Interview With Published Author, Mr. Author N. Cognito: Thoughts On Martial Arts/ Military Combatives/ Reality Based Self-Defense.

19December2015


Interview with Author N. Cognito, the published author of the book, 'When Hell Becomes Your Home, How I Survived 14Years in Prison.'





* Mr. N.Cognito, thank you for taking time out of your busy day to conduct an interview which I wish to share with the public in my blog. We've been friends for some time and you've been instrumental in my training and knowledge, so I feel that your actual experiences lend weight to your knowledge and advice in the realm of certain subjects. So that being said, let us begin, but first let me lay the ground work for this interview before asking my question.





* (AnDrew) My friend, I've seen a great deal of instructors in the martial arts and Combatives world propagating theoretical empty hand knife defenses against a criminal attacker, as well as many propagating their various theoretical styles, systems, or theories as the ideal methods for which to quickly deal with a criminal attacker (or attackers) in a life and death struggle.


 


  However, both you and I have an extensive history with real-world violence, in various forms, outside of the sporting ring, and like many people out there we can spot the dubious. Particularly when a renown instructor is teaching and demonstrating to female students, as well as men, to deliver a closed fist punch the human 'skull' (head) in order to "shake the brain" and cause concussion.





  When instructors are frivolously teaching students or the public that striking the nose upward will drive the bone of the nose into the brain.





  When instructors are teaching students to execute three to five moves to counter every one move from a theoretical knife wielding maniac, as if the attacker will always lunge forward in a fencing attack that leaves the weapon arm fully extended without retracting it as a boxer would or simultaneously striking with his other hand while driving forward with his body, long enough for them to execute their disarm and counter.





  Or when instructors are teaching students or demonstrating for the public that the fastest way to neutralize a violent threat in an unarmed close-quarter-defense situation is to resort to a series of sport based punches, knees, and kicks against a violent, larger, stronger, criminal attacker who may have lived an extremely violent life and has been 'punch inoculated' more than even a hard-core Kyokushin, Kajukenbo or Muay Thai boxing school can legally or safely subject their student too.





  It seems that so many are commercially selling fraudulent life insurance and personal security to masses of unwary people who believe that their instructor has the knowledge and experience to pass onto them skills that will save their life in a violent, criminal, attack. Or that these methods are the very best for both women and men in dealing with a criminal attacker (or attackers) while unarmed, during a frantic and violent assault.





* (AnDrew) What are your thoughts on bare knuckle boxing, almost brawling, and the knife defense methods seen being propagated by reality-based defense, Combative, or martial arts instructors whom are flooding the internet with their videos and whom some have even have found their way into teaching law enforcement, security groups, and military units?





* (Mr. N. Cognito) Honestly most of (but not all) what you have shown me on the web and what I have personally witnessed being propagated is by individuals whom are out to make money through the marketing of impressive fight choreography or they're individuals whom are involved in ego-masturbation through the martial/combat arts.





 *Then there are the various athletes who come from sports based combat arts, whom are in their own right very effective and experienced in dealing with a single, unarmed, opponent (usually from the same weight class) but they are claiming to be able to apply that experience and skill set as experts in the world of life or death military close quarter combat. Many having never served in an active duty Infantry unit, so they have no clue of the physical limitations that apply to an individual whom is carrying a massive amount of heavy gear on his body, is operating at a level of fatigue that surpasses professional sports, while dehydrated, and most likely hasn't slept in over seventy two hours, while mobility is constricted by a fifty pound flack vest, a load bearing vest carrying ammo, canteens, and gear, as well as a Kevlar helmet. Someone soaked with water or perspiration which will cause his trousers, perhaps his whole uniform in some cases, to stick to his flesh and further hinder certain movement. And at least one hand will most likely be occupied at all times with a weapon of some sort. Sport-based ring fighters have no experience with fighting under such conditions and many instructors in martial arts/ combatives/ or reality based self-defense don't either. In fact, many military veterans whom have never served in an active duty Infantry or special operations unit would not have the experiences to appreciate how these issues effect close quarter combat/hand-to-hand combat capabilities against a larger, stronger, better rested, trained enemy combatant(s) whom wish to either capture or kill you.





* That being said, most of what these individuals whom I see marketing themselves as experts in the realm of combatives or martial arts are demonstrating methods which would not be prudent in the realm of battle-field close combat. Even during my generation in the Army, the Gracie combative methods were first being introduced to the third ranger battalion in Ft. Benning Georgia and then disseminating out to Infantry units abroad. The ground-escape methods and some of the submissions were excellent for helping a combat soldier escape from being held down by a stronger, more rested, or larger enemy in a life or death struggle. However the focus didn't remain on simply escaping the ground and learning some submissions because they later began training Infantrymen to tackle an enemy below the waist, to bring them to the ground, and then fight the enemy on the ground with submissions, limb breaks, chokes, and even closed hand punches to the hard structure of the face or skull. Almost exactly like what you see being taught in sport-based MMA ring fighting.





* Ground grappling has been proven many times to be much more effective, one against one, in a fight than bare knuckle boxing styles. During my time in the Infantry it was a very common past time, sometimes illegally, for the various trained boxing champions, black belts, Muay Thai boxers, high school and college wrestling champions, and experienced street fighters to test our skills against each other in full contact, bare knuckle, one-on-one fights. Just like we saw in the original ultimate fighting challenge which the Gracie family conducted in Las Vegas Nevada in the late 1980s and early 1990s.





