Conditioned Counter Assault Response
By
Rick Wilson
Factors:
Counter Assault Response means responding to an “assault.” For my purposes an assault is always an ambush attempt. An assault is not intended as a fight. An assault is an overwhelming ambush taking the person by surprise, doing damage immediately and not allowing the person time to recover and respond in any way.
Elements of an Assault:
- Surprise
- Fast
- Overwhelming
- Damage
- No distance
- No time
Counter:
Surprise – Awareness is the buzz word to negate surprise but unless you have superhuman awareness there are times you can always be taken by surprise. You need a response that “kicks in” immediately.
Surprise also means the Aggressor gives you no time to see and evaluate what you are being attacked with and how. Therefore, you also need a response that can deal with as many different types of assaults as possible so that you do not need to know the type of attack just that you are being attacked.
Fast – The speed of an assault also requires a response equally as fast.
Overwhelming – You need to be able to negate that crush of the blitzing assault. One way is to simply not be where they expect you to be.
Damage – You need to be able to avoid that immediate damage. If you can then you can retain your ability to respond. One way is to not be where they expect you to be.
No Distance = No Time – You will not be able to increase distance immediately, so you need to change your position so that you are not where they expect you to be to increase time which gives you options on how to respond including creating distance.
The Response:
Because this is a surprise, an ambush, we would like to think that we could “beat” the attack but if we are being blitz (from the side or behind even) and just see the ambush at the last minute then can we really challenge that with an aggressive flinch response. And can all sizes of people come out ahead on that force on force conflict?
Opinions will vary on this and I have mine.
I do not believe that an aggressive response can come in time for a true ambush nor do I believe that all sizes of people can overcome a bigger stronger Aggressor with an aggressive response.
I believe that to negate an ambush we need to gain back what was taken in that surprise attack. We may not be able to gain distance, but we can gain time. Time being relative to the speed of this assault. We can do this by not allowing the attack to land and not being where the Aggressor expects us to be to continue the assault.
We can negate the overwhelming nature assault by negating the positioning chosen by the Aggressor.
We can negate the doing of damage by the Aggressor by focusing on avoiding that initial assault.
We can negate the shutting down of our retaliating by negating the chosen position of the Aggressor.
If we can avoid damage and give ourselves time to respond, then we can survive the ambush the assault.
Of course, you also must be able to follow up with an effective response after you survive that initial ambush and that is where your training comes in.
Choose:
In looking at all the types of counter assault responses, such as, the “SPEAR” (for want of a better word but this response existed in multitudes of systems long long before the term was coined by Tony Blauer including my own martial art that came out of China in 1917) , The Helmut, Dracula’s Cap, The Wedge, The Shredder etc. they all have a couple of things in common – an aggressive move forward and they are done at shoulder height – to protect the head.
An aggressive move forward implies not being hit by the initial ambush – you are beating them to the punch. You able to respond aggressively before the ambush attack lands. If you have time, then you can beat an attack if you are faster. The purpose of an ambush is to eliminate time. This is where I question how many can do that successfully?
In addition, the plan is that an aggressive assault to the attacker, often to the head or face will either do enough damage or suck their intent to harm from them. This can be successful but if the attacker is bigger and stronger then will there be enough force to stop the assault? Remember that have the advantage they have chosen of positioning and angle of attack.
Because all of the above responses are shoulder level (protecting the head – which is important) then should the assault be lower (knifing to the abdomen) and the aggressive response does not immediately knock the Aggressor backwards stopping the lower attack then the knife will stab successfully.
You can play the percentages. You can say that these responses handle most assaults. You can say if you drive something nasty into the Aggressor’s the face such as the ripping of the Shedder then it should, or would hopefully, deter the Aggressor.
This counts on a person being able to go aggressively forward often at the midpoint or the later end of the attack. It counts on the aggressive response being able to stop the Aggressor’s action and have the Aggressor lose their intent to continue the assault at least long enough for the intended victim to continue their counter attack. I was not confident that would work for all parties particularly smaller individuals. For myself this is a similar mentality to jamming and jamming works best when you are bigger and stronger.
Having looked at all of those types of responses I determined the one common thread was that none of them truly avoided the assault. None moved off the line but moved into the Aggressor. Now, as stated, when successful these all are good responses.
However, looking at: what if the attack landed, what if the Aggressor was too large or the assault so forceful the intended victim did not halt the assault and now further blows keep coming in, what if is was a knifing to the abdomen, then what? I looked at the what ifs and wondered if there was not a different way to respond?
