Category: Weapons

IS CARRYING A BLADE RIGHT FOR YOU?

IS CARRYING A BLADE RIGHT FOR YOU?

Posted on by Evan Perperis

GUEST COLUMNIST:
EVAN PERPERIS — A U.S. ARMY SPECIAL FORCES MAJOR (RETIRED) & A CHAMPION OBSTACLE COURSE RACER

Picture this: It’s my first Tiga Tactics in-person seminar after taking most of their online courses. I’m sitting in a room full of martial artists from a variety of disciplines.

Dr. Conrad asks the group, “Who carries a knife for self-defense?” Much to my surprise only about half the hands go up. I’m honestly shocked — I assum it would be 100%. After all, the event is called the EDC Knife Seminar — as in Everyday-Carry Knife Seminar.

Of course, there is no wrong answer. But we went around the room discussing why each person chose to carry or not carry. Looking back now, I found the answers to be very interesting. Here were some of the things people said. They raised some key questions you should ask yourself if you are planning on carrying a blade as tool that can be used for self-protection:

  • Willingness to Use It: The most common reason not to carry an edged tool had to do with mindset. Several people cited that if they were in a self-protection situation (even life or death) they don’t think they would be able to use it.

    If this shocks you, perhaps you haven’t dug into what real life knife attacks look like. When someone uses a knife against another person, it is messy, violent and chaotic. If you aren’t mentally prepared for that, it may be very traumatic.

    It is not like the movies with one stab and the bad guy collapses. Rather, it is often repeated plunges into the flesh resembling a sewing machine or a psycho stab (check out the Knife Defense course if you want to learn the defense against the two most common types of knife attacks).  

    There are knife self-defense situations in which there are 10 or 20 stabs to get the attacker off the victim. Why so many?

    Often the person being stabbed doesn’t realize they are getting stabbed; they assumed they were being punched. However, when they look down do they realize they are being stabbed as they see or feel blood on their body. If the bad guy is truly committed to hurting you, they are going to keep attacking until they are physically unable to continue. This requires more than a single puncture wound. The victim continues to defend with the knife simply because the attacker continues to attack.


  • Fear of Using It: Bouncing off the first reason, some of the attendees cited that they don’t carry one because they have a short temper. I thought this was a very mature decision by martial artists who were OK exposing their own flaws.

    Essentially, they were worried that if they always carried one, they might use it in a situation where it was not 100% necessary.


  • Consequences of Using It: Piggybacking on the first two reasons is the consequences of using it. If you use a blade in self-defense, there is a good chance that you may take the life of your attacker. Can you deal with the psychological trauma of having to go through that?

    (Side note: As an Army Special Forces veteran who deployed to combat zones frequently over my career, I had not even considered this. My coworkers and I crossed that hurdle so far in the past I had forgotten that for most people that is still a big step. Not wrong one way or the other, just something I hadn’t considered in a long time.)

    On the flip side, could you deal with psychological trauma of what might happen if you don’t defend yourself?


  • Lack of Knowledge on Implementation: For those martial artists who didn’t study a bladed art or rookies who never trained in anything, they didn’t have the skillset to effectively employ the tool. Luckily for them they were at a knife seminar and luckily for you, that same information is now available online via the EDC Knife program.


  • Worried About Getting Disarmed: The fifth reason has to do with the requirement to use the tool in close range. Most muggings or street attacks are street ambushes, as evidenced by Dr. Conrad Bui and Patrick Vuong’s research studying security footage.

    This means that the fight starts in the punching, trapping, or standing grappling ranges. When you are that close, there is a saying that “your weapons become our weapons”. This means that you are so close that if you lack the knowledge on implementation along with retention, your own tool can be taken away from you and used against you. Both of these also receive solutions by taking the EDC Knife course.

 

Carrying a blade for self-defense is not for everyone. There are plenty of reasons to carry one and plenty of reasons not to.

However, if you are going to carry something you better know how to use it. This is true for carrying a pistol, a knife, pepper spray, or one of those self-defense keychains (if you choose to go that route).

If you don’t take the time to improve your mindset and skillset via Tiga Tactics online courses, you won’t be able to perform them under pressure. Take the time now and start training today.

HOW TO SELECT A SELF-DEFENSE FLASHLIGHT

HOW TO SELECT A SELF-DEFENSE FLASHLIGHT

Posted on by Evan Perperis

GUEST COLUMNIST:
EVAN PERPERIS — A U.S. ARMY SPECIAL FORCES MAJOR (RETIRED) & A CHAMPION OBSTACLE COURSE RACER

In the past, I’ve talked about why a knife makes an excellent everyday-carry (EDC) tool. However, not all environments allow you to carry a blade — e.g. airport, federal buildings, and cities with restrictive laws.

