Sunday With Blackthorn - Carl's Corner

Carl was an Instructor of mine for several years until he passed away from  and Diabetes related Complications.  I learned more about self defense from him, than from any other instructor I ever had. The article below concerned defending yourself from a knife attack.

It is not about a technique, or specific strategy. It is about the difference in the mentality of "training" for defending yourself from an edged weapon assault in a controlled environment, and what happens in a real world situation. 

Training, Reality & Snakes

by Carl Cestari

Before we "discuss" what will or will NOT work on the street and what is
"practiced" in the training environment let's think about this analogy:

I place in front of you a King snake; let's say an average of four feet long. Non-
venomous. Nasty looking to be sure, but in NO way really "life threatening".

I show you how to catch it barehanded.

You MAY get bitten, but since this snake is NON venomous, well a
little scratch never hurt anyone.

After a couple of practice runs you feel fairly confident, and after all the snake
is NON venomous, so even if you do GET BITTEN, well, it's really NO big deal.

That IS the training environment. Rubber knives, training blades of various
materials, even LIVE blades. ALL NON- VENOMOUS! No matter how "real"
you think you're making it, NO ONE is really going to be maimed for life or
killed. NON- VENOMOUS!

OK? Now I place in front of you a King Cobra. I tell you to capture IT
barehanded.

Little different NOW, huh?

HIGHLY VENOMOUS!

One single mistake, one miss-step, even a GRAZE from one of those fangs and
you are in DEEP SHIT!

AND YOU KNOW THAT!

I bet you approach  the WHOLE affair with a COMPLETELY DIFFERENT
attitude, mind-set and gut level feeling.

Your sphincter will be slammed tighter than a virgin's thighs on prom night!
ONE false move and YOU ARE IN BIG TROUBLE! HIGHLY VENOMOUS!


That IS the STREET! Highly VENOMOUS!

You CAN afford to make a mistake or try something "fancy" against the King
snake. NON- VENOMOUS. You'll live.

Against the COBRA, well that's a whole different "ballgame". One "slip-up"
might very well be your last. HIGHLY VENOMOUS.

And the above is analogous to JUST the fundamental difference between
"training" and reality.

Add ALL the other human elements (both yours and your assailant's) and the
stew gets pretty thick and dicey.