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Learning to Knife Fight With a Navy SEAL, Part 3

Posted on February 11, 2011 by admin
The Karate Kid, Part III

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Back to the dojo… We spent the next three days working our unarmed knife defense.  By the end of those first four days, all of my fingers were bruised and swollen and at least one was fractured.  Nothing a little athletic tape couldn’t fix. We also had spent every spare minute whittling our training knives or sharpening our carving knives. Our right forearms (both of us are right handed) were completely worn out from the effort of carving and sharpening. By this time, we were a little frustrated that we had not spent anytime on knife offense.  We came to the dojo on our last day and confronted Kevin about the lack of offense instruction.  He smiled a knowing smile and then made us feel like we were in a Karate Kid movie. He pulled out a cardboard sheet with a series of numbered circles and lines on it.  He put it on the wall and told us to stand close to the wall.  He put lipstick on our now finished wooden training knife and told us to quickly slash the lines and thrust into the circles upon his calling off numbers.  The quicker he called the numbers and the tighter our movements became, I was amazed at my ability to put the knife exactly where I wanted it to go.  The knife seemed to be an extension of my arm.  It suddenly clicked: carving that wooden knife taught me blade control.  He clarified my realization: A knife is just a tool and is useless without an artist.  Work with your tools until they become a natural extension of your body, only then can you create works of art. Then he ordered me to step back and put the knife in my left hand.  He grabbed the end of it and easily twisted it out of my left hand.  He then told me to switch hands and use my right hand instead.  Once again he grabbed and twisted the wooden blade.  This time I was able to resist and counter his force.  Once again, it became obvious that all those hours of carving and sharpening by hand served more than one purpose.  All of that work had strengthened my grip incredibly.   He once again eloquently distilled the lesson: Your knife or gun is only useful if it is in your hand; hand strength is critical. Then he told me to square off with him with my wooden knife in my hand.  He told me to attack him and instantly my mind seemed to go blank.  In those few seconds I was standing there the aching of my fingers crept into my mind.  I remembered a thrust feint into a low snapping slash that he had hit me with snapping my fingers time and again yesterday.  I had seen him do it to me at least 20 times over the last two days.  I remembered that I always moved my hand up when he came with that attack. So I decided to throw that, yet aim 6 inches high with my slash.  I leapt forward and threw the feint and transitioned into the slash throwing it high. As I did this, his hand was already moving upward and my blade racked him on the knuckles.  I saw a grin spread across his scarred face.  I was expecting congratulations, but none came.  Instead I followed his eyes down to my groin where he had a second wooden blade pressed against my inner thigh under which my femoral artery and certain death lay. My final lesson was the most important and the same as my first: You will get cut in a knife fight. Stay tuned for Part 4…
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Learning to Knife Fight with a Navy SEAL, Part 2

Posted on February 8, 2011 by admin
Cover of "Indiana Jones and the Raiders o...

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I want to specify here that knife fighting is extremely dangerous and complicated.  I am just introducing concepts here.  This is not a definitive guide to knife fighting or defense.  If you are interested in learning more, find a local expert and start training.  What you will learn here are some solid tenets that you can use to build your knowledge base.  Another “tool for the tool box” as I like to say. When I last left you, my fingers felt broken and I was off to my room to figure out how to whittle a wooden combat knife.  I spent the better part of the night figuring out a key lesson: Never cut towards yourself. This seems obvious, but you have to remember that we were just a couple of young midshipmen that grew up in the city.  Only by the grace of God did we not end up in the emergency room getting stitches.  That is not to say that we didn’t have a new cut or two on our fingers in the morning. When we showed up for class, we proudly presented the beginnings of our wooden knives.  Kevin immediately brushed them aside and asked to see the Gerber knives we had used to carve the wood.  We pulled them out and he checked their blades.  He turned to us and asked us why they were dull.  Our confused looks resulted in an immediate lesson: A dull knife is a dangerous knife. This is a critical point.  If your knife is dull, you have to use more force to get it to cut.  That extra force results in having to over commit and often causes you to over travel.  When you are cutting a cord in your garage, over travel can cost you some stitches.  When you are defending yourself with a knife, over travel can cost you your position and therefore your life, so we immediately went into a review of stance and movement. Then we learned the two types of attacks that can be used with a knife: Thrusts and Slashes. Thrusts use the tip of the blade to puncture and generally travel in a line from the attacker towards the defender. Thrusts can come from any direction: straight ahead from the waistline forward, from down low, up or in the traditional serial killer way – from above downward. Most thrusts have a starting point and an ending point.  Picture a movie serial killer coming at you with the knife held out the bottom of their fist thrusting downward like he was hammering a nail. The key to thrust defense is to stay away from the tip of the blade.  This can be done through increasing the distance between you and the attacker or by deflecting the attack through hitting the attacker’s hand from the side. Slashes use the edge of the blade to cut and generally travel in arcs. Slashed are very dangerous and very difficult to defend against, because they utilize the larger cutting surface of the blade and can be linked together.  A skilled knife fighter can cut an opponent in multiple places in less than a second.  Slashes travel in arcs; these arcs can move in any direction. The key to slash defense is to stay outside the arc of the blade.  It is difficult to increase the arc of a slash mid-slash.  It is best to attack the attacker’s knife hand at the end of an arc because that is where the knife has to change direction.  As we learned earlier, over travel kills, big sweeping arcs give you opportunity. If your opponent is keeping his knife in tight, quickly linking slashes and thrusts, never pausing or over committing while simultaneously decreasing the distance between you, there is only one sure defense: THE INDIANA DEFENSE What is the Indiana Defense?  Think back to the scene in Indian Jones, Raiders of the Lost Ark when Indy is up against the beast with the two swords. What does he do? He smiles, then he pulls his pistol out and shoots the beast.  This leads to our most important lesson: Never bring a knife to a gunfight. Thanks for reading – Larry Yatch Stay tuned for Part 3 on Thursday, February 10th!
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Learning to Knife Fight with a Navy SEAL

