Deadliest Warrior Star Nick Hughes Interview – Part 4
Deadliest Warrior star Nick Hughes tells us more about self-defense training and combatives, his affinity for Krav Maga, and the three most important aspects of martial arts training in this week’s interview.
Can you share your thoughts on the importance of technique, tactics and mindset? Of those three, which do you think is the most important?
I could never figure why so many students seemed to jump from style to style without sticking with something. Then I began to realize it was the schools they were attending. They weren’t addressing the fear these students faced. All they were doing was giving them a set of techniques to master and yet underneath these kids were still afraid of getting in a fight.
I began to break things down and realized you need 3 things to win a fight: You have to have techniques, you have to have tactics and you have to have mind-set. (I was happy to have this validated in the French Foreign Legion during commando training when they talked about the same thing – only they had the addition of equipment as well.)
The analogy I use to explain the difference is imagine cops being called to an armed robbery in progress. The first cop, an excellent technician, i.e. he can shoot flies off the proverbial pig’s back at 10o yards, stands in the middle of the parking lot and gets blown away.
The second cop, also a good shot has taken a tactics course and knows he needs to be behind cover. When he pops up to shoot a bad guy he has, for the first time in his life, a real live human being in his sights and can’t bring himself to pull the trigger. (This happened to a SWAT sniper I’m aware of by the way in case you think it couldn’t happen. He claimed later in the debrief when they asked him why he didn’t fire “you expect me to go to church this Sunday and tell my fellow parishioners I played God and killed someone?)
The third cop has a grasp of tactics and a great mind-set but he can’t shoot worth a damn. He pulls his gun, shoots himself in the foot, shoots his partner, the lights off the police car, pigeons on the roof and a little old lady at the bus stop.
Only the fourth officer, one who knows he must take cover during a gun battle, can hit what he’s aiming at, and can drop the hammer on a real live target, can possibly prevail. As the example shows, everyone else will fail somehow unless they get lucky.
So, you need to be in a school that’s teaching those three things if you’re going to have a chance in a real altercation. Of the three, mindset is hands down the most important. Mindset will give you the discipline and motivation to learn the other two. The other two, without mindset, are about as much use as a snooze button on a smoke alarm.
That explains why the average street fighter beats the average black belt. The latter has a collection of techniques while the former has an abundance of mindset, a good grasp of tactics and techniques that he’s pressure tested in real fights.
If a hapless black belt has had the good fortune to be in a school that teaches all three but they’re sports-oriented, then he’s in trouble. The techniques in sports are safe: no eye gouging, no biting, no small joints manipulations, no stomping on a man who’s down, etc. The tactics that work in tournaments such as feigning injury and getting the other guy disqualified don’t work in a bar fight. The mind set in a tournament is “if I don’t win I don’t go home with the trophy.” In the real world, it’s “if we don’t win, we don’t go home.”
Do you see a difference between self-defense training and combatives?
A subtle one. Self-defense training can be a couple of women attending a lecture at the local community center on keeping their doors locked followed with a couple of hands- on techniques like palm heels and kneeing someone in the groin or escaping the ubiquitous wrist grab.
Combatives, on the other hand, tends to encompass a much more aggressive hands on program designed to take the fight to the enemy that’s based on, or relates to the military. I love Kelly McCann’s description: “Traditional martial arts is what we do WITH someone, unarmed combat (combatives) is what we do TO someone.”
“My own personal definition of what we do is “We’re not learning how to fight, we’re learning how to end the fight.”
—Nick Hughes
You have an extensive martial arts background whose depth and breadth is second to none. Why do you choose to study and teach Krav Maga?
Prior to 9/11, I was still teaching traditional martial arts and didn’t figure there was much of a market for combatives-style training. After 9/11, I was inundated with calls from people wanting to learn what to do should they be caught in something like Flight 93 and not having the time to study the PhD program. I went back to my antecedents of hand-to-hand from the Legion and began teaching the short course applying the filter of “can I teach it in 30 min or less and is it practical?”
