Real Life Experiences highlights the stories of operators and civilians who have had to use the skills they've learnt in self defence or combat.
If you have had to defend yourself as a civilian or in the execution of your duties as a service person, then don't hesitate to forward your story. These stories will not include the identities of any of the subjects involved, but will detail the situation and means used to overcome it.
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I am a large male that has trained in karate for over thirty years.
I recently had the unfortunate situation where I had to defend myself in the street.
I had one the one your Todd key holders with me and it done two things, it made me more confident and secondly it gave me a great means of defence.
It worked a treat and I could not recommend it more highly.
It may not look much but it is.
My wife took an individual tuition self defence course at Geoff Todd’s School of Self Defence School some years back and I have the scare to remind me of it.
I was fooling around with her one night when she put into practice her anti rape training.
The result was I ended up head first into the furniture and at the A&E where I required several stitches.
While I was not happy at the time at least I know my wife was well taught.
My brother was in a bar some weeks back when a large black man began picking a fight with a thin white guy with short hair for no apparent reason.
The small white guy was at least 100lbs lighter than his attacker and tried to avoid the fight but when he was cornered he let rip with a ten plus punch combination that sent the large black man back some twenty feet and to the deck.
This was like the sweet science for self defence and was over in an instant.
The state of the big guys face was a mess and he was crying his eyes out in his girl friends arms.
Good old boxing worked well and the big guys buddies weren’t game to step up which was probably wise after the outcome of round one.
Some guys in a bar were looking for trouble and their ring leader decided to get all Macho with the smallest guy in our group.
He started the old shoulder push combined with the bad attitude.
What he didn’t know was the potential victim was a highly skilled combative instructor and seasoned soldier.
Before you could blink or he could the would be if he could get away with trouble maker had his eyes poked and foot stomped.
Just another case of no fuss dirty tricks winning.
Two car loads of guys came to a late night spot one night to give me a beating for what I had dealt out to their leader some weeks earlier.
I have trained in CQC most of my life and as such know not to underestimate any odds and to always take the quickest and easiest option to end any encounter.
I asked a young fellow to discretely get me my baseball bat.
When he failed to do so and the action was on it was a case of getting on with the business and getting the result.
After I had dealt with the problem I asked the kid why he didn’t get me my trusty bat and he replied I knew you could take care of them with out it with your CQB and I just wanted to see you do it.
Luckily my ability and luck on the night was up to the kids faith in me.
Mans best friend.
I have always loved dogs and training dogs in both obedience and attack work.
One dog I had many years ago was a real gem.
He would protect his handler to the max.
I could write a book on the outcomes he achieved over his five years as a protector until he was taken out by some coward while he was in his enclosure.
He was trained to exit the vehicle on command at jobs where the presence of a dog was not deemed suitable.
He would only push down on the straight handled door levered on command.
However he had been taught to protect his handler under any threat with out question.
I ended up in the car park surrounded by bad ass blokes and before I could give the command was attacked by the group.
Within a split second he was out of the vehicle and had the crowd running in all directions.
He had been trained to engage and disengage in relation to the closest threat to his handler and this made me totally safe.
There was even one of them on top of a roof and they decided I was off the menu thanks to mans best friend.
You know who you can count on when the fight is on.
I was working the door once many years ago when I was set upon by several thugs.
There were many so-called Buddies around at the time or others that had conveniently gone to the toilet.
All of a sudden a high school lad ran up and literally leapt in to assist me.
Now this lad as it turns out didn’t know me from Jack back then but done the right thing.
He was a wild young lad who obviously had more the rock college upbringing than the educational college.
He ended up in trouble with the law over the years and his life was not that easy and he suffered as a result of his actions and reputation, but to me he had a real good side and would never bother anyone unless they bothered him.
He was a bit of a villain but never a bully and I believe in anyone who puts their neck on the line for you especially when they don’t have to is true blue and will always have my respect.
A colleague was recently followed to the work car park and when it was realized that the person following had criminal intentions the time to react was minimal.
Unfortunately going for the cell phone before locking the car doors enabled the attacker to assault and abduct his victim before the emergency call could be made.
This just shows how there are violent offenders out there looking for victims.
The importance of knowing what to do before the event is outlined by this serious attack on an innocent person.
I am a former S/F soldier and I served in Vietnam and have trained in CQB and had my share of real life violence.
In my married life I once took my family abroad and when on a Ferry faced a group of loud ruffians looking for trouble and fun at others expense.
They were on an upper deck and cursing being abusive to other passengers and throwing rubbish and the like on passengers on the lower deck.
I put space between the group and my family well as much as you can on a ferry.
I ensured to hassle my family they would have to get through me first.
Then some attention was given to us in the form of thrown rubbish.
There was no security assistance on board that had bothered to address anything up until now so it was down to me.
I went up those stairs to that upper deck like on a mission and I entered that upper deck like kicking that door in an entry.
I moved directly to the ringleader and spoke my mind clear and direct with no anger or emotion and put the ball firmly in their court.
I must have been convincing, as the rest of the trip was incident free.
Not the way I would have handled a situation on a team in my service days but civilian life is very different and required a very different approach.
I didn’t like having to act like this in front of my family but they felt proud of my protection of them.
This is a very sad true story of the risks of dangerous dogs.
This young lady lived alone with her large male mastiff cross dog.
Then one very sad and tragic day the police were called by distressed senior citizen neighbours that from their back yards witnessed this young lady being killed by her own dog.
I have trained protection dogs and am well aware of dogs natural instincts and behavioural traits of potentially dangerous dogs but the average dog owner simply does not understand that some dogs can be very dangerous.
