First Things First

So… what are we talking about here?

The whole idea of self-defense and the idea of learning to fight for your life. You see the way I see it it’s not just a matter of learning a lot of skills and techniques or even one art or methodology over another. No there is something greater, you see there is a whole moral and mental aspect to being able to defend yourself and being able to stand in that space. 

Now when I talk about being able to stand in that space I’m not talking about walking around with a big chip on your shoulder the size of a railroad tie. But mentally and even physically being able to position yourself in the world where there is a line, a point of no return for you.

You know I can remember when I was a kid and I’ll never forget that there were these kids who wanted to fight me after school for whatever reason. At that age, I guess I was about nine or ten years old and every day for three days they would chase me to try and beat me up. Then one day because my father came to pick me up after school and so whenever he did that he would park his car across the street from the school.

Well as he was waiting for me he noticed that I was running from these kids, now of course when they saw my dad who was an imposing figure at 6’3” and built like a bodybuilder they called off the chase. When my dad realized what was going on he said to me,

“Are those kids chasing you?”

I said “Yeah…”

He was pissed!

He said and I’ll never forget what he said,

“Don’t you ever run from anybody, if they chase you tomorrow you better kick their ass, either you get them or I’ll get you!”

So… the next day sure enough as I was leaving school the wolf pack was on my tail again only this time I wasn’t running, I was walking and as I was walking they were talking shit to me as I walked in front of them.

Well, as I was walking one of them kick me from being in the back of the leg and all I remember doing was turning around and punching the Hell out of them, and then body slamming them on the ground. Resulting in some new dental work for them. Guess what? No more problems from them... 

Mind you this wasn’t the first fight I’d even been in just the first time in my life that I had to deal with greater odds that the “one-on-one” situation and this would be far from my last. But they got the message unless your parents have a good dental plan don't fuck with me! 

The point is my father taught me a very valuable lesson that day that I still carry with me get them before they get you. Be prepared to bring the fight to them and make them deal with you no matter what.

The point of this is also to highlight something very fundamental and that is the bad guys are human and they don’t want to get killed or injured any more than the next guy. Granted they may be dangerous but they are still men.

Answer: become dangerous yourself!

If you ever read the Michael Crichton book, “Eaters of the Dead” about a band of Vikings who go on a quest to rid the land of a creature known as the “Wotan”. In order to grant luck to their mission, they needed at least 13 warriors with at least one of them being a foreigner. And in this case, it happened to be a man who was pretty much sent to their land in exile.  

It is the book the movie “The Thirteenth Warrior” was based on and one of the scenes in the movie that they were able to capture the essences and spirit of the story from the book was when Antonio Banderas’ character killed one of the “Wotan” and realized that they weren’t “monsters” or evil “creatures” or even “gods”, but that they were just “men” he said with joy, “It’s a man, it’s a man… it’s a man!”

Then to put things into perspective one of the Viking warriors then said to him, “Yes it’s a man and there are more of them…”

What even to this day struck me during that exchange in the movie was that in the minds of the Vikings. There was no doubt that they were just men and could be killed like anyone else. Actually, now that I think of their approach was very matter of fact and they knew what had to be done.

The reason for me going into this is because all too often when it comes to self-defense especially when it comes to the type of things that I’ve found over the years in the minds of most people is that while they acknowledge the need to train in some sort of self-defense and the get the idea of learning how to strike etc. that the main thing they want the number one thing is not necessarily the secret Shaolin technique or Five Finger Death Touch though I’d like to learn that as well if such a thing even existed.

No, what they really want as law-abiding citizens, as fathers, mothers, or just some college girl getting ready to leave home for the first time. And that is they want “permission” to fight back.