I was doing okay with what we labeled FIST or Fight Survival Training but the problem was nobody had heard of it or knew much about the Legion. A great friend of mine and long-time training buddy Ernie Kirk was doing Krav Maga at the time but I didn’t want to join any organizations. After Krav broke apart I was able to get involved with Ernie and switch over to something that more people had heard of.
If you want an analogy it would be as if I was a teacher of some obscure French weapon like the FAMAS that nobody here knows about and I was able to get a job teaching the AR-15. They’re both effective only one is more popular.
I haven’t forgotten my traditional stuff by the way. I still think if you’ve got the time to study it’s better for fighting than just about anything else out. It’s just that people don’t seem to have the time any more. If I can use another analogy I liken Combatives and Krav Maga to being a Para-medic or EMT and traditional martial arts to being a doctor or neurosurgeon.
Who are your favorite Krav Maga practitioners?
Ernie Kirk and Ryan Hoover spring to mind here in the States. David Stevens in the UK
You say on your Facebook page that you have incorporated “soft skills” in your self-defense training. What does that mean? Why does it matter?
Yes, one of the tweaks I’ve made to my Krav and indeed all my martial arts is the addition of “soft skills.” In a nutshell, if hard skills are fighting techniques then soft skills are everything else such as the techniques of avoidance and awareness, the legal ramifications of taking action, psychological preparation, stress inoculation and so on.
When I went through my bodyguard training every course I did stressed the importance of never getting in a situation that you need to fight your way out of. I heard it a hundred times “If you get to the point where you need to pull your weapon you screwed up.”
Afterwards, it struck me as strange that we didn’t teach that same attitude in self-defense training. It always seemed to begin with the attacker has his hands around your throat, or he’s coming at you with a knife. Why not take a page from the body guard’s playbook and teach the same principles of avoiding trouble before it begins?
In most martial arts classes, we deal with the attack portion only but if we break it down like this, fully seventy-five percent of violent crime isn’t about fighting at all. If I can teach someone how not to be chosen, how to be hyper vigilant and what to look for when alone, what to say and not to say during the “interview” then they shouldn’t have to fight their way out of trouble in the first place.
Next week, in the final installment Nick Hughes continues to share his thoughts about why no one has to be a victim; self-defense training and combatives; his appearance on the Deadliest Warrior; and the mixed martial arts.
Until then…Train hard, stay safe, live well.
P.S. Yes, those are my affiliate links just in case you care to know.
Realism in Self-Defense Training and Tai Chi as Meditation
News Briefs
Self-Defense Training vs. Martial Arts Fantasy
One of the hindrances to the study of genuine martial arts for adult martial artists is that they often have to contend with pseudo-mysticism and other fantasies that pervade the world of martial arts. These fantasies do not advance the cause of self-defense training or combatives. Nor do they contribute anything to our understanding of bushido and budo. In this video clip, combatives and self-defense training expert Tony Blauer illustrates why self-defense training is not about make-believe esotericism but instead about body mechanics and physiology.
“Some martial artists teach you to love your enemy. I hate my enemy. When he attacks, I’m going to crush him — physically, spiritually and mentally — and I won’t feel bad about it.” — Kelly McCann (Black Belt Magazine)
Realism in Self -Defense Training and Combatives
Speaking of realism in the combatives and self-defense training, few could match the legendary prowess of the late Bob Kasper when it came to the realities of knife-fighting. Paladin Press has released Bob Kasper, The Lost Tapes: Combative Knife Skills. Kasper was one of the founders of the Gung Ho Chuan Association. The GHCA was the brainchild of a handful of Marines who understood the systematic study of close-combat training, sometimes known as Gutter-fighting. Not only did they do extensive research but they pressure-tested their researches in high-risk environments such as the Middle East and Central America. Here is a sample of Kasper’s genius:
Tai Chi as Meditation
Tai Chi as Meditation is the subject of Sifu William C. Phillips’ thoughtful article in Into Mountains, Over Streams: International Journal of Qigong and Taiji Culture. Like Tony Blauer, Phillips makes his case for tai chi as a form of meditation without any hyped-up mystical claims about meditation. Indeed, he defines meditation simply as “the conscious, controlled focus of the mind.” Phillips says that there is nothing wrong with studying Tai Chi simply for the health benefits it offers its practitioners. Instead, he argues “how and why Tai chi is meditation, and as such, can be of value in one’s mental and spiritual as well as one’s physical discipline.”