Posted on February 5, 2011 by admin
CQC7 MINI-B

Image by mr.smashy via Flickr

Part 1 of 4 I spent the last three days with the Emerson family of Emerson Knives.We were able to tour their production facility and get an inside view of what makes their knives the premier tactical folding knife on the market today (see our pictures on Sealed Mindset’s Facebook page).  Spending this time around knives has reminded me how much I rely on knives for defense, thus the next series of posts will concentrate on knives. AS HUMANS, WE ARE LIMITED. If you take a close look at a human being, it becomes pretty evident that we are not the most robust species out there.  We do not boast sharp claws, fangs, or even a tough hide for defense. There are two reasons that we are at the top of the food chain: opposable thumbs and an incredible intellect.  Having opposable thumbs gives us the unique ability to make and hold tools.  Our intellect gives us not only the ability to learn, but also more impressively the ability to invent; the ability to bring into existence something that never was. Ernest Emerson and the family of Emerson Knives have put their opposable thumbs and creative intellect into excellent use by creating the best tactical folding knives available in the market today. Anne and I have had the pleasure of being good friends of the Emerson family for a number of years now.  That is not something a Navy SEAL takes lightly.  Emerson knives hold a special place in the battle-hardened hearts of most special operators.  I still remember fondly the first time I held an Emerson blade in my hand.  There I was standing in my room at the United States Naval Academy . . . Before I made it into SEAL training I prepared myself both mentally and physically by relentlessly pushing myself.  That self imposed torture came in many forms: refusing to run in anything but a T-shirt and shorts no matter what the weather (nasty Pittsburgh weather be damned) or reading every word published on Navy SEALs. It was in Richard Marcinko’s Rogue Warrior series in which I was introduced to the lethal efficiency of Emerson steel.  In his books, “Demo Dick” Marcinko clearly stated that the Emerson CQC-6 was the epitome of combat folders. My mind was made up: if the CQC-6 was THE knife of choice for Navy SEALs, I had to have one and I had to know how to use it.  Getting one would be much more difficult as at the time there was a 5 year waiting list.  I figured the best course of action would be to start saving my money and begin learning the art of knife fighting. Spring break was coming up during my 2nd Class (junior) year at the Naval Academy; therefore common sense held that it was time to go somewhere warm with beautiful women. Not being one to follow the herd, and not understanding how chasing women in Jamaica helped me become a better warrior, I hatched a different plan.  I found a close friend, classmate and eventual co-founder of Sealed Mindset and proposed that we go to the back alleys of Pittsburgh to train with an infamous martial artist, Kevin Pegnato, instead of going to a beach. We asked Kevin to put together a weeklong offensive and defensive knife-fighting course, and he asked us if we liked unbroken fingers. Undeterred, we packed up the car and drove through the night to Pittsburgh.  He also made the strange request that we each bring a 12” x 2” x 1” piece of hardwood. We spent the night before class awake with scenes of silently dispatching the enemies of our country with fixed blade fighting knives playing though our minds.  When we arrived at the dojo early in the morning, blocks of wood in our hands, our reality was nothing like our dreams. The first lesson we learned was the most important: You will get cut in a knife fight. You readers should feel lucky to have received this most crucial lesson so easily.  Our Instructor was more inclined to provide physical lessons, usually accompanied with pain.  He stood in one corner of the dojo with a beautifully carved wooden knife in his hand.  He asked me to pick a distance away from him where I thought I wouldn’t get cut, when I looked quizzically to his wooden knife he pointed to my block of wood on the floor by my lunch. I picked up my wood block and stood about 12’ away from him.  He laid the ground rules that he would make one attack and if I was able to parry or move away from his attack the test was over.  I nodded my head in understanding.  Before I could register his movement he made one giant step forward, but I could instantly tell that there was no way he would be close enough to touch my body with his knife.  I responded by stepping back quickly to increase my distance. At the last instant, his wrist snapped out and the last two inches of his knife struck the index and ring fingers of my knife hand.  The wooden block instantly dropped from my hand.  Then came my favorite lesson concerning knife fighting: “Not many people want to continue a knife fight when their fingers are laying on the ground in front of them.” Now I understood his question about my attachment to my fingers.  I also had a whole new understanding of 10 wonderful additional targets.  He explained that the hands were usually the furthest point away from the body and also were critical in our ability to mount an effective offense or defense. After proving these points, he told us what we could expect for the next 5 days.  This would become our third lesson: “Anyone with a knife can cut another, it takes a truly skilled warrior not to get cut.” Unarmed defense against a knife is one of the most difficult skills to learn, and that is what he said we would spend the majority of our time on.  We started with learning how to assume a fighting stance and how to move quickly with balance.  The techniques and lessons I learned in that dojo in 1997 became the foundation of my shooting and fighting career. As we were leaving that first day, we received our homework assignment.  The instructor told us that he expected our blocks of wood to have the start of a handle by the next morning.  He added that he would not be happy if he saw any signs of power tools on our blocks.  He pointed to the simple Gerber pocket knives that we both had in our pockets and added, “Have fun and don’t put any rings on tonight, your fingers are going to swell.” Thanks for reading and stay tuned for more! Larry Yatch Part 2 to “Learning to Knife Fight with a Navy SEAL” arrives on Tuesday!
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Lingerie & Guns: Do Shirt Holsters Work?

