When I began this journey, I had already experienced a variety of personal defense training. I had been working in law enforcement and had received a great deal of training. I had also studied various martial arts over the years. However, what I discovered through research and painful personal experience was what I had been taught wasn’t truly efficient and effective. It was half-way at best! I also realized what I had been trained to do was only making truly aggressive or violent people, more reactive or resistant, creating safety concerns for me. I was laboring mentally and physically trying to learn, apply and retain what I had been taught but not accomplishing much in my efforts and it was causing me real frustration!
To make matters worse, I had also learned in recent force studies conducted, the responses I was trained to use in physical threat encounters were found to slow my reaction causing vulnerability by putting me behind the “reactionary curve”. This gave me great concern. I had been training in hand to hand combat in some form or another for many years but I knew there had to be a better approach, something to simplify personal defense training and make it more efficient and effective than what it was to allow for faster reaction. I set out to find a solution based solely in human reaction science.
I began to study Neuroscience, Physics and Psychology and how they relate to human reaction. What I found in my research was nothing short of amazing! Contrary to normal opinion, the most critical factor to surviving any unexpected physical assault threat encounter is not physically controlling an attacker but controlling time, specifically Human Reaction Time. Historically, defensive training has focused solely on how to physically impact or control an attacker but as I discovered that approach has only solved half of the equation for dealing with a physical threat.
This is because are two key components which affect human reactions and can determine life or death in a physical threat encounter. These components are the Central Nervous System which includes the brain and spinal cord and the body. However, most people will easily overlook, underestimate, or take for granted truly knowing how they will be mentally affected and react under stress to a physical threat. It is vital to recognize and adjust for how mental and physical reactions are positively or negatively affected in order to know or have an understanding of what speeds up or slows down reaction time. To do this requires developing the knowledge, skill and ability for “Taking the Brain Out of the Fight.”
Scientific research has discovered the Central Nervous System reacts to stimuli in two different ways. The first is Consciously through Voluntary Reaction. This involves reactions to sensory stimuli we can see, where the Forebrain takes over making cognitive decisions for how to react. This form of response is what has become known as the OODA Loop, or the ability to Observe, Orient, Decide and Act. It is a slower response, because conscious thought puts more demand on the brain in cognitive decision processing, causing physical effects like Perceptual Lag Time, Visual Distortion, sensory compensation effect through Auditory Exclusion and Tunnel Vision or Sensory Overload or what has become known as “Condition Black”, Situational “Freezing” or “Vapor Lock”
The second form of reaction to stimuli is in Non-Conscious responses which affect the ability to sense and react to the environment through neurological Involuntary Reflex Reaction. This involves nerve impulses which travel directly from the Amygdala alert center of the Midbrain to the Central Nervous System and bypass brain decision allowing for spontaneous and instinctive reactions, like knowing how to immediately pull the hand away from a hot object without having to see it or having the leg “jump” when a doctor tests it with a reflex hammer.
Neurological research has determined most human reactions come from this Non-Conscious condition called the “Automatic Brain”. So anytime we attempt to consciously focus on or cognitively process presented sensory stimuli, we are mentally working against ourselves and consequently slowing down our physical response. For this reason, it is critical to avoid conscious thought which slows down reaction and incorporate a defensive response which encourages reflex responses which are faster by “Taking the Brain out of the Fight”.
Ironically this is what already happens when we are taken by surprise. When our Non-Conscious condition is presented with sensory stimulus, it causes an involuntary reflex through a “Startle or Flinch” response in our body. However, once the brain has been alerted, it switches to conscious, cognitive thought and Voluntary Reaction to address the stimuli which automatically slows down physical motor function. For this reason, it is vital to know how to speed up movement through reflex which is faster and instinctive as opposed to slower brain reaction. It is also a useful and valuable skill to also know how to affect the mechanical mental function of a physical threat by “Taking the Brain Out of the Fight.”
Since controlling a physical threat is dependent upon how reaction time is affected, one must know how to immediately and consistently immobilize the Central Nervous System and body of a physical threat with sensory stimuli. This ideology is simple and sound science. If you can disrupt neurological response, you can affect and slow down the muscle reactions of the body. If you can affect both the Central Nervous System and the body together, you achieve what I have termed “Combined Reactionary Impact” which also impacts the psychological condition by affecting emotional confidence.
As we have already seen, a way to accomplish this is by taking advantage of natural cognitive responses. One such example is what has become known as Perceptual Delay or “lag time”. Perceptual Lag Time is a condition which occurs naturally and involves the time it takes the cognitive brain to perceive and react to physical movement. This lag condition which based upon scientific reaction studies, is usually at the very least, one-tenth of a second or longer depending on how long it takes the cognitive brain to react, can be exploited. Through continuous disruption of cognitive ability with sensory input, it is possible to extend this time delay creating what I call “Cognitive Reactionary Gap.” As a result, incorporation of training to react appropriately and dynamically within the reflex response when a physical threat is presented, enables faster reaction to the threat while simultaneously slowing it down.
Another valuable concept to understand is people will physically hurt other people for a variety of reasons, including self-protection, anger emotions or convictions motivated by feelings causing them to physically react. They will also commit physical assaults to psychologically establish power, control or dominance over another person to create shock, intimidation, doubt, helplessness or fear. However, the core reason people will commit a physical assault act is simply because they “think” they can do it and have the confidence. To address this condition requires changing the focus or perception of a physical threat by disrupting the confidence in their mental and physical ability.
Through affecting neurological responses with sensory stimuli, it is possible to also affect and control time. This concept is based in what is known as the Psychological Refractory Period. Psychological Refractory Period follows the reasoning of a Single Channel Theory which states a single Primary stimulus travels within a nerve channel and the nerve channel can only process one stimulus at a time. If a Secondary stimulus closely follows the first, the nerve channel must wait for each stimulus to process through the channel. This means neurological delay will occur as the nerve processes each stimulus and as a result, there will be a delay in physical reaction.
Under this theory, neurological response will experience a significant delay in the presence of overwhelming sensory stimului input causing sensory overload and a notably delayed physical response. This is like a computer which is forced into a buffering mode to process a large amount of information. This condition has been studied since the early 1930’s and has been researched in recent years by scientific experts like Hal Pashler, a psychology professor at the University of California at San Diego as the Psychological Refractory Period or the central processing “bottleneck” which affects neurological and physical function.
Just like a teacher who teaches to the various learning styles of the students, it is necessary to teach to the conscious and non-conscious “learning styles” of the Central Nervous System. Understanding and knowing how to apply this concept defensively allows the ability to have devastating effect over the mental, physical and ultimately psychological condition of a physical threat to rapidly immobilize, destabilize and neutralize it.
This is my passion, finding solutions which make people safer, saving lives and making a difference. What I offer is a unique approach to physical threat response reaction training based in scientific concepts designed to provide anyone no matter what size or ability, the edge over ANY physical threat. I firmly believe no person should go through life being afraid of unexpected threats or feeling helpless if terror strikes. Seconds count when your life is on the line. Don’t be the one who gets caught behind! Get Right Defense!