Training Jedi Knight Types Lesson 7 Red Dot Robot - Part VIII

PART VII: From Any Direction

By Stephen Cheney

ATTACK

A menacing person approaches. You know that because your mental radar is always sweeping your surroundings, but in a very relaxed way. If you do Not know that a menace approaches: then your Situational Awareness is not on and you get attacked by surprise. A surprise that you lapsed into allowing. You may need a lot of Good luck with surviving then. Who successfully delivers the first strike has won half the battle.

DEFENCE

1....
Breathe in: and as you do so, use your mind, your imagination to expand the size, the dimensions of the Aggressor into giant proportions.

2....
Then as you breathe out: Use your mind, as it did the expansion, to shrink the mental image down to the real size of the problem. And also just how much distance is between you both.

This does not eliminate the problem but it does gain you some mastery over your fears. This is your mind reminding yourself that Fear expands threats, but threats need to be dealt with as they are. Your mind knows that emotions exaggerate problems and by deliberately doing the expansion you take over the control of it, and take back the control of your emotions. You are not so helpless if you can make of a vicious problem a larger problem then decrease it to more manageable and realistic portions.

In Martial Arts you breathe in quickly, suck air, sniffing it in through your nose. The control comes in when you slowly breathe out. You can control exactly how fast and how much air goes out. Reminding yourself that it is You and Not the Menace who is in charge of your body. Thus your mind regains control over your fears.

3....
Now, as the Aggressor gets closer, and you are controlling your breathing and thus your panic level, view in your mind that person as a robot with bright red dots at his main weak points, the targets. Raise your hands to your upper chest level, but not higher, your elbows are vertically down in front of you and your arms are very loose, like a whip; soft and ready. Your arms form a loose triangle or pyramid shape pointed out from your centre-line.

4....
HIS PUNCH/ GRAB: As an arm thrusts at you to punch or grab, time your arms to contact when his is at the half-way mark between you; you forearms at your chest level you sweep your arms forward from your elbows to greet his arm, you touch his arm. As you touch his arm you are turning your torso to be side-on to him. That moves your centre-line targets away from an impact.

You can also turn your feet to assist as necessary. You will end up either inside or outside of his arm, with his arm sliding passed you, for you have NOT blocked its passage, its Force. As his arm does not impact, its mass and momentum sends him forward and a bit off balance. When you sweep with your arms: your hands end up high at your head area and it is your forearms that contact with his arm.

At this point you can guide his arm either upward or down. Either way exposes more of his targets. How you guide his arm: You do NOT push it with your arm strength. Instead, your arm/s are in contact with his extended arm. Fix your arms in place at your centre-line and just turn your body with your arms and it is your body that presses his arm further in its motion.

If he WAS a robot of steel the force of his arm does not matter, as you are no longer in its path and have not used Force to try and block it. You do not block a steel pipe, nor an immensely strong striking arm. You ride the force-wave.

5....
You still see the red dots on his body. Your defensive flow slightly away from him smoothly cycles back into your stepping forward closer and lunging forward to strike THROUGH a red dot.

6....
Then you step again to get behind him and attack another red dot, deliver a side-kick to the rear of his knee and/ or swiftly leave.

In the chaos of combat when you sweep your arms to avoid a strike you may find yourself INSIDE his arms instead of OUTSIDE them where you would be far safer. Don’t think, immediately slide into him and ram an elbow into the side of his throat (into the windpipe would kill), or, if he is too high, fire an arm along the top of his and chop him in the neck. Now you have drawn his attention upward, you go for a low attack to his groin, knee or foot. So when ending up inside of his arms: Explode into a strike to his throat.

PRACTICE AGAINST an ARM ATTACKING:

Your partner steps forward and sends out a strong arm, but slowly. You match the speed of his arm and circle your arms to touch the outer side of it, do not press his arm. Then as his arm is still driving forward, you turn your body so, still attached to him, your body turns and draws his arm further along and passed you.

You both practice in slow motion a lot: attacker alternating arms used and defender sweeping their arms one way and then the other. The important thing is not so much your arms but the moving of your body: MOVE THE TARGET, don’t just stay there trying to block with your arms. Also match whatever speed the attacking arm is coming at you.

So you LATER move on to gradually increasing the speed of the attack and so the speed of the defence. But Defender: do not fall into the trap of, in a rush, using strength to try and knock his arm aside. The Attacker only strikes up to the highest speed that his partner, the defender, can cope with. With much practice that limiting speed can be surpassed safely.


LEG – STRAIGHT ATTACK (at the close point when he can kick):

1....
As a leg strikes out at you, to your torso, instead of sweeping both your arms upward, you sweep both downward from your elbows but keep your posture upright: do not bend forward to try and grab or meet his leg (or you will get kicked or hit in the head): let his leg come to you, to stretch it out. For lower kicks to your legs: just move or raise the leg that is targeted (then kick with that, or swiftly place it down to recover your balance and mobility).

2....
Take a small step Back and sweep scooping downward and then upward his leg touching its Outer side. For strong kicks you need to protect your fingers from accidental damage: so keep your fingers closed in a Soft fist.

3....
Immediately step in and keeping your hands in your centre-line turn your body towards his centre-line to off balance him. You might have caught is leg in your arms, or not. It doesn’t matter: he is still standing on just one leg.

4....
Step into him and thrust/ push him over or hit a red dot target and leave.

PRACTICE WITH a LEG ATTACKING

CARE: in practice as thrusting a partner over into a backward fall may damage his head; use soft mats and a mindful instructor on how to do proper Breakfalls.

Practice slowly and only build up speed as much as can be handled safely by the Defender. You are friendly partners learning waza, only in the street when you are assaulted should you automatically apply what you know with matching speed and an intense determination to end the fight.

PART IX: Summary

(Image: Yiggdrasil[Ed] - Bavi Power via Google Images)

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