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fight is actively resisting hostile actions directed against you.

      There are times when non-resistance is neither possible nor acceptable. You may be compelled to stop an unbearable assault. Passive responses must be ruled out in a reasonable discussion of coping with truly intolerable aggression. The intolerable nature of such abuse will prompt a natural desire to fight the destructive consequences of your assailant’s intentions. You know you will not survive if this person gains control over you. Life will be lessened irreparably. You have to resist. You have to fight. You have to take direct action to counter the damaging potential of the hostility aimed at you.

      How do you learn to handle assaults in those times when reasoning, running, hiding, or giving in are not acceptable responses to the threat? How do you develop the capacity to stand firm when the price of non-resistance is too dear to pay for peace? You need to practice how to go into action effectively when you are forced into conflict by everything that constitutes your values, your ideals, your sense of responsibility, your duty, and your very survival.

      Prepare for attacks in different forms from different approaches

      Body Attack – Obviously, you can be attacked physically. One or more people or animals can come at you with the intention to impair, harm, or kill you. A physical attack and its resultant resistance is probably what most of us call “fighting” in the popular sense of the word.

      Mind Attack – You can be attacked mentally. Through spoken or written or even implied words, people can attack you with intention to impede or diminish you, or drive you into some form of submission. A mental attack and its resultant verbalized resistance is what we call “arguing.”

      Spirit Attack – You can be attacked on the essential or spiritual level. By means of deception, disguised subtle aggression, and unstated or denied challenges, people can come at you with the intention to reduce or eliminate your influence, take control of your options, or cause you to work unknowingly for their best interests against your own. A spirit attack and its resultant inner turmoil is what we call “psychological warfare,” or a “battle of wits.”

      A truly determined antagonist knows that any of the three body-mind-spirit factors can be combined to make it even more difficult for you to respond directly and effectively. Experienced aggressors attack with startling suddenness from the foggy edges of your distracted perception or diverted preparation. Deception has always been a primary tool of invaders throughout the ages.

       Constant harping arguments over minor things could be a ruse to wear down your will; the point or topic of the argument does not matter at all if the final effect is you giving up your stand.

       Frustrating hassles that drain the strength of your intention could be a set-up for physical attack; you are more accessible as a target if you are distracted from sensing the assault coming.

       Physical abuse—anything from overloading you at work to actual blows to your body—could be a way to defeat the power of your mind; it is hard for superior philosophy to triumph when you are desperately struggling for physical survival.

      The most dangerous adversaries will come at you from all three angles at once. The most cunning aggressor will put you in position to be physically overwhelmed while mentally confused while questioning at your core just what is your rightful role as the situation sweeps you along.

      If you know how to recognize the tactics of experienced aggressors, you can scientifically avoid being drawn into their areas of power over you. You can then strategically move the conflict into your own area of power and security, and watch them retreat or go down:

       You can force a physically superior attacker to operate on the level of mental strategy

       You can force a devious workplace conniver to compete in the realm of verifiable physical results

       You can force the will-sapping “energy vampire” to struggle with you cheerfully ignoring their covert aggression.

      The most sensible counsel or shrewdest advice is to avoid going face to face and toe to toe with skillful adversaries in their own realms of power. Do not get tricked into trading punches with a professional fighter. Do not get conned into chess matches with chess champions. Do not get fooled into popularity contests with people who have no principles when it comes to seducing the masses. Get the chess champ into the boxing ring. Trick the cage fighter into a TV debate. Force the office schemer into a sales contest to determine who wins the promotion.

      It is important to acknowledge that if you are not in a refereed contest of fighting skills or a structured play of martial techniques as art performance, there are no consensual rules to protect you. Conversely, in street self protection situations, though there are no rules to limit you, there are laws that govern applicability of your self-defense actions. You are compelled to draw on everything you can summon to put you in the position of advantage. Make the adversaries have to change and adapt to your dictates. Make it hard for them to make it hard on you. You do not have to fight them on their terms.

      Chapter Three

      FOUNDATIONAL UNDERSTANDING FOR WINNING

      It is important to acknowledge the specific differences between self-defense, fighting skills, and martial arts. Some people fail to understand or recognize this important distinction, though. Techniques, tactics, mental states, emotional considerations, laws, and cultural conditions make self-defense on the street a very different challenge when compared to willful fighting in a contest or imitating stylized combat from a foreign culture of ages past. Do not assume a skilled martial artist or fighting contest winner would be adept in a self protection confrontation on the street. It would also be inappropriate to expect every self-defense expert to be an artist in motion. The three areas of training certainly can overlap, but they are not necessarily the same thing and training in one area does not guarantee expertise in another.

      Self-defense

      Personal protection self-defense training is preparation for winning in situations where you suddenly and unexpectedly find yourself under siege. You do not see the attack coming. Most likely you are not even thinking about fighting. Your surprise and lack of preparation are often part of a predator’s deliberate strategy. In a self-defense scenario, as quickly as possible you need to recognize the attack, overcome it, and escape to safety. In some self-defense confrontations, shrewd psychological positioning and clever verbal response may be of even more importance than top notch fitness or champion level expertise.

      Fighting skill

      Hand-to-hand combat fighting skill is related to but different from self-defense. When challenged to a fight, you know an assault is coming, and you move into action with the intent of winning the fight. Perhaps escape is neither possible nor the best or most appropriate choice. Perhaps there are others who need your protection. Perhaps you need to restrain a criminal from doing more damage. Perhaps through fighting you send a message that will prevent worse violence in the future. Whatever the valid motivation, you choose to fight when challenged and you intentionally engage your attacker(s) with skill. You willfully stay in the fight with the goal of subduing the aggressor to bring the assault to a close on your terms.

      Martial arts as a path in life

      Related to self-defense skills (you do not expect the attack…) and combat skills (you know you have to fight…) is a realm of physical, mental, and spiritual training through which practicing techniques of combat is used to facilitate personal development. Through martial arts study you explore lessons grander and deeper than just fighting. Such lessons prepare you to win in all sorts of situations, even those not physical in their threat. In

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