To a fair extent, psychopaths do often make a cost- benefit analysis in the moments before they pounce which is where your portrayal of confidence and fitting in is important. It’s not foolproof but if you look like someone not to f—-k with, they may rethink and find easier prey.

@Randy George Thank you! I think that the issue that the work through your dojo performs is to establish powerful reflexive knowledge to apply without formal thought but still in an intelligent and effective way. Attacks from predators are only somewhat predictable- they might see your presentation of confidence as a challenge if the goal is to defeat someone in a fight rather than as too hard a target if the motive is robbery/rape… motives are hard to read, so, less thinking and more trust in what your body urges you to do makes a lot of sense. What seems to be true across encounters with those who wish to cause harm (either as a way fulfill some inner need to see your pain and to feel “big” or to take something from you) is that they count on you going quietly and without fighting back (much or with skill); they are not troubled by middle-class guilt or ideals of conduct or even respect for law and see these ideals and concern for the welfare of others as weakness (either that or they are so wounded by life that they want to inflict pain on others and are beyond concerns about the law). Also, I think that it is safe to say that the guardrails for aggression in social challenges (macho stuff) have been largely dropped, that the idea of fairness in fighting (like stopping when the other person is clearly tapped out) is a myth, so any encounter can turn deadly in an eyeblink. Larkin talks a lot about how hard it can be for males and some females to walk away from these public challenges- he has some great examples from his life. I had one yesterday when on one of a tangle of small streets in the most run down neighborhood in town, I did not see a one-way sign and began to drive slowly towards the end of the street where a man in his late 50’s-60’s was standing in the middle of the road with two large dogs on leashes. Instead of letting me by, he began screaming obscenities and walking towards the car. I rolled down the window just enough to hear him.. he was issuing a macho challenge, calling names for me being stupid enough to drive the wrong-way etc.. Clearly, he was already at a “go” stage of escalation with minimal provocation, so if I got out of the car, I would have to do something to him and pray his dogs took a side seat… it would have been insanity to take this personally and as a situation where I needed to act- clearly it wasn’t. This fellow had an mad glint in the eyes, had obviously spent a lot of time body building and at his age with that level of muscle exposed publicly when the day was only around 55F and his choice of dogs all suggested that he wanted me to get out in order to live some inner need to strike back at people- to be the “strong or hard man”, it could have been because he was on steroids as well, and/or maybe his wife left him, or someone died, or that he felt like a failure, or any one of a dozen motives that would lead someone to act and present this way… the thing is, that the precise path to his behavior did not matter- he wanted violence, not dialogue, and I had a choice, and honestly in spite of the choice being easy on the surface (i.e. just turn around and get away from this threat), part of me wanted to say, “I’ve had enough BS from people, that it was an honest error as I did not see the sign and he and his dogs can f—k off!” Reluctantly though, I of course turned around… but it is the reluctant part of this that is striking for me, not this other guys macho display which are common enough. Self awareness is also crucial in threat situations- e.g. how sensitive are you to challenges, can you just walk away without carrying shame; how easily do you escalate or become angry; how much anxiety do you generate and can you train yourself to slow down breathing and allow maximum threat awareness without the cloud of rage or fear… The answer to most of this is to train- but with awareness both of the actual intent of what you learn “and” of yourself. I find Nami Ryu almost uniquely assisting students to do both- to acknowledge that what we learn here has the intent to end threats, not control the other person but to stop them (and in real life this means very likely that causing injury is necessary) and to be effective we have to learn control of emotions much like the Samurai and using similar practices like mindfulness and meditation. So, thank you to James Sensei and Randy Sensei and all the senior students and teachers who make it possible for us to learn these methods and to learn more about ourselves in the process!

Thank you! Looking forward to these resources, especially the focus and train along videos to complement class time.

Moving with smaller steps, focus on distance.

Some form of mindfulness practice even while having breakfast. Opening attention and noticing how easy focus can bounce or contract.

@Joanne Hunter Interesting from the point of view of kinetics- initiate motion/acceleration of a peripheral element of the body and remove impediments or resistance and allow a relatively small effort to achieve full velocity which is imparted to the target.. And as George sensei added, if the target is held rigidly then force is carried through the whole system with the kind of effect you mentioned in being struck (holding a pad) with an Irish stick- what kind of stick is used, like a blackthorn cane?

@Joanne Hunter it sounds intense!