The Fight That Inspired The SPEAR System, High Gear & Know Fear
Mitch Got Dropped
It hit me harder than he got hit.
When he told me how it went down, how he was suckered & struck, I had a profound realization…
41 years, 4 months, and 11 days ago, one of my students lost a fight and it hit me harder than he got hit.
When he told me how it went down, how he was sucker punched, I had a profound realization: Self-defense is taught incorrectly.
I know this is a provocative statement, but hear me out…
I was like so many martial art instructors who believed they were teaching self-defense. What I realized was that I had been teaching him combat sports & martial tactics that I assumed also applied to self-defense.
Does this sound familiar?
This subject is tricky because the tools look the same, but the context is completely different.
Like everyone training, we focused on proper mechanics, developing speed, power, timing accuracy. We sparred and hit pads. We demoed [and fantasized] how we would use this in self-defense…
And to be fair, not that the ‘moves’ were wrong - it was that the training was incomplete.
We were missing two critical components:
We were missing context - there was no scenario.
Because there was no scenario, we didn’t understand how a real scenario impacts physiology, physics, and psychology.
Think about it.
We agree to spar.
We agree to enter a contest.
But we don’t agree to be the target of ‘sudden’ violence. (I’ve already written a ton on Consent, Awareness, Preparation: CAP. This is a missing link in preparation.)
If you’re tracking, this is a big reframe!
My realization was that day was that “we” [well-intentioned experts] were looking at self-defense through a filter that stylized and glamorized self-defense.
We [experts] love to practice movie-worthy combinations, even when there is almost zero evidence of anyone moving like this in the real world.
“We” [experts] teach people complex motor skills instead of gross motor movement.
We [experts] make assumptions about skill and effectiveness without understanding how fear and physiology impact cognition and biomechanics.
The truth is:
I had failed to prepare my student properly, but I wasn’t malicious. I was teaching him what I believed in [at the time].
I was teaching him what my instructors taught me… how to fight.
True Self-defense has a lot more to do with learning how to choose strategies so you DON’T NEED TO FIGHT.
*That last bullet was a big lightbulb moment for me. That insight was huge in inspiring all the research on avoidance, deterrence, and de-escalation.
As Mitch described the violence he experienced, I knew what we needed to do…
RESPONSE-ABILITY.
If you’ve been reading my content for any time, you know I love this play on words.
The first thing I did was take responsibility.
I apologized to student Mitch (yes; I apologized), and then in the same session, I enhanced his response-ability, i.e. his ability to respond.
We didn’t discuss the left hook and how to slip it. We didn’t get technical, we got tactical. We reverse-engineered his confrontation. We talked about tunnel vision and fear. Then we surgically reverse-engineered the entire scenario: pre-fight moments, the language, the grab, the sucker punch, and so on.
Not only did he learn better options to protect himself, but this holistic experience also changed how he processed the loss, the embarrassment, feelings of guilt, fear, ego, and so on.
And that was the day my approach to scenario-based self-defense was born.
I had one goal that consumed me that day during Mitch’s private lesson, and it’s the one I have 4 decades later: How can I make good humans safer?
The year was 1980 - my student’s loss inspired an entirely new way to look at violent encounters.
During that class, I had this amazing realization that I had just embarked on an exciting new journey.
That day turned into a decade of creation which lead to the development of the KNOW FEAR® program, the SPEAR System®, and HIGH GEAR® - the 80s were our incubator period.
And here we are, 42 years later and I’m just as passionate about helping people learn how to manage violence, fear, and aggression as I was all those years ago!
Here’s to your safety!
Coach Blauer
If this story inspired you, please consider training with us as a student or becoming an instructor!
Learn how fear triggers both physiological and psychological reactions and what to do when that happens.
Learn the latest SPEAR System drills that will make you safer if you're in a close-quarter confrontation.
Learn our combat calisthenics formula to work on tactical fitness at home.
Learn our ‘Timeline of Violence’ model, it will immediately improve your situational awareness and help you navigate away from danger and violence.
ANd so much more
Are you interested in experiencing a Blauer Tactical Instructor-level course?
If you teach martial arts, self-defense, defensive tactics, combatives, etc., and you want to learn more about SPEAR and the system I described in this article, then click the link to learn more about the NEW SPEAR DEFENSE: Evidence-Based Scenario Trainer.