Posted on January 30, 2011 by admin
Holster for Glock pistol
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In my last job as a SEAL, I had to carry concealed weapons as part of my duties. I went nowhere without a least two weapons.  As the popular Navy SEAL saying goes: “Two is one and one is none.” Most of the areas that I had to carry in were extremely dangerous.  To clearly define dangerous, in some of the places that I had to carry, if a “good guy” noticed my gun, I was headed straight to a foreign jail, and if a “bad guy” noticed my gun, I was headed straight to a shootout.  For obvious reasons, I needed to avoid both of those dangerous scenarios. I give this background to ensure the readers that the opinions that I share come from experience and not from theoretical musings.  Take notice that I use the word “opinions” as I use that word purposefully.  I will never claim that what I teach or write about is the right way or only way to do something.  What I will claim is that my opinions are based on experience and significant thought and research. There are many ways to carry a concealed handgun and all of these come with their individual capabilities and limitations.  It is important to think about the pros and cons of each as well as your expected use before you decide your individual course of action.  In this post, I am going to cover the use of “holster shirts” and the limitations that I see in their use. As will become evident in future posts, I will usually stick to discussions around defensive firearms use as our primary concern.  I define defensive firearms use as using a weapon to stop or deter a lethal threat to your life or another’s life.  I am not going to discuss these topics from a weekend range shooter, or a competitor shooter’s point of view. “Holster shirts” come in many shapes and sizes; most are tight and are meant to be worn under another shirt, while others are normal shirts with holsters stitched into their construction. Holster Shirts The one capability (pro) that I see with using a tight undershirt type of carry is that they provide for very good concealment of the firearm.  You generally do not have to worry about “printing” (being able to see the outline of a firearm under your clothes) with these types of holsters. That one positive capability is outweighed by the many limitations: -       Slow to draw – the more secure something is, the slower it is to get to! -       Sweeping others  –Crossdraw rigs require that the weapon starts out facing the wrong direction and that results in the “sweeping” (intentional or unintentional pointing of the weapon) 180 degrees, which can be extremely problematic in public -       Sweeping yourself – another limitation of crossdraw rigs is that it is very difficult to remove a weapon pointing backwards from under your arm without “sweeping” your own arm -       No close quarters options – when you have to draw across your body, it does not take much for the bad guy to trap your weapon against your body -       Completely different physical actions from traditional weapons presentations This last point is the most important.  Whatever you practice the most you will do in a high stress situation. The important part of that this point is that if you practice nothing, you will do nothing…can you say, “deer in the headlights?” So if you have practiced your weapons presentation out of your favorite outside the waistband hip holster, but you carry your pistol in your long underwear shirt, be prepared for a surprise when the rubber meets the road. My favorite story is that of my SEAL buddy who lived for new gear.  His house looked like a cross between REI and a Police equipment store, and yes you probably guessed that he was not married yet! With all of that those options, he was always changing his gear around.  He decided that having a pistol on his belt was not cool enough so he mounted it on the front of his body armor load bearing equipment.  The theory was sound and it did make it more comfortable to sit in a car, but I saw an opportunity to make some easy money. He was incredibly fast with his pistol and constantly beat me at every competition.  So I offered him a challenge: one shot with our Car-15s and then a weapons transition to our pistols for one more shot. Whoever was quickest won $100.  That much money would be sure to add to the stress level I knew I needed to create for him. We lined up and the starting buzzer sounded.  Off he blazed with his rifle, beating me by at least half a second, then a blazing fast transition; his hand beat mine to the pistol by a good bit.  Yet, I walked away with a smile and $100. WHY? His hands may have been faster, but he was left grasping for a pistol on his hip that was not there anymore.  I will never forget the confused look on his face as he looked down and realized that his pistol was not where his muscle memory told his mind it should have been, it was sitting on his chest instead. The point of this story is to plan ahead, and practice; getting attacked is not the time to start developing muscle memory. Larry
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Save Your Life With Education