Until next time…train hard, stay safe, live well.
Self Defense and Smart Phones
Did you ever consider smart phones as part of your self-defense training?
Nearly everyone has a smart phone. They are ubiquitous. They are legal in every state. (At least the last time I checked. Stay tuned for further government interference.) Indeed, some people seem joined to the hip with their smart phones.
They are convenient to carry. They are affordable.
And there’s no doubt that they are useful. You can find your favorite restaurants; where the latest movie is playing; messages in your e-mail inbox. The list goes on and on.
But what do smart phones have to do with self defense training?
Sure, you can always use them to call 911.
That’s obvious. Right?
What else?
Some so-called self-defense experts say you should use your smart phone as a weapon with which to bludgeon your opponent.
How wise is that advice?
True, it may repel your opponent, at least for the short term. But I wouldn’t count on it. It’s going to take more than that to make a vicious criminal cut and run. Worse, you risk destroying your only line of communication to the outside world. What if you can’t outrun or evade your attacker long enough to reach safety?
Instead of thinking of your smart phone primarily as a physical weapon, here is an alternate suggestion to make maximize its defensive capabilities.
I recently came across My Mobile Witness. It’s a free mobile phone service that allows you to snap a picture of a person, place or event and send it to a digital data bank that can be accessed only by law enforcement. That way you and law enforcement have a record of the situation that’s giving you cause for concern.
Clearly it’s useful for real-estate professional, social workers, and healthcare providers who must often go into unfamiliar or isolated buildings and neighborhoods and deal with strangers.
And I suspect it would be particularly valuable for college students, especially co-eds, who may find themselves in uncomfortable situations at frat houses or on Spring Break and the like.
They certainly should be a part of every woman’s self-defense training. Ditto for men.
Whenever in doubt about your physical safety or that of others, call 911 immediately. Don’t underestimate the dangerousness of the situation. Don’t try to be a hero. Let the law enforcement professionals take care of it.
Still, it’s one more tool to consider in your self-defense arsenal. I can’t say that I’ve used it and can report on its effectiveness first hand, but I’m going to let my friends know about it. Definitely worth serious consideration.
Action Martial Arts Magazine Trade Show 2012
Adult martial artists who take self-defense training and combatives seriously had ample opportunity to meet some of the country’s best self-defense and combatives experts and watch them demonstrate their self-defense techniques at the Action Martial Arts Magazine Hall of Honors Trade Show Saturday at the Tropicana Hotel in Atlantic City, New Jersey.
The gloomy, gray skies and drizzle did not deter hundreds from attending.
Here are just a few highlights from the day’s events….
Grandmaster John Pelligrini, founder and president of the International Combat Hapkido Federation, demonstrated once again why Combat Hapkido is such an effective reality-based martial art.
He pointed out that martial arts must always be based on common sense. Common sense tells you that even the best self-defense techniques will not work on occasion. The problem of failure will always be with us. Sometimes it is the fault of the martial artist. Sometimes it is the skill of your opponent. Sometimes it is circumstances beyond your control that thwart the execution of a technique.
Regardless, each technique must be designed so that there is a Plan B, that is, an alternate technique that will flow more or less naturally from the failed technique. GM Pelligrini, for example, addressed this issue with respect to the basic straight-arm bar technique.