Furthermore, there are some people who don’t feel comfortable carrying a blade for self-protection for a variety of reasons. There are other choices that include less-lethal options, like a Kubotan or pocketstick. However, if I’m going to carry an object I can use for self-defense, I prefer if it has some other functions, such as a very sturdy pen, a KeySmart-style keychain or, in this case, a flashlight.

Here are a couple of key things I look for when choosing an EDC Flashlight:

  • Sturdiness: While it doesn’t have to be made out of Adamantium (Wolverine’s claws), it should be durable. If I drop my flashlight or hit something with it and it breaks, it is too weak. There’s no hard rule — like, it has to be made out of material X, but it should feel strong and sturdy in your hands.

    I tend to like brands like SureFire, which I know are comfortable with the ruggedness of military usage and are designed to withstand the recoil of being attached to a rifle.

  • Lumens: You want a flashlight that has a bright output. Just like sturdiness, there is not magic number of lumens you are looking for. Furthermore, every flashlight company measures lumens differently so I would only compare the lumens number if you are comparing within the same brand. Additionally, be aware that the brighter the flashlight is, the quicker the batteries will need to be replaced.

    In my opinion, the brighter the better — but there is a tradeoff associated with brightness, and it usually comes at the cost of weight, size, and price.

  • Size: You don’t need the giant Maglite flashlight with three D-cell batteries from the 1980s. (Do they still make those? Google tells me they do.) I need something I can carry in my pocket and not have it be uncomfortable or weigh me down.

    Personally, I like ones with a carry clip just like a folding knife. This means all my repetitions where I practice drawing a folder under pressure will transfer over better than if I have to pull my flashlight out of a pouch. For flashlights, I want it to extend just slightly beyond my hand with a closed grip. This means the striking edge sticks out the bottom, but not so far out the bottom that someone else could grab it and pry it away from me.

  • Single-Hand Activation: Your flashlight should be able to be activated one handed. This means if it is a twist flashlight, I would put it back on the shelf. Button- or switch-activated flashlights will depend on the placement of the button. Since I like to hold my flashlight in a reverse or icepick-style grip, I want the activation button near the back of the flashlight.

  • Not Too Aggressive: You can buy some flashlights with crazy beveled edges in the front that look more like a weapon than my knife. Chances are, if you are buying something like that, authorities won’t let you carry it anywhere that doesn’t allow self-defense tools. Instead, I like something with a slight edge but little or no bevels on the front.

  • Fits Well in My Hand: Finally, my EDC flashlight needs to fit in my hand well. The grip can’t be too slippery, the thickness can’t be too thick or too thin, and I need to be able to put my thumb on the tail of it. If it has a sharp tail cap (more of a problem with tactical pens than flashlights) it is of little use. The last thing I want to do is strike something and my thumb takes more damage than the target.

As with anytime I talk toolset for Tiga Tactics, I can’t emphasize enough the importance of getting the right mindset and skillset for implementation.

For Tiga Tactics, they have a specialized course that focuses on EDC Flashlight that I highly recommend taking. It not only talks flashlight selection as well as uses for striking, but also for using it as its primary purpose: to illuminate the unknown in the dark.

"I DON'T NEED TRAINING, I HAVE..."

“I DON’T NEED TRAINING, I HAVE…”

Posted on by Evan Perperis

GUEST COLUMNIST: Evan Perperis, a U.S. Army Special Forces Combat Vet, Shares His Thoughts on a Common Excuse We Hear

 

I’ve heard it more times than I can count, and I’ve seen people imply it even more than that.

“I don’t need to train, I’ll just shoot them”.

“I don’t need to train, I’ll just stab them.”

“I don’t need to train, I’ll just use this” [while holding up the latest self-defense gimmick].

They buy a gun along with getting a concealed carry permit, and they think the problem is solved. Perhaps it’s a can of pepper spray instead. Or a spiked self-defense keychain hangs from their keys.

In a country that tends to value physical solutions over mental ones, this is not surprising — but the logic is flawed.

Here are some key reasons why the logic of “I don’t need training, I have this” fails.

1) Most attacks start in ambush range: Dr. Conrad Bui and Patrick Vuong have analyzed hundreds of real-life attacks available via security camera and cellphone footage. One of the constants is that most attacks start very close. This means if you don’t have your hand on your self-defense tool when the attack starts you are going to have to fight your way to a position that allows you to employ your tool.

2) People don’t practice with their tool: Most of the people I know who own self-defense keychains never practice with them. Ever. They’ve never activated their pepper spray, which means they may not be familiar with the basics including things like removing the safety. It also means they probably don’t understand that it is an area weapon. Yes, you’ll get the bad guy, but also be prepared for some of that spray to blow back in your face.