Posted on January 28, 2011 by admin
Navy SEAL insignia
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Sealed Mindset has undergone some significant changes over the last year.  We have gained some partners and lost others.  We have traded surf and sun for lakes and snow.  We have altered our concerns for political correctness and expanded our offers. The one thing that has never wavered is our undying passion for providing everyone the resources to be safe.  Safe when you travel, safe when you go to school, safe when you work, safe when you are alone, and safe when you are with loved ones. As a Navy SEAL who has spent many years working in dangerous environments, at home and abroad, I know what fear is.  Real life is not like the movies where the chiseled hero with the stone faced expression runs towards danger with no fear or concern.  I know fear and I embrace those feelings because I know that they are necessary.  If you have no fear, you are either crazy or dead. What I worry about is that most people I run into have unnecessary fear.  Unnecessary fear comes from a lack of knowledge; unnecessary fear affects your life and restricts your happiness.  We have made it our mission at Sealed Mindset to provide the tools necessary to allow everyone to educate themselves to rid their lives of unnecessary fear. We will use this Blog to share information, training, headlines, opinions, to answer student questions, and to offer advice to those interested in living a secure life, with knowledge of how to deal with life’s dangerous “What ifs?” What if someone follows me in a dark parking lot? What if I am traveling to Mexico and I am worried about my safety? What if my child is about to head off to college and I am worried about his or her safety? What if I want to learn more about firearms, but I am fearful to introduce a weapon into my household? What if I want to know how to choose a good home defense shotgun, but I don’t know who to ask? There will be two voices that you will see regularly in this Blog, each coming from very different backgrounds.

