They say timing is everything and I have to agree: Timing of
what you do is important, but timing of
when you do something is even MORE important. Techniques are more tangible and much easier
to practice than situational timing so many people simply forget about its
importance. This not only happens in martial arts and tactical training
but also in everything in life, such as sales, management, teaching,
business, parenting, dodging cars and capturing dogs.
Take sales for instance. There is good sales technique. It might look something like this:
The approach
The Introduction
Building Rapport
Ask Questions
The pitch
Overcoming Objections
The close
However good your sales technique is, your timing is even more important:
It's easier to sell dessert AFTER dinner.
It's easier to sell gasoline to cars with empty gas tanks.
It's easier selling mortgages to couples who are LOOKING to buy a house, rather than AFTER they've already bought one.
Now if you have someone who is really good at their sales technique, but their timing sucks, the result is usually no sale.
But it is easier to teach sales techniques than it is teaching timing, which is why most training focus on that.
Not
to mention if you know WHEN to sell you can get by with little to no
technique. We saw this in the mortgage industry during the 1990's and
2000's leading up to the big economic crash in 2008. Anyone who could
walk and chew gum could sell mortgages, because the
timing was right.
I think you get the idea.
During a recent
Krav Maga training session Rob Ford told me a great story.
A
dog gets loose and runs into a warehouse where there are three men
working; two younger guys and an older gentleman. The young men want to
help get the dog, so they very enthusiastically try every technique they
know to get the dog to come to them, once that approach doesn't work
they begin chasing it, trying to corner it, or flank it. The dog thinks
this is a very fun game and continues to run around just out of reach of
the two men. The young guys have a lot of energy, so they start to
chase the dog more in earnest. They continue to try harder and run
faster to get their techniques to work. However no matter how hard or
fast they are, the dog still gets away.
After the young men tire themselves out trying to catch the exuberant
dog, the old man asks if he could give it a shot. The two young men
chuckling agree, thinking that there is no way this old guy is going to
be able to move fast enough to catch this dog.
The old man reaches in his lunch box, takes out his ham sandwich his
wife packed for him, takes the meat out and waves it around so the dog
can see and smell it. The dog doing what dogs do best, eat, comes right
to the old man, who gives the meat to him as he grabs its collar.
That story has many lessons in it, but lets just focus on a few: A few posts ago I wrote an article called:
Keeping It Playful & Light I talk about working smarter not harder. This story is a good example of that as well as situational timing.
This
story also shows the difference between technique timing and, in this
case controlling the situational engagement. The old man changed the
engagement and thus controlled the situational timing. The young guys
were trying to catch the timing of the dog, the old man inspired the dog
to match HIS timing.
I heard a great quote from Dr.
George Thompson creator of Verbal Judo: If they have something to gain
or lose you have something to use. In this case, dogs are always
inspired by food, thus the old man had something to use when it came to
changing the situation.
Ok, I know you are dieing to know about dodging cars, so here it is:
When is it easier to avoid getting hit by a car coming toward you in reverse?
1) When it is already coming toward you.
2) Before it is moving toward you.
Hopefully you said before it is moving toward you...
Soooooooooo, how can you tell? What are the warning signs?
Easy,
in order for the vehicle to move toward you typically a few things have
to be present so if we look for some signs we'll be ahead of the curve
to situational timing:
1) Someone in the vehicle (usually...)
2) It has a reason to back up (usually...)
3) When the vehicle shift into reverse the transmission makes a distinct sound.
4) The reverse lights come on.
5) The vehicle typically rocks for a second in a very particular way before the driver begins to roll backward.
If
you know what to look for you can (usually) easily avoid getting hit,
or you can practice your dodging skills trying to move faster than the
retreating car, or maybe do some body toughing exercises preparing you
for the impact. Unfortunately most martial arts and tactical training
practice "car dodging and conditioning" or technique timing skills
rather than situational timing skills. Although much can be trained on
this, the situational timing skills are difficult to explain well and
typically come from hard earned experience.
Things
typically don't happen in isolation, without warning. But if you know
what to look for - the Situational Timing - you are much better off and
way ahead of the game.
One example of this in a
tactical situation would be what we call PCI's or Pre-Contact
Indicators. PCI's are behaviors that preempt physically violent action.
So if you are dealing with someone and the situation is tense here is a
list of some things that might tip you off that they are going to get
physically violent.
- Thousand mile stare.
- Tensing muscles - fists, arms, jaw, neck, pecks, etc.
- Peacock posturing.
- Change in voice level, pitch or speed (low to high, high to low)
- Chambering to strike.
- Shifting stance to strike.
- Turn away (then back around).
- Change in demeanor from overly nice to overly aggressive or the opposite.
- Veins "popping out" on neck, face, head, etc.
- Getting "In your face."
- There are many more, but you get the idea.
PCI's along with your spacial proximity (how close
you are from them and in what position you are in) can make all the
difference between getting hit or not during a confrontation.
Here's another tactical situation:
When
we train Krav Maga, we work on a fair amount of pistol disarms. That
said, if you HAD to physically intercept the pistol (Meaning there was
no other solution. You've tried walking away, talking your way out of
it, and giving up property, but you felt the threat was still going to
shoot you and your only chance for survival was to attempt to physically
disarm the person). When do you think would be the best time to make
the attempt to physically engage with the threat?
1) When he was looking right at you waiting for you to move so he could blow you away.
2)
When he was distracted, disoriented, in transition, moving you or in
some other way preoccupied with something other than you for a split
second.
I hope you said #2.
Situational
timing is no excuse for your tactics, techniques and technique timing
to suck. Keep training on those as well so you can perform as best as
you can when the
time is right. Just keep in mind that it isn't as much about technique as people would like you to believe.
Last analogy:
Question: Who will win in a race between a Ferrari and an old beat up pick-up truck?
Answer: The one who decides WHERE the race will be held (controlling the situational engagement).
Most
people choose the Ferrari because it is overtly faster, however it is
only faster under certain conditions. If the driver of the truck gets
the Ferrari to race in sand dunes, her truck has the advantage.
It's
not as much about the vehicle as the conditions of the race. If you
learn how to control the situation better you can succeed more often and
with much greater ease.
We have a maxim at our
academy:
Train your body like a SOLDIER.
Your brain like a GENERAL.
And your mouth like a Diplomat.
As always...
Keep going,
~Craig
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