Don't Throw the Baby Out with the Bath Water

In your pursuit of paring down your defensive tactics catalog to "just the realistic" techniques, don't be too quick to toss out concepts and techniques that have worked just fine for others in the past -- including "sport" techniques.

When Gracie Jiu-Jitsu burst onto the H2H scene in the 1990s, it seemed like everyone was flocking to it. I was busy teaching a number of courses to officers, agencies and corporate security departments. We ran regular morning classes for LEOs. However, in the past couple of years, it now seems fashionable in some circles to brand Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu as too "sporty" and not realistic enough to be used outside of the octagon.

Take a look at the video here of Officer Bob Hindi subduing an armed suspect during a robbery attempt at a convenience store. If the video will not open, try this link:

http://blutube.policeone.com/Clip.aspx?key=A40EFEB9F1D386B9

Or, let me describe it to you:

Surprisingly high-quality surveillance camera footage shows a suspect thrusting a handgun across the counter at a female store clerk. At the very bottom edge of the video, a man appears to be at the next register, presumably another customer. The clerk looks to be getting some money out of the safe and placing it on the counter when the suspect snatches it and makes a beeline for the front door. When you first watch the video, it almost looks like the clerk and the criminal are doing a bit of a tug-of-war over the gun, but when you watch it again, you see the suspect's sudden move to grab something off the counter.

The man at the bottom of the screen (Officer Hindi in street clothes) now leaps into action, closing with the suspect and going for a side clinch as the man runs for the door. As the suspect runs for the door, Officer Hindi stays committed to the side clinch and goes for a take down, which pretty much ends up as a semi sacrifice throw on the slippery tile floor. However, Hindi has a plan and it is classic Gracie Jiu-Jitsu. As he and the suspect tumble to the floor the suspect (naturally) orients himself on his knees. Hindi scrambles to the side and smoothly takes the bad guy's back, starting with one leg hooked around the guy's waist and calmly working to get his second leg hooked in as well. Then Hindi flattens out the suspect onto his stomach by stretching out his own legs.

With Hindi mounted on the man's back, it appears that a handgun skitters across the floor away from the suspect. It's not clear if Hindi has cleared the gun or if it came out during the struggle. The fact that it slides out away from the suspect a good six feet would lead me to think that the officer cleared the gun out. Hindi is completely in control at this point looking relaxed and taking his time. The clerk is shown closing and locking the store doors as Hindi keeps the back mount with the suspect putting up a mild amount of resistance. Clearly, the suspect has no idea of what to do and Hindi might as well have a sandwich at this point. After another 20 seconds of Hindi controlling the bad guy's body and arms, another object slides out on the floor, this time it's possibly a cell phone since neither Hindi or the clerk seem too concerned with it. The video fades out after about a minute and a half with Hindi still in the back mount position. Presumably, the boys in blue arrive a short time later and take the the suspect into custody.

Nice job, Officer Hindi.

But, that's too much of a sport technique to be useful on the street, right? So you shouldn't use it or teach it.

Okay, another example. This time a personal experience. If you've been around me or been on the Defend University site for any amount of time, you'll know that I'm pretty forthcoming with self-disclosure. It's valuable for us to debrief with accurate information -- including the semi-embarrassing things that haven't worked out in real confrontations.


I was contracted as a pointman for a takedown team tasked with securing the head of an internal theft ring for arrest. We had two teams of two and I was to lead one team and make the contact to take the suspect down to cuff.

There are some pretty funny aspects of the initial approach which I could tell some other time, but the main gist is that the suspect was sitting on a pickup truck tailgate. I couldn't approach from the side or the rear, I had to approach him from the front. With the help of an impromptu distraction from my teammate, I had to bound across the last 5 yards and grab the guy and pull him off of the tailgate.

He reacted by figuratively slamming on the brakes, digging in his heels and pulling back. I responded by stepping in with him and using an inner thigh throw (uchi-mata) taking him forward onto his chest. I took the back mount and used the bottom of my feet to push down on his thighs to keep him from getting to his knees. He struggled briefly but chose to stop resisting relatively quickly.* (see below for a tangent on this). He was secured, a knife was taken from his person, and he was transferred to the local cops for processing.

At the debrief I asked everyone what the takedown looked like. Most of the answers were along the lines of "smooth", "good", "went fast and put him in a position to cuff". The interesting thing to me is that I hate that throw! I tell students never to use uchi-mata in the street; it turns your gun side into him, you give up your back, it's too sporty, blah, blah, blah. Yet it worked perfectly for this situation.

The lesson for me was that I had the technique buried in my catalog somewhere. Even though I had not drilled that takedown for years, it still jumped to the front of my options when I needed it. Simply, it was the best technique to use for that situation at that point in time.

Don't flush a technique just because it comes from a sport environment. It may still have validity in a hand-to-hand environment. And, it would also behoove you to get exposed to, and train with, as many solutions to different problems as you can. Then drill them until you can perform them against a resisting opponent.

I've used the example plenty of times about the judo champions who -- while they "know" about 250 different techniques -- rely on about 5 techniques for the bulk of their points. So they use just a handful of their strongest techniques the majority of the time. But they still have a deep well of knowledge to pull from when those handful of techniques don't work.

Dont' throw out the techniques that work, just because you think you'll never use them.