Husband, Trainer, Father of Fluffy the 140 lb German Rottweiler

I am Larry Yatch, a Naval Academy graduate and former Navy SEAL.  The most important thing to know about me is that from a very young age I was driven to protect others using force.  The last part of that is important, I am no stranger to fighting and have been intrigued by combat from a very early age. My entire life from childhood on was focused on gaining as much experience in weapons, defense, and combat as possible.  While my classmates were celebrating spring break from college drinking in Cabo, I was in Pittsburgh learning the art of fighting with edged weapons.  I never thought I would have any other life than that of a professional solider.  A dangerous SEAL operation in Iraq changed that life path; I was seriously injured and eventually medically retired after the navy’s best efforts at putting me back together. Then, a second life-changing experience occurred, I met my future wife Anne.  Anne’s voice will be the second one you will hear.  She taught me that there was more to being safe than shooting and fighting.  She showed me that knowledge was more important than physical skills.  Of course she had no lack of knowledge – while I was abroad hunting and fighting terrorists, she was learning how terrorists think. Anne studied every aspect of the enemy at Georgetown’s School of Foreign Service, where she earned her undergraduate degree in International Law and her Masters in International Security and Anti-terrorism. Wife, Trusted Female Voice, Trainer of Fluffy the 140 lb German Rottweiler Together we founded Sealed Mindset with one goal in mind – to make the world a safer place.  Instead of focusing outside the country, we decided to make a difference one person at a time right here at home.  It has now become obvious to both of us that we made the right choice. Every student that makes it through one of our courses has dramatic and wide reaching effects in their lives. Our students also become an important part of our lives. These types of individuals who take the time to learn how to assess and avoid threats or learn how to safely carry and employ a defensive firearm can not only protect themselves, but can also protect their loved ones around them.  The best part about changing the way these people see the world is that they will always have a plan of action and will always make the places they go more secure for those they care about.  Those are lasting effects that we know will change the world. So if you have any interest is staying safe or keeping those you care about safe, come back here often for more education. Enjoy! Larry & Anne Yatch
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How to Prevent Another Arizona Shooting

Posted on January 27, 2011 by admin
TUCSON, AZ - JANUARY 15: Safeway grocery stor...
Image by Getty Images via @daylife
I know what most of you reading this post are thinking right now. WHY. WHY IS IT IMPORTANT TO LEARN MORE ABOUT SAFETY? No one has ever attacked me. I’m pretty much aware of my surroundings. I live in a nice area. The reason that it is important for everyone who walks into and out of a grocery store to learn more information about personal safety is because criminals are illogical, immoral and unfair. How about an example that hits home? If I was giving a speech right now and I walked over to an audience member and full force punched him right in the face, ALL of you other audience members would be SURPRISED, none of you would be expecting that, and most of you would not know how to react. WHY? Because my actions in this situation are NOT logical. Better yet, how about the next time you end a meeting at work. What if after leading the meeting I met you at the door on the way out with a gun and said, “It was really nice seeing you today, but please give me all of your money before you leave.” If this happened to your meeting, all of you would be surprised, none of you would be expecting that, and most of you would not know how to react. WHY? Because my actions in this situation are IMMORAL and UNFAIR. We are good, kind people and because we feel we are good and kind, we expect others to treat us the way we treat them. We expect those people we deal with each day to be fair, moral and logical, just as we are. This thought process puts us at a very significant disadvantage however, because criminals, by their very nature, do not think this same way. There have been two tragic incidents that have been in national news in the last few months. We had the school board shooting in Florida: School Board Shooting and the attack on Congresswoman Giffords: http://thelastword.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/01/08/5793523-rep-giffords-shot-in-deadly-ariz-attack. It is obvious to all of us now, when we look at these two situations, that the criminals who committed these crimes were obviously immoral, illogical and unfair, YET each victim started his or her day not expecting any trouble, not looking for any signs of distress, and they expected that everyone they would run into would be moral, logical and fair – just as they were. The only way to stay safe and not live with unnecessary fear, worry or paranoia, is to change the way that you see the world through education. This allows you to identify and see those people that are acting illogically, immorally and unfairly so that you can take action to avoid conflict at all cost. And, in the unlikely event that you can’t avoid the conflict, you will know from your education what to do to physically defend yourself and those you love. My entire purpose in writing these words here today is to help give each one of you the understanding and language to explain to those you care about WHY it is so important to spend a little bit of time and a little bit of money to learn how to protect yourselves and those you love. Okay, so the next time you are talking to someone about Sealed Mindset and its personal safety training and either they ask, or you can see that they are wondering, “Why should I learn that?”, you can tell them: You need to learn more to give yourself a mental edge because criminals are immoral, illogical and unfair. Without this mental edge, you will not be able to see and avoid those who are acting immorally, illogically and unfairly. Thanks for reading! Anne Yatch
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Sealed Mindset’s How to Travel Safely at World Cup