If it is a striking tool, they don’t practice hitting with it, which means things like range, angle, level, and timing — all necessary to properly employ a hit with a striking weapon — are probably underdeveloped. Additionally, if you’ve never hit something hard with your self-defense tool, are you sure it isn’t going to hurt your own hand when you employ it under stress?

3) The ability to deploy a tool requires basic fundamentals learned via martial arts: Piggybacking off the end of the last paragraph about fundamentals like range, angle, level and timing, if you don’t train any sort of striking art on a regular basis, you probably can’t do any of those things well.

This is why although Tiga Tactics is my primary base for how I approach self-defense even though I continue to train in other styles, including striking and grappling arts.

4) Many people are never pressure tested in any form: Finally, many of these people never pressure test anything. If the most pressure you’ve felt in the last year is speaking in a public setting at work or an angry email from a boss, you probably don’t have the mental adaptability to deal with an attacker when they are already attacking you.

There isn’t one solution to pressure testing, but doing things under mental and physical duress with an elevated heart rate that is stressful and requires thinking is the goal. In the military they do this frequently, if you train martial arts and your school does tests for rank or sparring, you will get this as well.

In the Special Operations Forces (SOF) community, we have a list of five SOF truths, one of which is “humans are more important than hardware.” There are multiple meanings to this phrase but part of it is you need to invest in yourself and the software (mindset/skillset) that allow you to do difficult things.

The tool on your keychain is simply that, a tool. If you lack the rest of the pyramid of personal protection to effectively employ it, you might as well leave the tool at home. In the military we preach don’t take something into combat that you haven’t tested and trained with. I think the same is true for civilians training for self-defense. Start by taking some courses like Sharper Knife, Sharper Mind, Fighting Chance Combatives and EDC Knife. You’ll find the skills you learn in those are good not only for employing a knife but for any self-defense item.

WHAT HAPPENS WHEN A SPECIAL FORCES SOLDIER USE TIGA TACTICS COMBATIVES AGAINST OTHER SOLDIERS

Posted on by Evan Perperis

GUEST COLUMNIST:
EVAN PERPERIS — A U.S. ARMY SPECIAL FORCES MAJOR (RETIRED) & A CHAMPION OBSTACLE COURSE RACER

“LIVE” KNIFE DEFENSE APPLICATION

It should surprise no one that, as a certified Tiga Tactics instructor, I like and believe in the techniques and content that Tiga Tactics has created.  However, I don’t put them all on equal levels. 

The one I had the least confidence with, Knife Defense, I actually had the opportunity to pressure test.  Here’s that story and why I have greater confidence in this program than ever before.

Methodology in Training: 

As part of the military, we like to increase the stress on soldiers through training.  This is done in an incremental fashion, much in the way Tiga Tactics teaches by starting off “slow,” then going to “smooth,” than gradually speeding things up to “fast.”

This is a common practice you will see in all of Tiga Tactic’s online courses; the military calls this approach “crawl, walk, run”.

Situation:

As part of training, we did a “live” (AKA competitive) drill where one person was armed with a Shocknife and the other person had no weapons at all. 

The Shocknife delivers a jolt of electricity — up to 7,500 volts — like a stun gun if you touch the “blade edge.” Clearly, this is the “run” or “fast” phase of training. 

The goal of the unarmed person was to disarm the person with the Shocknife.  The soldiers were taught several self-defense techniques.  One of the options partially overlapped with what Tiga Tactics teaches in their Knife Defense course but with some (what I would call significant) differences.

Each soldier was then required to disarm his opponent in a round robin fashion by grappling over the Shocknife.  For the drill you ended up doing three disarms against three different attackers.

Plan of Execution:

Rather than use the military-taught technique, I decided to use this as an opportunity to pressure test Tiga’s techniques, since I would get to watch other people use the different military techniques around a couple of dozen times.  I was excited to test it out because unlike a martial arts class where everyone is learning the same technique, the other soldiers wouldn’t know my plans and thus would respond more instinctively and naturally.

Furthermore, the group was legitimately trying to shock each other, as is the case when you take competitive soldiers and put them in an environment where people are watching and judging. 

Results: 

So how did the techniques taught by Tiga Tactics in Knife Defense play out? 

Well out of the three disarm drills, I only got shocked once during disarm attempt number two to my forearm/hand area. 

That was three successful disarms using Tiga Tactics techniques against stakes that are about as high as you can get while still operating in a safe training environment. 

Possible Critique: 

I know what you are thinking, were the soldiers actually going hard in this training environment or just going through the motions? 

If you have worked with Type A personalities like soldiers you probably already know the answer.   The more one person gets shocked often the harder they’ll go the next round, creating an increasing level of resistance that just occurs naturally.  If you still have doubts as to how hard we were training, as further evidence I’ll cite that one of the 12 soldiers broke his hand in the scuffle that was part of the disarm. 

Yes…we were going hard. 