 *We had men from different military branches and even a few from special operations units get in on the action because we all wanted to test and prove ourselves. Their was no money involved. We were simply professional warriors as well as fighting men, whom were always testing ourselves in every way possible and this was simply one more arena in which we needed to assess our true capabilities among the very best of the best. If we had cell phone video cameras in those days we would have been an internet sensation for the individuals who have the same questions about their training and abilities but are unable to take the challenge and learn for themselves. And I deceive you not, that the most successful guys in all of those challenge matches were both the wrestling champions and the guys who fought using the dirtiest methods; the rough and tumble fighters.





* One individual, whom I recall was an E5 sergeant named Velasco, admitted to having absolutely no boxing, wrestling, or martial art training whatsoever but he earned a fierce reputation for fighting so dirty that all of the martial artists, MMA guys, wrestlers, and boxers stopped accepting challenges from him. He was just a very 'tough' guy who didn't mind pain, could take a hard hit, and always went for the testicles, throat, eyes, and fingers. He's seize and twist the testicles of the grapplers on the ground, try to grab and break fingers, fish hook mouths and nostrils, try to tear off guys' noses or ears, seize and squeeze their trachea, box their ears, bite and use all manner of foul tactics.





 *Once I recall he was struggling on the ground with a skilled grappler with MMA background and it looked as though he hadn't a snow ball's chance in the tropics when the guy he was fighting full contact, no holds barred, yelled out and quickly released Sgt. Velasco all the while the sergeant continued his ruthless attack during that moment of shock and executed a strangle hold on his victim. After the fight the younger soldier protested that Sgt. Velasco had violently jabbed a thumb into his rectum through the material of his battle dress uniform trousers and it was both so shocking and painful that the MMA guy abandoned his hold and attempted to retreat when sergeant Velasco seized the opportunity to take a strangle hold on his younger, mixed martial art trained, victim.





* This testimony about sergeant Velasco illustrates something I saw time and time again in these matches. Although the wrestling champions usually dominated both the western and eastern boxers, various black belts, and kick boxers the one consistent weakness inherent in the combat 'sport' champions and competitors was they had TRAINED for many years to attack and fight in a manner that was 'fair' and 'legal'. It was ingrained into their muscle memory.





 *These days I hear ALOT of champion sport-based fighters claim that they can always use dirty tactics in a fight, same as anyone else, but in my personal experience and in my personal observations, men in combat 'react' the way in which they were trained to react. Once a man is in combat and he gets rocked hard, his fear and adrenaline is up because he knows this isn't a refereed match and the guy he's fighting is out to 'really' hurt him, or when he gets dazed really good by a solid strike he's can't 'think' critically anymore. Now he's operating on pure muscle memory and ingrained reaction, which is whatever he has been trained to do over time and repetition. This is why the 'sport-based' fighter's strength in the ring is also his greatest weakness on the life or death battle field because he is pre-programmed (trained) to fight according to a particular set of attacks deemed 'legal' by his particular combat sport association. Fighters under duress react the way that they've trained to react, same as Infantrymen and special operation warfighters do. They fall back to their training (ingrained, pre-programmed, reflexive responses) once duress, fatigue, concussion, injury, adrenaline and visual-audio-distortion take effect.  The soldier that trained almost exclusively so that his primary mentality and method of attack is to seize and squeeze the trachea will react instinctively react this way in a fight. The soldier that trained almost so that his primary mentality and method of attack is to kick and punch will instinctively react this way in a fight. The soldier that trained his central nervous system and muscle memory to control the hips and take his enemy to the ground to execute a rear strangle hold will instinctively react this way in a fight. How you train is how you'll fight!





* But what about the martial artist black belts, who didn't come from a 'sport' based martial/combat art, whom fought in our matches on post? You might argue that they were not trained to use 'legal' strikes but street applicable techniques for self-defense. Well, those guys never faired well in the bull ring nor in the no-holds-barred challenge matches we held off duty at night either. As I said, the wrestling champions dominated all of the other fighters with the exception of the few guys whom were very skilled and dirty fighters and had a lot of experience in real-world fighting since their youth. These were not the former street gangsters or thugs either, because those guys grew up fighting with back up from their homies, jumping individuals, or preying on the weak, and seldom had any real training.





 *Rather it was the little guys, or guys whom had been small for their age, growing up and facing down all of the large bullies, thugs, and gang bangers without any back up during their child hood and teenage years. The guys whom had to fight all of their life against all of their bigger brothers on the regular, in no holds barred fights. Some of them had martial arts or combat arts training but they got most of their combat experience from 'real world' fights where there were no rules, no weight class, no referee, and most often than not multiple attackers trying to maim or cripple them.





* Let me also address that many of the martial arts which claim to not be 'sport' based but reality/self-defense based schools still evolved from 'sport' based combat/martial arts and that is seen in their preference for closed fist boxing, high kicks, and sport-based grappling submissions. Also there are many self-defense martial art schools which never engage in any real fighting against opponents from different weight classes, multiple attackers, under full contact. Part of these reasons, minus the multiple attacker scenario, is why traditional Japanese Jujutsu schools were defeated by Kano Jujutsu, which later became Judo, in full contact grappling matches. Although they were not allowed to use their atemi strikes, which were instrumental to setting up all of their throws and grappling holds, the traditional Jujutsu schools failed in grappling against Kano's Judo students because full contact grappling was the most important part of Judo training but in the traditional Jujutsu schools they only practiced the moves but did not engage in full contact randori.