Posted on June 12, 2010 by admin
Adidas football "Jabulani" that was ...
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With this year’s opening of the world’s biggest annual athletic event comes a whole new discussion about security concerns.  These concerns always exist where there is a crowded venue with international attention.  In this particular case however the concerns are much more poignant given the location is South Africa which is known not only for its rugged beauty and wildlife, but also for its street crime and well organized ethnic violence.  Combined with the ever-present threat of terrorist action, this year’s World Cup has given many travelers a reason to examine their own personal security measures and emergency preparedness. The most important advice that I can give anyone concerned about any security problem is to remember that security is not something that you buy; rather it is something that you live.  Or, as security expert Bruce Schneier puts it, “Security is a process, not a product.” An approach to protection that I have found to be very effective and universally applicable is the protective model of Avoidance through Planning, Deterrence through Planning, Detection through Situational Awareness, Active Avoidance, Active Deterrence, Defense and Mitigation.  This process is the equivalent of what the military calls a “detect to engage sequence” for security.  In layman’s terms, it is an outline of an effective process to keep something safe. The most important piece of any security, particularly when relating to protecting yourself and your family, is avoidance.  No matter how effective your kung-fu might be, I personally guarantee that it is much better for all concerned for you to never get attacked in the first place than it is to successfully fight off a criminal.  Avoiding attacks is usually as simple as paying attention to what is going on around you.  Learn to see and evaluate characteristics of people and situations so that you can make informed decisions and proactively keep yourself and your family away from danger. The next phase of the protective model is deterrence.  It is unfortunate (but true) that some dangerous people actually go out and look for victims (you).  I call these people predators.  They make their living feeding off of others and therefore are always looking for their next target.  Because many of these people make their living this way, they are familiar with what to look for in a victim and therefore can sometimes be dissuaded from conducting an attack simply by displaying something different.  Predators look for the easy target.  They seek out the low hanging fruit of unaware, meek and timid people who show signs of possessing something worth taking.  If you show yourself to be aware of your environment and assertive in your demeanor, as well as avoid displaying items that would be extremely valuable for a criminal to take, then your chances of becoming a target go down significantly. One of the products of the situational awareness necessary to deter the predators is the ability to detect them, particularly if you know what to look for.  In the event that avoidance and deterrence fail, early detection is one of the keys to survival because, as self-defense guru Jeff Cooper put it, “If you don’t know you’re in trouble, no amount of ability on your part will save you.” In the event that avoiding and deterring a threat isn’t possible, even after seeing the threat coming and trying yet again to avoid and deter, then it is finally time to take action for self-defense.  This action can be as simple as putting a hand on your wallet to stop a pick pocket, or as drastic as fighting for your life in an armed confrontation.  Regardless, the key to success in any action is to actually take the action.  Too many people freeze in their moment of need, ultimately “choosing” to do nothing through a long and confused process of sputtering indecision.  I cannot stress it enough.  If you know that something is wrong; TAKE ACTION.  It may not prove to be the perfect action, but certainly any action is better than no action.  Do not hesitate out of denial while thinking “this can’t be happening to me.”  Instead, act, and act early.  The faster you make a decision and take action, the more likely that it will be successful. Finally, in any security situation you should plan to fail.  I call this piece of the process mitigation and it is every bit as important as the others because, let’s face it, stuff happens.  If something can go wrong, don’t dwell on the possibility, but consider it and plan for it as a contingency.  If all else fails, then there is at least a pre-set series of measures in place to deal with the aftermath of everything from a lost passport to a kidnapping to a plane crash.  Nobody wants these things to happen, but sometimes they do; despite the best efforts to prevent them.  Plan ahead and set yourself and your family up for success in the unlikely event of the worst-case scenario. For more information on how to plan to keep your family safe while traveling, contact the Sealed Mindset team: info@sealedmindset.com.
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Grey’s Anatomy Season Finale: Choosing to be a Victim