**
Soke Michael DiPasquale also gave an excellent demonstration illustrating the importance of joint-manipulation techniques as a means of controlling and ultimately defeating your attacker. Soke DiPasquale continues to be an advocate for Dr. Philip A. DeFina’s International Brain Research Foundation, Inc. Indeed, his booth served to bring attention not to himself but to the fine work done by Dr. DeFina.
**
Shihan Gary Alexander, founder of the International Association of Martial Arts/Artists and Black Belt Hall of Famer, explained his version of combat karate. Among other useful points, he warned, as do so many experienced martial artists, about the dangers of going to the ground. He said that you want to put your attacker on the ground before he does the same to you.
**
Hanshi George Alexander has moved his headquarters to Philmont, New York. Be on the lookout for his August 2012 Martial Arts Summer Camp.
**
Phil Morris, who starred in the original (and best ever) Mission Impossible series was on hand, looking trim, fit and acting like a real gentlemanly class act.
**
Hank Garrett, the famous actor and comedian, whose performance as Officer Nicholson on Car 54, Where Are You? was unforgettable, was at the show and celebrating more than 50 years as an active martial artist. Like Soke Michael DiPasquale, he is also active in helping veterans.
**
Stay tuned as Adult Martial Artist offers more breaking-news stories from the Action Martial Arts Magazine’s Hall of Honors Trade Show.
Combatives, Hard-Core Aikido, Confucius and Haywire
Combatives expert Michael Janich writes in Black Belt Magazine about the influence and contributions of legendary Vietnam veteran and Hwa Rang Do practitioner Michael Echanis. A contributor to Soldier of Fortune and profiled, if I recollect correctly, in Black Belt Magazine, Echanis is today recognized as a pioneer in hard-core combatives training. Black Belt Magazine recently published The Complete Michael D. Echanis Collection: The Special Forces/Hand-to-Hand Combat/Special Tactics Series, originally published as three separate volumes.
Speaking about combatives, Grandmaster John Pellegrini, founder of the International Combat Hapkido Federation offers readers a short demonstration of Combat Hapkido’s weapons disarms, specifically long firearm self-defense techniques.
Who says Aikido has to be a gentle art? Take a look at this young woman giving an impressive demonstration of aikido tailored for self-defense training. She clearly shows the connection between aikido and daito-ryu aiki-jujutsu.
Law Enforcement Officer Ross Torquato questions the viability of Mixed Martial Arts training for police officers in a PoliceOne.com article, Is Training in Mixed Martial Arts the Right Thing for Your Officers? MMA, argues Torquato, is just too complex to be practicable for police officers. “The physical skills,” he says “needed to win must be simple, based on gross motor movements, learnable in an eight-hour session once a year, and practiced for about ten repetitions.”
Haywire, a film by Steven Soderberg is scheduled for release tomorrow. The action-adventure romp stars MMA champion Gina Carano as covert-operations professional. She’s backed by an impressive cast, including Ewan McGregor, Channing Tatum, and Michal Fassbender. The New York Times panned the movie, calling the plot “almost defiantly preposterous and uninteresting.”
Insight from Confucius:
“One who wants something will find a way; one who doesn’t, will find an excuse” Confucius
(Thanks to Master Al Medina, Chief Instructor and Owner of the Bronx Combat Hapkido Club for this quotation. Want to learn real self-defense techniques that work? Check out his school.)
Aiki-Daito Ryu Jujitsu Documentary, Collision Course, Simpler Situational Awareness
Self-defense Training and Combatives: The Legacy of Daito-ryu Aiki-Jujutsu
Self-defense training. Combatives. Call it what you will. Each is indebted to the tradition of aiki-daito ryu jujitsu. Guillaume Erard has collaborated with Olivier Gaurin and Meguma Fukuda last year to produce a documentary entitled Introduction to Daito-ryu Aiki-jujutsu with Kobayashi Kiyohiro Sensei. A theme of the film is how training in daito-ryu can complement and complete contemporary aikido training. See for yourself:
I can’t recommend Guillaume Erard’s Life in Japan and Aikido Practice too highly. If you’re going to do your martial arts training in Japan, then this site is invaluable and must and his The Traveling Aikidoka’s Guide to Practice at the Aikikai Hombu Dojo is must reading. But even if you’re not, Life in Japan and Aikido Practice is a thoughtful martial arts site executed with a lot of class and style. Unpretentious and informative, its pages host dozens of interviews, videos, pictures, articles, and events. Makes me want to reach for my passport.