 *This same reason is why 'sport' based western boxers often dominate eastern Chinese kung fu boxers, karatekas, and tae kwan do practitioners in street fights. Because western boxers fight full contact from the very start in their training and get real experience in being hit hard in the face, head, and body. Kyokushin kara te being an exception. However, I never witnessed a golden glove, or even a former pro boxer, in the military dominate in a no-holds-barred fight against a very skilled wrestler.





*I'd like to add, concerning the issue of bare knuckle boxing methods seen in Suntukan, Panantukan, Kali, various other martial arts demos that we've watched online, as well as many of the big name Combatives instructors it's evident to me that they've not been in very many serious brawls against multiple, larger, stronger, determined fighters. The reason that I make such a bold claim is that anyone whom has fought a great deal with their fists knows that getting a one or two punch knockout is more uncommon than the fight escalating into an all out brawl. And every man whose engaged in many bare knuckle battles has suffered at least once having his knuckles cut on his enemy's tooth, suffered busted knuckles, or has broken his hand. Even the undisputed world champion Mike Tyson, whom I doubt anyone reading this would claim to be a better boxer than he, broke his hand in a street fight against Mitch Green. When fighting off multiple attackers, which is extremely common in real-world self-defense situations, trying to be precise and land every shot on the chin without hitting the teeth is extremely difficult. One can even hit the hard hip bone or elbow of an adversary while hook punching the liver or floating ribs during a frantic combat situation. All of the experts whom claim that only amateurs break or injure their hands during a fist fight need only to be directed once again to the August 28, 1988 street fight between undisputed world heavy weight boxing champion Mike Tyson and Mitch Green where Mike Tyson broke his right hand against Mitch Green's face during a one-on-one fight. Mitch Green only sustained an injury requiring stitches of his eye and walked away with no broken bones or ruptured internal organs despite being punched bare knuckle by the undisputed Heavy Weight Boxing Champion of the World. Imagine if Mike Tyson had fought multiple attackers and we can see how the chance of self-injury would have gone up exponentially to his unprotected hands...Are we more skilled than Mike Tyson? Gloves were introduces to the 'sport' of boxing to protect the boxers' hands and allow them to throw more powerful punches in bunches. Not to protect their face nor head from injury, as many mistakenly believe. It was to make the sport more exciting for the spectators and facilitate a higher chance of seeing a knockout in the ring. Which made the sport more lucrative by giving spectators and gamblers what they wanted. It was all about money, not safety.





 *Anyone whom watches the UFC fights can witness powerful boxers with reinforced hand and wrist protection (permitting them to hit much harder than with bare knuckles) delivering frightening amounts of punishment from their punches and, despite the occasional knock out, these fights often become long lasting brawls where the two fighters trade punches for what can seem like forever. Under the powerful effect of adrenaline men can absorb tremendous amounts of abuse and trauma to the face and head from blunt force trauma and still keep fighting without realizing how much injury they're sustaining. Unless a man gets knocked out, if he's accustomed to abuse, he can take punches to the head and face all day without showing any sign of giving up. In fact the more he is punched in the face the more his body dumps pain killing, energy boosting, adrenaline into his blood stream. Therefore your only hope of finishing the fight is to land a fortuitous knock out blow or to get in close and grapple him with a choke, strangulation, or break his spine, neck, or maybe one of his limbs. Because pummeling away in a bloody brawl is not usually (there are exceptions) the most efficient method to quickly neutralize one or more, determined, violent attackers in a real-world combat situation.





 *Now some will say that a trained striker or boxer, of whatever style, will not get into a brawl but will end the fight in a few precise strikes. That sometimes does work and in my personal experience it has worked for me as well. One lucky, well timed, punch on the chin or the liver has successful put a single attacker down or unconscious. But honestly, this was and is less common than having the punch erupt into either having to unload a continuous barrage of strikes until I could escape, until the fight was broken up, or until it ended up into a brawl against multiple attackers coming to the aid of the individual on the receiving end of my pre-emptive attack or counter-attack.*





  *Let me also add that I’ve sustained serious injuries to my hands, mostly to the right hand, due to boxer fractures, busted knuckles, a tooth imbedded into my hand and tooth cuts on knuckles while franticly battling multiple attackers in my younger days. I knew a convict who was a renowned bareknuckle fighter that lost a finger and permanently disabled his right hand after he knocked a much younger man out in a one-on-one fight, but the young man’s tooth had imbedded itself into the older man’s fist between the knuckles followed by infection, despite his cleaning the wound. He was an organized crime gangster, a former boxer, and a karateka with a lot of experience in fighting, but he learned the hard way the dangers of bare knuckle striking the face/head targets with an unprotected fist.





 *(AnDrew) So are we to surmise that you don’t believe western or eastern bareknuckle boxing; gung fu or kara te, to be prudent as a form of self-defense or is it only that you don’t believe it prudent as a form of professional close quarter combat/hand2hand combat for Infantry and special operations combat soldiers?





