H2H – hand to hand defensive skills – is an absolutely vital component to personal safety. Back in the days when I wrote regularly for Black Belt and some of the other martial arts magazines, I had the pleasure of writing the first cover story on Jim Arvanitis. It was not to be the last such story on him: Jim has long since become hugely famous in the martial arts world world.
An American of Greek descent, Jim was quite the street brawler in his younger days, and his quest for dominance there led him into the formal martial arts. He studied them both widely and deeply, and also rediscovered Pankration, the ancient Greek “all powers” fighting art that encompassed grappling, striking, and even biting. Some theorize that Karate developed in Asia from Pankration brought by the soldiers of Alexander the Great. Jim single-handedly revived Pankration in modern times, in my opinion, and now it’s much the rage among mixed martial arts practitioners. It is significant that Jim achieved that feat in the 1970s and ‘80s when most martial artists didn’t “mix.”
Arvanitis has recently completed some new projects, two books and two training DVDs. From Black Belt Books (www.blackbeltmag.com) comes the volume martial artists will want to read, “The First Mixed Martial Art: Pankration From Myths to Modern Times.” It’s a fascinating study of the history and the philosophy of the art. The best “video accompaniment” to this Arvanitis book is probably Jim’s 350-minute, 2006 video from Paladin Press (www.paladin-press.com), which graphically explains and demonstrates the vast repertoire of Pankration techniques. The video’s title is “Secrets of Pankration.”
But for the average person concerned with self-defense, as well as the dedicated martial artist, we have “Battlefield Pankration” in both book and video form, from Paladin. This book is subtitled “Lethal Personal Combat for the Street,” and the reader should take the title seriously. While there are some takedowns and other techniques that could restrain an attacker without physically harming him, Jim often goes on the assumption that you could be in a fight where you face fatal, crippling, or disfiguring injury if you don’t render the opponent wholly incapable of attack. The book shows you how to crack skulls, break necks, and empty eye sockets.
Jim’s hallmark since I’ve known him has been an extremely deep understanding of human kinesiology. He excels in teaching how to generate power, whether it’s peeling off an attacker who has you down and is strangling you, or delivering your own punch or kick with bone-breaking, organ-crushing force.
Most self-defense books will say something like “gouge his eyes out” or “hit him here as hard as you can,” and will leave the advice at that. In “Battlefield Pankration,” Jim teaches everything from exactly how to perform that eye-gouging to precisely how to set your body to throw a punch or kick with your full weight behind it that will have a good chance of ending the fight.
In a world rife with phony self-defense instructors, I can say with some authority that Jim Arvanitis is One of the Real Ones…and, among those, one of the very best. I definitely recommend all four of the above works to martial artists and legitimate self-defense instructors, and the “Battlefield Pankration” book and video both to those experts and to ordinary citizens who want to learn more about surviving when someone tries to take their life, and they have only bare hands with which to fight back.
On January 8, the Brady Bunch suggested a lighting of a candle as a protest to gun violence.
Awww…how sweet.
The 8th, of course, was the one year anniversary of the grotesque mass murder in Tucson, Arizona by Jared Lee Loughner. His most famous victim, left brain-damaged for life, was Arizona Congressman Gabby Giffords. She was clearly his intended target.
The gun-banners made much of the fact that Representative Giffords was shot with a Glock 19 9mm pistol. They neglected to mention that Gabby Giffords had, prior to the shooting, proudly stated that she owned and had a license to carry a Glock 19 of her own. The mass-murderer was put to the ground and captured by courageous citizens, including ARMED citizen Joe Zamudio, who was carrying a pistol of his own at the time, a Ruger P95 9mm.
But lighting a candle will prevent the Jared Loughners of the world from carrying out their monstrous deeds? Good Lord…it’s like the candlelight vigils from the Take Back the Night Movement.
It’s nice to know that people care. Hell, I care. I’ve spent an adult lifetime learning how to ward off monsters such as Loughner, and sharing that knowledge with others.
Some pro-gun bloggers got together and did their own January 8 counterpoint to the Brady thing. I wish I had contributed more to that: all I did was take a picture of some strong women with candles and nine millimeters at a Glock match in Clearwater, Florida on the 8th. (Great match, by the way, and kudos to the Wyoming Antelope Club in Clearwater for putting it on.)
The decades have taught me that women won’t take back the night by marching with candles. They’ll take it back when those who prey on them learn – some the hard and final way – that their intended victims can be more dangerous to them, than they are to their intended victims.
Those you see below have it right.
If some monster tries to rape or murder a woman I care about, I don’t want him to see the flickering light of a candle.
I want him to see a muzzle flash, from the front.
I hate to paraphrase Al Capone, but a candle and a Glock will earn women more safety than just a candle. From left: Gail, Kitty, and Lisa Marie of the Alabama Holster Company’s all-girl pistol team, January 8, at Glock match in Clearwater, FL.
Our young houseguest flew home today after a week of shooting. A city kid who had been to the range exactly twice in his life with .22s, before he got here last week, he left some pretty good scores behind. He was averaging three-quarters of a second to react to a start signal, raise his AR15, off-safe it, and score a hit at seven yards. Took him around one second to nail the target twice. He was averaging a 95% score at 100 yards with the 5.56mm, did fine with the Beretta M9 pistol, and he just ate up the civilian versions of the M14 and the precision rifle. It was a thing of joy to watch. He wanted to learn, and had no bad habits to burn out before he focused on building strong, repeatable technique.
