Seal Survival Guide

by Cade Courtley

  In SEAL teams we spend a lot of time training in hand-to-hand combat because it’s a blast—in training, anyway. In the real world of modern-day combat, if you find yourself engaged in hand-to-hand, then you can pretty much assume that everything is totally screwed. Why? Where is your air support, your team, your rifle, pistol, and knife?

  Prefight

  Fighting is a violent, physical battle. Yet, before the first strike lands or any contact is made, fighting to win begins in the mind. Even if hand-to-hand combat is physical, the prefight aspect is 100 percent mental. Once your mindset is geared to fight, it creates a powerful force, not only by telling your muscles what must be done but by giving you the proper command of presence to do it. Oftentimes, once a person gets into this fight-zone mode, it can project that you are a seriously dangerous opponent. If nothing else, your mindset and apparent willingness to fight with reckless abandon—or, as SEALs say, “unleash the beast”—is enough to make your assailant think twice and could end the threat before anything begins.

  Commanding Presence

  Confidence and posture are two things that could mean the difference between your walking away undeterred and getting subjected to a life-threatening beating, or worse. Attackers tend to prey on the weak; don’t represent yourself as such a target. The look of someone approaching with their chest out, shoulders back, and a confident and determined facial expression will be much less alluring to an attacker than someone hunched over staring at the ground and cowering in fear.

  When I was living in a certain part of Santa Monica, I found that for some reason I couldn’t walk half a block before an aggressive panhandling desperado asked me for money. I fully understand that there are many people out there dealing with a variety of hardships. That said, the folks in my old neighborhood had a less-than-sympathetic approach. So I began to do a little experiment. Any time I saw one coming, I would make eye contact immediately and maintain an agitated stare until I passed the individual. I rarely, if ever, was asked for money. This was done to prove the point that even the most aggressive and utterly rude people who might want to stop you as you go about your business won’t bother if you present confidence and display a no-nonsense posture.

  Situational awareness is your best friend in prefight situations, and even more so to prevent a fight. Stay away from danger areas like alleys, dark parking lots or garages, high-crime sections of the city, and groups of people loitering.

  SITUATIONAL AWARENESS CHECKLIST when confronted:

  Know how many opponents there are and how they are positioning themselves.

  Assess what their condition is: sick, under the influence, crazed?

  Do they have a weapon? Always look at the hands.

  Distance is a key factor when it comes to avoiding a fight: distance from dangerous areas; distance from potential attackers. Distance will also give you options and the ability to see things unfold. You can create distance through your movement, or create distance with an object like a pole, a broom, a large stick, or even an extended arm (use caution not to get grabbed).

  The Fight

  Violence of action means the unrestricted use of speed, strength, surprise, and aggression to achieve total dominance against your enemy. I’m repeating this to drive home the concept that any fighting technique is useless unless you first totally commit to violence of action. Don’t be afraid to hit first, and when you do, hit hard. Remember, you are fighting because this is the best and only option. Pull the trigger—because you are in a battle for your life!

  Your instincts, assessment, and situational awareness have told you that you are in mortal danger. You don’t know the other person’s intentions fully, and you never can. What you can do is survive— it is your right to not be killed or harmed by another person.

  As with most things survival-related, fighting has its own set of priorities that need to be addressed at lightning speed.

  1. Protect your face.

  2. Stay on your feet and keep moving.

  3. Hit hard.

  4. Haul ass (a.k.a. get off the X).

  One of the training techniques we use in the SEAL teams is called the hooded box drill. Basically, you are placed in the middle of a darkened, noise-filled room with all of your gear on. You have your primary (rifle) and secondary (pistol) weapons. Then, a two-by-two-foot hood drops from the ceiling to cover your face. The idea of this drill is to train for making an immediate assessment and response. Once the hood is raised, you have less than a second to evaluate your situation and take action. In military operations and in real life, that’s how quickly situations can change. It’s an amazing training tool. Especially when the hood flies up and there are four guys a foot away who start to beat the hell out of you.

  Please repeat: Violence of action!

  1. PROTECT YOUR FACE

  On the human body, the greatest number of vulnerable points are located upward from the clavicles, or collarbones. This will be discussed more thoroughly, but it is important to remember that you must protect these vulnerabilities on your own body before you attack.

  • Make fists by curling the fingers tight to the palm with thumbs outside of the index fingers, gripping in.

  • Bring arms up so that elbows are against your chest and fists are close to your face, with thumbs a few inches forward from the outer eye sockets.