 *(Mr. N. Cognito) Honestly if we are talking about life or death survival, be it on the street, on a military battlefield, or inside of a violent prison, we can call it self-defense, close quarter combat, close quarter defense, hand-to-hand-combat, or combatives. What we call it is irrelevant. If we are talking about life or death survival, combat, outside of a sporting ring, it should be considered life or death situations because one can never underestimate the intentions, the abilities, or the friends/family of the criminal attacking you. Unless you’re the type to go out looking for trouble; I/E: a thug, gangster, or bully, and you’re a law abiding civilian, then the only type of person that you should ever face in a violent altercation is a criminal attacker. And you should never underestimate the ability, intent, or mentality of any criminal. Always assume that he has back up nearby whose intent, abilities, and mentalities are of the most dangerous kind. If you are a combat soldier, or even a L.E.O., then you must assume that anyone who attacks you in close quarters is intent upon taking your life or possibly kidnapping you before taking your life. Regardless, in my experience, one should view all violent attacks upon oneself as life or death situations. Because in reality they are such or they can quickly escalate to become one. Men even die accidently in one-on-one mutual combat brawls, so even if the intent to kill is not present the risk is always ever present anytime you are criminally attacked.





 *So to answer your question about boxing arts, be they Western boxing or Eastern boxing; gung fu, karate, muay thai, suntukan, etc., being the most prudent form of quickly neutralizing a violent threat in a life or death situation I will say no. And my reasons are detailed in everything that I said earlier. The way in which it is currently taught and practiced by most, but not all, of the world today is not prudent because closed fist striking the bony targets of the face and head, with the dangers of getting a blood borne pathogen or infection from the teeth, and the risk that the fight can be prolonged into a brawl if the attacker(s) are real fighters, masochists, or hyped up on chemicals. The chances of scoring a quick knock out against one or more attackers during a frantic combat situation are not greater than the chance of disabling one’s hand, permanently injuring the structural integrity of one’s grip, acquiring a blood borne disease or infection, or the fight becoming a drawn out brawl where one’s chances of sustaining severe injury (maybe death) increase exponentially. I'm speaking probabilities. Again there are exceptions and we all had days where fortune smiled down upon us.





 *(AnDrew) So for anyone who reads this, are you saying that boxing or striking arts are useless as self-defense, hand-to-hand-combat, combative methods? And if not, which boxing methods would you say are better suited for real-world self-defense and close quarter combat situations?





 *(Mr. N. Cognito) First let me clarify the difference between ‘self-defense’ and ‘close quarter combat’, or whatever the flavor of the month name people wish to call it now days. Self-defense is to injure an attacker(s) enough to create an opportunity to escape and get away. Okay? Now close quarter combat, or whatever else you wish to call it, is for individuals who don’t have, for whatever reason, the luxury or option of escaping. This is when you have to quickly neutralize your opponent(s) by maiming, crippling, or killing them in order to stop them from attacking anymore. Or it’s meant to allow you to create space between your attacker(s) in a life or death situation so that you can access a dedicated weapon; firearm or blade, to put down the threat(s) as quickly as possible before they can injure or kill you.





 *Moving on to your question, if one is training for either self-defense or close quarter combat the goal is not just to quickly and efficiently neutralize one’s attacker(s) but to do so without injury to one’s self. If we injure ourselves by breaking our hands or cutting our knuckles on their bloody, infectious, teeth and we ourselves end up sustaining life changing injuries while delivering relatively minor injuries to our attacker(s) than how is this really ‘self-defense’? On the contrary this is the opposite of defending one’s self, but rather it is ‘self-destruction’. And for the ego driven men who claim that they don’t mind injury to themselves as long as they ‘win’ the fight by beating up the other guy(s) then their definition of ‘winning’ is foreign to me and there’s nothing else to share with them but this. When I sustained life changing injuries to my right hand the last time that I ever used closed fist strikes to attack the face, head, and neck targets of my attackers in a prison brawl I may have received respect from the community for ‘winning’ the fight against three attackers. But deep inside my heart I didn’t feel like I won that battle because my attackers all recovered from their bloody cut faces, concussions, and bruises in time. But my right hand never recovered and has never been the same since that last severe injury to it using a hammer fist strike to the base of one attacker's head/neck which resulted in the fifth metacarpal, distal end, snapping in half when it impacted the rounded skull during his frantic struggle to escape the beating. Then I used this broken hand to throw several right crosses, knocking down my attackers to see them jump back up under the influence of cocaine and adrenaline, which also resulted in injury to the fourth metacarpal and knuckle. I’ve broken my right hand six times and broken my left hand four times, most often while fighting off multiple attackers. And even though to others it appeared that I gave my adversaries the beating it was in fact I, just like Mike Tyson when he fought Mitch Greene bare knuckle in the street, who received the worst injuries…all self-inflicted.





 *Now boxing and striking arts can be very effective in self-defense and close quarter combat to create a distraction (like atemi strikes in Jujutsu) or to discombobulate in order to set up other attacks. Empty hand strikes can be used to maim, injure, disrupt, discombobulate, disbalance, or set up a grappling attack; throw, take down, submission, bone break, neck crank or a choke. A strike can also be delivered as an effective, quick, finishing attack to a downed attacker’s anatomical weak vulnerabilities. In prison, skilled fighters, use boxing to close distance on an opponent or victim in order to take them down with a double leg takedown, body slam or other takedown. They're not usually striking full power, the experienced fighters, with the intent to knockout with a punch. There intent is to knockout or break the body of their opponent/victim against the concrete environment and then either stomp them out, choke them out, drop elbows on their neck and face or dislocate their neck. Also, the boxing combination (fan) followed by takedown (scoop or dump) may be used to take them to the ground so they can be overpowered and sexually assaulted or murdered.