Posted on May 21, 2010 by admin
Watching the latest episode of the popular television show, Gray’s Anatomy, highlighted a very simple, basic fact: some people choose to become victims where they surrender and cower in the face of evil. If you don’t want to be a victim, then read on. For anyone who identified with the actions of the characters in that show, or said, “Well, he has a gun, there’s not much you can do!” just stop reading now.  You are a victim in the making.  Someday, your number will be called and you will be helpless and completely at the mercy and whim of a sociopath.  Good luck.  Nobody can help you because you refuse to help yourself. For those who watched and wondered, “Why doesn’t he/she DO something?” Read on. You can learn to help yourself and refuse to ever lie down or surrender in the face of evil and become a victim. To avoid any confusion, let us be clear: this is a blog written about actions taken in a make-believe scenario, scripted dramatic effect and portrayed by actors.  With that as a qualifier however, there are some instructive points and lessons to be learned from this show, which was sadly all too close to the headlines. The first point is that the shooter was quite simply a predator. Regardless of his motivation, past life or mental status at the time of the attack, he was nothing more than a sociopathic predator who could only be stopped through one method: physical force.  Historically, this has been true for most real-world active shooters as well.  They can’t be reasoned with, bargained with or talked down. In every active shooter scenario, there has never been a two-way conversation with the shooter: the active shooter comes in and  shoots as many people as he or she can until the shooter is shot, stopped physically, runs of ammunition, or until the shooter shoots himself. There is NEVER a conversation. The only way to stop them is to neutralize them through physical confrontation. From historical situations, the majority of active shooters crumble under the first physical confrontation because they enter the situation planning to die. The second point is that the mental attitude and prior preparation for such an incident of each individual in the show played an enormous role in their reactions. Of all of the people who were shot throughout the course of the show, only one continued to function.  That was the shooter himself.  Why (television scripting aside)? The answer is simple, because he prepared himself for the fight.  He knew that he was going to a fight.  He expected that he would be shot, and he was prepared to fight through it and complete his mission. The others?  They were not prepared for a fight. Normal people can prepare for this scenario without being a warrior and without self-defense knowledge! For all of the blood and guts that the medical personnel saw on a daily basis, nothing prepared them mentally to deal with violence on a first person basis; to stand and fight, knowing that they might get hurt, even killed, but fighting anyway and refusing to sit and idly become a timid, passive victim to a mentally deranged, physically limited sociopath. There is a strong kernel of truth to be harvested from this show: the fact of the matter is that mental attitude and preparation plays a huge role in how people perform in the worst situations. Statistically, 80% of people in the United States who are shot with handguns LIVE. Any one, or group of the victims in that show, just like in real life, could have made the choice to do something other than cower, beg and plead with a deranged killer who clearly was of an altered mental status…they could have chosen instead to attack; to refuse to lie down and become a victim and to end the situation once and for all by neutralizing the killer. People can do amazing things when they have the mental discipline to do so.  They can fight through pain, shock, gunshot wounds, knife wounds, emotional trauma and just about anything else life can throw at them. Any one of those victims had the capacity to stop the killer, IF they had cultivated the proper mental attitude by learning what they did not know and what they should do in that type of situation. Any one of those victims had the capacity to stop the killer, if they had decided ahead of time that they would NOT become a victim. Any one of those victims had the capacity to stop the killer, if they had made the decision to TAKE ACTION. The world can be an ugly place sometimes.  When the ugliness rears its head, you have two choices. You can get down on your knees, cower and plead and hope for the best, or you can take charge of your own destiny, refuse to be a victim and refuse to give in and surrender to evil. Alternatively, you can choose right now to NEVER become a victim.  You can choose to gain the knowledge, mindset and skills that will allow you to DO SOMETHING when that moment comes.  Here at Sealed Mindset, we can teach you the knowledge and the skills. The choice however, is up to you.
Posted in family protection, family safety and prevention, Online Education, safety solution, Violent crime | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Community Learning & Strength: Resources for Families

Posted on May 19, 2010 by admin
In light of the Chelsea King and Amber Dubois tragedies, Sealed Mindset reached out into the community to form important relationships with two training companies who strive to bring the best knowledge to young men and women in San Diego. Poway Samurai Martial Arts, owned by Tony Whetstine (“The Bushido Guy”), is one of the only self-defense studios we have worked with that provides realistic personal safety tools to empower a woman’s confidence in the field of self-defense. When Tony Whetstine and his family met our team, it seemed a natural fit because we both spoke the same language: we both believe that there is a distinct difference between the self defense skill of learning a martial art and practicing it regularly and the integration of awareness tools into your life. The women’s self defense course that PSMA and Sealed Mindset championed focused on personal safety tools so that each woman could leave with a better understanding of the personal safety options that are available. While some martial artists are quick to show you a trick to fight back, Tony’s background as a US Marine Corps veteran of the Persian Gulf War allows him to see martial arts in a more complete perspective and thus offer a more complete solution. It is this complete perspective that Sealed Mindset values because it allows him to make a true difference in the lives of young men and women every day in his Dojo. Velocity Sports Performance, located in San Diego, is the ultimate training facility that offers each athlete a chance to be instructed by world-class performance coaches. While these coaches are elite and professional athletes, they are also caring parents, and as parents, they heard the call to provide personal safety training to the families who attend their classes. Just like every parent, you want the best for your child and your family. Sealed Mindset’s team has formed these winning relationships with Velocity and Poway Samurai to give your family access to the best insurance available in the athletic, martial arts, and personal safety realms. Take advantage of all that these trusted programs offer by signing up for a free trial at Velocity, or by visiting Tony’s Dojo! We are very proud to be working with both of you! For more information on Velocity Sports:  http://www.velocitysp.com/free_trial or sandiego@velocitysp.com For more information on Poway Samurai Martial Arts: http://www.powaymartialartsschool.com
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Posted in awareness training, family protection, family safety and prevention, Online Education, Personal Safety Training, safety solution, sealed mindset | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Personal Safety: Reading Books Versus Inherent Knowledge