  • This is the ideal position to protect much of your upper torso while creating a barrier around your neck, face, and head. This will also allow you to strike and immediately return to this defensive and protective position.

  2. STAY ON YOUR FEET AND KEEP MOVING

  Unless you are very good at wrestling or jujitsu, the best place to be in a fight is upright and on your feet. This is especially important if you are fighting more than one attacker, because it will give you the ability to move around during the attack. A moving target is much harder to hit than a static one, so stay mobile. Circle often and keep your attacker(s) in front of you. Don’t allow them to surround you.

  • Keep your feet shoulder-width apart.

  • Lower your center of gravity by crouching slightly.

  • Shuffle your feet; never cross them.

  If you should fall to the ground, curl up on your side and cover your head while delivering kicks to your attacker’s legs and knees. As soon as possible, get back to your feet.

  3. HIT HARD

  Again, back to violence of action: Make every blow count, and you could walk away; otherwise you may be carried away. Punch, kick, elbow, gouge, bite, stab, rip, crush—you name it, you should do it, because this person is trying to take your life. The only rule in fighting is to live.

  Vulnerable points exist all over the body, but remember that the greatest number of them exist from the collarbones up. Within this relatively small area of the neck, you have:

  • Two carotid arteries that feed blood to the brain.

  • The windpipe, which is the airway for breathing.

  • The spinal cord, which controls all motor skills for the body.

  Your attacker may be three times your size, but if you take away even one of these functions, the fight is over. Even a 250-pound man made of solid muscle will stop fighting if he can’t breathe, which is why you must concentrate the full force of your attack on the face and neck area.

  Punches

  Make a fist as described and deliver a punch so you are ideally striking with the knuckles of the index and middle fingers and punching through your target, as if you were trying to reach a place a few inches behind where you’re aiming. Then immediately return the hand to the defensive position by your face. You will increase the power of a punch by twisting your midsection in conjunction with the blow.

  • Jab: This is a punch thrown straight out, using your fist on your lead-leg side; it’s not the most powerful, but is great for maintaining distance.

  • Cross: A punch straight in from opposite the lead leg—very powerful.

  • Hook: An outward-arcing punch delivere
d by either fist—great for targeting the ear or jaw.

  • Uppercut: An upward-arcing punch delivered by either fist—great for targeting the chin, and the best for lights-out!

  Palm strike

  In addition to the above punches, your hands can also be very effective when clawing or jabbing with fingers, and an open-palm strike can be devastating. The palm of the hand contains one of the densest bones in the body.

  1. Open your palm; cock your arm back, just as you would for a jab punch.

  2. Strike directly at the front of the nose and aim upward.

  A nose broken this way is much more painful than one that’s been hit from the side, and will take the fight out of nearly anyone.

  Feet

  Feet can be used in a variety of ways during a fight. There are numerous kicking techniques that can stop a fight before it even starts, but for the purposes of teaching you fighting survival methods, I would strongly recommend that you use your feet to stay upright and move. If on the ground, kick to keep the assailant way until you are back on your feet. In general, save the spinning-back roundhouse kick to the temple for the professionals.

  Elbows

  Elbows are very effective and can be used when tight against your attacker. If you perform this properly, not only will you strike when slashing in, but you can deliver a second and equally devastating blow by back slashing (returning the elbow to original position).

  Knees

  As with the elbows, knees are hard body parts that can inflict great damage while you’re tight against an attacker. The best way to employ knee strikes is to grab the back of your attacker’s neck with both hands, drawing them toward you each time you are delivering a knee strike. Be aware that using this technique may cause you to sacrifice some stability because you will have only one foot planted on the ground during each strike.

  Chokeholds

  The rear chokehold method (a.k.a. the sleeper) is a compression grip applied to the throat to disrupt circulation (carotid arteries) and breathing (windpipe), which ultimately causes the person to lose consciousness.

  1. It is best applied from behind the attacker by wrapping your left arm around the person’s throat, with his windpipe in the crook of your arm and your bicep and forearm on each side of his neck. The positioning of your arm is the key to this technique, so remember, the deeper you can get his throat between your bicep and forearm, the better.

  2. Keep your right arm behind his neck and grab your left shoulder.

  3. Then with your left arm, reach to grab your right arm’s bicep, squeezing tightly, making a full lock, or chokehold.

  An alternate method is called the front chokehold, which works when you are facing your attacker.

  1. With your right hand, reach across and literally grab the opposite corner of his shirt collar—not the person. You will have greater control over your adversary this way.

