Just A Few More Things: Philosophical Underpinnings of Warrior Flow

As of late, there has been a number of inquiries into just exactly what makes Warrior Flow different from other arts. So while I've sort of covered this in some other blog post, because I just like talking about this sort of thing I'll elaborate a little more. 

But first, let me start here...

The Walking Dead

I guess we were somewhere in the middle of the program. After 22 weeks of harassment in the Basic Officer Course for our sins, they granted us our wish and made us Infantry Officers. After operating on one meal a day,18 to 20 hours a day and virtually no sleep. After chewing our asses out during the weekly beatings as we used to call it. This is where they used to tell us how screwed up we were as Infantry Officers to see if they could get some of us to quit the course or go curl up in a corner somewhere or would we suck it up and gut it out. 

But you know what every now and then we would get a respite where they would bring in a guest speaking usually a combat veteran to speak on their experiences. In this instance, we had the honor of listening to the story of one of the members of the legendary 1st Battalion 9th Marines or the "Walking Dead".  He was an unassuming gentleman in terms of physical stature, thick dark hair, a certain be speckled look more fitting of a college professor but you could tell he had that certain air about himself. I was sitting in the front row and it was clear this guy had been in some shit! He had a distinct scar on the left side of his face that started from the front of his jaw and extended to the center of his left ear. You could clearly see they cobbled his ear back together because it was clearly misshapen. 

I forgot his name but not his face and definitely not his story. After he introduced himself to us he began. 

“There are so many things running through my head right now that I don’t even know where to begin. There are so many things I want to tell you guys I just don’t know where to start so I guess I’ll start at when I arrived at boot camp. I got to MCRD San Diego and I’ll never forget after landing on those yellow footprints and being shuffled around eventually we got to meet the staff of DI’s that were going to train us.

My Head DI was a well build dark green Marine, who looked like he was once a former football player. After he introduced himself to us he then pulled out a piece of paper and read aloud he said,

‘Now, according to the order I am not allowed to curse, strike, physically abuse or denigrate recruits.’

He then walked to the first rank with his Sergeant’s following him and they proceeded to walk up and down the ranks and they cursed, slapped, punched, and spit in the face of every one of us. Some of us were crying all of us were mad. He then went back to the front of the platoon with his Sergeants behind him and said,

‘Now you listen, there are rules and there’s reality and the enemy doesn’t give a shit about you, your nation or any of that shit. Save the drama for your mama. When you leave here most of you will head to Vietnam, some of you standing here will not come back. That’s war and that’s the way it is. It’s my job to train your ass not kiss it.’”

He also went on to tell the story of how he killed a Vietcong insurgent during a patrol. He said,

“We were sitting in an ambush it was probably around dusk and I was placed on the choke point to provide rear security. After a while, I notice some movement and at first, I didn’t make out what it was until I realized it was one of the enemy. You have to understand that most of the time we never saw the enemy out in the open like that. He was walking slowly along the trail looking around probably a scout. As he got closer I was breathing so hard I thought he would hear me. When he got about maybe ten meters away from me he stopped and started looking around. Then he turned my way at first I was wondering if he saw me because he just kept staring in my direction.  I was so scared… All of a sudden I looked in his eyes and realized we were looking at each other. He tried to position his weapon I guess and I just pulled the trigger and blew his face off.  It was like the gun went off by itself. I don’t know how many rounds I fired but after that, all hell broke loose. But you know what? I credit my training and those DI’s for giving me the ability and the will to do that because it saved my life.”

He would also go on to tell how he got the scar on his face and how he was wounded in the chest in another battle where he thought he was going to die. But the most important thing he said to us was what he said at the end of his talk.

“I just want to leave you Lieutenants with something. Thank God, my DI’s were tough on me, thank God they pushed me, thank God that they never let me forget that war is about killing and if you ever forget that you will not come back from it and neither will your Marines. When you train your Marines you train them to kill the enemy. You must never forget that! You can’t compromise on that. You can’t go through the motions it’s too important to slack off on. If you don’t understand that upfront it doesn’t matter what you do in training. You can teach anyone to fire a rifle but will they have the will to kill when necessary? Will they do what needs to be done? This is your responsibility as Officers, as Staff NCO’s and NCO’s whoever is in a position of leadership. It’s your job and your duty.”

[Side Note: During the Vietnam War the 1st Battalion earned its nickname the Walking Dead by sustaining the highest KIA (Killed In Action) rate in Marine Corps history.  From 1965 to 1969 the Walking Dead engaged in the enemy a total of 47 months and 7 days of combat in Vietnam.  During that time 747 Marines and sailors were killed in action, with two missing in action.  Furthermore, the KIAs would attribute to 93.63% of the entire Walking Dead Battalion.]

Day by Day What We Do is What We Become

I won’t belabor the point here it should by now be fairly obvious. The reason why I delve so often into all of this philosophical and Mindsetting stuff is that the idea of crushing the bad guys for most people who train in the martial arts is a foreign concept. Now to be clear, I’m not talking about sport or competitive fighting I’m talking about training for real self-defense possible life and death situations. You see in my nearly 40 years of martial training and 28 years of military service one thing I’ve noticed is that too many people focus on doing the easy things like teaching people how to strike etc. all good, all necessary but you know what? It’ isn’t more important than getting into their heads and training them to have the moral will step into that space and fight if they have to, even unto death.

Don’t get me wrong I’m all about striking techniques and striking drills but just like you can teach virtually anyone how to fire a gun effectively you can teach people how to punch and kick within the capabilities of their body. Folks, like no shit it takes me anywhere from 15 to 20 minutes to teach people how to strike effectively, 30 minutes if I’m drinking coffee. My point is when I train people I accomplish this in minutes not months. True some strikes take longer to master but that has more to do with how to better move their bodies and definitely but not months or years as some folks claim. I’m not saying it’s easy either but it doesn’t take as long as people claim if you know what you’re doing.

Getting you to move your body in a combative way is a big part of what Warrior Flow’s teaching modality is all about. How you think influences how you move as you’ve heard me say on other posts and if you are not thinking about life and death self-defense your mind will not “direct” your body towards that end. Whatever the mental prism you look through is going to shape that thought pattern and those patterns of movement. This is an inescapable fact.

Why do you think in the Marine Corps and the Army we still teach bayonet fighting skills? We don’t give a shit about some bayonet it’s the idea of developing the will to close on an enemy looking him in the eye and finish him. To shape that thought pattern and burn it into their conscience and their body.  We can teach anyone to shoot the rifle but to close on someone and go in for the kill? That my friend is “a different conversation”.

Now you may be wondering well how do you get people who are not in the military to do that?

Simple, start by teaching them the truth and then teach them what they need to know, and how to do it to win the fight. A big part of people’s apprehension is a lack of knowledge and understanding (which are two different things by the way). I believe much of this is at the root of most of our irrational fears. A lack of understanding of the nature of the threat. If you understand the threat you can then develop effective measures to deal with and even neutralize the threat.

None of this bullshit of reinforcing their fears with stories about “prison trained monsters”. You shouldn’t lie to them but you also shouldn’t give the bad guys all the credit either. If you train them right they will be able to do it provided you focus on who the real enemy is.

This is what separates Warrior Flow from most arts. This understanding of what people really want and need if their lives are on the line and why they even bother to show up to training in the first place. 

They are not there for bullshit!

They are not there to have their feelings either placated nor their fears reinforced!

They are not there to hear you glorify the enemy as if he is a god!

They are not there to learn how to beat up the local karate school around the corner!

They want simple and effective methods that if they have to take care of business, they have the confidence to stand in that space and make them work!

Well, I hope this provides a little more clarity on this issue.

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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