Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
“
Lots of people limit their possibilities by giving up easily. Never tell yourself this is too much for me.
It's no use. I can't go on. If you do you're licked, and by your own thinking too. Keep believing and
keep on keeping on.
”
—Norman Vincent Peale
To defend oneself and one's loved ones is a basic primal instinct and innate desire that nature
built into each and every one of us. True self-defense is about survival. It is a gritty, dirty, no-
holds-barred fight for your life. To be victorious, which means saving your life and the lives of
those you care about, you must allow yourself to get pissed off! You must channel your anger
into the fight against your opponent, not allowing it to cloud your reason, but using it to fuel
the fires within that enable you to do what you must do, and never give up. If you can't muster
enough anger to allow yourself to do whatever it takes to stop that rapist/murderer/thief/so-
ciopath dead in his tracks, then you will fail, and the consequences may well be disastrous.
The physical self-defense techniques that are outlined in the following pages are very basic
tools and principles that may save your life someday. The principles alone will be of some
value, but it is their practice, both in your mind as well as against a physical target, such as a
padded pole planted in the ground, a punching bag, or a partner wearing protective clothing,
that will help program the motions into your muscles and memory that will turn theory into
practice when push comes to shove.
People skilled in the martial arts typically practice a series of movements, each set of which
is known as a
kata
. Each
kata
is a specific combination of precise offensive and/or defensive
movements, such as kicks, blocks, chokes, throws, and punches, designed to deal with one or
more opponents in a given scenario. A typical martial artist will practice a few
katas
over and
over again, hundreds of times, until each series of movements is mastered, before moving on to
a new series of
katas
. In this way, a specific
kata
becomes programmed into the reflex system
of the body, so whether in competition, combat, or a self defense situation, the body has a “lib-
rary” of sets of learned and programmed sequences that may be accessed with lightening speed,
bypassing the need to “figure things out.” Bruce Lee spoke of learning, memorizing and then
forgetting the form, while other martial artists speak of a high concept known as
munen muso,
which can be translated into acting with an undisturbed or seemingly “empty” mind where the
natural intuitive self responds unhampered as the situation requires.
Naturally, no amount of self-defense techniques or physical training and conditioning will
stop a bullet. Hollywood loves the stereotype of muscle-bound action heroes, like Rambo,
whose superhuman strength and uncanny fighting skills carry them safely through a hail of bul-
