I just finished an excellent book about "awareness"... Written by a Marc "Animal" MacYoung it candidly discusses what you need to know to survive. This is a much broader subject then 'carry pepper spray'... I would highly encourage both men and women to read this book if they care about their personal safety.
I am a very peace loving guy... being the tallest or biggest guy in the room 95% of the time means that when somebody wants to rumble they look around the room and see my big blond head sticking up out of the crowd. I have no interest in fighting people for real, while the art and science of the fight do interest me very much. I had a friend in high school who got into to a stupid altercation with some guy who was alone (my friend had a group with him), the guy got scared and pulled a knife and my friend got stabbed a bunch of times, losing an eye.
I like my eyes and I like living so fighting=possibly losing an eye/life/friend/etc. and is not an equation I am interested in being part of.
Only once have I been in a fight... at the delightful Levende Lounge in SF. What is strange about that place is that I have seen two other fights there on separate occasions! I was minding my own business when a friend of mine starting getting hassled by a guy. I had noticed the idiot and his friends earlier (bad energy) and so stepped in between, turned around (oops) and walked my friend Andrew away from the guy, saying "these guys are idiots, dont get into", when the guy behind charges me, wraps his arms around me and throws me to the ground...
Lets say I was a big surprised...My arms were out wide, hands open, 5 feet away and the guy just went for...as I went down his small, sneaky scumbag friend ran over and kicked me in the ribs.
What? We are in a fricking lounge! I twist and spin into the lunkhead and wrap the guy up with my arms while my two friends are watching in amazement...luckily they had been in a number of fights so as the crowd closed in to "break it up" they jumped in and pounding the guys face in. I saw the sneaky little bastard and clawed my way through the crowd wanting to leave him a parting gift...I landed one good one on him and then the whole thing was over, the crowd locking everybody up.
Total time? Maybe 10 seconds. It felt more like much longer however...The Lounge staff then kicked out all of the scumbags and asked if we were ok. I was shakey but seemingly fine...It was only later on that the adrenaline wore off and I noticed the bruises. The ribs began to hurt more and more... not healing fully healing for 6 weeks. So that sucked...
What I am saying is that even if you do everything you can to avoid a fight, sometimes some idiot while jump on you...I was lucky to have my friends there to rearrange his face for me.
This book helps to bring awareness to situations... like helping to give you a radar that is always on, pinging out for out of the ordinary things. I have been working on this skill for years... only it was through my acting training. Learning to move through space and know where people are is a very important skill in the dance and theater. It is honing an awareness that is larger than the 2 foot bubble that most people instinctively have...it is pushing that awareness all the way to the back of the theater, space, room so that you can adjust your energy to suit the crowd.
Reading his book I was surprised at how similar the ideas were relying on that inner energy meter to feel out people and crowds. There is some interesting information regarding power hierarchies and world models... the Alphas and betas, how they interact, how to be careful in situation where the relationships are unknown.
The author uses very colorful language and lots of humor to get his points across... you will enjoy learning the lessons he has gained from 17 years of street fighting.
What I found most refreshing is that one of his biggest survival tips is "run". Just get out of the situation before it gets bad. Fights usually dont come from out of thin air, so read the signs and make haste. Take your ego out of it and bounce... or end up maimed. If however you must fight for your life, then give it everything you have, no holds barred, maim and destroy the person. Most people who will attack you dont want to end up really injured and so will run away once they have gotten an ear torn off, etc.
Of all the 'survival' or self defense books I have read this one is the clearest, most concise, most fun to read, and honest about all the bad stuff that combat and fighting entails. It also is applicable to much more then just 'the street', its lessons will inform you about your interactions at work, at play, on the field and generally about life. Written by somebody has actually been there getting beat up or beating up. Also touches on the legality of what is happening...it all well and good if you defend yourself, but what if it still lands you in jail? That is not survival either... Check it out. Would love to hear peoples thoughts on it.
Durand
Cheap Shots, Ambushes, and Other Lessons
by Marc MacYoung
http://www.amazon.com/Cheap-Shots-Ambushes-Other-Lessons/dp/0873644964/ref=pd_sim_b_7
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Cool! I'm definitely going to read that one. I remember during my own acting training... specifically Alexander and stage combat, we dealt a lot with spacial awareness, center of gravity, and breath... always taking in as much of the situation as possible. It makes sense that it would translate into sizing up potential conflicts and real-life combat scenarios.
Great post!
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