This blog started as a means to discuss the practical applications of Japanese martial arts (Budo), hence the name. This post is a an opportunity to get back to those roots.
In case you haven't noticed I'm kind of a pop culture guy. I have come to realize that now I have become an OLD pop culture guy. When I am teaching, the references I tend to use to help illustrate a point are totally lost on younger demographics. Karate Kid, Top Gun. Seven - they have no idea what I'm talking about. So now I find I have to define my terms.
MAD DOG MEAN
There is a term I use to describe a particular concept - Mad Dog Mean
It comes from the movie "The Outlaw Josey Wales". In this particular scene Josey and his group of untrained civilians are surrounded by war hardened killers. This is Josey's "Pep Talk"
Now remember, when things look bad and it looks like you're not gonna make it, then you gotta get mean. I mean plumb, mad-dog mean. 'Cause if you lose your head and you give up then you neither live nor win. - Josey Wales
"The Outlaw Josey Wales" (1976)
Hopefully you will never be surrounded by war hardened killers intent on murdering you.
However, sadly you may find yourself in a physical confrontation in which you are out classed in strength, size, speed, skill, and intensity.
The only thing you have left available to you in that situation is to be "meaner" than the threat. To be plumb mad dog mean.
Legally in those circumstances you are justified being "meaner" - using a higher level of force.
Commonly these are referred to as - Individual / Threat Factors
- Skill
- Size
- Strength
- Numbers
- Mental state
- Gender - No one size fits all, but generally females are justified in using higher levels of force on males
- Sometimes age
- Disability
You can't make yourself instantly bigger, stronger, younger, or faster.
When things look bad and it looks like you're not gonna make it, then you gotta get mean. I mean plumb, mad-dog mean. 'Cause if you lose your head and you give up then you neither live nor win.
If all you have left available to you is to be "meaner" than the threat, and your own ethical glitches are preventing you from doing that, then by definition you are left with nothing.
Therefore it is important to help people find their glitches, and if necessary work through them.
How do you get there? How do you allow yourself to be mad dog mean?
At Violence Dynamics the concept of learning through play is highly valued.
One of the ways we learn through play is through a drill Rory Miller developed called plastic mind.
Blatant plug you can check out the course description HERE at the brand new violencedynamics.com
Otherwise...
Plastic mind:
This class is a great tool for getting out of your own head! The instructor will teach you ways of becoming a more effective fighter, by being someone else.
A take away many students have from this training is - you do not have to be you. You can be someone else.
Who you believe you are, is a story that you tell yourself, and that story changes.
I understand that can seem pretty out there. Look at it this way, have you ever been hangry?
You are a different person when you are hungry / have low blood sugar.
You are a different person when you are tired / under caffeinated.
External factors can change who you are. Plastic mind training helps people use mental exercises (internal factors) to change who they are, to change their performance.
If, who you are at the time is not getting the job done, you can be someone else. You can be someone who can get the job done.
"I must become someone else, I must become something else" - Oliver Queen "Arrow"
I'm not above providing a little eye candy for loyal readers of The Budo Blog - you are welcome
Sadly you may find yourself in a physical confrontation in which you are out classed in strength, size, speed, skill, and intensity.
If all you have left available to you is to be "meaner" than the threat, and your own ethical glitches are preventing you from doing that, then you can be someone that does not have ethical glitches with "mean" things.
You can become someone else, you can become something else, you can become a surgeon.
THE SURGEON
The Surgeon, like mad dog mean is a term from pop culture I use to describe a concept.
The Surgeon, like mad dog mean is a term from pop culture I use to describe a concept.
It comes from my favorite comic book ― Frank Miller's "Batman: The Dark Knight Returns"
“You don't get it boy... this isn't a mudhole... its an operating table. (KRAKKKKK) And I'm the surgeon.” {Inner monolog} - Something tells me to stop with the leg....I don't listen to it.
Without the context of the entire book it is kind of hard to tell what is going on in the panel above.
A cleaner version can be seen in the video bellow.
Oh wait...
On the video blog - Live from Facebook it's Violence Dynamics (if you haven't already you can check them out HERE ) I have been discussing the network. A means to communicate on a regular basis and an opportunity to expand on things that time constraints have prevented us from getting into as deeply as we would like to.
