Blackthorn Blog For 9-26-26 Part 2 - Comment On Yesterdays POM OC Spray Video

 This came in  a little while ago.

 

 Excellent video! I've been carrying POM for some time now, as do others I know. I use the small size when I'm walking at the beach or something. Otherwise, I use the MK2.

I use the tactics she mentions starting at the 00:50 mark. 

1. Ask nicely: "I'm sorry, I can't help you" - and keep walking.

2. Forcefully Order: "GET BACK"! (assume defensive posture)

3. Give him (or her) a blast with the spray! (surprise deployment)

As I've said before, I keep the MK2 in the console of the vehicle. After I park my car, I grab my OC spray and keep in my hand while transiting the parking lot. At the store I stick it in my pocket, and then reverse the process when returning to my vehicle.

This is simple and it works very well. For one, if don't already have a weapon in your hand when an event occurs it might as well be left back at home. You'll never be able to retrieve it in the moment. If anyone notices you have pepper spray in your hand, just say something like  "It's a dangerous world today"  and shrug your shoulders". Of course one can also use a tactical pen or flashlight, but the advantage of pepper spray is that it's a distance weapon. You can employ step #3 at 12-15 feet instead of contact distance, which required to use a  pen or flashlight.

As we all know, distance is one of the key factors in a situation. The closer they get, the more strength and skill will be needed.

Now, to it's effectiveness. For any self-defense situation the goal is to break contact and escape, or transition to a better weapon, depending on the situation.

So, yes one can 'fight through' pepper spray, and some seem to feel no effects, but if employed correctly (surprise) and the eyeballs are saturated with it, it will at least give some pause. Heck, you can squirt someone eyes full of plain water and they will at least close and rub their eyes for a second or two. That is all we want. You are buying time by screwing up "their" plan. I don't believe anyone can receive a blast of OC directly into their eyes and have no effect whatsoever. Most of the fails we hear about are when people fail to employ surprise and allow the attacker to cover up.

And while it may not be totally disabling, it doesn't need to be. Again, our goal is to "break contact and escape". Fill the eyeballs full and get out of there. Or transition to a better weapon as appropriate.

I call this strategy defense in layers and we all know the best security is in layers forcing the attackers to defeat multiple layers to get to you. In this scenario: 

1. AVOID. I study the parking area before I get out of the vehicle. If I see something I don't like. I leave. 

2. DETER. I walk purposefully aware of my surroundings. Just have the can of spray as a deterrent . If a criminal notices something in your hand, even if not sure what it is, they may not want to find out. 

3. EVADE. Verbal interaction and continue walking. 

4. DEPLOY and ESCAPE. Issue an assertive verbal command and then the OC spray, and break contact and escape. 

That is at least four layers of security the criminal must defeat to get close to me. Close combat would be the final option if the everything else fails.

Bottom line, nothing is 100% fail safe including a magazine of 9mm. I have read of instances where an assailant was hit multiple time and kept right on fighting. Unless you hit a vital target , it can take a minute or two for your attacker to become unable to continue their attack.

That is why I firmly believe one should have a firm base in unarmed combat before anything else. Being weapon centric is a big weakness if that weapon fails.

Steve Forester

Some Morning Humor For A Soggy Sarurday Morning

 

From The POM Pepper Spray Company

 I personally carry Sabre Red, however POM has been making inroads into the OC Spray market. I have for several years now been promoting the use of OC Spray as a useful tool for self defense whether or not you carry a gun or some other potentially lethal weapon.  POM has put out a number of instructional videos on the use of OC Spray, and I will be showing them over the next few weeks.

 

More On Improvised Tools For Self Defense From Urban Combatives

 Sometimes the most innocuous items can be useful in getting you out of a bad situation.

 

 

United States Confirms It Has Weapons Platforms In Outer Space

 And Russia and China ain't happy about it. They consider it an unwarranted escalation of military dominance.

As if they don't have their own weapons platforms in outer space.  Gimme' a break!

  https://www.cbsnews.com/news/us-confirms-weapons-in-space-china-russia-respond/

Humor For A Mondy Afternoon

 

sunday With Blackthorn - Lucky Gunner Review Of The S&W 432 UC in .32 H&R Magnum

 I think I may have reviewed this a couple of years ago, but I couldn't find it, so I'm bringing it back as a Favor to my friend TC. The Lucky Gunner Youtube channel puts out what I consider honest reviews and if they don't like something, or it has  few negatives, they'll tell you so.

Blackthorn Blog Post For 9-12-26 - Part 2

 It's been too long since  we had another David James Video, so here we go.

I was involved in the FMA's for almost 8 years. I've seen more demonstrations of Knife Disarms, watched more videos, and read more manuals than I can remember. In all that time I've never seen any technique that had more than a 10% chance of actually working. 

And I'm being generous with that comment.

So, as always, PAY ATTENTION!! 

 

In Line With Yesterdays Inprovised Tool As A Weapon Blog Post.......

 Remember.......