 * Let me clarify that I believe the body mechanics of Western boxing to be excellent training for developing power and mobility in a fighter. Just as the body mechanics of wrestling are outstanding for developing a good, strong, base and quick take downs. The mechanics of Ving Tsun and Kunfa boxing, as I trained it under Sifu Keith Fain, are extremely effective at redirecting, trapping, and bypassing incoming strikes from a puncher and kicker at extreme close quarters while simultaneously uprooting the base of one’s attacker by using the forward motion of one’s legs and hips to attack their structure. Having trained and competed in amateur western boxing, practicing and fighting in karate/kick boxing, fighting against Muay Thai practitioners, and training in Ving Tsun/Kunfa under Keith Fain of Clarksville Tennessee, I must honestly say that I found Sifu Keith Fain’s Ving Tsun/Kunfa boxing method to be most practical for real-life self-defense situations in close-quarters. Not to say that it is better in a sporting ring, under sporting restrictions, but rather under real-life close quarter combat environments, no holds barred, this would be the only commercialized ‘boxing’ method which I would invest any time and money into developing it’s principles and applications. However, one would still have to train in practical counter-grappling, ground-escapes, choking, neck cranks, strangulation, as well as bone and joint breaking methods to become ‘complete’. Sport boxing is still a good base, next to wrestling or any, full contact, standing grappling art, to train in. It can develop fitness and skills conducive to self-defense (attack and escape) but so can basketball. Basketball players develop footwork, cardio, quick hands, ambidextrous coordination, learn to develop a low center of gravity to disrupt an opponent's balance and develop deceptive skills in tricking the human eye and faking out the opponent's reactions. So I believe western sport boxing develops self-defense (strike and escape) capabilities and so does basketball. Also, anyone skilled in basketball understands the effectiveness of elbows, finger jabs and using the feet and legs to take an opponent down. But I'm not saying that basketball or western boxing are the most prudent training to develop unarmed 'close-combat' skills. So don't misquote me.





 *Western boxing body mechanics are very good but to be adapted effectively for efficient, bare knuckle, self-defense they must be retrained using methods from the much older fisticuffs method of close combat which was better suited towards no holds barred, real-world, fighting against both an armed or unarmed attacker. Against multiple attackers there would something lacking. Unlike modern ring boxing, fisticuffs did not have the protection and support of wrist and hand wraps, tape, and gloves which allow modern ring boxers to throw punches ‘to whom it may concern’ with of their power directed at the face or head. The bare knuckle fisticuff boxers had to preserve their hands for survival in a day when there was no government aid for disabled men who couldn’t work manual labor or ply a trade for income. See: BareFisted Channel on Youtube for research.





 *The fisticuff boxer reserved hard, conditioned, knuckles for the softer torso targets. Breaking the ribs, rupturing the internal organs, striking deep into the solar plexus (mark), digging into the major nerve plexus, bruising the liver and kidneys, hitting the groin or taking out the quads or side of knee with knuckle punches. The word 'punch' originally meant to 'puncture or stab'. This is what the knuckles of the fist, terminating at the end of metacarpal bones in the hand, are best at. Stabbing into the vital organs, weak floating ribs and structural weaknesses of the torso, groin and quads.





 *The open hand heel strikes and forearm; radial bone and ulna bone, strikes were reserved for targets ranging from the clavicle upwards to the head. Contrary to popular misconception, originally, the fisticuff boxer employed elbow and knee strikes, kicks, and grappling into his training thus making it a very well rounded martial art. Open hand heel strikes, cuffs, edge of palm heel (chop), boxing (palm slapping) the ears, finger jabs and thumb gouges to the eyes were the primary open hand strikes delivered to the traps, neck, face, and head. Strikes using the hard radial and ulna bones of the forearms, as well as elbows, were also primary strikes. Originally the over hand right was not a punch with the fist at all, but rather a strike using the radial bone to attack the trap muscle, side or back of neck, and/or the steno-mastoid region to facilitate a knock-out.





 *It has been demonstrated and confirmed in modern scientific testing that an open hand slap using the palm and heel of the hand generates more concussive force than a punch with the fist, proving the superiority of the open hand strike when delivered to the targets of the head and neck as well as being safer (but not indestructible) for the hands than throwing knuckles punches to the bony targets of the head and face. Every human being knows when they fall on a hard surface to catch themselves by meeting the ground or concrete with their palms and not their fists. So why would we hit a person’s hard facial ( possibly cranial) bones with our fists and not our palms? We can hit with more force with less chance of self-inflicted injury and create a concussion to the brain, rupture ear drums and disrupt equilibrium, rupture an eye, strike the temple, break the jaw, strike the steno-mastoid, chop at the neck and/or trapezius muscle using open hand strikes. While reserving the hardened, knuckle, punches for full force strikes to the torso targets. Most of the knockouts were acquired by strikes to the torso/body or body slams during the bareknuckle fisticuff era.





 *There is a rule from the old fisticuffs era before it was made a form of (sport) ring fighting and kicking, eye gouging, eye jabbing, rabbit chopping the neck, strikes below the belt, grappling, and open handed striking became illegal in the competitive ring bouts. They trained for hard striking with the hands, to always strike ‘soft to hard and hard to soft’. However the evolution of fisticuffs from a method of close quarter combat for survival to a sporting ring duel caused the closed fist punches to be adopted for sporting reasons and the rule of the day for fighters was “snap the punches when striking the hard bony surfaces of the face/head but drive through the target when striking the softer torso targets.” Eventually it evolved even farther with the adoption of the Marquess of Queensberry rules and the wrist and hand wraps with gloves to protect the boxers’ hands and wrists from breaking to allow them to put full power behind their punches to the head and thereby increase the chances of quicker knockouts during a bout. Spectators wanted to see quick knockouts and they didn’t want to watch a fight last all day, or even several days, as they had in the bare knuckle bouts of old.





