The Perpetuation of Bro-Science in gyms

Bro Science: http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Broscience

Broscience is a derogatory term for misconceptions and ideas of questionable scientific credibility, passed around among laymen by word-of-mouth as if factually true.

I have to post about this, because it is getting to the point that I have to vent a little. I have been going to a MMA gym for about 1.3 years at this point, and lifting weights for about 10 years before that, barring a few breaks. In that time, I have heard the constant spreading and perpetuation of bro-science. Some advice I've heard is bad, some is misguided, and some is dangerous. I'll list a few of the choice ones here, and just write about it for a bit.

If you asked me two years ago how to lose weight, before I started digging deeper than surface level about new-findings and published medical studies, I would have said some of the following:

• eat 6 small meals to stoke the metabolic fire
• eat chicken to lose weight, beef to gain
• no more than 30g of protein at each meal
• take up running if you want to lose weight
• avoid eating fats to avoid getting fat
• egg yolks will increase your blood cholesterol levels...

I really need to stop there, I'm making myself angry at myself...Not that everything I said above was totally wrong, but it was a bit misguided and misinformed mostly. Ignorance is bliss, and I had everything figured out. But, my results were non-congruent with my knowledge. The problem is, I never had the defined goals I needed to force myself to stick with the diet plans or weight lifting plans that I knew were supposed to work. I floated in a place where I had no defined goal, and therefore no drive to stick with a given 'common knowledge' method, and then prove or disprove it. I was in limbo.

However, thanks to guidance from my mentors, as well as doing a lot of reading by myself, I feel like I've got a handle on the crux of fat loss and conditioning, and I've implemented it for myself with good results over the last 1.75 years or so.

I said the previous stuff to say the next bit. I've heard some of these things passed to others as gospel. Some of them are old bro-science, and some are dangerous advice that could possibly cause health problems. I'll also just blab about them.

• Recommending crossfit style workouts to people trying to build strength. 

Building strength builds strength. The basic lifts. Maximal effort type stuff. Powerlifting stuff. See Dan John, 5/3/1 program, Starting Strength, and so forth. Sometimes I wonder if it's a confusion of terminology, or just that some elite athletes can do all different sorts of things, often wrong, but their drive and work ethic can give them satisfactory results. The common fight workout engages the same energy systems as crossfit does. Or it could be that some of them never realized their potential in a given area of conditioning, but who am I to say. For more info on these things, see http://www.8weeksout.com/

• mysticism in gaining 30 lbs after a weigh-in.

Cutting 'weight' and dieting down 8 weeks out from a fight can cause someone to lose massive amounts of weight. 30-40 lbs is pretty common it seems. Some guys walk around at 210, and fight at 170, for instance.   My bjj coach was shaking his head at how he gained 30-40 lbs 5 days after his fight. The combination of water depletion, carb depletion, and caloric restriction can easily yield these kinds of losses. I swing 5-8 lbs from sunday to tuesday because of weekend beer/pizza indulgence. Water depletion can lose you 15 lbs if done properly. Also, eating chicken and broccoli for 3 weeks leading up can cause you to drop some serious fat, given the amount of training these guys do. Then after a fight, you figure they gorge on sushi, pizza, sodium, whatever, and they bloat back up. The math is there.

• coming in bloated monday, having to work it off every week, and calling it fat.

Guys who come in 6 lbs heavier on Monday (like me) shouldn't be mystified if they had pizza and beer friday, and a hamburger on saturday. Carbohydrates and sodium cause you to retain water, period. You can't eat enough calories in 2 days to put on 6 lbs of fat. That's something like 24,000 Calories. Impossible. It's water, and limiting simple carbohydrate intake will shed this.