 

Blackthorn Blog Post for 9-11-26 Part 2 - A Common Household Tool For Self Defense

It's amazing what you can accomplish with a simple tool. You just have to hold it right.

 

And Another Milestone is Added To The Blackthorn Blog

 Sept 11 2026     The Blog Hits 900,000 Pageviews

And again I find myself saying Thank You to everybody who looks in at the Blackthorn Blog. 

I hope everybody continues, on any given day, to find the blog informative, and entertaining! 

 And don't worry, there will be a Part 2 before today is over!

Another Full Length UC Video Tutorial On Fear Management

 If you're not used to violence, it can come as a big shock when you're suddenly faced with it out of the blue. Someone walks up to you in the street, on a train station, or in bar and either they feel that you've disrespected them for some reason, or if they want your wallet and your phone, and you freeze up.

If you've trained in the martial arts any fighting you've done is in a controlled environment. This video goes to how you learn to control and use that fear.

The only negative to this video is the really bad music in the background of the opening segment. But it was typical for the early 2000's, so just try to ignore it.

 

Another Motivational Article From Gavin, The Guy with the Gym That Only Accepts 40+ Year Old Members

 Yeah, I know, you guys are thinking "What, another article for the old Guys here at the Blog?" Well yeah, that's right. Because nobody is getting younger, and if you don't look after your own fitness, some some health aide will in a nursing home.

 

 ********************

 Hey There,

Ten years of running my over 40 fitness studio in New Zealand, and there is one number that keeps turning up.

Two and a half.

That is the average number of sessions a week our people actually do. Not five. Not six.

Not the punishing schedule you see all over the internet every January.

Two and a half sessions a week, year after year.

I know. It is a terrible slogan. Nobody is putting THAT on a t-shirt.

But here is what I can tell you after watching it happen for a decade.

Every single person who holds that average gets phenomenally stronger than they were the day they started.

Their muscle tone changes.

Their range of movement opens back up.

And the things they had quietly stopped mentioning start coming back.

Getting off the floor. Standing up out of a low chair without pushing off the arms. Carrying the shopping in one trip. Going up the stairs and arriving at the top able to speak.

All of that, from two and a half sessions a week.

And notice it is two and a half, not two. Some weeks are three. Some weeks are one.

That matters, because people are so hard on themselves about this.

You have a rough week, you get to Friday having managed one session instead of two, and you write the whole week off as wasted. I hear it constantly.

That is not how muscle works.

The session is not where you get stronger.

The session is where you break the muscle down.

The getting stronger happens afterwards, while you are asleep, eating your dinner, puttering about doing nothing in particular.

The strength work is only one half of the equation. Recovery is the other half, and it is not the lazy half.

So one session in a week is not a failed week.

It is a session, plus a lot of repair time.

And a quiet week here and there, where life takes over and you do very little, will not undo you.

Quite often it is exactly what your joints were asking for.

So the odd week off is not the problem, the six months off is. And that is the only catch in the whole thing.

Imagine you trained hard for six months. Fifty sessions, roughly twice a week, genuinely good work.

Then you stopped for six months. Life got in the way, the weather turned, the shoulder played up....

At the end of that year you would be almost exactly where you started. All that effort, handed straight back.

Now imagine instead you did two sessions a week for fifty two weeks, worked around the injury, same effort in any given week.

No heroics, no six week blitz, nothing you would even tell anyone about.

Twelve months later you would not recognise yourself.

Same person. Same weekly workload. Completely different year.

Consistency is not the boring bit you put up with before the results turn up. Consistency IS the result. Everything else is decoration.

One thing I should clear up, because it lands in my inbox most weeks.

Nobody is asking you to turn into Arnold Schwarzenegger. There is no oiled posing routine at the end of this.

You will not wake up one morning unable to scratch your own back, do up your bra or having to go through doorways sideways.

Muscle on that scale takes years, a frankly upsetting amount of chicken out of plastic containers, and a level of dedication that ruins holidays for everybody involved.

We are not building. We are replacing.

From your thirties onwards, if you do nothing about it, you lose somewhere between three and eight percent of your muscle every decade, and it speeds up after sixty.

That is not a scare story, it is just accounting. Let that tick along quietly for three or four decades and one day you notice you are using two hands for a job you used to do with one.

Every session you do is a bit of that handed back. You are not building something new and ridiculous. You are going and collecting what was already yours.

So this week, do not plan five sessions. Plan two.

Then do the same next week. And the week after that. If one of those weeks turns into a single session, that still counts. That is the whole thing.

I just want you to be kind to yourself, and not put too much pressure on missing a session.

Normal people are doing amazing with just 2 and a half sessions a week. If they can, you can too.

Gavyn

Sunday With Blackthorn - (Armed) US Cops vs (Unarmed ) UK Cops

 This short news article is from 1966. And apparently, not much has changed as the Metropolitan Police in The UK are still predominantly unarmed.

 

From Urban Combatives, A Video Tutorial On The Combative Use Of Improvised Weapons

 This video features a VERY young Lee Morrison early in his career  as a Combative Instructor. This is a full length video, not just a short clip.