 *Today’s boxers would do well for practical self-defense to return to training in the original fisticuff boxing methods by incorporating bare handed striking methods; open hand strikes to hard surfaces and closed hand knuckle punches to softer torso targets, as well as the low kicks to the shins, knees, testicles, and reaping with the legs, and reincorporating the elbow strikes (like still seen in Thai Muay Boran). The ancient Greek Pankratia boxers utilized ‘all powers’, as the name translates in English, and they were the first ‘recorded’ mixed martial artists in military history to incorporate empty hand western dirty boxing, the kicks, knees, and elbow found in  muay boran, and grappling, throws, neck cranks, spinal compressions/breaks, chokes, strangulations, limb breaking, eye gouging/jabbing and trachea crushing techniques found in the most lethal martial arts today. Nothing new is under the sun.





 *If you wish to make boxing more practical for self-defense you have to stop training for sport ‘ring’ fighting and only train using the principles and strikes I’ve detailed above. And change the guard and blocks completely to adapt to the reality of fighting bare fisted attackers without large gloves, perhaps even armed with a razor or pocket blade. Go back and study the old fisticuff boxer guard and defenses. Without gloves to hide behind and absorb punches the modern peekaboo style is less prudent and the guard needs to be further away from the body, like what some are renaming ‘the fence’ these days, in the manner the original fisticuff boxers and Chinese Ving Tsun boxers use for a guard. The similarity in the original Fisticuff boxers guard and the Chinese Ving Tsun boxing guard is that the outer forearm is facing the attacker to hide the main arteries and ligaments on the inside of the forearm from a blade. And the guard held away from the face, protecting center line, is used in both methods of boxing to offer maximum protection from incoming strikes and force the attacker to attack in a manner which is to one’s advantage.





 *After having received a self-inflicted, life changing, injury to my hand the last time that I broke my hand using a closed fist hammer punch to one of my three attackers during a fight for my life in prison I began retraining my muscle memory every day on a heavy bag for about twelve years until my muscle memory is trained to react reflexively to use open hand strikes to specific targets and closed hand strikes to the torso targets only. But standing grappling methods are, and should always be, the back bone of any self-defense or close quarter combat approach. Effective striking should facilitate and accompany one’s close quarter grappling methods.





 *Many ignorantly presume that grappling is ground fighting, as seen in the venerated Gracie Jujutsu and Kozen Judo schools, but in fact grappling can refer to any method which incorporates, throwing, reaping, sweeping, joint locking, spinal compressing, neck cranking/locking, bone/joint breaking, strangulation and choking techniques. When combined with effective, prudent, methods of empty hand striking your grappling will be your most devastating threat neutralization methods. Grappling also gives you more choices in how much damage you wish to cause against your attacker(s). You can submit, maim, cripple, or even kill using grappling methods more readily and with more control than with boxing methods. But standing grappling is always preferable in a self-defense (survival) situation or close quarter combat situation as opposed to going to the ground with one’s attacker(s). And for moments when going to the ground with one’s attacker(s) cannot be avoided then it is crucial to escape the ground and get back to one’s feet and full mobility immediately. This is where ground escape methods, like found in Gracie Jiu-jitsu Combatives, but not ground-fighting are of vital importance in ones self-defense or close quarter combat training.





 *To reiterate, yes, boxing arts are good but must be modified from sport based boxing arts to safer and dirtier forms of striking. In essence this is basically what William Ewart Fairbairn did when he put together the simplest, safest, and effective empty hand strikes for a hand-to-hand combat program (Gutterfighting) which he taught to European, American, and Canadian military, law enforcement, and intelligence agents prior to and during WWII. In fact it was so effective on the battlefield that allied forces were able to report back as having successfully used it to effectively kill, in hand to hand combat, the very strong German Nazis, trained in boxing, wrestling, and jujutsu, as well as fierce Japanese Imperial soldiers whom some were trained since childhood in Judo/Jiujitsu or Karate. The most effective methods of open hand striking can be found in Fairbairn’s method of Gutter-fighting. Barry Drennan of Canada is the only commercial instructor I'm aware of whom teaches the public pure, unadulterated, Fairbairn WWII gutter-fighting methods that aren't mixed with Judo, Hapkido, BJJ, Boxing or some other martial art. See: Fairbairn Protocol H2H.


 


*(AnDrew) What about the knife defenses we are seeing a lot of lately being demoed by famed martial art masters, self-defense experts, and combative instructors on the internet, in seminars, and in schools abroad? What are your thoughts, based upon your personal experiences in prison, on knife defense methods and how they are being trained by majority of students and instructors out there?





 *(Mr. N. Cognito) Honestly it’s getting really late and I’m tired. So I’ll save this can of worms for another interview if you don’t mind. Just let me share this as briefly as possible. It is without any pride and with much sorrow that I can attest to ‘personally’ witnessing more stabbings and murders by edge weapons, shanks, ice picks, bone crushers, or knives than I care to recall or discuss in detail at this moment. It was always frightening to watch men get butchered not far from where I stood by men whom I saw almost on a daily basis. There is nothing glamorous about knife-fighting, as many seem to think, and it’s nothing to glorify here or anywhere else.