Conclusion:

Not surprisingly, Tiga Tactic’s techniques work when pressure tested.  This is what you get when you take real world video, come up with solutions, pressure test it and refine it to the best product.  If you aren’t training at home, now is the time and with how easy it is to conceal a knife, you may want to start with  Knife Defense.

Wilderness Warrior Weekend Camp

Posted on by Tiga Tactics Propaganda

THE WHAT

We’re teaming up with survival expert and New York Times bestselling author Tim MacWelch to host Wilderness Warrior Weekend Camp!
 
This will be two days packed with combatives, survivalism, and (most importantly) fun camaraderie! We’ll teach you self-preservation skills using three tools: your hands, your knife, and your axe.
 
You’ll learn how to procure water, make fire, build a shelter, and defend yourself.
 
This is going to be epic — like “The Walking Dead” epic … but without the brain-eating zombies, of course. 

THE WHEN

DATES:
September 17-18, 2022
 
TIMES:
Exact itinerary will be announced shortly

THE WHERE

We’ll be training in the great outdoors on private property in Fredericksburg, Virginia.
 
It is roughly 1 hour south of Washington, D.C., and 1 hour north of Richmond, Virginia.

ENROLL NOW

If you sign up now, you’ll save a massive 60% off the regular price. But don’t delay because this Save-the-Date Special won’t last long.

CLICK HERE TO ENROLL NOW AND SAVE!

He’s Lucky to Be Alive

Posted on by Patrick Vuong

The dude really should count his lucky stars today.
 
The man I’m talking about in the headline is a 29-year-old New York subway rider who was smashed in the head with a hammer last week.
 
His assailant was Christian Jeffers, a career criminal who has at least 47 (yes, forty-seven!) prior arrests before being arraigned last Friday for the unprovoked and vicious attack.
 
Jeffers bumped into the victim on the train platform then screamed, “Why you hit me?”
 
Then he suddenly pulled out a hammer from a bag and swung!
 
The victim got one arm up as he stepped back, but it wasn’t enough — nor was it the right defensive move — and the hammer landed with a sickening thunk sound.
 
From confrontational question to cranium contact, the scary assault took just 3 seconds.
 
“I didn’t see the hammer,” the victim told the New York Post. “It happened, like, too quick for me to react.”
 
The 29-year-old fell to the concrete, his forehead bleeding from the hammer blow. He was hospitalized, but fortunately not for too long.
 
There’s a lot to unpack with this case, but here are our top 3 takeaways:
 

  • Avoid the “poisoned hand:” The shoulder bump that preceded the hammer attacker reminded me of what my Kung Fu master called the “poisoned hand.” No, it’s not an ancient death touch technique; it’s the concept of avoiding damage by not being where a kick or punch would land. This means getting in and out of range quickly.

    Jeffers understood range when he intentionally bumped into his victim. So, when possible in public, get out of the way. Give people as wide a berth as possible and recognize when someone is within striking range — both yours and theirs.

  • Steel your mind: It’s pretty clear by what the victim told reporters that he didn’t expect to be in a fight that day — especially against a career criminal armed with a hammer! If you can’t even imagine an event happening, it’s pretty difficult to prepare for it when it does happen.

    That’s why, as part of my defensive mindset ritual, I either perform one draw of my chosen self-defense tool or say to myself, “This could be the day I might have to fight for my life or the life of a loved one.” This prepares me mentally right out of the gate.

  • Don’t rely on your reaction time: Jeffer’s 29-year-old victim said that things happened too quickly for him to react. But that’s the problem with most unsuspecting prey; they always assume they’ll see an assault coming and have the time and distance to react.

    News flash: Evil does not strike slowly. Two-legged predators attack in the concrete jungle just like their four-legged brethren do in the wild — unexpectedly, quickly, and violently.

 
That’s why you need consistent and realistic training, because (as the saying goes) you do not rise to the occasion but rather fall to the level of your training.
 
Conrad and I have spent years pressure-testing techniques against resistant partners armed with training weapons (from knives and guns to sticks and baseball bats).
 
We know what it takes to survive an urban ambush involving a hammer or any other blunt weapon.
 
And it’s not necessarily what’s taught on the range or in the dojo.
 
Fortunately, you don’t have to spend decades studying martial arts, combat sports, and combatives like we did.
 
That’s because we’ve distilled the best tips, tactics, and training drills in “Club Proof 1.0.”
 
And in honor of my namesake holiday today, you can get this home study course for half price during St. Patrick’s Day week.
 
Just use the 50% off promo code stpaddy2022 at checkout.

Enroll in “Club Proof” today so you don’t have to rely on luck to survive a blunt weapon attack.

But don’t wait — our St. Patrick’s Day sale ends at 11:59 p.m. Pacific Time this Saturday.

CLICK HERE TO ENROLL NOW!