When All Hell Breaks Loose: Stuff You Need to Survive When Disaster Strikes

by Cody Lundin

  These attributes must be coupled with a relaxed alertness that does not allow a surprise attack. When one realizes attack is imminent, one will instantly "attack the attacker" with total surprise. Never should anyone show any aggression prior to being attacked. Don't agree to fight, don't argue, leave the area if possible, or apologize, even if you don't actually feel that way if it will make the peace. But, if you are about to be injured, or an innocent loved one is about to be injured, explode into the assailant or assailants with all the destructive fury you can muster.

  CODY: You mentioned the importance of fostering a combative mind-set, and the need to "attack the attacker," but how does one develop those abilities in today's world?

  PROFESSOR BRYANS: Good question. First, cultivate righteous indignation by questioning the nonsense that is being programmed into all of us through the mainstream channels. When you read a story or hear in the news about an innocent person or family being attacked by the all-too-common scum that are allowed to roam free, anger and rage should be your reaction. If you think that such a response is inappropriate, you just proved that such programming has been successful. Why isn't rage appropriate when horrors occur daily such as abduction, sexual assault, the murder of children, home invasions, and attacks on the elderly?. . .and on and on the list goes. These serious crimes are almost invariably committed by repeat offenders who are let loose on the good and innocent people of our nation. Cultivate the combative mind-set, which is prerequisite to any effective self-defense action to be done.

  Second, hook up with a good self-defense school that teaches and drills students in simple, adaptive, retainable skills that blind, disrupt the breathing, break bones, rupture internal organs, and create trauma to the monster who attacks the innocent. These simple procedures must be overlearned by repetitive training against an imagined adversary and training dummies and targets until they become second nature if one should ever need them. Developing a few things really well breeds confidence. The need to overlearn the techniques is essential to gaining competence and having an automatic retaliatory attack response if or when the need arises.

  CODY: Are these techniques difficult to learn and develop?

  PROFESSOR BRYANS: No. Techniques in self-defense have to be simple and direct. If the techniques cannot be understood and learned in a short amount of time they won't be available in an emergency. Once the techniques are learned they must be practiced repeatedly until they become automatic and reflexive.

  Let's go through some of the things Combato students learn in their first private lesson. First, the students must learn how to stand and position themselves when dealing with unknown individuals. Your position should be balanced with one foot back and to the front of the rear shoulder, lead foot slightly turned in with the body at an angle to the potential threat. The relaxed ready position should be learned from both the right and left position to enable you to attack from either side. Next, the hands should be up, mid-chest level or higher, in any configuration that doesn't look aggressive or tie up your hands. Keep your eyes on the individual who has approached, letting your gaze rest easily on the head and shoulder triangle area; and always be aware of the individual's hands. Don't allow the person to crowd you and keep him just out of arm's reach. This way, if the individual were to attack, he would have to step in, therefore telegraphing his movement, and you can attack the attacker where he has left himself open. From this relaxed ready position, you, the defender, will be able to avoid many circumstances in the first place by being aware, and go to all lengths to avoid physical confrontation. If the attacker should attack, you will have the element of surprise by unexpectedly launching your own preemptive strike. If two or more individuals approach, always step to the outside. Learn to interact in all circumstances without diverting eye placement, and whatever your hands are doing, let them remain unencumbered at mid-chest level or higher (in any configuration that doesn't look aggressive). For example, someone asks you for the time, show him your watch, but don't look down at your watch. Never put your hands in your pockets. If a person asks directions, keep your eyes on him and point him in the right direction without turning your back to him.

  CODY: Mark, you mentioned the students attacking with a preemptive strike if necessary when they realize they are under attack. How could this be done, I mean, what are some of the techniques the Combato system teaches?

  PROFESSOR BRYANS: Yes, let's cover four basic strikes often taught to all beginning students—the chop, the chin jab, the side kick, and the fingertip thrust. First the chop. This weapon is formed by flattening the hand with the palm down, striking with the edge of the hand out. The impact of the blow should come from the edge of the hand near the wrist where the metacarpal bones meet the carpal bones. This will give more penetration and focus to the strike. Also, the entire outside edge of the arm, the ulna bone, can be used for the impact point. The throat and the bridge of the nose are great targets for this strike.

  The chin jab smash is done by pressing the hand back as far as possible, so the impact point is at the heel of the hand. In this way the head of the attacker, when struck under the chin, is driven up and back, smashing and breaking the neck. This blow, like the chop, is done close in, half-an-arm's reach or closer. It's an upward strike with the primary target being under the chin. Secondary targets are the eye sockets, the nose, the temple, and the jaw hinge. The chin jab blow is done primarily off the rear side. The chop, with the lead hand, followed by a chin jab with the rear hand, is a practical application of these two basic strikes.