 *That being said, I have trained in Filipino Escrima and other methods of using edge weapons, prior to my fourteen years within the penitentiary. I began as a very small boy learning these things, as well as boxing, karate, and jujutsu. Before moving on to other combat arts/systems and training for years in Hojo Undo style conditioning to harden my knuckles, fingers, metacarpals, carpals, radial and ulna bones, elbows, shins and feet (much to my regret at this point in life now that I have some issues with circulation, nerve damage, and stiffness). Filipino martial arts training were originally designed for the use of large jungle knives (what we’d call machetes here in the Americas) and not for smaller fighting knives. They do have a method that uses a dagger with the large bolo machete which they call espada y daga but there’re techniques we see a lot of instructors teaching today using a single smaller hunting knife or dagger is just ridiculous to me. And I won’t bother to comment on the FMA disarming methods against a k-bar style combat knife or a short dagger. It’s pure ego masturbation the way I’ve seen practitioners demonstrate those type of disarms. One of their famous masters I’ve seen archive footage of him disarming a bolo machete at combat speed by getting in close quarters inside of the swing of the long, heavy, blade which seemed plausible. But the same disarms they demo against shorter daggers and combat knives is just…Well it shows me that none of them have ever used a knife to kill another human being nor have they ever had a kitchen or combat knife used against them by a determined killer. With machetes they may very well be the world’s experts but from what I’ve seen in various FMA schools and ‘systems’ their short blade methods would only serve against an unarmed opponent. As for their disarming a short blade knife from an attacker using their empty hands, it’s fantasy play. They’ve never experienced or even witnessed men kill or attack another human being with shorter knives to even perpetuate some of the things they’re teaching to their naïve. Try any of that in the penitentiary and, sad to say it, there would be a whole lot of sad singing and flower bringing. I still practice what I learned in Filipino Escrima and have taught some of it to others in the context of using a machete or a kukri, which is what the footwork and drills were developed for. But for using smaller knives in an offensive or defensive manner there are much better and proven methods. For shorter knives, self-defense applications, I prefer the Apache knife methods. Robert Redfeather, Alan Tafoya and Jason 'Snake' Blocker are the more renown teachers of the Apache principle based method.





 *Let’s keep it one hundred here. A lot of FMA propagators argue that the Filipinos are the world’s leading experts with using knives in combat. If they mean they are world leading experts with ‘machetes’or bolo knives in combat, than I shall remain silent, because I would have no idea about that. Their Philippine Special Forces and Philippine Marine Corps Force Recon units carry and use bolo machetes against Abu Sayaf terrorists in the Philippine islands. (That has been confirmed). And Instructor Tim Waid, former U.S. Marine Corps N.C.O., teaches the most practical, efficient, method of F.M.A. in my humble opinion.





 *But I’d have to argue that violent men in prisons, all over the world, especially prison gang members, are the only true knife combat experts because these are the individuals whom actually use knives and homemade daggers in both close quarter combat and assassinations as a way of life.





 *Military soldiers, despite the hype, are not experts in fighting with knives in combat because wars on battlefields are predominantly fought with missiles, bombs, grenades, and firearms. It is extremely rare for a soldier serving in the military of a western nation to ever use a knife, or his bare hands, to kill an enemy combatant on the battlefield. Infantrymen and special operations soldiers rely upon fire power to win battles so engaging in hand to hand combat and edge weapon combat, in a life and death struggle, on the battlefield is so rare (according to the U.S. department of defense reports) that one can hardly call Infantry or Special Operations veterans ‘experts’ in knife fighting or hand-to-hand combat. Well trained, but hardly experts because in order to become ‘expert fighter’ in something one must have experience in that subject. A doctor only becomes an expert at open heart surgery by performing actual open heart surgery of patients and having a high rate of success. Knife fighters must engage in actual knife fights. Knife fighting instructors, without combat experience, are knife fighting theorists and experts in knife fighting 'theory'.





 * If we examine the cultures where hand to hand combat and knife fighting and attacks with knives are the highest in the world it would be inside of prisons. The reason is because men in prison do not have access to better weapons so they have to perfect their hand skills or fabricate weapons; garrotes, impact weapons, and homemade knives (shanks) and ice picks to wage war or fight for their survival. Prison is a war zone and it’s all close quarter combat, no firearms to rely upon, if you wish to survive. So truth be told, your real experts in close quarter combat and knife fighting methods will be found among prison convicts whom have survived long term sentences in general population.  





 *Men who kill with knives don’t attack in dramatic fashion like we see in the FMA demonstrations from Kali groups. Just watch some of the security videos online of real murders carried out by knife attacks or some of the prison knife fights. Even knife attack videos from the Philippine Islands.