I really enjoyed reading the commentary on my previous blog entries about his visit, and his familiarization with the guns he’ll be working with in the USMC. I have no illusions about being able to train the lad better than the Marine Corps, but at least he won’t be flabbergasted by totally new technology and technique when he gets to Basic. I agree in theory with those commentators who’d like to see some elements of the Swiss Model of citizen/soldier training incorporated in the USA, but I also agree with those who sadly say that the budget isn’t there to make it happen. That’s why I think it’s important for us, the civilian friends and families of the next generation of fighting men and women, to give them the kind of head start that allowed Sergeant York and Colonel George and Audie Murphy and Carlos Hathcock to come back from war in one piece…and to leave so many enemy soldiers neutralized by the time their duty was done.
As I mentioned earlier, the little .22 Long Rifle Smith & Wesson M&P rifle, an AR15 clone with the exact same “manual of arms,” proved to be a great training tool. It’s time to be thinking about “Christmas Presents for Shooter Folk,” something I touch on annually here. The M&P .22 is available for under $500.
In my December 12, 2010 post here almost a year ago (archive function is at the right) I mentioned the Konus spotting scope as an excellent Christmas present. It has certainly served me well in the intervening year. The Konus was on the firing line the whole time the grandson was shooting at Appleseed last week, and is still an excellent buy. Ordering info is in that prior entry.
Konus spotting scope allows doting grandmother to tell when two of her grandson’s .22 slugs have gone through the same hole downrange at an Appleseed shoot.
Firing a SOCOM-16, spent 7.62mm NATO (.308 Winchester) case is jetting from ejection port (arrow) and dust is rising from powerful impact into backstop, but grandson still has muzzle on white silhouette downrange for the next shot. ”Da kid done good.”
It is the 70th anniversary of the devastating attack on Pearl Harbor. Thank God we have living Americans still among us who remember that terrible morning. Cherish them, and if you have access to any of them, ask them about it. While you still can.
Of the many enduring lessons of December 7, 1941, none resonates more than the importance of preparedness. As a nation, we must remember that constant vigilance is not just the price of freedom, but the price of survival itself.
As individuals, we can practice that in microcosm. As I mentioned in my last entry, my sweetheart’s grandson is with us for the week. He’ll be going through Marine boot camp this coming year, and we’re trying to give him a running start on the small arms side. Great warriors of WWII, from Col. John George in the Pacific Theater to Audie Murphy in the European, owed much of their success (and their survival!) in combat to the fact that they had both been serious shooters before the events of 12/7/41 put them in uniform fighting for their country.
In the last few days, the grandson has been briefed on the takedown, reassembly, and assorted subtleties of the M16/M4/AR15 platform by a recently retired Command Sergeant Major of the US Army Special Forces, and a Navy vet Colt armorer. They did the same for him with the Beretta M9 pistol, and shared their wisdom as to successful military life. A top Class III weapons specialist got the kid up and running with full auto. So far he has qualified, though not yet made Expert and earned a Rifleman patch, at an Appleseed rifle event. I tender my personal, deepest thanks to all who helped.
He shot a 588 out of 600 on a pistol course today with the Beretta and military ball ammo, extraordinary for someone new to the gun, but the kid is a quick study and implements instructions remarkably well. The AR15 is already becoming an extension of his hands, and he is putting the 5.56mm NATO bullets where he’s told to put them. I have a couple more days with him, and the already four-figure count of spent brass is going to multiply on the long range shooting bays here.
In macrocosm for nations, in microcosm for individuals, the rule holds true: bad things are less likely to happen to those prepared to deal with those bad things. The warning of Santayana remains valid: those who do not learn from history, are doomed to repeat it.
It’s a good time to hug an American who wore, or wears, our nation’s uniform, and to say the never-trite, “Thank you for your service.”
The young man gets his first taste of full auto fire with HK MP5 submachine gun, courtesy of a local Class III dealer.
The Evil Princess’ grandson is in town for a shooting visit. At 18, he has made a commitment to join the Marine Corps. He signed up having fired a real gun exactly twice in his life, having grown up as a city kid in one of our nation’s most anti-gun municipalities.
We started him off on Friday, working from the bench to start the hard-wiring between trigger finger, eye, and brain as to what he should see and feel to make a perfect shot. By the end of the day, he was shooting palm-size groups from offhand at 25 yards, and sub-two inch groups in “position-shooting.”
What he had in his hands was my Smith & Wesson Military & Police 15 in .22 Long Rifle. With exactly the same manual of arms as an M4 or M16 (except that it lacks the ability to turn the fire control switch to full auto.) Today he went to an Appleseed event with his grandma, to which he’ll return tomorrow.
That little M&P15 .22 is, I think, an important rifle. It allows young folks to learn marksmanship with the kind of platform they’re likely to be running as their primary small arm if they ever enlist in our nation’s armed forces.
Today, he was one of six or so out of thirty who shot a qualifying score on the Appleseed’s preliminary run with their AQT, or Army Qualification Test. And he did it with the standard iron aperture sights that my friends who are Marines tell me he’ll start with in Marine Corps Basic, shooting against folks who mostly had optical sights.
It appears that the little Smith & Wesson rifle was worth its space in the gun rack. The first of the week, he’ll graduate to 5.56mm, and the Beretta M9 service pistol.
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