I have always wanted to look at The Dark Knight Returns through the prism of Violence Dynamics.
So before you watch the video below let me set it up with a little nerdsplaning. Keckeisen's College of Comic Book Knowledge.
In the Dark Knight Returns Batman is 55-60 years old and has been retired for 20 some odd years. Retired long enough that many young people do not believe he was ever real and he is just an urban legend. Things in Gotham get so bad Bruce Wayne feels compelled (one might say obsessively compulsed) to take action. So the Dark Knight Returns, hence the title.
The Mutants street gang is like nothing he ever faced "back in the day". Its run by The Mutant Leader. (Side note I believe The Mutant Leader was a major inspiration for how Bane was portrayed in the Dark Knight films).
The first time Batman encounters the Mutant Leader is a straight up Monkey Dance.
(The images have to fit the screen for mobile devices, but if you click on them you can enlarge them)
Batman is out classed in strength, size, speed, skill, and intensity. He is justified using a higher level of force.
Batman is caught in the arrogance trap. He is justified using a higher level force, but instead of being a professional, instead of getting the job done in the most efficient manner Batman's monkey brain is screaming - CAN YOU TAKE HIM OLD MAN? So Batman wants to pick a fight.
I can't think of a single reason to let him live except...He's got exactly the type of body I wish he didn't have...
Powerful, without enough bulk to slow him down. Every muscle a steel spring ready to lash out. And he is young...in his physical prime. And I honestly don't know if I can beat him.
And I have to know.
I'm a 43 year old force professional. Believe me I get it. I have to know. However, what Batman did, hopping out of the Bat-mobile to monkey dance with the Mutant Leader was not professional. As a result he got his ass kicked, and would have died if he wasn't rescued by the new Robin Carrie Kelley
The first female Robin by the way #500
As the story progresses, Batman needs to convert the Mutant gang into a militia. An electromagnetic pulse from a nuclear explosion has caused riots in the street and he needs the manpower to help restore order.
Batman learns from his mistakes.
So....he resorts to social violence, but this time it is professional because it is the most efficient means to achieve the goal. If the script works stay on script.
In order to win over the mutant gang, Batman has to defeat the Mutant Leader in single combat, and everyone, all the gang members have to see him do it.
So...Batman sets up a massive Status Seeking Show. A Status Seeking Show ignores the conventions of a Monkey Dance, earning a reputation of being - Hard, of being too crazy to be fucked with.
A Status Seeking Show is social for the instigator, but can be very asocial for the victim.
Batman actively hunts the Mutant Leader, setting the stage and stacking the deck at every turn.
Batman initiates an elaborate plan including putting Robin under cover to influence all of the Mutants to be at the river.
And convincing Gordon to allow the Mutant Leader to escape through a pipe that leads to the river
Batman knows he is out classed in strength, size, speed, skill, and intensity. He stops fighting the Mutant Leader, and as I mentioned blatantly hunts him.
An amateur wonders could I take him. A professional develops a plan to take him.
He's fast, faster than I am and stronger...And seemingly impervious to pain. But they do come smarter.
And nobody is very fast when he's knee deep in mud. (That is why Batman chose his battle ground at the river)
My mistake was to match his savagery. To fight like a young man. I get sick of the arm..and kill it bellow the elbow...I have to take us down.
Which sets up this scene.
“You don't get it boy... this isn't a mudhole... its an operating table. (KRAKKKKK) And I'm the surgeon.” {Inner monolog} - Something tells me to stop with the leg....I don't listen to it.
Ok, back to the point of today's post
I'm the surgeon
A plastic mind exercise that helps people work through their glitches is to adapt the mind set of The Surgeon. Not looking at the threat as this monster that is hurting you, but rather as a cadaver at anatomy class which you must experiment on.
I get sick of the arm..and kill it bellow the elbow
It is not hard to injure a human being. There are stories of children, babies being curious about a shiny glistening ball and plucking the eyeball out of their parent's head because they don't know any better. It isn't that hard a baby can do it....but adults "know" better and social conditioning may prevent them from doing so.
