Pepper Spray

From Hammerhead Combat Systems - a nicely done piece on pepper spray - pro's, con's and training.

Pepper Spray (and firearms, knives, clubs, flexible weapons, and unarmed skills) is (are?) tools in the toolbox we should all have a grasp of. A well stocked toolbox is essential in todays age (as it was in the past).
Not everyone deserves to be shot - and if a pistol is your sole means of defense, you may be in for a world of trouble, from too much force issues to hesitation to use the tool at the proper time.
Plus, the more you train in the use of the tools, the better off you will be if they are used against you.
My personal favorite from the article:

And in second place was the advice to be sure to move after spraying the attacker, get off the X, and treat this as another part of your escape arsenal (not a stand there and admire the work the spray did).

Yau Kung Mun History and Tung Gee Kuen

Found these on Sifu Garry Hearfield's site - Warrior Body Buddha Mind. A great recap of the history of Yau Kung Mun, and its Australian heritage.

Sijo Ha Hon Hung

Here is a link to an analysis the first form - Tung Gee Kuen.

Two new posts

Posted these on my new Yacht Security site, thought they would also be pertinent here.

From Big Stick Combat - a nice summation of the different levels of force available to us.
From Hammerhead Combat Systems - another look at the defusing of the situation.
I included these posts, partly because they illustrate (using recent news events) much of the same philosophy we use in regards to yacht and personal safety. There are many bloggers in the self-defense/protection realm that are using the event to get across the same message. If you want more, I have them fairly handy and can link them.
One lesson also learned is summed up at the end of the Big Stick column - 'Real combat is never pretty. Sometimes “winning” feels a whole lot like losing.'

In the words of Master Po (or was it Master Khan?) - avoid rather than check, check rather than hurt, hurt rather than maim, maim rather than kill. For all life is precious, and cannot be replaced.

My addition - even if you win the fight, you may lose the ensuing legal battle.

Be safe, train hard, train smart.

Penn and Teller

Penn and Teller did a segment on the Self Defense Company - I like their stuff, I feel it compliments my traditional Chinese arts background and military training. The language is a bit NSFW, so be forewarned.

Do yourself a favor, watch the short clip and if you have questions, drop me a line and ask - or visit my friend Darren's site here.

Pistolcraft

From Indestructible Training comes an article on Pistolcraft. I bring this up because it ties in with one of my core philosophies, which is to bring the ancient arts of the warrior up to date with the modern world. Traditional arts and training have immense value, but modern techniques and ways of training need not be ignored. Indeed, doing so may leave large holes in your self-protection strategies.

James Keating (ComTech) and Pete Kautz (Alliance Martial Arts) express in much better terms the same concepts.

A quote from the article -

In its time the sword was the weapon of choice for the armed citizen. Today the weapon of choice for the armed citizen is the pistol. We carry pistols to protect ourselves in the same way that the sword was carried in feudal Japan. The pistol has replaced the sword as the preferred implement of combat.

You could break the study of Musashi’s way of strategy into two parts: the study of the sword and its techniques and the study of the strategic and tactical use of the sword. We could similarly break down the study of pistol strategy.

Seek out the ancient and the modern methods of training. 

Realistic Training Environments (update)

Following along with our post about realistic training environments, here is one from Damien Ross and the Self Defense Company.

Not sure how to 'safely' practice when drinking/otherwise impaired.

One of my premises is to work in both the sterile, mat-filled room type of environment, to get techniques or principles down and working, then ensuring that you train in the realistic environment.

Balancing the yin/yang, the hard/soft, the yau/gung.

And it all comes down to determining your objectives in your studies of self protective arts. As we have discussed briefly before.

Train hard, train smart.