Gershon Ben Keren - 23 Oct

WARNING AND DISCLAIMER

Martial arts training can be dangerousboth to you and to othersif not practiced safely. Please note that the publisher and author of this book are NOT RESPONSIBLE in any manner whatsoever for any injury that may result from practicing the techniques and/or following the instructions given within. Always practice with a trained martial arts teacher. Since the physical activities described herein may be too strenuous in nature for some readers, it is also essential to consult your physician prior to training.

Published by Tuttle Publishing, an imprint of Periplus Editions (HK) Ltd.

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Copyright 2018 Gershon Ben Keren

All rights reserved. No part of this publication 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 system, without prior written permission from the publisher.

Library of Congress Control Number: 2018950083

ISBN 978-1-4629-2001-3

First edition

21 20 19 185 4 3 2 1

Printed in Hong Kong1808EP

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Dedication

T he impact of a life isnt measured in years. There are those who may only be given a few years to make their mark but, in that short time, affect the lives of others to a degree that is disproportionate to the time their life was allotted: Ezra, was one of these. For Ezra, his fight against leukemia was a process that he engaged in even when he understood how great the odds stacked against him were and that a favorable outcome was not within his reach. He owned the phrase, Never give up. In his 15 years, he was more the warrior than I have been in my lifetime.

Its one thing to be in a fight that lasts seconds or minutes and something else entirely to be in one that lasts days and monthsa fight that each time you wake up starts again and when you go to sleep you do so knowing you will have to go through it when you awake. That takes a real fighting spirit. It is this spirit, more than anything else, which gives you the edge in a fight regardless of who or what the enemy is. It is good to have heroes, people who can inspire us to keep going and show us what can be overcome, not so that we can simply admire them but so that we can become like them. Im not ashamed to have as one of my heroes a 15-year old boy who among many other things has taught me what it truly means to never give up.

Introduction

The average person in a large urban area is safer walking on the street today than he or she would have been at almost any time in the past 30 years. Brennan Center for Justice (2015)

S tatistically, we are living in the safest times ever, with low and falling crime rates, overall(obviously this may not apply to certain cities and specific locales). However, certain types of crime/violence, are on the rise. Active shooter incidents have been steadily growing year-on-year, since 2001 (when the FBI started recording them) from an average of 3 incidents between 2000 and 2001, to 20 between 2014 and 2015a total of 40 incidents in a two-year period. Home invasions and carjackings are also more common now than they used to be, with certain cities seeing a disproportionate rise in these types of crime. Crime rates may be falling on the whole, but particular types of extreme violence are becoming more common.

There are a number of reasons for this, but one which we cannot ignore is the fact that past violent events can act as educators for future ones. Vehicular rammings, which were once largely confined to Yemen, the Arabian Peninsula and other parts of the Middle East, have recently been exported to Europe. The Columbine School shooting (1999), has inspired, empowered, and educated other students, to carry out similar/replica school and university shootings. Pat Sherrill, when he went postal in 1986 (in the incident that gave us the term), demonstrated to other disaffected and disgruntled employees, that they didnt have to play by or respect managements rules, and could use a firearm to exact revenge, and experience a few moments of power. The statistics may show that we are living in the safest times; however, our risk of being involved in certain types of violence is on the increase, and if we are targeted for a carjacking or home invasion, or find ourselves in the midst of an active shooter incident, whether it is at our school, college, workplace, or even in a public space such as a shopping mall, these statistics will be irrelevant to us.

Extreme violence is on the increase, and we should be prepared to deal with it. This means educating ourselves, as to what it looks like, how it occurs, and what we can do when we find ourselves facing it. We need to take the lessons learned from previous incidents, and develop and improve on tactics and strategies that have already been proven effective. Dealing with violence is not about dogma, styles, or systems, but about understanding contexts, and responding appropriatelythere is not a one size fits all solution to every situation, however attractive this idea/argument may be. Some of the solutions in this book may at first appear counter-intuitive, but then many extreme survival solutions areit may not seem logical to charge an active shooter, but the Israelis, along with others, have shown that in certain instances/situations this is an effective survival tactic to use. Knowing when to do something, is often as important as knowing howthis book aims to teach both the when and the how of dealing with extreme violence.

Real world violence, occurs in real world environments. What works well when you have space and time, may not work well, when these are denied you, and unfortunately this is often the case with violence. Trying to apply an arm-bar in the confines of a car, when pinned down on the back seat, isnt impossible, but neither is it as easy as when in an unobstructed training facilityand there may be better, more appropriate responses/techniques when in a confined environment. Dealing with firearms and other weapons when seated, may see us having to employ tactics that dont rely on striking, as without leg, hip, and back mobility, our strikes may lack the power they require. This is reality, and we cant deny it. There is little pointother than satisfying our own egosof trying to argue that reality should reflect the way we train, and not the other way around; e.g., we can all easily trap a knife that isnt being recoiled, and is left out there, for us to complete the technique, but no real-life assailant will attack us in this fashion; unlike our training partners, they want us to fail. Anyone who has experienced violence firsthand, will tell you that it is not a game.