  2. With your left hand, reach and grip the attacker’s collar on the opposite side. This will make your crossed arms an X in front of his throat.

  3. Grip as tight as you can while rotating your hands forcefully inward to achieve the chokehold. You are twisting the opposite shirt collars as if you were squeezing and wringing out a rag.

  Thumb drop

  This move will bring a person to his knees within moments.

  1. From a standard handshake grip, rotate your hand upward as you grip the attacker’s hand, so that your thumb is above his thumb knuckle.

  2. Lock that knuckle down with your thumb.

  3. Bend his thumb, turning it and pushing his entire hand directly up toward his forearm. Keep doing so until you have full control and can force him down to his knees. (See illustration on page 158.)

  Fighting an Assailant Who Has a Gun or Knife

  If your assailant has a weapon, then your choices in defense will change. Disarming a person with a gun is incredibly risky. It takes a second to pull the trigger, so the best option might be to comply and wait for an opportunity to attack. However, if you are close enough and the situation necessitates you attack, your goal would be to use maximum effort and attack the weapon with the full intention to deflect his aim. Trying to wrestle the weapon from his grip is less likely to work than pushing his hand away, be it up, to the side, or downward. At this point, you may get the opportunity to strike at vulnerable areas and disable the attacker enough to get off the X. If the person has a knife, again, keeping your distance is the goal. Use your shirt, coat, or whatever you can find to deflect his thrusting arm, which then could provide an opportunity to use defensive tactics.

  4. HAUL ASS

  Although this is the last step in this section, avoiding fights altogether needs to be your first priority. Get off the X and save your fighting techniques for the gym. But you might need to strike first and hard to have the chance to get away. Don’t stay engaged if you can escape. The moment you have an opening, take it and leave the scene, because fights can change instantly and drastically.

  Final Note

  As I have aged (matured), I have learned many valuable lessons. One of these is that when big kids (adults) get into fights, three things can happen:

  • Someone goes to the hospital.

  • Someone goes to jail.

  • Someone goes to the morgue.

  MUSCLE MEMORY

  If someone were to unexpectedly punch you in the face right now, even if the blow was weak, the shock of being hit would likely immobilize you. I can think of no other activity that requires practice and repetition more than some form of martial arts or physical defense training. The above methods of defense would be nearly useless if you merely read how to do them and didn’t train to perfect them. In addition, being physically ready to defend yourself or your loved ones brings confidence and freedom. Remember: Repetition, repetition, and more repetition help your muscles respond quickly and with effectiveness. You will therefore become victorious during the most strenuous or violent encounters you might have to deal with, even if, hopefully, you’ll never have to use them.

  I would never tell someone not to defend themselves. I do however subscribe to the following policies:

  1. Don’t start a fight; finish a fight.

  2. If you see a guy with ears that look like chewed-up bubblegum, keep walking!

  FIRE: FORESTS, BUILDINGS, HOMES

  Each year, an average of more than five million acres of U.S. forests burn. The fires cost $1 billion to extinguish, destroy $500 billion worth of property, and cause the deaths of at least three thousand people. Fires are started from natural factors, such as lightning, which is blamed for more than thirty thousand fires annually; or from human carelessness, such as from campfires or cigarettes; or by arson. And with the vast amount of tree death due to beetle kill leaving behind abundant dry timber in some states, an absolutely devastating forest fire is a mere lightning strike away. Nevertheless, once a forest is ablaze, its force and destructive powers create a formidable survival challenge.

  Situational Awareness: Know Your Risk

  A number of government agencies monitor national areas that are susceptible to fire, including the National Weather Service and U.S. Forest Service, which have updated maps posted online. If you live near or plan to be in fire-prone regions, stay alert to environmental factors such as droughts or seasonal periods of low rainfall.

  Outdoor Fire Threats

  If your house is located in the vicinity of a fire, be prepared to evacuate well in advance. Do not ignore official alerts. As a preemptive attempt to save your property, you should be watchful of hot, flying embers that can travel miles from active forest fires. Wetting down roofs and activating lawn sprinkler systems, if available, will help, but evacuation should be the primary plan of action.

  If venturing into forests or brush areas during these periods, be aware of the location of natural firebreaks, such as rivers, lakes, ravines, and paths purposely cleared of trees. Try to stay in close proximity to these, as fires can start rapidly, and depending on level
s of moisture and wind, flames can burn vast swaths of land, raging at speeds of more than 80 mph. That’s slightly faster than you can run. The most furious of these fires have even overtaken vehicles trying to flee.