target.
4. there's a reason we say a proper punch should be executed with the top two knuckles.  Avoid that boxer's fracture.
5. wear your shin pads!

As always, stay safe!

Tzviel 'BK' Blankchtein

Masada Tactical

Is that a gun in your pocket? ...Or are you just happy to see me?

Staring down at the muzzle of a gun is scary.  There are few things that would get you blood to freeze faster than facing an armed assailant.

We teach weapon disarms, from edged weapons and blunt objects to firearms, including handguns and rifles.  We even teach how to disarm a person armed with a hand grenade…although, if you get to that point you probably signed up for it and your hazardous pay increase is making sense just about now.  But the reality is that whenever possible we prefer you didn't use them.  There is always an inherit risk when attempting a disarm, and although we have absolute faith and confidence in our skills, we prefer you don't have to prove us right.  As a side note, we have a few documented incidents of members executing our skills and live to talk about it.  To date we have zero failures…we don't want you to be the first though.

There are several steps you can take to avoid facing an armed assailant to begin with, because as you know, prevention is always better than having to deal with the situation…says the father of two.

The first thing you should keep in mind is that the more you know about a location, route, or person the better decisions you can make.  For example, you have no business walking around certain neighborhoods on Baltimore City late at night, unless of course you are making a buck in the process, in which case, it's all on you buddy.  If you don't put yourself in those situations to begin with, you are decreasing your chances of having to deal with an unfortunate event.

Decreasing the chances doesn't mean eliminating them though.  As we know, misfortune can strike anywhere and at anytime, targeting anybody.  Just because we tried to avoid trouble, doesn't mean trouble will avoid us.  Mr. Murphy is a pain in the behind, isn't he?  Yet, once again, prevention is key.  Situational awareness is a skill you should master.  There are various steps you can take to improve your situational awareness, but the best is always to practice it.  when you go out, make an effort to notice people, places, points of interest and points of egress.  Do you recall what the person standing by the entrance wore?  or what car was parked next to yours?  How many guys had their pants below their butt level?  And when did the last stripper leave the club?  By practicing these skills you'll become better at it.

So you tried to avoid entering a bad situation.  You even maintained a high level of situational awareness.  Yet, someone gets in your face and seems pretty agitated.  It turns out you were looking at his girlfriend for a second too long, or at least so he thinks.  No need to A-frame kick him just yet…remember, he may have a weapon, and kicking him may just agitate him even more.  Verbal de-escalation skills are a good tool as well.  They don't always work, but they sure do worth a try.  Get creative, make them laugh, don't argue, and avoid combative phrases.  Hopefully he will leave you alone and go back to his girlfriend, that is by this point truly impressed with you…but we won't tell the guy about that right now.

It's just not your day!  You did everything right and yet you find yourself staring down a muzzle, which from your angle seems the size of a cannon.  This is when remembering the difference between a primary crime scene and a secondary crime scene may come in handy.  As your memory flashes to what BK was talking about in class the other day, you remember that if demands are made at the initial point of contact, yet there is no effort to relocate you, your chances of survival are pretty high if you comply.  Turns out assailants are, at the end of day, just bullies hiding behind a gun.  They really don't have the guts nor do they want to shoot you anymore than you want to get shot.  give them your wallet, your car keys, your 1980 calculator watch.  None of that is worth the potential aftermath.  However, if your mugger decides he wants to move you, be it into an alley, into a car, into your house, or into the Playboy mansion, wherever, something bad is brewing (well, maybe not so bad at the mansion).  DON'T GO!  Your chances of survival as it turns out are greater if you fight them right there and then.  once moved to a secondary crime scene those survival rates drop significantly.

This is not the time nor place to learn how to execute the many types of weapon disarm.  However, if you remember the following two rules you are likely to survive the encounter:  when facing a firearm, make sure to get out of the line of fire (redirect the muzzle off of you), and stay out of the line of fire (control the weapon).  By following these rules and being as violent and aggressive as you possibly can, you will live to see your family and loved ones!

As always, stay safe!

Tzviel 'BK' Blankchtein
Masada Tactical

Who is Mr. Hick?

In our classes, whether at the studio or when training professional warriors, we often times refer to "Hick's Law". But what does this law say, and how does it apply to us?

At its simplest form and definition the law simply states that the more skills a person know the slower his/her reaction time.  Mr. Hick came at this conclusion when he was timing a student who only knew one way to defend a strike. The defense was instinctive and rapid because the defender knew no other response option. As soon as the student was shown a second way to defend a strike the reaction time slowed. The defender now had a choice to make, and even though we are talking about fractions of a second, it is still a slow down of the response time.  By further extending and increasing the number of defenses taught to the student, Mr. Hick was showing a correlation between the number of skills known and the response time, essentially showing that response slowed down exponentially as the number of options grew.

The way we train matters. We must keep in mind that in a true violent encounter many of the "luxuries" we take for granted in training will not be available to us, including: a compliant partner, ultimate environmental setting (gym), and most importantly: Time. The time it may take your brain to process an attack and figure out the right response option may be too long. And that just isn't acceptable. In order to overcome this issue we must follow a simple rule in training: Hick's Law. We must teach the least amount of skills possible that we can use in the most amount of situations. Thus, if and when attacked, our brain retrieves the necessary defense in a relative swift manner.

There are self defense systems that teach multiple ways to defend against different attacks, even when those attacks are similar and could be addressed in one cohesive manner. For example, there are systems that teach one defense against a choke from one direction, a different defense if the choke is being placed from a different angle, yet another if the choke involves a push, pull, or an object. The se are too many variables to consider when your life is measures in milliseconds. Again, time is a luxury not available to those who are faced with a need to preserve their lives NOW.

In ICS we take every step possible to evaluate and re-evaluate, and change our curriculum to keep simplifying response options, so when the need arises and our students are faced with a true threat then the response is immediate. Using choke defense again as an example, we teach only one way to defend against it, regardless of direction, obstacles, momentum, etc., it's always the same: stab one arm straight up, and turn to place that arm between you and the opponent. In addition to being one skill only we also assure that the skill is not strength dependent, that it is gross motor skill oriented, and that it is easy to recall under stress. Hick's Law in action.

So next time you evaluate a skill ask yourself "Is it in line with Hick's Law?"  If you learn one skill that you can apply in multiple situations you are one step ahead of the curve.

Thank you Mr. Hick.

As always, stay safe!

Tzviel 'BK' Blankchtein
Masada Tactical