Combatives/combat tactics, most authors commonly warn the readers of their articles and books that no matter how well-trained and well-prepared someone may be for combat and protecting oneself, they will never be more prepared than the predators committing these terrible acts of violence.
I wish to espouse a different theory. Man in today’s society and throughout time has constantly and consistently worked to become a more and more civilized and sophisticated being. Effectively man has worked to make himself more and more “domesticated”.
As a result the common citizen, and often even law enforcement and military In reading and researching the literature and material available on “self-defense”, and/or personnel, are ill-prepared to face and defeat these violent animals in human clothing and to deal with the extreme levels of violence these animals are willing to exact on their prey.
Predators whether man or animal are extremely violent opportunists. They look and wait for their prey to be caught unaware and unprepared, and to therefore be easy targets for whatever the predator wishes to do to them, and by no means do they play fair, by any stretch of the imagination. Human predators are even more dangerous, because their minds are socio- and even psychopathic.
Meaning that not only are these predators capable of conscious thought to plan out and perfect their assault on their prey, but they often take pleasure in the violent acts they perpetrate, and in the pain and sometimes death and destruction they cause. Anyone seeking to defeat the plans and desires of these human predators must themselves become human predators.
First, please understand that by no means am I advocating becoming as socio and/or psychopathic as those who commit these heinous crimes. I am not saying in any way whatsoever that to defeat these human monsters, that we must become monsters ourselves. What I am saying is that in order to defeat these people, we must understand how they think, and how we make ourselves a target for them.
This means that as a common course of our daily lives, we should be running mental profiles of ourselves, and our daily activities. During the course of these internal profiles, we should be able to find all the lapses in our personal and family security and lax thinking that a human predator could take advantage of.
After discovering these holes, we then need to figure out ways to close these holes, and thereby prevent ourselves from becoming easy targets and hopefully not targets at all. We should be able to identify if we’re leaving home and car doors unlocked, or not visually (and sometimes carefully physically) checking areas where we could be ambushed before entering and exiting our homes and cars, and the homes and vehicles of others.
We should realize if we have made assessments of all individuals, and identified all immediately verifiable and easily accessible exits, when we enter any building from bank to bar. In our assessments of individuals, we should be asking what does their body language say, are they carrying a weapon (whether openly or concealed), are they in a group, or using signals, signs, and body language to covertly communicate with another person? It is these kinds of assessments that will prevent us from becoming prey.
However, in order to be able to outthink a predator we have to become a predator (in mind), though since we wish to not hurt others and we wish to remain a part of civilized society, we must become a “domesticated predator”.
We must think like those who would do us harm, in order to out think those who would do us harm. Further, even if we do not present ourselves as easy targets, some predators may still try to hurt (or worse) us or our loved ones, and in those times, we must be as fierce and aggressive (within reasonable lawful limits) as those who would take advantage of and assault us. Therefore we must also be willing to become somewhat predatory in our defensive/protective tactics, thereby turning those who would hunt and hurt us, into the hunted and hurt themselves.
This is how we can always stay one step ahead of the human predator…the socio/psychopath that will not be reasoned with or talked out of the destructive crimes they desire to commit. This is how we become the lawful victor, the civilized survivor, the “domesticated predator”. This is the truth in combat.
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Grant Bacon is Head Instructor and Co-Founder of The Truth in Combat Method and Delaware Combat University. He is a Certified Level II PFS Jeet Kune Do Concepts and Filipino Kali Instructor.
Grant has many years of grappling, weapons & amature MMA fighting experience.