• running to lose weight

It is just 'common knowledge' that you have to run to lose weight. Except that's not true. Sure, you burn calories running (say 300 calories in an HOUR on top of your basal metabolic rate). But I, for instance, burn about 75 calories EVERY HOUR I'M ALIVE. Sleeping, pooping, watching TV. It just simply isn't worth trying to run to lose fat. Diet for fat loss, RUN for conditioning. You sort of need to convince yourself of that truth. People who run tend to have a calorically dense shake or meal after a run, often negating any caloric deficit they put themselves in during the run. It's just not worth it. It also helps when counting calories to not count the calories burned during exercise, lest you over estimate your total caloric expenditure for the day. It can cause frustration, "why the hell am I not losing weight, the elliptical machine said I burned 800 Calories..."

• meal composition for fat loss

Not that there isn't an ideal combination of carbohydrate/fat/protein for optimal performance (admittedly I'm  still escaping my bro-science phase of this topic), but for the most part, the fat loss problem should be one of Cals in vs Cals out. Period. Again, I use intermittent fasting for this, but caloric restriction is caloric restriction. My friend Larry L. uses IF, as well as a paleo-ish diet, and is super lean year round. I have yet to jump on a super strict diet plan, as I'm still getting results with simple IF. I intend to eat clean starting soon with my goal being sub 10% body fat for a period of my life.

• 6 meals a day, don't skip breakfast, other diet stuff.

I can't say any of this better or with more accuracy than leangains. http://www.leangains.com/2010/10/top-ten-fasting-myths-debunked.html

• A 14 year old kid saying he was going to use a sauna suit to 'cut weight'.

First of all, this is dangerous. Second, without a competition about 3-5 days out, there is NO NEED to try to sweat out weight (water). It will simply come back when you drink a glass of water tonight. It can cause organ failure, and should only be done with a good knowledge of what you're putting yourself through. The way this advice of "sweat it off" is thrown around makes me a bit angry. The best diuretic is water, so keep drinking water. Your body knows it's going to keep getting fluids, so it doesn't try to retain what it's got. This is why the starting phase of a big water cut is to drink 2-3 gallons of water a day. To wear a plastic bag for any other purpose but to meet a strict weight class is folly.

I know there's tons more, but that's all I could think of when I sat down to write. Any you have heard recently? Please share em.

Cheers guys,
M

Week of 4/30/12

Monday:
PM weight: 180.6lbs

Lunch Run - 1.2 miles

MT: 1,1, 1,2 switch, 2 l kicks, check, evade, 2 r kicks, teep
1,1, 1,2,3,2 r kicks, check evade, 2 l kicks, teep

pads - 1,2, bob, 2, 3, low rt kick, high rt kick
1,2,3,weave, 3,2, switch, low lt, high lt
10 punch, bob, weave, 2,3 step 2

sparring was a mixed bag. I felt sort of slow tonight. I fasted today, so that probably has something to do with it. Ben is back. He hasn't been there for 6 months, and he immediately made me feel silly when we sparred. He's a talented dude, for sure. It's fantastic to have a fighter as a coach. Anthony Nieves seems like a super nice dude, and obviously speaks with experience. I like how he walked around and gave pointers during the spar. I teeped someone while he was bringing his knee up for a check, bruised the bottom of my foot. Icing it now. HURRRTTTSS like a mother.

Tuesday:
AM weight: 183.6lbs
No jits, foot too messed up.

Wednesday: 186.8lbs (had a HUGE dinner, lots of carbs, sue me)
MT: Same combos as monday.
Sparring went a bit better. I still bitch up. I need to try to make it a point to not back up, trust my MT, and just bang a bit. My goal for next monday is to not back up. I will try this in earnest. Instead of covering up, I will punch back.

Thursday: 180.2lbs
BJJ:
I got to the gym early, hit the heavy bag for about 10 minutes, then Jr. wanted to do some light rolls before class. They were probably 6-10 minutes each. So I was thoroughly tired when we started. Then two of Marcel's blue belt buddies came, and I was like "I'm gonna have a bad time". I rolled weak. But I am surviving longer and longer.
De La Riva sweep. DLR hook, grab that side ankle. Shoot hook DEEP across onto opposite thigh. Roll guy forward using the deep hook and sleeve control. come to top or side control
crazy DLR sweep. DLR hook, control same side sleeves. Swim DLR side arm between self and his shin, try to touch shoulder to his foot. Swing non DLR hook out and around. can grab cloth with other non-swimming hand. Get under him and use legs to push him over. You end up in a strange tangle of legs, but mostly on top. Get position.