I remember back in 2005 right before my unit was to deploy to Iraq and we were to receive one of our “required” pre-deployment classes. For those who’ve served in the military and have deployed to combat or a dangerous place then you know that most pre-deployment training courses are about as fun as sticking a fork in your eye. So anyway one of the course we were receiving was one on “Combat Stress and PTSD”. Usually, these classes are given by the Chief Medical Officer for the unit whoever that may be. Well… the guy giving the class was a Navy Doctor but no ordinary doctor. You see and I actually recognized him because I had seen him in my career, elsewhere. Anyway, he was a Psychiatrist and in a previous life he used to work with SOCOM (Special Operations Command) and one of his main functions was helping them put together teams for “missions” (I’ll leave it at that). But what he said about how to combat PTSD and combat stress resonated with me because he summed up the feelings that I and many others had. He said something like,

“Listen you are Marines and Marines kill the enemy and that is your job, your duty and you must do your duty. That’s what you are trained for and that’s why you joined up to fight evil. You should want to do your duty and kill these guys. There’s nothing wrong with that and there should be no ambiguity in your mind about it and if that bothers you come see me and as the medical officer I will deem you unfit for duty and get you out of the Marine Corps, because if you don’t want to do your duty as a Marine then you don’t belong. As long as you focus on doing your duty you’re not going to have a problem. Here I’ll give you an easy tip for dealing with combat stress… you ready? Do your duty and if you’re having a tough time just talk to your buddies and get over yourself and get back to doing the job you were trained to do. Do your duty. Are there any questions?”

The guy got a standing ovation from the Marines.  Straight to the point and no mealy-mouth ambiguous bullshit.

“No Fear, No Hesitation, No Surprise, No Doubt.”

                                              — Miyamoto Musashi, The Book of Five Rings

You see a lot of the stress about this sort of thing that people experience, a lot of the fear whether you’re a Marine, a Soldier a Police Officer or a private citizen. Is rooted in not having a clear unambiguous understanding in the mind of where their duty lies ether to their nation, their community, their family or to themselves. In short, what you are looking for is a concept that you will continue to hear me talk about as I build on these concepts and that is “Moral Certainty”. I define it in the following way.

Moral Certainty:

• the ability to sum up a situation and take action with near-perfect confidence, without thought or hesitation, or irrational fear, with little regard for the consequences to yourself.

Seemingly tall order for some, but actually not impossible if you are willing to commit to developing yourself in both body and mind and take the leap of faith in your own abilities.

People want to be reassured that they have the God-given right to protect themselves and their loved ones, that they shouldn’t allow themselves to be deterred by some stupid code of civility or law. Written by cowards, repeated by morons, and believed by the irrationally fearful and the stupid. And… above all that they should always strive to do the right thing, the noble thing, and consequences be damned.

Amen! I’m right in there with you.

They want to know that they enemy contrary to how some people present the bad guys in the self-defense world, that he’s is not 9’10” and breaths fire from his nostrils, and other “disempowering” fearful talk of prison trained monsters, but that he is “just a man”. Granted, they also don’t want their feelings placated with false assurances by people whispering sweet nothings in their ear telling them how “special” they are (as I’ve also seen in a number of self-defense programs).

They just want the truth.

This is the Way of the Warrior, the "Warrior Flow" Way...

More to come.

Thank you.

     Al Ridenhour

     CEO, Creator Warrior Flow™

Al Ridenhour is a retired Lieutenant Colonel in the US Marine Corps with 28-years of service active and reserve with multiple combat tours to Iraq and Afghanistan. He has also served as a Law Enforcement consultant to the NJ State Police Special Operations Section, NJ Transit Police Operations Section, The NJ Regional Operations and Intelligence Center, the FBI Philadelphia Bomb Section, and subject matter expert to the US Department of Homeland Security's, Explosives Division. With nearly 40-years of Combative Arts experience, he is recognized as a self-defense expert worldwide and is highly sought out for seminars, workshops, lectures, and special individualized training.  He is the author of "Warrior Flow Mind" (2019), Co-Author of "Attack Proof: The Ultimate Guided in Personal Protection (Human Kinetics, 2010) and the Co-Author of "How to Fight for Your Life" (June 2010).

For more go to https://protectyourself.mykajabi.com/

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