Surprise, The Criminal’s Advantage
Are We Training For All Probabilities
Recently, I had a great discussion with a former street thug (who cleaned his life up several years ago, and is now married and has several children) about the who, what, where, when, how, and why of his target selection in his past life. Many of the principals that this person shared with me can be found in both my street 101 and Gladiator School articles. (It should be noted that the two previously mentioned articles were written well before speaking to the subject who spawned this article). Our discussions confirmed to me that most of these guys do utilize similar operating procedures. What peaked my interest, however, was some of his comments about his favorite technique, that of SURPRISE, and the context in which he used it.
Throughout our conversation, this former predator kept hounding on the fact that surprise and overwhelming violence was his primary tactics in what I like to call, the shock and awe phase of total psychological and physical dominance that most predators depend upon when engaging a target. When combined with the fact that he always used the psychological advantage of surprise, combined with physical advantage of first strike, he mentioned many martial arts and self-defence techniques taught were neutralized due to the fact that most were predicated on the fact that the intended target (combatant/mark/victim) “KNEW” that they were going to be assaulted.
This comment really got me thinking about the realities of the street and what I have both empirically and experientially observed and investigated as an LEO. Although many assaults that I have attended did involve the cognitive ability to recognize that a physical encounter was about to take place, many also involved the guerilla tactic of hit and run where surprise was the tipping point, which benefited the attacker. To illustrate this concept, this former street thug stated that there were several occasion where he targeted individuals who were much stronger and tougher than he was, so to tip the scales in his favor, he would always “sucker” them from a position of advantage and then continue to beat them into submission to the point where they would be hospitalized. This was also the same tactic he would use when preying upon targets that he did not know, for property type crimes (robberies).
Of course, as I was talking to this rehabilitated street thug, I was continually thinking about how I would counter this tactic, to which the answer “AWARENESS” immediately came to mind. If through awareness I could identify this potential threat, then I would take away the predator’s primary tactic of surprise, thus likely causing the threat to pick another easier target. Although a sound hypothesis that is taught by many in our field (including myself), it was challenged by my new best friend who I would consider to be an EXPERT in the field of applied street violence. Although he looked for those who had no situational awareness as primary targets, at times he did pick those who knew he was there, and used a street “interview” or “ruse” to his advantage until close enough to strike, utilizing the element of surprise and overwhelming force.
So what did I take from this very enlightening discussion:
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In training, we need to start ingraining stimulus response scenarios where the fighter is taken by complete and total surprise. Although most scenario-based training has an element of knowledge, expectance, and co-operation about it, we need to safely but realistically create the “holy shit” moments as well.
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In training we need to create some drills that will ensure that we hit to hurt but not to injure thus replicating immediate action drills from positions of disadvantage. (here at the school we call this the commit to hit drill)
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In training, we need to build in the Murphy moments where the predator is just outside of arms/legs reach, armed with a weapon intent on causing death or grievous bodily injury, rather than holding it out at arms length within one’s sphere of influence where most weapon counter measure techniques are effective.
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We need to accept the fact that in some circumstances (ambush) there may be nothing we can do to prevent such an attack. In fact, depending upon the feral intent of the designated attack, you may be knocked out or even seriously injured to the point where your ability to counter attack will be effectively neutralized. (This can be seen in a number of video clips that I will have up on my website within the next couple of days where the ambush and multiple opponent threat are omni present in real world violence)
Yes, I do believe that AWARENESS is an important skill that will dissuade many street predators that are on the hunt for property, body, or life type crimes from picking you as a target, but like the above noted information suggests, sometimes awareness will not be good enough. In some situations, because of awareness, you will know that a physical attack is about to occur thus allowing for an escape or physical interdiction, but the reality is, if attacked, you will NOT likely see it coming (ambush) and will probably be fighting from a position of disadvantage (serious injury, multiple threats, weapons). Start training for these foreseeable scenarios now as safely and as realistically as possible.
Some who read this will disagree with what I have written, and will continue to believe that their fantasy defences and traditional ways of dealing with their altered perception of street violence will be good enough in the real world. WAKE UP……… Reality Sucks Brothers and Sisters, and we need to start adapting and improvising our training methods because the street predator knows no bounds!!!!!!
Darren
January 18, 2009 at 6:35 pm | Uncategorized | No comment