*Interesting side tangent from the takedown noted above. The suspect initially began struggling violently. But he didn't have much to struggle against with a well-executed inner thigh throw which literally took him off his feet. As I completed the throw, I twisted his shoulder around so he landed mostly face down. I followed him to the ground with my chest against his back. When we hit, I saw his mouth bounce off the pavement. He began to struggle and I forced his legs straight with soles of my shoes on top of his thighs. He continued to resist as the other team members worked to control his arms. Since my face was just behind his head and I saw his mouth impact the pavement I said to him, "Oh man, are you alright?" And the weirdest thing happened. He grimaced, licked his bloody lips, and I could almost see his mind shift from "fight" to "I'm hurt" modes. He mentally gave up and I immediately could feel his body relax. I put the thought into his head that he was hurt. No doubt he knew he face planted, but during the fight you can go a long time and not know you are hurt. I think my question triggered a process that he had to investigate whether or not he was hurt. The blood confirmed it so his mental answer was "yes, I'm hurt". The fight, for him, was over.

Hock Hockheim tells an similar story about trying to evacuate a man from a burning building. The man was resistant and would not leave until Hock yelled at him that his hair was on fire. The guy looked in the mirror, confirmed that his hair was on fire and ran out of the building screaming like a little girl.

Girl Takes Photo of Potential Abductor

Police arrested a man Tuesday in connection with an attempted child enticement case in Denver.

Mohammed Al Hamdani, 39, was taken into custody after an 11-year-old girl snapped a photo of a man with her cell phone who was allegedly trying to abduct her at Bible Park in southeast Denver.

It was unclear from a Denver Police Department press release whether the photo led to the arrest of the man.

The 11-year-old girl told police a man approached her at the park and asked her to get in his car, MyFOXColorado.com reported.

She said no, snapped a picture of the man with her cell phone and ran away from him, according to the TV station.

The girl turned the cell phone image over to police, who distributed the man's photo to the public.

Serial predator suspect admits sex with two victims

by Jim Walsh and Michael Kiefer - Jun. 9, 2008 03:23 PM, The Arizona Republic

Accused serial predator Trent Christopher Benson admitted to Mesa police that he had sex with two women who later turned up dead and ran over one of them after dumping her naked body in the middle of a street.
But Benson stopped short of confessing to the murders, according to court records released Monday after a Maricopa County Superior Court judge granted The Arizona Republic's request to unseal court records that were sealed when the suspect was arrested.
Benson also is charged in two rapes. One of those victims said she was attacked from behind by two Asian men, was drugged with a rag soaked with a chemical, and lost consciousness, according to the records. She awoke to discover she was being sexually assaulted by one man while being filmed by a video camera mounted near the ceiling. She said there were several monitors in the room and could see herself on them. The assault was interrupted by screams. “The two males left her to attend to a screaming voice. This brief lapse gave the victim time to gather her clothes and flee the residence'' during the Aug. 16, 2007, attack, according to the report. There was no elaboration in the report about the screams.
Benson, 35, was linked by police through DNA evidence to the sexual assault of four women, two of whom were strangled. The report specifies that both victims, Alisa Marie Beck and Karen Campbell, were murdered by ligature strangulation.
Benson recalled picking up Campbell near Main Street and Extension Road in Mesa and said he became enraged when she asked for more money than the agreed upon price for sex acts, according to the court records. He claims to have memory loss and waking up to find her dead. He grabbed her by the wrists and dragged her to his car. He then told police that he drove to a nearby side street.
“As he sped away, he heard a thud which he believes may have been from running her over,'' the court records said. Campbell was found dead Oct. 14, 2007.
Benson also admitted he had sex with Beck, who he picked up after he left a stripper bar. He told investigators he got angry with her during the sex act and that he choked her until she was unconscious.
He also said he grabbed her hair and hit her head against the steering wheel. Beck was found dead Nov. 1, 2004, in a Mesa alley.
The last attack attributed to Benson was the abduction and sexual assault of a Phoenix woman near Seventh Street and Osborn Road on Nov. 4. The victim told police she was attacked from behind by an Asian male, the report said.
“He subdued her by placing a cord over her neck then strangling her before being drug into a white car. She lost consciousness and does not recall what occurred at the time of the attack,'' the report said. Police said the woman was dumped near the spot where she was abducted and appeared to have been left for dead.
But it was the Aug. 16 attack, in which the victim escaped, that first led police to Benson. A “street source'' sent police to a pub in north Mesa, where they talked to Benson and discovered he drove a white car. Police discovered he had a history of prostitution arrests and put him under surveillance.
Police learned that Benson and his brother, Andrew, were living together at a north Mesa townhouse complex. They tracked Trent Benson to the Water and Ice store he owned in the 400 block of North Lindsay Road and saw him smoking outside throughout the day. Officers seized a cigarette butt outside the building.
Andrew Benson has not been named as a suspect and has not been arrested in the case.
The cigarette butt proved critical, because police found DNA evidence that linked Benson to all four attacks.
Officers served search warrants on Benson's house, car and business. They found handcuffs and took 15 videotapes, a video camera and computer equipment, among other things.
The court documents indicate that prosecutors believe that they eventually will seek the death penalty in the case.
Police wanted to keep the records sealed to protect the investigation, including information about a potential accomplice.

Las Vegas Mayor Thanks PSOC Instructors

Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman (c.) called for a meeting with the instructors from the Protective Service Operator Course (PSOC) to discuss the success of training the Marshals who provide his daily protection.

Pictured (from right) Mike Gillette, Brian Hartman, Steve Krystek, and Brad Parker, graduated the mayor's protective detail from the most recent PSOC course in Las Vegas.

For a schedule of upcoming PFC courses, including PSOC, go to www.pfctraining.com.

Reasoning with evil

"Great danger lies in the notion that we can reason with evil."

Doug Patton