  The third technique is the side kick, sometimes called the king of all self-defense moves. The side kick targets the knee joint or lower but the knee joint is ideal. It doesn't matter if it's the front of the knee, the outside of the knee, or the inside of the knee; the knee breaks relatively easy. Now, the kick is done in a side-facing position. The lead foot is lifted up about knee height, perhaps a little higher and close to the standing leg. It's thrusted out in a piston-type action stomping in a downward action through the knee joint. The impact is with the bottom of the heel or with the entire foot, although the heel is best.

  The fingertip thrust is done palm down, while flattening out the hand and extending the fingers. Drive the extended fingers in a straight line into the attacker's eyes. This technique embodies simplicity, ruthlessness, and brutality and anyone can do it.

  CODY: OK, Mark, you talked about some simple, basic techniques that Combato offers but how do I practice? I mean, do I need a partner to practice with, can I do this alone in my garage; how would you recommend that someone learn these skills?

  PROFESSOR BRYANS: Well that's a great question, Cody. What you need is to overlearn some very simple skills and to practice them against an imagined attacker. The techniques can be done in the air, imagining the attacker in front of you, but at some point it will become important to have some sort of object to hit into such as a striking board, a heavy bag, or a striking dummy. You don't need a training partner but a partner can be helpful at times where you're working on certain types of counterattacks such as a front choke escape or a bear hug hold. In these cases, working with a partner should be done at reduced speed and there should be no contact with any of the blows involved, as they're very destructive. If it's effective for self-defense it needs to be destructive. You can't spar with combat techniques.

  CODY: So the entire family can partner up if desired and train together using these simple techniques?

  PROFESSOR BRYANS: Yes, but you can never make actual contact with a live person. Blows must be at a very reduced speed in the beginning, and all striking should be done on dummies.

  CODY: You mentioned using various types of striking surfaces. Can someone make his own striking board by just wrapping something up with duct tape?

  PROFESSOR BRYANS: That's my favorite kind, anything that can be improvised to smash into. You could even pad a doorjamb. The point is to get the feel for hitting something and developing the power to do damage to
an attacker. This training, along with the right mind-set, will make it easier to smash into a real human when necessary. Three 2x4s can be glued together (make sure not to use any nails) and buried three feet into the ground. The boards are then padded with carpet, closed-cell foam sleeping mats such as backpackers use, or anything that will get the job done. The height above the ground is about six feet and the striking surface should flex dependent upon each individual's needs.

  CODY: What I've stated in this book is the need to practice motor memory skills, not just physical skills, so when someone is subjected to a real-time survival situation, they've gone through that scenario in their mind again and again and again and are more mentally and emotionally prepared to act. It sounds like this is true for Combato as well, is that accurate?

  PROFESSOR BRYANS: That's absolutely true, Cody. People want to be entertained by new things and complicated techniques but it's not the way to train for real-world self-defense. In self-defense, the motive is always defense, but the means to achieve this are by offense. Trendy training methods that are popular are not necessarily the best choice, as you know in your field. The things that you see in movies or the cage fights are not conducive to effective self-defense for a number of reasons. Techniques need to be simple, direct, destructive, and highly adaptable, allowing them to be used under a variety of conditions. Using complicated techniques—I don't care if the person is an expert tenth-degree black belt—is going to get the you-know-what kicked out of you if you attempt it against a street predator. You want to keep things simple and develop a few basic techniques. The four techniques we outlined—the chop, the side kick, the chin jab, and the fingertip thrust—need to be overlearned. The process is this; you begin by first learning the technique at a slow rate, perhaps watch it being done, and as you get the technique down you build up speed. But then you do hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of repetitions coupled with the right mind-set. The person's mind-set should be on the complete destruction of the attacker with an offensive spirit coupled with instant action. Techniques for effective, practical, real-world self-defense should be overlearned so they are literally more available as a motor skill to someone who's scared and pumped up with adrenaline. You need to attack and keep on attacking until the attacker is unconscious.

  CODY: No secret walk-on-rice-paper thing there, right? Just good old-fashioned work and common sense.

  PROFESSOR BRYANS: Absolutely.

  CODY: OK. Well, since this is an urban survival book based upon preparing the home, what should readers have at their house to protect themselves should the need arise?

  PROFESSOR BRYANS: One of the worst things happening in our society today is home invasions where attackers are coming into homes with the family present to do their dirty work. There are a number of ways that home invaders enter a home. One obvious way is that they kick the door down or perhaps pick the lock or break a window. Oftentimes, however, they manipulate their way into the home in some way. Children especially should be taught never to open the door to any stranger. Of course, the first thing to do in any encounter is to try to avoid it altogether by advanced preparation. First, families should develop specific signals to be used among each other that have various meanings depending on the circumstances. How, when, and what type of signals will be used is up to the needs and creativity of the family—and it could be at any level of the attack.

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  IN SELF-DEFENSE, THE MOTIVE IS ALWAYS DEFENSE, BUT THE MEANS TO ACHIEVE THIS ARE BY OFFENSE.