These are pack animals and in their pack there is a pecking order and an Alpha Male.
When a dog is allowed to dictate the terms and dominate its handler then the recipe for bad behaviour and attacks is possible.
Some breeds try their luck at domination as they mature, usually around 18 months of age and need to be firmly disciplined and trained correctly so they know who the boss is.
Some dogs simply have a bad disposition that can easily be identified by those that know dogs and some dogs simply aren’t well suited to their owners.
In another incident a friend had two pedigree bullmastiffs that were very expensive imported examples of the breed.
They were not fully trained but had not shown any aggression towards him or his wife.
Then when they were once again around the 18 months of age they both the male and female attacked his wife as she went to feed them in their enclosure.
They seriously injured her and had to be put down.
Finally I had a young man who brought a rottweiler bull mastiff cross to me for training when it was a very young pup and I advised him after working with it that it had a very bad disposition for such a young dog and that it could lead to problems.
I suggested he get another dog to replace this potential dangerous dog.
He wouldn’t have a bar of it and never brought the dog back for any further training.
I later found out that it had attacked his mum when she was petting it and had to be put down.
Good dogs are the norm and a well handled dog of a good disposition will be a loyal companion for life that can be trusted more than many humans can but a dangerous dog is just that dangerous.
A close friend of mine told me of his school days recently and I thought it was a real reflection of the different times we live in today to back then and how PC we have become.
I think we have become so PC that there is a lack of respect that is not checked or corrected and often bad characters are never adjusted swiftly and sharply early enough to make the difference needed to keep the young tear away on the straight and narrow.
It went like this.
It was at a catholic school and the teacher was a nun.
This was over seventy-five years ago when the pupils used slates for writing on.
This tear away broke the slate over the nun’s head from behind.
She immediately grabbed him and dragged him kicking and screaming to the front of the class.
He was grabbing at the desk lids all the way and they were slamming open and shut as he was dragged to the front of the classroom.
Then in front of the entire class the nun gave him the beating of his life, she bashed the hell out of him and put an end to his bad ways, plain and simple.
Could you imagine if that was done today?
Today teachers have to deal with the bad and dangerous with not even a feather duster, in fact with out invading their space.
Rather them than me under those conditions
I once had a friend that continually liked to goof around trying to put me in holds or sneak up on me and attack me to test my reactions.
Well I never considered him a threat only a nuisance when he took such liberties and on one occasion when he applied a hold on me I let him to teach him a lesson.
What I decided was to let him apply the hold and in fact secure him so that he could not let his hold go.
I then decided to teach him the realities of goofing around in this manner by ramming him bodily backwards into some of his prized possessions and furniture.
The result was considerable damage and destruction to the family treasures and he had some explaining to do to his family.
He never goofed around again and of course it was an accident brought about by his foolishness that I played no part in other than being the unaware victim of one of his pranks.
Proves there is more than one way to handle a problem.
Training people is a great responsibility and can be very difficult at times with having to make the hard decisions.
Rejecting applications and revoking membership is one thing but recognizing changes in people’s behaviour is a whole new concern and then being in a position to do anything about it is another thing.
I had a student that was extremely capable in every sense of the word when it came to anything martial.
Over the years he showed some unusual aspects to his ways he acted and conducted himself.
The problem was he was a full on chap and when he practiced anything it was all or nothing.
The environment also masked his underlying problems to a great degree.
You would see him at competitions on his own away from the team and with hood overhead and head down for hours on end.
I have known many fighters that like to hide away before competition so that was deemed the situation in this case.
But then there were dramatic changes in his dress for the conditions and personal hygiene and his vanishing and turning up out of the blue and acting a little different each time.
Well there were many other character changes and reports of unusual behaviour and then the realisation that he had a mental illness.
He went from one extreme to the other over several years gradually but when he was diagnosed it was obvious to everyone that he had a severe mental illness.
In hindsight the changes should have been obvious but weren’t because of the nature of the individual and his life style and vanishing and reappearing acts.
It has made me more alert to changes in individuals and learning more about recognizing the warning signs.
The sad thing is like many illnesses it could happen to any of us and that is the time we most need help.
Many years back when I was younger and fitter I was out for a run when a car full of scumbags abused and threw eggs at me.
I narrowly avoided the eggs apart from the splash back as they hit a wall beside me.
Well being trained in unarmed combat and having a one dimensional get even at all costs mentality set me off on the chase.
I first found a solid piece of wood still attached to a fence and quickly kicked it away from where it was still needed.
I then headed in the general direction of the offender travel on foot.
I was trying to think like those bad guys as to where they would be heading and what they would be doing.
I dared not ask anyone as I didn’t want to have potential witnesses to my intentions.
I came to a crossroads and had to think which way would I go if I was them.
I had changed sides of the road so if they looped back for another crack I would be moving towards them and have vision and time to hunt the hunter.
Some three hours later and many miles covered there they were driving towards me with no idea I was there until the last minute when they swerved at me and I let fly with the piece of timber.
Bulls eye driver’s side of the windshield and the impact and shock caused a chain reaction that left the car stalled and into the curb.
I was on them like a rash and as they tried to get out of the car to have me, I kicked the car doors into their legs Ouch.
They didn’t amount to much when it came down to it but revenge was sweet for me taken still warm.
Today that kind of action would probably get you shot or stabbed to death or at least locked up but it was the Wild West back then and you took care of yourself and never ran to the law if you lost.
Adrenalin and being young crazy and full of get up and go is a powerful and dangerous mix that fortunately this time went my way.