I needed a different response that met the thoughts stated earlier to create time as you avoided damage.
I wanted to create a space of time and gain superior positioning. I wanted something to make sure in coming strikes could be deflected and subsequent strikes could be sensed and dealt with. I wanted something that then allowed options for your next response to the assault.
I have always believed in Rick Bottomley’s principle of “strike while avoiding” and when your body mechanics are done properly it is easy to combine an avoidance and another action. Note, the key in that wording is the strike is done WHILE avoiding. Avoiding is the important part to be accomplished AS you do whatever else you are doing.
This means I first looked at what is a fast avoidance. A rotation is a quick movement that can take you either offline or inside the line of force. Rotation was the movement I wanted then.
What else was needed? I needed to make sure no damage could be done at any point from head to torso. I didn’t want just the head protected.
In my base system there is a movement that includes a cross-arm position that covers from the head to the bottom of your torso and when combined with a rotation (arms are MOVED not moving) it is a powerful motion.
A rotation, with the cross-arm position added, accomplished the avoidance and repositioned yourself so you have a strategic advantage. The cross-arm position also puts you in contact with the Aggressor and when in close quarters altercations you want that contact to be able to read what is coming next AS you initiate your own responses.
This is what we want.
This movement you off the line of the attack negates the surprise.
This movement takes you off the line of the attack avoiding damage.
This movement changes where you are from where the Aggressor wanted you to be creating time.
This movement allows you to now respond with your training.
This is not a sparring technique although there are points it works well there too but this is for that ambush.
In my Knife Defence book this position transitions into a number of response options and THAT is when options can be decided, although I suggest having a plan ahead of time for which is your main option. A person can tailor their options to fit their training.
How to CONDITION IT: THERE CAN BE ONLY ONE.
You cannot have a choice in how you respond to an ambush assault.
You want to form a tactical habit. A habit has a cue and a response.
You have to train one response to all ambush assault cues.
If you introduce any other option, then you cannot form a habit. What you have is a reaction that will be subject to the OODA loop.
The OODA lop is Observe, Orientate, Decide and Act. Regardless of your opinion on the OODA loop this is what gives rise to the saying action beats reaction. For myself the key part is “decide.” Anytime you have a decision you take time and you may not have time.
A habit is something you are conditioned to and there is no decision. If this happens then you have one response.
In truth this is what all the flinch response actions are based on the fact that we have a natural habit to respond to something coming at us.
What we want to do is condition one response to the ambush cues. We build the habit and then there is no delay between the cue and the response.
But it can only be the one response, no variations and no other options. If you train anything else, you present your mind with choices. You want your mind to understand this is the ONLY CHOICE.
To condition a habit, you need to have success follow the right response to the cue. When you do it correctly you mentally and physically acknowledge that you had SUCCESS. This is a vital component of forming a new habit. All of you has to accept this is the best response possible. Using Rory Miller’s model, we are talking about convincing the human, monkey and lizard brain this is what we want.
Learn the response and work the response in the Learning Zone making sure you have fully rotated and not cut it short. Learn what your follow up options are and what your preference is or work requirement is.
Then take it into the Conditioning Zone. Here you need to really work that operant conditioning and finding the cues in an assault so that you can condition the response you want to those cues. You can also add safe resistance here to make sure the learning was proper.
In the knife defence book, we have some simple response rules to train and condition this response that eliminate higher “conversation” (human) brain thought when assaulted. This is needed to turn it over to the lizard brain.
Even though this was designed for the knife defence I works of all assaults.
If attacked from behind, you need to have ONE prechosen direction to rotate with the Cross-arm position. You need the direction of rotation already picked and conditioned. I rotate to my right because most Aggressors are right-handed but left works as well. BUT pick it now and always rotate that direction when training attacks from behind – do NOT change it just because you figured out, they were attacking with the left hand this time.
If attacked from the left, then rotate left.
If attacked from the right, then rotate right.
If attacked from the front, then rotate to take control of the arm closest to you. While it seems like you would have more time when attacked from the front if taken unaware you do not and do not have time to determine what the attack is or perhaps where the knife is.
Once conditioned then you must enter the Testing Zone.
Here you push things as safely as you can to as far as you can. If you fail then you must determine if you need to go back to the Learning Zone – for example if weren’t rotating fulling, moving your arms not having them move etc. or the conditioning zone – for example if old habits coming out under pressure.
These are my thoughts as to what and why I chose the tactical habit response to an ambush assault.