fight
The Rundown Is On
I don’t know about you, but the older I get the faster time seems to be flying.
Weird, isn’t it?
When you’re a kid, your perception of time is sooooo different.
What I have been learning and applying (not always with the greatest degree of success, I must admit) is to plan for the future, but yet be in the moment.
And with all the challenges that this crazy thing called life presents us, strive to simply seize the day and smell the roses more often.
But I digress and I am enjoying every moment of it. That’s one of the good things about aging, I guess.
Anyway, looking back at 2010, I gotta say this was another pretty good year for me, even though it had its challenges that I was able to master with the help of others. Heck, I never said I was an island.
Yet I am fully aware that unfortunately way too many people in the world continue to go through some tough times and situations.
That got me thinking again when just recently I stumbled across the Chinese word ”weiji” which translates into ”crisis” and consists of two symbols below:
And what I have been led to believe is that it is made up of both “danger” and “opportunity”.
I am not here to offer any life-coaching advice. I am just thinking aloud, because blogging offers that kind of outlet.
Al Gore, thank you for inventing the Internet!
Boy, I am all over the board in this post. A beautiful mind!
But wait, there’s more.
Don’t ask my why, but somehow I remembered this movie fight scene in the Brazilian jungle which I think just doesn’t get enough credit.
The movie’s title is “The Rundown” starring Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, Seann William Scott and Christopher Walken.
To enlighten those of you not familiar with the meaning of “rundown”:
It can mean a point-by-point summary or in baseball terms, it is a play in which a runner is trapped between bases and is pursued by fielders attempting to make the tag.
The movie is about an aspiring chef who is hired to bring home a mobster’s son from the Amazon but becomes involved in the fight against an oppressive town operator and the search for a legendary treasure.
Some of the stunts and fight scenes are pretty good, but there is this one fight scene in which “The Rock” has to fight all these guys including Ernie Reyes Jr. (yep, that’s him!) that I really enjoy.
The Rundown Is On!
Wishing You The Very Best New Year Ever.
Talk to you next year again,
Yours truly,
Do You Really Have A Combat Mindset?
We talk a lot about the physical and technical aspect of martial arts, both competition and self-defense.
I thought it might be rather interesting to have a closer look at the mental aspect which supposedly makes up for about 90%.
If we want to come out of a perilous and maybe even life-threatening physical encounter unscathed, we have to have the right mindset.
What does that mean?
Let’s just call it ‘Combat Mindset’.
I would like to introduce somebody who knew a thing or two about it.
Friends knew John Dean Cooper simply as “Jeff” Cooper, who was a U.S. Marine Lieutenant Colonel and who served in both World War II and the Korean War, also known as the ‘Forgotten War’.
At the age of 36, Colonel Cooper was decommissioned in 1956.
He is still recognized as the father of the ‘Modern Technique’ of handgun shooting.
Jeff Cooper was referred to as one of the 20th century’s leading international authorities on the use and history of small arms.
This might rock your world:
According to Colonel Cooper, the most important means of surviving a lethal confrontation isn’t the weapon or martial skills, but rather the combat mindset.
In his book, Principles of Personal Defense, there’s a chapter on awareness, in which Colonel Cooper presents an adaptation of the U.S. Marine Corps system to differentiate states of readiness.
The original color code according to Jeff Cooper had nothing to do with tactical situations or alertness levels, but rather with one’s state of mind.
His teachings relate to the degree of danger you are willing to do something. This allows you to move from one level of mindset to another to enable you to properly handle a given situation.
Jeff Cooper didn’t necessarily invent anything in particular with the color code, but he was apparently the first to use it as an indication of mental state. Numerous law enforcement and military agencies apply these principles.
White – Unaware and unprepared.
When attacked in Condition White, the only thing that may save you is the inadequacy or ineptitude of your attacker.
If you are confronted by something nasty, your reaction will probably be “OMG! This isn’t happening to me.”
Yellow – Relaxed alert. No specific threat situation.
Your mindset is that “today could just be the day I might have to defend myself.”
You are simply aware that the world is a potentially unfriendly place and that you are prepared to defend yourself, if necessary.
You use your eyes and ears, and realize that “I may have to SHOOT today.”
You don’t have to be armed in this state, but if you are armed you should be in Condition Yellow.
You should always be in Yellow whenever you are in unfamiliar surroundings or among people you don’t know.
You can remain in Yellow for long periods, as long as you are able to “Watch your six.” (In aviation 12 o’clock refers to the direction in front of the aircraft’s nose. Six o’clock is the blind spot behind the pilot.)
In Yellow, you are “taking in” surrounding information in a relaxed but alert manner, like a continuous 360 degree radar sweep. Or as Cooper put it, “I might have to shoot.”
Don’t miss the continuation and conclusion in tomorrow’s post. It’s that important!
James Cagney, First Martial Artist To Star In A Movie
Academy Award winning actor*, James Cagney (July 17, 1899 – March 30, 1986) gained fame and won major awards for a wide variety of roles.
Cagney is best remembered for playing “tough guys.”
In 1999, he was even ranked #8 among the Greatest Male Stars of All Time by the American Film Institute.
Today, I would like to share something astonishing with my readers that most people certainly do not know.
Not only a proficient boxer, James Cagney was also a certified Judo black belt!
James Cagney starred in the 1945 movie Blood On the Sun, which contained one of the most impressive fight scenes ever shown in a movie. Seriously.
Casually known as “The Professional Againster”, Cagney was definitely the real deal and insisted on performing his own stunts. Thus, Cagney required judo training from expert Ken Kuniyuki and Jack Halloran, who was a former cop.
I was able to find a clip that shows Cagney and Halloran going at it without all the special effects that are available to moviemakers nowadays.
Remember that this movie was made almost 70 (seventy) years ago!
Enjoy James Cagney, First Martial Artist To Star In A Movie!
*Academy Award for Best Actor in “Yankee Doodle Dandy” in 1942.
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