Posted on March 10, 2010 by admin
Cover of Gift of Fear
This blog is in response to the discussion that was started on Sign On San Diego after an article was published about the increase in numbers at self-defense classes in March 2010. Due to statements of worry from women around the San Diego area who voiced to us that self-defense was not a complete solution for them due to their hectic lifestyles or their physical size, we wanted to reach out to address this concern. http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2010/mar/10/self-defense-class-enrollment-surges/ Many people believe that personal safety and defense information is available anywhere and that they can easily integrate it into their lives. These people are correct – you can go and purchase books on personal safety and defense and you can read those books. The strength of the Sealed Mindset program is that we have done all of that work for you as well as integrate the knowledge together into a systematic approach to personal safety and awareness. For example, take Gavin de Becker’s book, “The Gift of Fear.” He explains instinct and how to listen to your instinct better than anyone. Jeff Cooper, in his book, “The Principles of Personal Defense,” describes personal awareness levels through his color coded system better than anyone else. Col. Dave Grossman, in his books “On Killing” and “On Combat” explains the physiological effects of high stress situations better than anyone else. Within the book, “Secrets of Surveillance,” you are presented with a very thorough accounting of how to identify and assess a threat to your safety. Within the book, “Training at the Speed of Life,” you learn the psychological aspects of lethal force encounters. If you purchased all of these books, it would cost you more than the price of our program. The biggest problem with purchasing and reading books is that you cannot learn how to integrate what you read about instinct with how you change your personal condition level, or how your ability to assess or interact with threats effects you physiologically or psychologically. The other problem is that these books are typically written for professionals in language that is inaccessible to many normal individuals. The strength of what we offer comes with the integration of all of this information into a system that was specifically designed with adult and youth education specialists to be accessible and easily retained. What we’ve discussed is just a small portion of only the books that are necessary in someone’s search for personal safety and defense information. We have not even approached the lessons learned through 14 years of Special Operations training that civilians do not have access to. If you still think that $249 is too much to pay for the knowledge represented by over 30 years of combined experience within antiterrorism, counterintelligence, and special operations fields, as well as the information contained in all the books below – all of which we present in an entertaining and easily accessible format online, then what we offer is not for you and that is okay. Go to our site, check out our completely free five minute lesson and if the information you find in that lesson is something that you already know, then I believe you are well on your way to being safe. Here are some books with prices and page numbers, all of which you would have to read to gain similar information to what you find in our course. The total number of pages you would have to read would be 3,002 pages. The total cost of just these few books is: $201.96 The cost of our course for 1 person? $97.00 for 10 hours of learning. Gavin de Becker’s “The Gift of Fear” $11.95 (372 pages) Jeff Cooper’s “The Principles of Personal Defense” $19.44 (250 pages) Col. Dave Grossman’s “On Combat” $16.47 (391 pages) Col. Dave Grossman’s “On Killing” $10.17 (366 pages) Dick Couch’s “Down Range” $10.17 (242 pages) “Psychology & Adult Learning” $44.80 (160 pages) “Secrets of Surveillance” $14.85 (224 pages) “Sharpening the Warriors Edge” $13.57 (141 pages) “Protecting the Gift: Keeping Children & Teenagers Safe” $14.37 (325 pages) Kenneth R. Murray’s “Training at the Speed of Life” $32.95 (337 pages) “Beauty Bites Beast: Awakening the Warrior Within Women & Girls” $13.22 (194 pages) The Sealed Mindset educational information covers the 99% scenario and is an integral part of any self-defense program. Combining this foundational knowledge with self-defense provides a complete solution for any individual who is willing to take a reasonable amount of time to learn. Let’s all come together as a community to address the 99% scenarios so that a systematic approach to awareness and self-defense training can now be a complete solution for everyone. If you are interested in learning more to keep yourself or your family safer each day, please look into “15 Seconds to Safety” for your friends and family. For more information: info@sealedmindset.com.
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Posted in awareness training, family protection, family safety and prevention, Firearms, Online Education, safety solution, sealed mindset | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment