Skill


  • A few thoughts on women's self defenseSimple Self Defense Tips for Women, was written from a Canadian perspective, but it's a one stop shop for a lot of standard self defense misinformation.
  • Awareness for self defenseAll of the experts and novices alike espouse something like "be aware of your surroundings" but that isn't a lot of help. That level of advice will allow you to recognize a problem once you are already involved in it.
  • Even more pepper spraySo after this post about pepper spray and the commentary here it seems like a lot of people are still not getting my point.
  • Eye Dominance and Shooting with both eyes openBy closing one eye, you make the other eye dominant. I run into a lot of shooters that are cross-eye dominant (right handed and left-eyed) and they really flail on this one a bunch. It doesn't matter too much for handguns, but shooting iron sighted long guns it can be an issue.
  • Firearms for the physically disabledSince this stirred up enough controversy amongst the advocates for the disabled I figured I would address some of these issues in a separate post.
  • Get a gun... andThe common response to some crime incident or self-defense item of news is that somebody should get a gun. I am all in favor of guns, the 2nd Amendment, concealed carry, and the like but it is not "THE" solution.
  • Guns and Martial ArtsOne reason that firearms are absent from most martial arts is the same reason that firearms are absent at piano lessons. They aren't related. Most martial arts are older than commonly available firearms, thus guns are just not part of their traditions.
  • Handgun RetentionMuch of the argument that people will be disarmed of their weapons and have those weapons used against them stems from a long history of police officers being shot with their own firearms. To combat this problem law enforcement has adopted various handgun retention systems.
  • Improvised weapons for self defenseThere is a lot of discussion about improvised weapons in the self defense community, but much of what I have read seems to have promoted improvised weapons as replacements for actual ones.
  • Knives and handguns are not either/orTo my mind there is no more a "gun vs. knife" debate anymore than there is a "hammer vs. screwdriver debate." A knife fills a different role than firearm does.
  • Martial Arts and Self-defenseI think that this is pretty good advice if you want to be a martial artist: 1. You have to train constantly, and consistently. 2. You have to be in shape.
  • Modern Military Combatives ProgramsHell-in-a-handbasket has a post up about some of the modern military combatives programs, but there are a few mistakes that need some clarification.
  • Retention Holsters
  • Running away and related concepts
  • Self Defense ScamsI stumbled across another bad self defense article: "Women's Self Defense Against Men" (which I am not going to link to, but I will quote from below) that is clearly written by some sort of marketing flack. I see this sort of thing published on a lot of self defense oriented spam blogs that are hawking pepper spray and stun guns.
  • The Down-Range VideoSo there has been a lot of discussion about this Tactical Response video that shows an instructor standing between two targets during a live fire exercise. James Yeager responds to the criticisms of his detractors. Below I will examine the major points of his response and justification for having an instructor taking photos in front of the firing line.
  • The Fighting StanceMany physical endeavors begin with a "stance." Martial Arts have dozens of stances, as do many sports. All stances are a compromise between being mobile and being stable. Generally stances are optimized for movement in a particular direction or to resist force in a particular direction.
  • The full spectrum of a fight.I came across this blog Low Tech Combat and it looks like they have some really interesting material (I will be adding them to the blogroll for sure.)
  • The Modified Farnam DrillNamed for John Farnam, this is probably the best general purpose defensive shooting drill that I have seen. This is a good benchmark for measuring your shooting performance and progress. You will need some inert/dummy cartridges, at least two magazines, and a shot timer.
  • The Self Defense KnifeThe old saw about "don't take a knife to a gun fight" is a lot more glib than it is practical. There are any number of reasons why a knife is a perfectly practical self-defense tool with long history of service in this role.
  • Training Realism
  • Training, Practice, and TestingA comparison between training, practicing, and testing.
  • Verbal CommandsVerbal commands are frequently an under utilized self-defense tool. Verbal commands can be applied early, without liability, and throughout the encounter in conjunction with other levels of force. You can issue verbal commands while simultaneously applying strikes, pepper spray, or gun fire.
  • Verbal Judo"Good reading for anyone who wants to improve their verbal deescalation skills. This book has some good instructions for separating emotion from communication."
  • Your martial art probably isn't.The "martial" portion of the term should indicate that the "art" is directly related to military warfare. While many traditional arts can credit their development to how warfare was conducted prior to the widespread use of gun powder, a lot has changed a lot since then.

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