Week of 4/23/12

Monday:
MT: did "muay knat" drilling where you want to pressure a kicker, and give forward drive.
opponent against ropes: you can elephant walk in place, switch stance, knee
opponent in open space: elephant walk, step through, and knee
opponent retreats: elephant walk, step through, kick
also worked clinch. A.B.C. always be close. One hand on biceps, other in plum, step w/ non plum side, swing plum leg back to off balance while jerking down on plum, bring into plum side knees.

Pads: 1,2,switch, lk lk, check, step, right knees. and reverse

Good sparring. Sheri worked me over with her ninja kickboxing kicks. Coming out of crazy angles. You simply have to have an extremely tight guard against that or get kicked from a weird angle. It's an interesting exercise to be kicked from unexpected angles. I think I'm one of the best guys that regularly comes to train, technically. But still from an aggression standpoint, I am lacking. The same can be said of bjj.

Tuesday:
BJJ:
Drilled swapping knee on belly side positions.
passing open guard to knee on belly. cross grip pants, step around, KoB.
have both pant legs, push back and stack, then explosively straighten and flatten legs, keep arms stiff, fall onto side control
arm bar from KoB:, underhook far arm, pin own elbow in and down. Step outward leg around his head, swing hips around and fall while tucking foot under shoulder. KoB leg stays on top and pins his head. finish.

Ben and I had a great first roll. Lots of back and forth. I stalled his sub attempts, escaped, and he did the same to me. There is a roided out kid that just joined. All aggression, no technique. I dread having to roll with him. I just let him pin me, and work on escaping and maintaining guard. My guess is he'll either get injured, injure someone, or quit in the next 2 months. We'll see.

Wednesday:
Helped Claude teach his CCW class, and I'm happy because I was SO SORE from training.

Thursday:
BJJ:
1/2 guard sweeps.
Back Take: get underhook on 1/2 guard side, hide head and bottom arm. Use underhook to bump guy up and away, squirt under arm, take back
Sweep if whizzered: get underhook on leg with bottom arm, roll other way. sweep to 1/2.
Sweep 1: get underhook on 1/2 guard side (if possible), get DEEP underhook w/ bottom arm, pull him on top of you, if his leg stuck in guard posts up and down, grab his ankle, keep your leg on his thigh, don't let it flatten, drive forward, using trapped ankle and thigh to push and sweep.
Sweep 2:same as above, but if trapped leg straightens, use underhooked arm to shuck him, and squirt out the back.

I'm at sort of a strange point in BJJ. I feel like some aspects of my game are getting better (surviving, defending, escaping), but some aspects are stagnating pretty badly. The things I'm lacking still include aggressiveness, takedowns, attacks, basically everything except defense.

Friday.
Lifted weights. Deadlifts 2x5reps something like 225. Superset that w/ 25 kettlebell swings. Did 3x8 sets of military press with 75 lbs. Supersetted more kb swings. Weighted carry, 5 sets. Some 2 handed, suitcase carry, waiter carry. Used 55 lb dumbbells for most things. Walked to orange house's satellite dish and back. That covered Hinge, Press, and weighted carry movements. I need to set up the squat rack so I can at least squat, and the bench so I can work pulls.

Week of 4/16/12

I'm going to start adding my morning weights to the posts. I want to watch fluctuation and see how it trends day by day, and week to week. I also am on a quest for 10% body fat for the summer. My guess is this will put me at 170lbs give or take. This will be an additional incentive to be honest with myself. I may start adding my food choices as well. Here we go.

Monday: 189.2# - Weekend of eating out, chinese food, beer, etc. Feeling VERY bloated. I expect I'll shed 4 lbs of water by Wednesday morning. This week will consist of some very strict fasts, small meals, and relatively low carbohydrate intake compared to recent weeks. This will be my prescription until I plateau on losses.

