The Unconscious Power Of Assumed Constraints

Assumed constraints – the unconscious power inside you!

Combat Training Principles — Secrets For Staying Alive When “Rules” Don’t Apply

People often ask me for the best way to “protect” them in some imagined criminal assault.

They want me to respond by giving some perfect technique that handles their particular imagined scenario.

They’re often disappointed at first when I don’t respond the way they want me to answer their question. They don’t like to hear the truth — that violence is random and thinking only in terms of “techniques” to use against a random act is a good way to get you killed.

The problem with practically everyone’s approach to dealing with violence is not that they’re incapable of learning techniques – it’s that they don’t understand this way of responding to violence — real asocial, maim, cripple, or “kill you now” violence — is seriously flawed.

That’s because when it comes to violence, we (meaning you and me, the productive, law-abiding members of society) live lives of ASSUMED CONSTRAINTS.

We are taught early on by parents, teachers, and our legal system that if we want the benefits of living in a society like ours then we need to constrain our violent impulses when things don’t go our way.

And obviously, this is a very good thing.

It’s the reason you don’t kill the obnoxious jerk that steals your parking place, you wait patiently for the light to turn green at an intersection, and you don’t shoot the neighbors Labrador for digging up your rose garden.

When it comes to the subject of violence, we are controlled by society much like circus elephants are controlled by their handlers.

These trainers know the most reliable way to handle an elephant is to “condition” it when it is very young.

They put a shackle on the baby elephant’s leg with a short chain that is held in the ground by a very long spike. The baby elephant tugs at the chain attempting to break free.

After a short while the elephant breaks the skin around the shackled leg and gives up. But the pain of attempting to break free is never forgotten.

Later on, that same method is used to control the now fully-grown elephant, even though the adult beast could pull the spike free with no more effort than you and I use to remove a thumbtack from a corkboard.

And the same approach is taken with all productive members of society regarding the tool of violence.

We are “shackled” at a very young age — first at home, later in ours schools, and finally at our workplaces.

When faced with violence, most of us respond SOCIALLY.

We attempt to communicate with our attacker in hopes of avoiding the use of violence. We may threaten to use this tool but we really don’t want to since that shackle is still firmly attached.

The sad part of ASSUMED CONSTRAINTS is that most martial arts, combat sports, and, yes, even most “reality fighting systems” teach you to respond — WHILE STILL SHACKLED!

It doesn’t work.

I learned long ago the first order of business is to teach my clients how easy it is to break those ASSUMED CONSTRAINTS when the threat warrants such an approach.

Because the real threat to society is when we run up against some “rogue elephant” that has never been “shackled” and has no problem using violence to get what he wants. And imagine how easy it is to fight someone if they have their leg shackled.

Remember first and foremost — violence is rarely the answer to most situations, but when it is the answer, it’s the ONLY answer.

Once you understood that (and as a reader of this newsletter you have heard me say it numerous times) you then must be able to rip off those ASSUMED CONSTRAINTS and free yourself so you can utilize the tool of violence when required.

I can assure you the methods and principles taught in Target-Focus(TM) Training Live Seminars and our various other products do EXACTLY that, allowing you your best chance to survive an asocial, violent threat.

Take some time to digest this message, read through it again — then look within to see if you can truly break free from your “shackle” if the need arises.

If you’re not sure — really sure — then get some help to do this because you don’t want to discover those shackles are intact with a 9mm pressed against your ribcage.

Until next time,

Tim Larkin
Creator of Target-Focus(TM) Training

Target Focused Training
TFT Human Weapon Defense System
Live Target-Focus Training
TFT Striking
Using Your Bodyweight as a Sledgehammer!
TFT Throwing Series.
The Art of Head Trauma:Dumps, Drops & Throws

TFT Weapons Self Defence.
Discover secrets for destroying anyone attacking you with a weapon!
Surviving The Next 5 Seconds Of My Life!
The Survival DVDs
Surviving the most critical 5 seconds of your life!
The Survival Book

Your Critical Combat Training Decision

Combat Training Principles – Secrets For Staying Alive When ‘Rules’ Don’t Apply

“You do things the way you train.” It’s Your Critical Decision!

You need to know something about principles — about the ‘why’ — of what you’re doing, as well as the techniques. It’s training your mind along with your body. Without it, you’re doing what everyone else is doing — just learning techniques for specific situations. So before we even consider the principles of any good fighting system or martial art, you must first answer this question:

“What is my goal for this training — to enhance my athletic competition skills or to learn to effectively deal with potentially lethal physical attacks from one or more thugs hell-bent on harming me and/or someone I love?”

It truly amazes me how many people just stumble into various martial arts or combat sports never having once considered the above question. Yet your answer to that question makes all the difference in determining whether you really get what you want from training.

Here’s why.

If you answered “for competition” – then understand you’ll find numerous martial arts and combat sports that provide excellent instruction and challenging forms of competition. There you can SAFELY match your skill level against another competitor, within agreed upon RULES and under the supervision of a judge or referee.

The combat sport athlete has my greatest respect, and you can certainly learn some very effective lessons in competitive strategy and tactics from these sports and disciplines. I know many of you may also enjoy the sometimes-extensive physical training these arts require in order to excel in competition.

Unfortunately, if “sport fighting” is your thing … if it’s your answer to my first question, well, you won’t find Target Focused Training of much use. No hard feelings. Read a little more though to understand more of the reasons “why”.

Now, let’s return to the question.

If you answered that your goal for training IS to learn to effectively deal with real life or death threats, then Target Focused Training is the right place.

There’s one more group I must address. It’s those of you who answered the question, “I want to train for BOTH athletic competition AND life or death attacks.”

Why am I concerned?

It’s simply this … YOU CAN’T DO IT!
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That’s right. And the reason is very simple:

“You do things the way you train.”

Let me repeat that — “You do things the way you train.”
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If you train in a combat sport or martial art that has rules restricting you for reasons of safety during competition, then you’ll react to a violent criminal assault …

— Restricted By Those Very Same Rules!

But understand, those rules only apply to you. Not to your assailant.

He has NO restrictions.

That’s why you must to be extremely careful when physically training for self-protection.

You see, there’s a coding process that gets ‘installed’ when training — and it’s this process that ultimately determines your responses under stress.

Examples? There are many.

But one of the more disturbing involved a major police department’s firearms training program.

The range where this city’s police officers performed their firearms training was run by a rangemaster more concerned about keeping his range clean … than keeping his officers alive!

During practice with their revolvers, the officers were required to shoot all six rounds, then eject these spent cartridges into their hands and put them into their pockets.

This ‘RULE’ was enforced because the rangemaster didn’t want his pristine range littered with empty cartridges.

Problem was — in a REAL life or death gunfight, an officer must reload his or her weapon as fast as possible. And to do that with a revolver, you obviously just dump the empty cartridges on the ground while quickly reloading with your free hand.

But surely these highly trained police officers would not let their training impact them negatively in a real situation, right?

Unfortunately, it wasn’t until 2 officers were shot dead in a gunfight that the facts were revealed …

— “You do things the way you train.”

Both dead officers were found with empty cartridges in their hands, EXACTLY as they trained on the range, even though they faced a life or death situation where those extra seconds may have been the difference.

So return to my initial question, and make your decision: “What is your goal for training?”

Until next time,

Tim Larkin
Creator of Target-Focus™ Training
http://www.targetfocustraining.com