Unfortunately…
there are many unpleasant things one thinks of when one thinks of RBSD and its practitioners. I mean look at the guy who coined the term “RBSD” in all its blatant redundancy (Reality Based Self Defence? what else should self defence be based in? what does this “reality” distinction really mean in reality anyway???)
This man shall reamin nameless as I bear him no ill will personally BUT
scarcely is he seen out of military fatigues… the last video clip on self defence I saw him introduce he stepped proudly onto screen in a flak jacket, helmet, webbing and was sporing a H+K MP5 submachine gun- this for a video not on shooting, but unarmed combat. Necessary? Not really.
Some practitioners and instructors also fall into this rather unsightly “urban ninja” category. Unphysical, comic- book collector types, seminar junkies who squirrel away tactical kit and weapons in preparation for… something.
When taking the piss out of RBSD people it is customary to mock their combat pants, mal coordinated gangliness, “kill everyone and piss on their corpse” sentiment sprawled across the tshirt they picked up at the last seminar and the shouting and “faux” forced pseudo aggression that goes with a primary technique banged repetively loundly and usually quite ineefectually into a pad, simply called:
“The chin jab”
I dont know what the history of this technique is and frankly I dont really give a fuck who made it and where. There is an apalling snobbery in the world of RBSD around certain sacrosanct subjects and sacred cows: one of them is WW2 combatives.
Apparently this technique was “created” by those who developed the silent killing commando course of blah blah blah
Do you care? Does heaping historical fact upon a concept lend it validity?… well ahem… apparently, yes, it clearly does … but it shouldnt dammit!
Now, I am what is known in NLP terms a “polarity responder”, or in common popular British diction: an “Arse”.
This means that if something/someone is popular and everyone tells me I must be into it (whether its a film or music or anything) I respond with stubborn hatred for it. I assume that if its popular it must be shit. Childish I know, but there you go.
Therefore I only really enjoy films when they come out on DVD, especially if I feel they are targeted at me (29 year old white public schoolboy).
Ergo I hated all of Guy Ritchies films (the more targeted I feel the greater proportional response in resistance I give) with their matey, pub anecdote, plazzy gangsta, middle class voyeurism, criminal tourist, mockney, FHM reader appeal. Blurgh! That is until they came out on DVD 3years after their release… (except of course for “revolver” which really is a load of shite, but because everyone said it was shite, I tried to like it. I tried REALLY hard. But in the end it was still fucking shite.)
The Chin Jab is a fine example of this… because the RBSD crowd crow on and on about it and the WW2 Combatives “validation- ohh- goodness- it- was developed- in - a- real- war- and everything” THING… I have been simply forced, nay compelled to hate/deride it and write it off as one more peice of posturing nerdism from the DVD/book/smeinar/tshirt collection brigade
Fast forward to now…
Ive been giving lots of private classes recently. Have to say there is nothing for curing the maliase brought on by immersing yourself in the RBSD cesspit of nerdism/narrow mindedness/circular logic/forum warrior ship like giving private lessons again.
It reminded me of one salient fact: I love to teach… its a buzz… and I’m really good at it which makes my ego feel all warm and gooey inside
One of the things Ive found teaching palm strikes is that their range of usage is far greater than nomrally thought of if you just take it easy, get a bit creative and think about what you are doing.
A female student last week insisted on delivering palm strikes to my chin and jaw rather than to the forehaed as I had shown her, because “it felt more natural to her” (in her words)…so I went a long with it, presupposing that if that is the more natural method for her, who am I to change her- If I let her do it “her way” it means she will enjoy the training more and is presumably more likely to remember and apply it under duress if she is ever attacked.
So as Im recieving these palm strikes to chin and jaw Im noticing that:
1. they turn your head more than a straight palm to the forehead
2.you can pretty much control which direction you want the head to go in if you strike, stick then push (the student made this up herself- when I asked her why she did it she said “isnt it obvious?”- I was so proud)
3. if delivered with more speed and power I think the effects would of been devastating
Note: I said “think”, as in I presume… Ive never used it for real but I think my thoughts are fairly well qualified on the subject to give an opinion of reasonable validity. Because this is my job and has been for several years.
Why?
The chin jab is a pushing palm strike that drives the head straight up and back, the direction of force is straight up. Why have I been converted to it? Well now that i’ve recieved a few (done at low speed with control -this is the “shot placement on the body” drill) Ive realised:
1. the shot comes in under your peripheral vision making it harder to prepare or “brace” for
2. it slams the jaw shut: I talk as I teach, many people talk before/during an assault…talking requires the jaw be open and the tongue be slipping in and out of the teeth in order to make sounds… when the jaw is slammed shut the injuries would be extensive (possibly): broken teeth, bitten off tongue, dislocated jaw. (this is apart form other injuries coming from pure impact like concussion and whiplash and spinal damage. I wonder what injuries people get if they get in a car crash and bounce their jaw off the steering wheel? Anyway, I certianly felt very vulnerable.
3. The head is moved right “offline”- all the way offline! is the head taken if the practitioner “follows through” with the shot. (”Online” would be where the head wants to be- over the spine, over the c.o.g. over the feet- in a straight line- a natural posture “shizen no kamae”). As we know: where the head goes the body will follow. Its far more disorientating to have your head moved/twisted rather than just being simply hit (unless it K.O.’s you of course!)
4. It feels quite natural to deliver and can be done with no “wind up” or cocking motion- try this on a real live person NOT a pad (pads are for striking, this movment is a bit more subtle than that- somewhere in the vague “grappling/striking” borderlands where most effective technique comes from):
TRY: from a natural “line up” (hands up, non confrontational but ready, conversational position) raise your hand up under the persons chin, let it rest in the heel of your palm and focus on pushing the head straight up so the person is looking at the ceiling, then move a bit further until the person can see the top of the wall behind them and the spine is arched… what you do with your feet? Move them naturally to make this happen. You will work it out. Do this reaaaaally slowly five times and just fell it out. Now do it once with full mean intention, but real slow. Now do the initial move fast and hard, but DONT contact- stop short. NOW you can take it to the thai pad and give the intial strike portion of the move full whack. (Remeber your hitting a human chin so glance of the upper/top bit of the pad, have the pad person hold it horzontally and chin height-obviously!)
After this short experiment, you may well be convinced that this is a technique worth developing.
After the training session, myslef and the student ween to the pub with her boyfriend. As ever there was a large gang of lads in there who were pissed. Me being the paranoid, schizoid sociopath that I am (see typical psychological profile of combative instructor) immediately began to plan for what to do in case it “went off”:
you know: where are the Exits, what people will I have to shove out the way or use as weapons- typical urban ninja stuff really. It occurred to me that I might use this new found toy called the “chin jab”. I had a vision of my self and my student going through the gang like a pair of chiropractitioners from hell, leaving a heavy multiple whiplash claim in our fearsome wake. Of course nothing happened. The lads left a few minutes later, probably freaked out by the way I was staring at their chins greedily and smiling maniacally to myself.
Anyway, tempis fugit and all that… more tomorrow… in the meantime go and chin jab test your boss- he will love it.
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