Looking at the threat as a science experiment to see if pulling their lower lip down to their belly button will remove a portion of their face helps overcome "knowing better"
PRACTICAL APPLICATION
It is important to help people find their glitches, and if necessary work through them.
I get sick of the arm..and kill it bellow the elbow
It is not hard to injure a human being. There are stories of children, babies being curious about a shiny glistening ball and plucking the eyeball out of their parent's head because they don't know any better. It isn't that hard a baby can do it....but adults "know" better and social conditioning may prevent them from doing so.
Looking at the threat as a science experiment to see if pulling their lower lip down to their belly button will remove a portion of their face helps overcome "knowing better"
PRACTICAL APPLICATION
It is important to help people find their glitches, and if necessary work through them.
How do you get there?
At the Keishoukan Dojo (Judo Fight Club) there is a portion of class we work Katame Waza (grappling techniques)
I like to do the drills in a specific order. The first rule of Judo Fight Club is tell everyone about Judo Fight Club. The second rule of Judo Fight Club is whether it is your first night, or your one hundredth night...you have to fight (confidence through competence)
So, there is always some form of free style, usually positional randori. Meaning one person will be put in a compromised position and there only job is to escape. Their partner's only job is to hold them in that compromised position. (Osae Komi vs. Kaehsi Waza)
If the person escaping is having a lot of trouble their partner switches to coach mode and helps them figure out a way to win. (if its a fairly even pairing it becomes a fun wrestling match, nothing is free at the fight club)
I have found this is an excellent exercise and helps people improve quickly. However, it is very sport based.
The next drill is a pin wheel. Practicing responding to your partners escape attempt by transitioning to a different pin. After that is pin wheel plus the same exercise but both parties practice the skill of the day from those different positions. So if we worked strikes earlier in class, pin wheel plus strikes is working on what strikes are available from those positions.
Randori is very sport based and can leave the smaller, less experienced student discouraged.
Therefore the last rotation is pin wheel plus mad dog mean.
The only thing you have left available to you is to be "meaner" than the threat. To be plumb mad dog mean.
The person on the bottom works grip and rip. What targets are available and what horrible things could I do to this person from here.
The attitude becomes - Rorschach
I like to do the drills in a specific order. The first rule of Judo Fight Club is tell everyone about Judo Fight Club. The second rule of Judo Fight Club is whether it is your first night, or your one hundredth night...you have to fight (confidence through competence)
So, there is always some form of free style, usually positional randori. Meaning one person will be put in a compromised position and there only job is to escape. Their partner's only job is to hold them in that compromised position. (Osae Komi vs. Kaehsi Waza)
If the person escaping is having a lot of trouble their partner switches to coach mode and helps them figure out a way to win. (if its a fairly even pairing it becomes a fun wrestling match, nothing is free at the fight club)
I have found this is an excellent exercise and helps people improve quickly. However, it is very sport based.
The next drill is a pin wheel. Practicing responding to your partners escape attempt by transitioning to a different pin. After that is pin wheel plus the same exercise but both parties practice the skill of the day from those different positions. So if we worked strikes earlier in class, pin wheel plus strikes is working on what strikes are available from those positions.
Randori is very sport based and can leave the smaller, less experienced student discouraged.
Therefore the last rotation is pin wheel plus mad dog mean.
The only thing you have left available to you is to be "meaner" than the threat. To be plumb mad dog mean.
The person on the bottom works grip and rip. What targets are available and what horrible things could I do to this person from here.
The attitude becomes - Rorschach
I'm not stuck in here with you, you are stuck in here with ME!!!
Practicing allowing yourself to be mad dog mean has helped lots of folks work through their glitches
And guess what? The smaller, less experienced folks that may have been discouraged after randori have huge grins on their faces because big skilled people are easy to move while you are ripping their ear off.
Fair fights are stupid, let's go hunting.
We always end class with - One thing or if many your favorite thing you learned today.
Last week one student's take away was " I really like the mad dog mean drill. I have trouble with that. Wrestling with my brothers as a kid that was always a big no no and you would get in trouble. This helps me do those things when I need to"
Check out the Violence Dynamics Facebook page next week for video of the mad dog mean drill.
Train Hard, Train Smart, Be Safe....Be MEAN (when justified)
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