“Everyone has a plan ’till they get punched in the mouth.”
— Mike Tyson, World Heavy Weight Boxing Champion, Biter
Fellow Wing Chun fanatic, what’s up? — Rob again from WingChunLife.com. Someone I know was recently mugged, took a beating, and got four stitches on the head for it…
When he told me the story he started with this: “Well, they kind of mugged me.”
What?
How can you ‘kind’ of get mugged?
The two brutes were after his mother’s Samsung tablet, which has photos, private info, no backup, and no security password protections.
[Tip: Lockdown your electronic devices with long and strong passwords.]
They beat him, and beat him, and beat him some more, but they didn’t get that tablet. Hence, they ‘kind’ of mugged him.
The fight or flight response is hardwired into our DNA. But, instead of running or fighting back, my friend acted on impulse and chose a third option.
He dropped to the ground and rolled up into the fetal position while the two a-holes beat him.
If you train martial arts, or have played back situations like this in your head, or practiced and drilled techniques to deal with this kind of scenario… you may find his reaction humorous, maybe even a little pathetic.
But that is NOT the point of telling you this today.
What Can We Learn?
We can’t improve if we don’t learn from our, or other people’s, experiences. So I thank my friend for sharing with all of us… and not dying that night.
Mike Tyson said, “Everyone has a plan ’til they get punched in the mouth.” He was talking about highly trained and focused fighters who enter the ring ready for battle. That’s not my friend.
And it’s probably not the people you love and care about either, right?
https://m260.infusionsoft.com/go/JLF/WingChun/
So let’s quickly review…
Three Street Violence Avoidance Tips:
1) Stay Aware of Your Surroundings. The two men caught my friend off guard and got the jump on him. He was distracted, looking down at an electronic tablet, fiddling with the Internet outdoors. You should not live your life as if you are afflicted with PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome), but vigilance is always advised.
2) Avoid Putting Yourself in Places of Danger, Especially Dark Empty Places. Crime often happens in low-light situations and where there are few witnesses. He fiddled with his device outdoors at 8:30 pm. It was pitch dark and the neighbors were all indoors. The pathway next to him was well lit, but he leaned against the wall of an apartment building where it was much darker because of the shadows cast by the building and nearby trees.
3) Don’t Stick Out Like an Easy Target. Standing where he was and distracted with the electronic tablet glowing in his face, he was was lit up like a Christmas light. The two predators easily sniffed him out and drove in for the kill.
Follow the tips above and you’ll have a good chance of avoiding dangerous situations…
…but the problem is it’s human to get distracted and lower your guard.
Fight or Flight… But, What If…
— The thugs caught him by surprise;
— It was two against one;
— They rode up on motorbike wearing helmets with the face shield down;
— One had a gun.
Not a pleasant situation for anyone, no matter how tough you are.
He chose not to hand over the tablet; he’s not sure why.
[Tip: In a situation like this most experts recommend you give up the property (i.e. the wallet, purse, electronic device, etc.). They would also recommend you run; flight. Most experts would not recommend standing there and fight.]
So they hit him on the head with the butt of the gun. At that moment he made the split-second decision to go down and take cover.
But what if you can’t run? Or… what if the thugs want more than just your loved one’s purse?
What Mike Tyson Said Goes Both Ways…
There may be a time when you can’t run… or, the cold-hard criminal wants something more valuable than your loved one’s money.
In this case you must fight, and you must use violence to survive.
The sociopath, the psychopath, the mugger, the rapist has a plan… until you punch him in the mouth, smash his groin with a kick, or gouge his eyes with your fingers.
For some people, using violence comes naturally. For most, it does not.
But when you or your loved one is prey, talk and reason don’t work. Inflicting traumatic injury does. Violence is a mental state, first.
Even law enforcement has trouble dealing with this fact.
It requires you to know when to adopt and accept violence and behave like a sociopath… so you can bring down the one hunting you.
Using violence to defeat violence is not about a bunch of cool moves, either.
That’s too complicated. That kind of thinking creates too many points of failure. Not acceptable.
My favorite resource to learn how to use violence physically and mentally is Target Focus Training (TFT). With their resources, it’s easy to learn justifiable violence (taking only a few hours, not years).
Why don’t you take a look at TFT now? It can help you or someone you care about gte out of a dangerous spot.
https://m260.infusionsoft.com/go/JLF/WingChun/
Rob
P.S. Adding the concepts of violence-in-action into your toolbox will also make your Wing Chun and martial arts more effective in a street ambush.
More to the point, if you have loved ones who do not train marital arts or self-defense, TFT’s simple straight forward approach is easy to do and fast to learn. You don’t even need to be physically fit to survive. Why don’t you take a look at it now?
