Support Tactics (diary entry)

Today’s self-defence lesson began with the usual warm-up of forward and rotational torso work. The next stage of the warm-up involved doing repetitions of the different postures, getting to the feet. After this we moved onto shoulder barging and fence work.This was overlapped with focus mitt work, using the straight hand strike, hook and backhand.

We covered supporting tools like the cover, biting and eye gouging. All are secondary tactics as a rule. See my article “Take Cover!” and “The Pornography of Reality-Based Self-Defence” for more on these areas, and their role in self-defence.

This was then put under pressure for two one minute rounds. The first round began at distance and the second from a series of grips. These are our Strategy One versus Strategy Two pressure tests.

Next we went to the ground and bridging as a defence. This can be used as a lone escape or in conjunction with other tactics taught today. We put it under pressure and explored the nature of symmetrical ground fighting.

The lesson finished with the following high intensity rounds:

1 minute car tyre slams

1 minute press-up and strike

1 minute bridging off a weight

1 minute speed palm strikes

1 minute speed groin kicks