 *If you train martial arts or combatives and think you’re training to disarm knives from a determined criminal attacker then this is how you should train…Tie the knife to your rear, power, hand and then take a boxing stance. Hopefully you’ve trained in some legitimate boxing so you have boxing skills. Now attack jabbing with the left to close distance and distract your opponent while stabbing with your right cross, uppercut, and hook. When you can do that, incorporate a low flick kick to your opponents shin with your boot followed up with your jab and when he’s distracted cross, hook or upper cut with your rear knife hand. Then keep lighting him up from both hands while you pivot to his outside and hunt for openings to strike. Now to test your disarming techniques, tie a dull metal butter knife to the rear hand of a trained boxer and let him hunt you down in a full contact fight. Because that is how most one-on-one knife fights I’ve ever witnessed looked.  There are numerous other methods of attacking with a knife, which I’ve personally witnessed, but those are not ‘knife fights’ but rather they were assassinations. Against an assassination, which relies heavily upon the element of surprise, there is no reliable defense. You can be completely vigilant most of the time but not 100% of the time. If an unknown assassin wants to get to you, he'll eventually get to you. You’ll just get stabbed and try to fight for your life, to survive, the only way you've prepared to.





 *I’m not going to detail the various techniques and methods of killing or attacking with a knife here, some of them the public can read about in the book Put ‘em down, Take ‘em out by Don Pentecost. A lot of other techniques and ambush methods you won’t find in his book but unless you're preparing to possibly live in a violent penitentiary there is little need to learn such evil things. And I have no desire to glamorize them or give any malicious soul any ideas. However, if you train martial arts, self-defense or carry a weapon for self-defense than it would be prudent to learn something about this topic because the machinating judicial courts and the manipulators of the law don't always take side with the individual who is forced to exercise their innate right to self-defense or third party defense. A righteous man or woman can, sometimes do, go to prison. I'd describe prison, in my experience, as half demon farm and half gladiator school. (When Hell Becomes Your Home, by Author N. Cognito). If you carry a pistol for self-defense I'd recommend you become proficient in empty hand and edge weapon close-combat. Stay physically fit. And train to use and make improvised weapons. It may save your live should some far-left liberal judge, D.A. and jury not see things your way if you have to draw your C.C.W./pistol on a threat to your life or love one.





 *(AnDrew) One last question and then we’ll close until next time. I know that you studied and trained in various combat methods over the course of your life time, but what would you say is the dominant foundation of your personal approach to close quarter combat and self-defense?





 *(Mr. N. Cognito) Alright, this won’t be popular with your readers but my dominant foundation for self-defense is prayer to the Creator almighty (God) in Christ Jesus. He has kept me alive despite countless dangers, battles, and impossible odds. Without His guidance and protection I know in my heart I wouldn’t be here today my friend. I'm not superman.





 *Next I accredit wisdom, treating others the way that I wish to be treated, showing respect to others, being humble but standing up for myself, and paying attention to detail within my environment are the basis of my personal defense.





 *If you’re asking about close quarter combat training and methodology or what I’ve relied upon most throughout my lifetime of innumerable violent situations, attacks, and fights with trained fighters, elite soldiers, criminal predators, thugs, bullies, bigots and penitentiary predators then here is a brief synopsis.





 *I’ve taken western boxing body mechanics and modified the strikes by incorporating William E. Fairbairn WWII Gutter-fighting strikes to targets from the clavicle upward, dirty boxing knuckle punches to the torso targets, the trapping, bridging, and redirecting of incoming strikes from Keith Fain’s Wing Tsun Kunfa boxing, chop blocking methods from old style fisticuffs, limb destruction strikes from prison boxing, the evasive movements and principles of redirection and non-resistance from Tenshin Aikido, standing counter-grappling methods from Aiki-Jujutsu, Pencak Silat leg attacking methods, a lot of Israeli Krav-Maga methods and ground-escapes (not ground fighting) methods from Gracie (Jiu-jutsu) combatives. I incorporate conditioning methods for hands, fingers and forearms. Edge weapon empty-hand defense I train from practical prison methods, not from any martial arts or combatives approaches I’ve ever seen taught or demonstrated. And I feel it’s very important to run and work the heavy bag for cardio! You have to be fit, not brutally strong, but physically and mentally fit in order to increase your chances of prevailing against a larger, stronger, determined, probably punch inoculated, attacker(s). And I never train with the idea of facing a single violent attacker but rather I always expect to face multiple, probably armed, attackers. There are no acceptable exchanges in close-combat or a street fight because predators, sociopaths and psychopaths use weapons and you'll most likely not see the weapon until you're bleeding out or your lungs are collapsed and you're fighting to get air. Most of the physical combat methods that helped me to escape or dominate attackers, while surviving in interesting places, I think were adapted from Krav-Maga, WWII Jujutsu based military combatives (taught to me by Mr. W.A. George during my highschool years), Keith Fain Wing Tsun Kunfa and Aiki-Jujutsu 'with my own applications'. By the grace of the Lord almighty I may not be in the best health of my life, having sustained life changing injuries, but I’m still alive and that is a testament if nothing else is.  Some of my acquaintances show me their trophies from competitive fights and they suppose that I have several trophies of my own but I haven’t any trophies. I often tell my private circle of students and clients that the greatest testament to the knowledge and skills that have been gifted to me is the fact that I’m still walking this earth and still breathing. Without the Creator I can do nothing good of my own and without Him I am nothing.





 *(AnDrew) Thank you for being patient and enduring throughout this interview. It’s late and we are very tired. Please come back for another interview sometime soon because it’s so refreshing to get insight from real life experience rather than theoretical class room experience. May the rest of your days upon this earth be filled with only peace, good health, and God’s love. Also this is my same prayer for all whom read my blogs. Aho~emen.  





 *Do to others as we would want them to do to us.”





 ~19December2015~  


AnDrew Soldier


 andrewsoldier78@gmail.com