MT: worked checks and teeps. Always teep with leg he's kicking with. Worked cross blocks. I pulled of a solid hook in sparring. I just sort of punched around his guard and caught him right on the jaw. It was without power, but even that little bit made his biteguard almost fall out of mouth. I was throwing lazy checks, I think because my shins are beat up. I'm trying to diffuse the kicks onto a meaty portion of my legs. This is clearly a no-no. I might wear pads when we do drilling. I bitched up once when  Jeff had me against the ropes. Got to keep moving, got to stay active. My goal will remain to not get bogged down when getting struck, and trying to counter punch while being attacked.

Tuesday 185.0#. I pooped a lot on Monday. haha. After BJJ I was 180.2. Bananas.

BJJ:
Opening guard: control lapels w/ one hand, grip on other sleeve. Post on grabbed sleeve leg first. stand, break guard, flop back down, knee between legs. Use vertical knee to cut to either side.

Opening guard: same as before, instead of going over, swim BOTH hands under, gable grip. stack him. grab lapel, sprawl, pass to side.

push sweep: against standing opponent, get both ankles, feet on hips, push/pull, follow to top position.

Rolling went well. Pulled off the arm bar from rear mount again. That seems to come off pretty well when you can't sink the choke. Pulled an "OLD SCHOOL" sweep from 1/2 guard. as well as playing pretty good guard against Ben and Mike.

Wednesday 180.2#. I KNEW I felt bloated Monday.
MT:
Did some evade work at MT. Knees in the combos.

Thursday 181.2#

BJJ: Armbars and omaplatas to warm up.
Omaplata defense: If he doesn't hide his outward foot, grab that leg, pull it behind neck, hold toes, do an ankle lock on that foot.

Counter to that defense: If he goes for the toe hold, reach up and grab around his shoulder, and pull. Very painful shoulder,back pinch.

Friday:
Plan is to do some shoulder work and weighted carries. Will update. That didn't happen... Oh well. I had another relaxing weekend. Got a 2 miler in Saturday w/ wife.

Week of 4/9/12

Ran 2 miles Saturday (belongs last week)

Monday : MT:
drilled counter kicking ribs or biceps off of a cross or jab. No hip turn on the kick, merely using adductor and core strength to lift the leg of into the ribs under the punch.

Combos:
1,2,switch lt kicks, check, evade teep, rigth kicks
1,2,3, rt kicks, check, evade teep, lft kicks

It's amazing what a weekend of rest and re-feeding (read: pigging out) does for my endurance and mental state during workouts. I felt SOOOO much better than I had in the last 3 weeks. Note to self: rest sometimes.

Sparring went pretty well. I want to become a better boxer, so when Aaron and I spar, I try to box him. He has great head movement, and is good at getting in on me. I think keeping my feet planted is getting me hit more than I should. Also, I'm bitching up instead of countering and moving. My goal for Wednesday will be to move if I get in a bad spot, or return strikes. Paul made a point about how I should attempt to clinch and throw some light knees if he starts doing that. I'm inclined to try to deal with the problem to try to get better at the game that the other guy is bringing to me. Not sure if that's best or not.

Tuesday: BJJ:
worked passes from butterfly guard. You have to flatten your guy out, else he can get the butterfly guard sweeps really easily. Plant head on one side,  post on head, and hop pass to opposite side of body. If his knee is stuck between you, use your higher leg to scissor his knee back down, then swivel back and compose side control

can also do this pass by bridging directly over his head, ending in an upside down North/South. Then you can roll over, and walk around to side.

Rolling went well. It was fun being there for Mike's first class. He was spent afterwards. Ben and I swapped a few subs and position changes. He and I are pretty on par. Though I DO outweigh him by 10 lbs or so.

Wednesday MT
more blocking techniques, arms straight
kick ribs (same side)
kick shoulder biceps (opposite side)
parry through and knees
Paul also showed me the leg grab off of a kick. Either scoot away from kick, and scoop it, or move into and shoulder bump kicking leg shoulder w/ stiff arm. Diffuses the kick.

Thursday: BJJ
double legs
sprawls
choke off sprawl - over/under, use under hand to open lapel for over hand. grab lapel w/ over hand, reach under hand between shoulder/neck, and behind neck. Tuck head into gap by under hand, roll, walk and pull/push w/ grips.
Transition to side control from N/S Turtle, use lower leg to block same side arm, and get to side/back mount. We then worked clock choke from there.
walk around and clock choke. notes: pressure to keep him from posturing, remember to pull both grips while walking around. TIGHT!

Saturday: Ran the "runningnerds" 5k race with my wife. Time was 38m or so. Our split times were 10,13,15 approximately. Wife didn't stop one time. I'm very proud of her. I think she has the competitive bug. Having a goal, a hobby, and an outlet for her stress will help bring her peace of mind.

Muzzle Orientation during Gun Manipulation

Rather than writing a blog entry on PDN's page explaining why Rob Pincus is incorrect, I'm just going to vent here. He posted a picture of a truck he put up on a berm behind a target line, and the intarwebs got all butthurt about it. I don't care about his car. But some of the stuff he mentioned about gun manipulations made my eye start twitching. Here's some of the stuff he said about muzzle orientation last night:

• "Some people don't get that guns pointed up in the air (workspace, high ready, et al) can kill little kids miles away in their back yards.... But suddenly, I park a truck on the berm and some people are horrified (not in the class, just on the inter-web). Go figure..." 
• "Jodie, that whole "workspace" concept is flawed in at least 10 ways. search PDN for Critical Incident Reload and High Compressed Ready to learn more.... And, as noted above, it's reckless on most ranges." 
• "When Travis audited the CFS Instructor course many years ago, I wasn't aware of the neurological issues surrounding looking at the gun during reloads (vision issues, ramifications of the tachypsychia/bradypsychia phenomenons, etc). Of course, we were teaching not to look... but, the argument wasn't as strong way back then. In competition, and on the training ranges, it might still seem to make sense to look (or to want to have the option to) at your gun handling. But, for example, just think: do you need to look at the brake pedal to slam the brakes on when someone jumps into the road... or, is it more important to look at the person and/or the place you want to steer to?? You can learn (easily to run your gun without looking... and it is actually much better to plan to do so." 
• "Long gun, pistol...either way, Jodie... same issues, same concepts. "faster" on a training range or in a competition isn't always better training." 
• "Yes, Mark... it is absolutely okay to cover people incidentally during an actual fight.. THAT is where we have to count on trigger discipline and specific awareness. 
• "Keep in mind that I am NOT tailoring the techniques for the range... it is just a happy coincidence that keeping the pistol in the high compressed ready, muzzle straight or down (and keeping a rifle stock on your chest, muzzle down) are also Range SafER than the less-efficient-to-begin-with muzzle up techniques." 

If you're not familiar with CFS's methodology... The reloads take place in front of the belly with the elbows back. Head remains oriented on the threat. The problem, which I'll discuss in detail, is that you can WATCH the students steal glances at the malfunctions. It's not hard to find video of it. Watch the guy in the above video do it when he's working his reload.






There is so much screwed up with his logic that it's hard to pick a starting spot.

