As in most things in life, your ability to solely focus on one thing at a time will keep you alive in self defense. One of the biggest problems during any situation is that we want to live in the past. During shooting drills, I can always get people to miss by making them do something before taking the shot (reload, draw, move, or anything they hadn’t planned on). The problem is, their mind is still on the unplanned event and they can’t get back to where they are now.
Michael Baine explains it as going through doors. Once you go one way, you have to close that door behind you, that thing is done, now it’s time for the next room. Even highly trained and combat experienced Marines I’ve worked with have a problem making the transition from one thing to the next. In basketball, it would be the transition game (going from defense to offense to defense again) that could beat any team. So once something happens, you have to live in the now and move forward. Once the event has passed, it’s time to continue forward, that door is closed and locked.
No more is this more apparent than in myself. I can’t shoot and talk at the same time. I can hit almost anything on command but if you start talking to me and I start talking back, I’ll miss every time. I first noticed this when I started doing videos for my site www.ShootersClubMembers.com. I was trying to make training videos explaining techniques while I was shooting. Wasn’t happening. Now you’ll see most of the videos over there are done with my training partner, Bob Mayne. One of us will explain things while the other demonstrates. If it’s just me, I’m generally not shooting, only demonstrating the technique.
In the real world, you have to know your sole mission when it comes to self defense. One of the things that makes US Marines such an effective fighting force is the way orders are issued. There is always the commander’s intent. That intent is really the mission and nothing else matters. In self defense, especially big events like a mall shooting or terrorist attack, you have to define your mission and know that nothing else matters. For instance; I’m at the mall with my family and there is a terrorist that comes in to shoot people in the mall. My mission is to get my family to safety. Nothing else matters, not the people around me, not my stuff that I bought, not my vehicle in the parking lot, and for me, not even my life. The only thing that matters is getting my family to safety, second on the list is surviving, and way down the list of my priority is stopping the attack. If my family wasn’t with me, my mission would be different.
Once you have your mission, everything else has to be let go. You have to shut the door on everything else. Police officers are trained now during an active killer event (like the attack on Sandy Hook) that their sole mission is to find and stop the shooter. They will run by people screaming for help that are bleeding on the floor to get to the killer and stop them. You have to have that kind of focus on your mission. It will help you survive when others don’t.
Here are some of the sticking points in your mind that you might find if you are ever caught in a horrible attack. “The Why?” You will want to know why this is happening, why it’s happening here, and why it’s happening to me. Next problem is “The How?” You will want to know how that person got in with a gun, how come someone didn’t stop them, and how come no one is doing anything? Lastly is the disbelief, “this can’t be happening to me!” and “people can’t be that evil!” Yes they are.
In Iraq, 2003, the Fedieh Sadam (Sadam’s hardcore national guard) would push women and children out and have them run at US Marines. Then they would use medium machine guns to shoot through the people to try and hit us (I was one of those Marines). If you don’t think there are people that evil where you live, you are wrong. I believe in the 10% rule ***LINK TO POST***. 10% of people out there are just bad. Most are kept in check by rule of law and guilt. But 10% of those are truly evil and act on those urges (Sandy Hook, The Batman Shooting, Columbine, the list goes on and on). You have to know that evil is near you waiting for a chance to act. When it does, you have to get over “this can’t be happening to me!” and deal with the problem. Focus on your mission.
“The Why?” doesn’t matter at that point. It will only slow you down and is a question that may never be answered. You just have to accept what is and act. If you survive, there will be plenty of time to contemplate the question later.
“The How?” this happened doesn’t matter either. In Iraq as a security contractor in 2008, rockets and mortars were a normal occurrence. There are a couple hundred safe guards to keep it from happening but they never worked as well as advertised. One attack was exceptionally brutal and accurate. It happened while I was having lunch. It didn’t matter how the bombs got through and into our base, the only thing that mattered was getting cover so I wasn’t killed. How was a question that was easily answered later when the attackers posted the attack on the internet. ***Link TO VIDEO IF I CAN FIND IT***
Some of the old FBI stats said that 1 in 7 people would be the victim of a violent crime. The last stat I saw was 1 in 3 would be a victim during their lifetime. That means that you have a 33% chance that you will have to defend yourself against a violent attack.
Play the “what if game” ***LOOK UP POST*** to help you develop plans as you go through your day. It doesn’t have to be elaborate, just look around and ask yourself, “what would I do if someone attacked me here?” Would it be different if they had a gun? How would I react? I urge you to think of Escape and Evasion first. Get out of dodge, just bolt, leave. If you are in your car, just drive away. If you are in a bank and it gets robbed, think about going out the back door. Next, if you can, before the actual violent part of the attack happens, use verbal commands (check out the podcast here). Last, FIGHT! Just remember that those other doors have passed. You are in the fight for your life, cheat, and win!
Stay Safe,
Ben