Every man, woman and child should be familiar and proficient in a core skill set of violent capabilities, even if you never anticipate conflict.
What do you need to know?
Here are my core recommendations:
~ Handgun: Become as proficient as possible with your preferred handgun. If you can hit what you aim to hit at 35 yards, with combat loads from un-natural positions, in poor lighting, good for you. Also practice double taps & triple taps (2 shots to center mass and one to the head). Shoot with your weak hand. Shoot with a pistol in each hand. Learn to shoot without the sights, both from the hip and from shoulder height. Finally, expose yourself to as many different handgun designs as possible, so if you pick something up in a hot moment, it isn't the first time you are trying to decipher the controls.
~ Rifle: Become as proficient as possible with your preferred longarm. Hit what you want to hit out to 100 yards with iron sights and without a rest, then work as much range into your shooting as possible. Learn optics. As with handguns, shoot as many different longarms as possible for familiarization. Work in a 12 gauge scattergun.
**Caliber: Shoot the most powerful load you can comfortably control and handle. If you can put more hits on target with your .22 Buckmark than your tricked & slicked .45 bottomfeeder, carry the .22 and trust it. Where you hit is almost always more important than what you hit with...and only a fool ignores the 80 pound lass who can hit him with that "pipsqueak" rimfire. When he's dead, give his cannon to someone in your Tribe. ;)
~ Knives: Train with a serious battle blade like a Cold Steel Tanto or a KA-BAR. Don't worry about "Knife Fighting", learn how to stick him with the pointy end while avoiding the sharp parts of his blade. Then train with a folder that you keep with you everywhere you go, including the toilet and bed.
~ CQB: Every single reader should get experience in hitting and being hit now, so the first time you take an elbow to the cheek is not in a real death fight. I don't care who you are or what belt you hold in whatever art - six months of serious Krav Maga will prepare you to kill the vast majority of people you need to kill when it gets up close and ugly. By serious I mean at least 4 classes each week, and go hard. You'll find as you get more proficient where you can work in your knife and handgun skills. If you have more than six months, find a good Brazilian Ju-Jutsu class to add to your Krav skills. If you are in good enough shape and can afford the cost and time, start your ju-jutsu at the same time as Krav. Please do not begin your training with an "MMA" program, because the teacher says you'll learn all the good stuff together. Learn Krav for your foundation, then experiment.
**Martial Artists** Don't bother me with "This art is better..." arguments, please. Save that stuff for your MA blogs. There is no better art out there for teaching a person how to defend themselves and kill an attacker as quickly and efficiently as Krav.
~ Attitude: There are simple realities with fighting for your life, especially at close range. First, you will get hit, you will take damage, you will get hurt, you may even die. Forget anything and everything Hollywood has told you. It does not matter how good you are, how much training you've had, you will not emerge from any fight, including ones you "win" without injury. Period.
There are some aspects regarding fighting that simply can't be taught, among those is the mental ability to kill. You can build skills that make you more confident and less hesitant, but no skills will help you if you are unwilling to use them.
Surviving a death fight is not about defending yourself, disarming the other guy, wounding him, or saving anyone else. There is only one goal, and you must learn to seek that goal even if you die to accomplish it - Kill Him! You must abandon your desire to live, push it down, for it will only get in your way. Your only focus is to kill him. Everything else will take care of itself.
~ Common Sense: Folks, never be afraid to run away. Run fast and scream like a girl being chased by a worm that wants to tickle your tonsils if it helps. Run until circumstances are as favorable to you as possible.
I offer my Shichi Toku core package in private settings only, offered only to a single person or a small group or family unit. My core program is a set of 17 techniques drawn from several martial arts, designed to end a deathfight in your favor, as quickly as possible. Blue handgun and knife trainers are used. I don't advertise, I'm not looking to open a dojo. I reserve the training essentially to potential SafeRoom clients, but I am considering offering it to Patriots. If I decide to offer the course to Patriots, it will be free. (It is decidedly NOT cheap to clients, they could buy a nice car for what I charge. I do not offer belts or certificates and I charge a flat fee per technique, as did most serious Japanese teachers of old)
If folks are genuinely interested I'll consider offering a few classes to III Patriots, so if this is something you'd appreciate, let me know either on this post or in email. If so, I'll try to find a way to work out the logistics.
Above is what I consider to be a minimum level of proficiency for every Patriot and Patriot's child. Obviously you'll want to evolve beyond the waypoints I've listed.
The womenfolk must know how to kill a man who gets too close.
It is going to happen...
Kerodin
III