• Making the point about head-shooting kids miles away with a upward muzzle is completely silly. Since he went there though, here's why it's wrong. If a shot were to go off where I do my reloads, which couldn't even happen because of trigger discipline, the angle of the muzzle would destabilize the bullet and it would fall harmlessly at terminal velocity. Not to mention the astronomically slim chance that you would hit a person with an errant shot. Think of how much space is on the planet (when viewed from above) that doesn't have a person standing on it. Now think of the 'body density' of a busy sidewalk in a city when viewed from a horizontal plane. It's like a meat wall. I'd rather point it up (or down). It's for the children.
• He then goes on to say that it's fine to point the muzzle at children in a Critical Stress Incident (tm) BECAUSE we count on "trigger discipline and specific awareness". Ok then. Where was the trigger control and muzzle awareness when we go muzzle up? It's only important when we're flagging children? My first priority is to not shoot the kids that I CAN SEE.
• He says, and later alters his wording, that you shouldn't point the muzzle over the berm because it's range-unsafe. At first it seems like he is trying to say that you might let a round out of the range (and into the FJ). Obviously, as we learned from the Newhall incident, there are major problems with tailoring techniques for shooting ranges when they should be tailored for real world encounters. These are called 'training scars'. They exist, and they can get people killed.
• His point about how we don't have to look at the brake pedal when stopping, but rather eyes on the road steering to avoid the obstacle, is also flawed for several reasons. The problem with that analogy is that you are not simply mashing a pedal, you are putting a small cylindrical thing into a perfectly form-fitting cylindrical hole. You could even say you're "STEERING" it into the mag-well. Also, people DON'T have YEARS of flight time reloading. Nor will they. They probably will look, either on purpose or not, as they do this fine motor skill. I personally would rather keep my head up and looking at the place I was shooting, and use some peripheral vision to work the manipulation, instead of having to break eye contact to look down at my belly to diagnose a problem.
• "faster on range doesn't mean better on the street" - One could probably write a book about stress and competition and then another group would say how it's still not combat. That's all fine. The fact remains that all the winning shooters do muzzle up manipulations. There are hundreds of thousands of reloads performed under competition pressure. The bumps have been pretty well ironed out for both speed and robustness. Everything is situation dependent, of course. Here is Paul Howe discussing muzzle down manipulations and movement. One of the big takeaways for me was when he says "it is situation dependent".

Of course it is. But if I were to teach one way to do a reload to new shooters, it would be:

1. proven under stress (combat or competition) 
2. allow the inevitable visual component to diagnosing problems 
3. allow the person to be able to continue to watch the scene unfold before them. 
4. retain muzzle control at all times 
5. be within a strong physical structure to use force when clearing problems or being combative
6. work in a confined space (either behind cover, in a car, in a bathroom stall...)
7. Allow one to work in a team (a team could be a friend, wife, or door kicking buddy)

For me, muzzle up does this.



And before I close this out I want to say how there are exceptions. I'm not going to go muzzle up if I have to chamber a round standing next to my car after a day at the range. If I'm within arms reach of someone, I'll start striking with the broken pistol. If I'm behind a small piece of cover, I might suck my elbows further back, and work in a more horizontal plane. There are always exceptions.

Also, to be clear, I'm not even talking about scanning positions, searching positions, or movement positions. For those I like 'muzzle averted 3' and sometimes 'sul'. I was only discussing the place to put the gun when reloading it or fixing a problem with it (though an empty gun is a problem!). After I shoot, on a scan, I like Craig's method of going to a tight 3, and keeping the muzzle pointed AT the thing you shot, and use your head to steal a glance around.

I think that's it. If I'm wrong, please help me to understand why.


-M

Week of 4/2/12

Monday: Skipped MT due to fatigue and because I had a strange soreness in my abdomen. Then I remembered we were throwing knees at each other through kick pads all day Saturday at the class. For a quick second, I was worried I had a tumor on my lung or something. I have to stop being so alarmist.

Tuesday:
Boxing: worked some combos

1,2,slip,2,3,2,step, 2, roll, 2,3,2,step, 2

1,2,slip,slap,3,2,3,2,step, 2, roll, 2,3,2,step 2

1,2 x5 slip slap 3,2,3,2,step, 2 roll, roll, 3,2,3,2 step 2

BJJ: 

side control escapes:

hip escape, grab a single, finish

use throat/forearm pressure, swim that to underhook, grab belt, get outside leg into hook, recompose. if arm is there, do straight arm bar, or shove it for omaplata.

On top, get right arm on his right arm, left arm on his right knee. Step out and spin him on his back. go knee on belly.

Recomposing guard techniques. Basically just hip escape and face opponent, swing leg around and get a hook.

Today I sucked at bjj. I felt like it was my first day. Raph reprimanded me for being too technical. Telling me that I should treat them as moves to be completed all at one time. He said the Gracies didn't win any category at the most recent comps. Their technical style is no longer dominant. He also said I needed privates. The joke is on him. When 3 people show up for a class, that is a private. Spending a month's worth of class tuition on one night of training is fooling and unwarranted. If I were at Alliance where there are 30 people in a class.. then maybe. For now, I get privates 2x a week.

Wednesday:  MT
Worked the sticky hands parry to knees.
Pads: 1,2,lt kicks, cross block, lt kicks, evade rt kicks, rt kicks
1,2,3,rt,cross block, rt kick, evade, lt kicks

mitts:
1,2,1,2, roll 2,3,2, step 2
1,2,3, roll, 3,2 step 2
1,2x5, slip, 4,3,2,roll,roll,3,2,step 2

BJJ:
Passes open guard (standing):
knee grips, fancy footwork, try to collapse knees together, and go knee on belly
to break spider guard, do a stack, pop hips to shake foot holds, smash pass
knee grips, if pass one fails, smash w/ shoulder, fight there, if that fails, try to keep knees together and walk around to other side control.

retaining guard in this posn: if someone is pass, hip escape, pass far leg over to make wall, push off w/ knees, resquare and recompose.

This week I felt like a bag of dicks at everything. I want to quit. No wonder people just shoot, don't time themselves, don't test themselves, and talk themselves into mediocrity. It's easier than having your ego stomped regularly. I really want to quit today.

Dennis Martin - CQB Services - VIP Protection 3/31-4/1/12

I just got back from a wonderful weekend training in Americus Georgia with Dennis Martin of CQB Services. As far as I could tell, this course was a short format of a longer 1 week or 2 week course for getting people used to the concepts and tactics associated with protection of another person, whether in a team format or alone (not preferred).

Saturday morning began with a power point presentation on some of the considerations that a body guard (BG)  would have to make on his job. Mindset, skills, tactics and kit all play an important role in this job. The two day format course would concentrate primarily on some hard skillsets (unarmed combatives and some shooting) but was primarily about tactics.

I didn't attend the previous two day module on NLP (neuro linguistic programming) and how it ties in to counter ambush and self defense situations. But Dennis made mention of it a few times over the course. How to have an anchor word and something that called forth a strong emotion or state of mind to let you carry out a task. The "GO BUTTON".

We drove to a nearby warehouse and laid out mats for the gym day. We started by doing a short anaerobic 'sprint' warmup. The importance of physical fitness is clearly not lost on me. Dennis made the argument that all combatives training should start with intense anaerobic exercise to get the person used to the "10 second fight" feeling. Also it tires out the person so they must focus on technique instead of outright power. This is exactly as it's done in MT and BJJ training. Intense heart-rate spiking warmup to tire you out, then onto the technique.

One thing Dennis said that I forgot to clarify with him is "you will gas out in 10-20 seconds if you're fighting with the right intensity". I didn't know if he meant you should always fight with the intention of gassing in 20 seconds despite conditioning, or you should train your anaerobic system to lengthen that time so you can fight longer. He did make the point that when it was a real encounter, how tired and winded people report getting, despite a possibly very short fight time or relatively non physical encounter.

We started with just a refresher of the basic combative strikes. We did Elbow strikes, Tiger Claw (heel-palm strikes), knees to groin, hammer fists, an open web hand throat tear,  and chin jabs when the distance was face to face. We drilled these on kick pads, focus mitts, and thai pads. The techniques are too dangerous to work on live opponents, so we hit pads. That is where I have to mock combatives a little bit...

I understand that the premise of combatives (WWII style) was to train up a large group of people in a compressed period of time with easy to learn and effective strikes. However, the lack of application against resisting opponents intent on doing the same to you cheapens it a bit to me. I won't beat that point into the ground but I felt I had to mention it. For a seminar format though, it makes sense and I give it credit.

I will say that I (and Jeff Bloovman) were complimented on our body mechanics when throwing the strikes. Well, the 'tiger claw' is an open palmed cross. The knee, well that is simply a Thai knee targeted at the groin.  Elbows... same thing. I have practice these things hundreds of times and have good body mechanics because of practicing against resisting opponents and for many hours. There is no substitution for doing the work and having the flight time.

The rest of the time was spent on tactics. The BG would yell "ATTACK!" and point to alert his team, and then work the strikes. This was done from behind, the front, etc.

Then impact weapon defense was covered. The technique was to entangle on the weapon bearing arm using some overhook/underhook or whatever, and using chin jabs or knees to neutralize while your team mate evacuated the VIP.

Knife defense was next. The acronym was G.U.N. The method was to Grab the knife hand with the hands in a 2 on 1. Then bring the knife to your workspace with elbows locked into your body. Then Neutralize with knees. The knife defense was only done in arcing attacks high or lowline. For what it's worth though, it seemed to come out pretty well when some pressure was added.

I think that the curriculum could be streamlined by combining knife and impact tool defense. Having to diagnose whether the attacker has a blade or bottle seems like wasted time. Just an idea.

Then gun defense was taught. The gun was held in the traditional foot away, elbow bent way. Not the 'testicle hold' or 'jaw screw' method. The premise was to strike the pistol off line while moving your body out of the way, then grabbing it and pulling it into your workspace, then using your entire torso to wrench the pistol away. I like Craig's gun defense much more, but this one also seemed pretty workable. I did not like how it had a slap THEN Grab, instead of just a grab. I have seen a slapped get quickly reoriented in ECQC.

The gym day ended with the students gathered in the warehouse, and the VIP and 2 BG's walking through, having to deal with whatever problems might arise during the walk through. It was a good drill.

Sunday was Range day. The day started with a powerpoint on the aspects of using a gun in a BG role. The largest consideration was that you are no longer in the business of looking after yourself, but rather must make it a point to become a human shield for the VIP. Dennis R. made a point that my wife was my VIP, and I absolutely agree. This was a good reminder of the applicability of this training for me.

We started with an unorthodox and uncomfortable drill for me. We unloaded, showed clear to our partner, then practiced drawing and pressing the trigger at our partner. This felt very awkward to me. I was hesitant to press the trigger. I understand the utility in this, but I still had my reservations.

We started by learning the principle of pointing at the threat, yelling 'THREAT!', and going for the gun. We shot from seated positions in all directions. The side step we did was not to get ourselves OFF line, but rather ON line. This was another mindset change that was difficult to wrap my head around.

We worked a drill where we shot while holding the VIP with an underhook. This allows you to steer him behind you, or put him on the ground, and keep him tethered for movement. We shot from this position a few times. First no resistance, then some weight, then some jostling.

We worked single man BG drills where we were escorting him forwards or backwards. The proper place to escort a VIP is behind his right side. This allows him to press the flesh, shake hands, and allows you the best chance of covering his back as well as seeing threats from the front. We would see the threat, push him offline, draw and shoot, and then keep the pistol oriented on him while we walked the VIP towards cover. From behind, we would simply turn and return fire, and pick up the VIP and move out.

We worked a teammate bounding drill. Dennis made the very important point of keeping things simple and using short words with defined spaces between words so it doesn't all run together under stress. He used things like "ready, moving, move, malfunction, up" and so forth. He also said that they commo should be commands and not requests, since people will do what you tell them under stress. Dan K. and I used the Tactical Response "Move, Moving, Cover". It worked pretty well. I have to work on my use of cover. Bloovman reminded me of the fact that I always go down on a knee on the same side, and was exposing my femoral really badly. I need to just go down to both knees as he suggested. More positional shooting is in my must-practice list now.

The final two exercises were good. They involved a sims gun and a shot timer. I believe I did pretty well. I'm waiting for Shane to send my time as well as the par times.

Overall the class was very good. It reminded me of a few tactics things that I had forgotten, as well as made me think about some new ideas and concepts I hadn't considered.

Thanks to Dennis and Katherine for letting us train at their range, Shane for hosting, and Dennis Martin and Slack Bladder for flying over to teach in the colonies... ;-)