••••
Collision Course Combatives
Target Focus Training’s Master Instructor, Chris Ranck-Buhr says you should Collide with Abandon: “Don’t hit. Don’t strike. Collide… You need to think in terms of colliding with the man to break him. A full-bodied, all-bets-off, total commitment of your entire self to crashing through something not rated for that traffic…It’s the only way to make injury the most likely outcome.” Definitely a precept worth taking to heart.
•••
Are You Switched On or Off?
The Paladin Press blog has a short but thoughtful article on situational awareness, Switched On or Switched Off, by retired law enforcement officer and handgun authority Dave Spaulding. Many of us (including me) have advocated using situational awareness models such as Jeff Cooper’s Color Codes or John Boyd’s OODA loop. But Spaulding, while praising the excellence of such models, suggests something simpler: Just ask yourself whether or not you’re switched on or switched off. Worth reading.
Until next time…Train hard, stay safe, live well.
Bruce Lee’s Tao of Jeet June Do: The Expanded Edition (Part 2)
THE NEW EDITION: WHY YOU WANT IT ON YOUR BOOKSHELF
Black Belt Magazine’s expanded edition of Bruce Lee’s Tao of Jeet Kune Do offers numerous improvements over the original edition:
- Digitally enhanced hand-drawn illustrations from Bruce Lee’s notebooks make it easier to understand the principles as well as the techniques of JKD.
- Sidebars offer quotes from Lee that serve to illuminate his philosophy and practice of the martial arts.
- Short commentaries provide invaluable insights from those who knew Bruce Lee well including his widow Linda Lee, his daughter Shannon Lee, Diana Lee Inosanto (daughter of Bruce Lee’s close friend and disciple, the ever popular Dan Inosanto), Yori Nakamura and Richard S. Bustillo.
HOW TAO OF JEET KUNE DO MAKES YOU BETTER A MARTIAL ARTIST
The Tao of Jeet Kune Do will not turn you into an overnight martial arts master. As Bruce Lee himself pointed out, “the martial arts are based upon understanding, hard work and a total comprehension of skills. Power training and the use of force are easy, but total comprehension of all of the skills of the martial arts is very difficult to achieve.”
Yes, Bruce Lee’s private notebooks will teach you the basic concepts and principles behind the art of Jeet Kune Do.
But it will teach you so much more.
“The Tao of Jeet Kune Do has no real ending. It serves,” as editor Gilbert L. Johnson observes, “instead as a beginning.”
THE TAO OF JEET KUNE DO: A STATE OF MIND
The Tao of Jeet Kune Do will teach you why mindset is just as important as technique, why philosophy without practice is useless and practice without philosophy is blind. JKD is ultimately a way of thinking not just about the martial arts but about life as a whole. It is not a mere compilation of techniques but a path to self-development and personal growth. Yes, it is about bujutsu but even more importantly about budo.
Jeet Kune Do is the enlightenment. It is a way of life, a movement toward willpower and control, though it ought to be enlightened by intuition.
Bruce Lee brought philosophical depth and breadth of vision to the martial arts. He roused martial artists from their dogmatic slumbers and blind adherence to empty traditions.
He read widely. He knew his Confucius, Lao Tzu and Buddha. He read widely in modern and contemporary philosophers such as Spinoza and Krishnamurti. He reflected carefully on what he read and made it his own. His philosophy and his practice of the martial arts formed an integral whole.
Like the notebooks of Aristotle, Leonardo DaVinci and Nietzsche, Bruce Lee’s notes will always be subject to interpretation and reinterpretation and even misinterpretation.
