Varg Freeborn - Violence of Mind: Training and Preparation for Extreme Violence

Violence of Mind

Preparation for Extreme Violence

Copyright 2018 Varg Freeborn

Published by Varg Freeborn

All Rights Reserved

No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the author and publisher.

Varg Freeborn

www.violenceofmind.com

https://www.patreon.com/ViolenceofMind

Editing by

Lauren Bechtel

Cover Art and Design by

Lorin Michki

Table of Contents

Preface

Information is everywhere. I am not claiming to have the one true way , nor am I claiming that all the information in this work was created by me. Humans have been sharing, synthesizing and creating new forms of information since we have learned to communicate. In the fight training world, this sharing community is smaller and more specialized. Everything we have in skills, techniques, procedures and tactics has been created, tested, refined, and handed down so that the process starts all over again. For thousands of years, in the warrior culture, battles, wars and contests in sport fighting have boiled off the bad and handed down the effective. It is how we continually grow and develop in the martial disciplines.

Born from my experiences, this book is my endeavor to share my personal views beliefs and methodologies about violence and training. You will find that those experiences are quite unique and, while uncommon for a fighting and tactics instructor, absolutely relevant to the subject matter. Trying to break down the conditioning that creates the calm, decisive, steely-eyed apex fighter and pass it on to the inexperienced is the mystery code everyone is trying to unlock in the higher levels of the training world. When we go into the gym or on the range, we should be working the fundamentals. The rest of the time, we need to be building the mindset. This is the first task I will try to deliver in this book.

I have tried to cite and credit the proper sources when Ive felt the need to use concepts or quotes from others. Thank you. I hope I can pay that forward someday and have the same effect on others that they have had on my life and my career. Those of you who have influenced me, thank you. I am sure you will see your legacy here, as I have seen my own live through my students words as well.

To be clear, in no way do I hold this book as an exhaustive work. This book is intended to share information from my own unique perspective and meant to be an introduction. Each section in this book could be its own book (if not volumes). The sheer scope of this work renders it to be an excellent introduction into violence mindset and fight training.

Id also like to thank all of you fuckers who kicked the shit out of me, and the few who tried to kill me, over the years. The training I received from you tops anything money could ever buy.

Im still here.

About this book

Before I began work on this book, I made it a rule not to get extremely technical with scientific terms and big words. I want this to be digestible to everyone. Which sounds better:

Our primary objective is to gain a kinesthetic awareness of where our bipedal foundation is as we transition dynamically through the transverse and sagittal planes so as to maintain maximum musculoskeletal leverage and stability

OR:

We need to understand that where we place our feet and how we move at the waist will have a huge effect on how stable we are

Im assuming option two is preferable. It's not a dynamic critical stress event or whatever. Its a fight. Lets speak directly and simply. Its hard enough to grasp and internalize all of the concepts involved with fight training without all of the big technical jargon getting in the way (and lets hope that particular marketing trend dies a rapid and public death soon). Its also important to point out that this book will not be about what to train as much as it is about how to train, and even more specifically how to think.

The mindset of fighting and the structure of training protocol are the first and most important tasks to tackle when making the decision to train for defensive gun fighting, or any kind of violent fighting. Based on my experience, I view this as a priority, because skipping these first steps is the most common mistake in the training world. This book will serve as an introduction to my concepts and methods, which will all be expanded on in my classes, future works and online coursework. Just remember, its impossible to put it all down in one place, so there is more behind every thought within these pages .

Everyone loves to just jump right in and start shooting (or learning submissions), without giving much thought to the violence this is about. There may be a few drills or techniques explained here, but what I am really trying to accomplish is to lay the groundwork for everything that you will train, from here forward. To understand what we are doing, why we are doing it, who we are doing it to, and when we should do it. I hope you will agree that these should be accomplished before you learn how to do it. The goal is to be a fighter that is properly oriented and conditioned, able to operate with a controlled mindset in chaos, while being completely focused on a clearly defined mission.

I am also going to give you a clear look into the violent criminal mind, a topic which I am intimately acquainted with. After literally growing up in extreme criminal violence, and then having spent two decades in and around martial arts, firearms and other self-defense training, I am convinced that few truly know the enemy or understand what they must do to be able to meet him head-on someday. Hopefully, I can begin to rectify that here.

Most of all, Ive simply attempted to write the book that I wish I could have found many years ago when I was desperately looking for guidance on this subject. I hope it delivers at least some tangible advantages to all the good guys, and girls, out there. My command of the language is not particularly profound, so there will be mistakes here. My editor, Lauren, did a phenomenal job, mostly just wrestling with me over making changes to my book. Whatever is incorrect is undoubtedly my fault, probably left at my insistence. I like to write with the same voice that I speak. My goal was not to write a grammatically perfect book, or a best-seller for that matter. My simple goal here is to share my first-hand experience with extreme criminal violence and violence preparedness in an introductory level text that is written so the average person can begin to understand how violence works in our society. My mission in this business is to teach people how to be professionals with the tools and knowledge of violence.

WHAT DO I KNOW ABOUT VIOLENCE ANYWAY?

I have been in a few hundred fights. I have put close to 30 holes in other men, and Ive had a few put into me. I endured more beatings before age 10 than most of you would ever receive in a lifetime. I was charged, at one point, with Attempted Aggravated Murder for stabbing a man 23 times...

To receive the words that will follow in this book as viable information, you will need to have some belief in my legitimacy and knowledge. After all, the self-defense world is full of experts who have never actually done the thing they are experts in . That is, they have not actually participated in real, deadly violence. So, right out of the gate, lets establish who I am and what it means when I think something is important in fighting or training. Before I descend into those dark pits of my memories, let me be clear that my sole motivation in life is to add value to the world through helping others. Therefore, I exist, it is what motivates me and brings me reward. Violence education is merely one expression of that. This book is not going to be a biography and there is an awful lot I will purposely leave out of my story, but it is important to understand why I come to the conclusions that I do about fighting and training. When I am writing, talking or on the range teaching about self-defense against the violent criminal, I know with confidence that I am firmly planted in my lane, having spent 25 years living and participating in the violent criminal underworld.