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  Let's say somebody is at the door and no one knows for sure what the person's intent is. The father or whoever answers the door could have a specific question that could be asked to the visitor that would alert family members that something wasn't right. The signal could also be a light left on or turned off that would signal there was a problem. It could be to the point where a gun is pointed at a family member's head and everything's at critical mass and somebody is going to make a move, deciding it's time to defend and a statement was made such as, "Geez, guys, can't we talk this over!" And the family knows when that statement comes out ending with the word "over" that they're going to make their move all at once. My family has a specific statement that we use in public. If my wife or daughter notices something that doesn't seem right, and says the signal words, I know to pay more attention to something that I'm not seeing.

  CODY: That's perfect! So you have many sets of eyes out there, not just one, if everyone's paying attention to what's going on.

  PROFESSOR BRYANS: You bet, and what a feeling to be on top of things to simply avoid an altercation altogether. In addition, the concept of a safe room is a great idea—where there's one room in the house where it would be very difficult for the attackers to break into. This doesn't have to be as extreme as the movie where the woman had a bank vault in her house, but if you have the money, all the more power to you. Having a good carpenter come in to beef up doors and windows in a specific room would be wise. If you're in the middle of building a home, you have all kinds of opportunities to make one small area that is defensible that could be used to retreat into if the need arises.

  As mentioned before, the family could have a specific signal for retreating into the safe room. Safe rooms should include provisions that the family thinks are important for their scenario, especially after reading this book, and of course a cell phone or some sort of communications to allow for the alerting of the authorities. Safe-room provisions—in fact, everything regarding a family's preparedness—should not be advertised but should be kept private within the family. No one should know that you have this kind of thing going, which of course is just common sense. When I was a boy, my mother always had plenty of canned food on hand, and there was no emergency or survival situation going on; it was simply based upon common sense.

  Now of course the ownership of firearms depends on where you live. Here in Arizona, it's perfectly legal to own and use firearms, but the person thinking about purchasing a home-defense weapon should check local laws before doing so. Certainly, having a weapon to defend yourself makes complete sense, as long as it's purchased and used in a legal way. For home defense, I would recommend a 12-gauge shotgun or a .45 automatic pistol. A woman can manage a 12 gauge if she is properly trained, but a 20 gauge, although not as effective as a 12 gauge, will be sufficient and easier for her to manage. For the shotgun, double-ought (oo) buckshot is most commonly recommended and it's a great round. In some cases, there might be some danger to people in other rooms if this round is used—going through walls and such—and a number four round might be better, but I don't think you can go wrong with either one. It would also be a good idea to have a couple of boxes of slugs on hand as well. The most important thing about firearms is to have one that you're comfortable using and that meets your needs.

  As far as precautions around the home, avoiding the confrontation altogether is superior in every way. Take a look at homes around the neighborhood sometime; windows are left open and they just look so easy to break into. Although any home can be broken into, you don't want to make it easier for intruders to do so. It should be difficult and the attacker should have to make a lot of noise. They should have to break windows and give you plenty of warning that they're coming. Various security measures can be done, from roll-down shutters and stronger locks to thorny shrubs at the base of windows to make it more difficult to get into that window. Predators most often are looking for an easy target. Have the best alarm system you can afford, along with adequate lighting around the house, including motion detector lights. If the power goes out, remember that darkness can be helpful; you know your house layout and the assailant doesn't.

  Dogs can also be very effective. Now, if you want to get an attack-trained dog, you need to go to a qualified trainer, as that dog needs to be treated very differently. It can't be socialized with just anybody. Personally, I prefer having an ordinary dog around. A dog is a good alarm; he usually doesn't allow someone to sneak in undetected.
Predator types are very frightened of dogs because they know they can't intimidate a dog. Even a little dog is going to yap away. All this is conducive to keeping potential attackers away, as they like to do their evil deeds in the dark and in secret.

  CODY: Mark, I know there are a lot of inner and outer "politics," for lack of a better term, in which the concept of self-defense has taken a beating. What would you say to concepts and opinions expressed that look down on the right to self-defense?

  PROFESSOR BRYANS: Frankly, Cody, anybody with that type of attitude, I don't care what they think, they're idiots. I think the term that comes to mind is paranoia, and paranoia is when someone is not interpreting reality correctly. They're out of touch with reality; they literally cannot function. Now you tell me, is it paranoia to recognize the fact that there are some dangerous people out there in this world and people are being hurt all the time? To take a reasonable, rational approach and realize that violence could one day come to me and I might need to defend myself so I better be ready to go, I think is quite reasonable.

  I also find that people who are very frightened of the world out there, when they start to learn some self-defense skills—and this really applies to kids—their confidence goes way up. They're finally seeing that, hey, I have some options of what to do; instead of intensifying that fear, it starts to allay the fear. Now they can go about their business with greater awareness, paying attention to what's around them, and, for the most part, there's usually nothing to bring about that fear in the first place. Learning quality self-defense skills reduces fear; it doesn't intensify it. I've trained hundreds and hundreds of people over the last ten years and I find that their confidence increases tremendously and it starts to relieve some of the fear and anxiety that they initially felt. I'm sure it's much the same with your clients and what you do with survival training.