So, too, the writings of martial arts masters like Miyamoto Musashi and Sun Tzu.
As Gilbert L. Johnson points out, “There is no right way to read the Tao of Jeet Kune Do. The divisions of the books are meant only to facilitate, not dictate, understanding the message of the book.”
Linda Lee, makes a similar point when she says the Tao of Jeet Kune Do was intended to be “a record of one man’s way of thinking and as a guide, not a set of instructions.”
The bottom line?
There will never be a definitive, once-and-for-all interpretation of any of the Tao of Jeet Kune Do.
It is hard to imagine that Bruce Lee would have wanted it any other way.
WHY EVERYONE SHOULD READ THE TAO OF JEET KUNE DO
If you are a veteran adult martial artist, then you already know why every martial artist should read the Tao of Jeet Kune Do. Precisely because there will never be a definitive interpretation, Bruce Lee’s work will serve to refresh and reinvigorate your martial arts perspective and practice.
If you are beginning adult martial artist, then Tao of Jeet Kune Do is even more of a must read. The sooner you read it, the better a martial artist you will be. You’ll find it will help to separate the wheat from the chaff when it comes to martial arts and self-defense training.
Wherever you are in the martial arts community, whatever your martial passion, you want to get your copy of the expanded edition of Bruce Lee’s Tao of Jeet Kune Do.
And, don’t forget…
Absorb what is useful, discard the rest.
The Main Event
Action Martial Arts Magazine Trade Show 2012
Adult martial artists who take self-defense training and combatives seriously had ample opportunity to meet some of the country’s best self-defense and combatives experts and watch them demonstrate their self-defense techniques at the Action Martial Arts Magazine Hall of Honors Trade Show Saturday at the Tropicana Hotel in Atlantic City, New Jersey.
The gloomy, gray skies and drizzle did not deter hundreds from attending.
Here are just a few highlights from the day’s events….
Grandmaster John Pelligrini, founder and president of the International Combat Hapkido Federation, demonstrated once again why Combat Hapkido is such an effective reality-based martial art.
He pointed out that martial arts must always be based on common sense. Common sense tells you that even the best self-defense techniques will not work on occasion. The problem of failure will always be with us. Sometimes it is the fault of the martial artist. Sometimes it is the skill of your opponent. Sometimes it is circumstances beyond your control that thwart the execution of a technique.
Regardless, each technique must be designed so that there is a Plan B, that is, an alternate technique that will flow more or less naturally from the failed technique. GM Pelligrini, for example, addressed this issue with respect to the basic straight-arm bar technique.
**
Soke Michael DiPasquale also gave an excellent demonstration illustrating the importance of joint-manipulation techniques as a means of controlling and ultimately defeating your attacker. Soke DiPasquale continues to be an advocate for Dr. Philip A. DeFina’s International Brain Research Foundation, Inc. Indeed, his booth served to bring attention not to himself but to the fine work done by Dr. DeFina.
**
Shihan Gary Alexander, founder of the International Association of Martial Arts/Artists and Black Belt Hall of Famer, explained his version of combat karate. Among other useful points, he warned, as do so many experienced martial artists, about the dangers of going to the ground. He said that you want to put your attacker on the ground before he does the same to you.
**
Hanshi George Alexander has moved his headquarters to Philmont, New York. Be on the lookout for his August 2012 Martial Arts Summer Camp.
**
Phil Morris, who starred in the original (and best ever) Mission Impossible series was on hand, looking trim, fit and acting like a real gentlemanly class act.
**
Hank Garrett, the famous actor and comedian, whose performance as Officer Nicholson on Car 54, Where Are You? was unforgettable, was at the show and celebrating more than 50 years as an active martial artist. Like Soke Michael DiPasquale, he is also active in helping veterans.
**
Stay tuned as Adult Martial Artist offers more breaking-news stories from the Action Martial Arts Magazine’s Hall of Honors Trade Show.
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