by The following is an excerpt from my upcoming class “Unlocking The Warrior Pose – The Untold Secret Of Yoga.” S. Brett
I see them tweaking their way across Victory Square in Vancouver, the location for the movie, Liberty Stand Still, my client, Linda Fiorentino, is currently shooting. Three meth junkies with that starving, crazy twitch in their eyes, their hands shoved deep into the pockets of their ragged jackets, trying hard to conceal the bulges of their guns.
The Mounties hired as set security have warned me about this, random gangs of addicts who bust into movie sets and rob actors or whoever they can. They’re 50 yards out and closing fast, heading straight for our car. However, it’s lunch break and all my set assets are gorging themselves at craft services!
Despite my repeatedly warning our driver not to get us blocked in, he has again. So we’re trapped by cars and I have no weapon, except a knife, which isn’t going to help if these three junkies roll out the guns they’re hiding. I am the classic example of a “Soft Target”, exactly what predators are looking for according to the FBI profilers.
I have only one asset to change the game, a “fanny pack” holster my friend Mike Grace, who hired me for this gig, gave me. I hate wearing it, but he insisted I do, now I’m glad I listened. “He was a Gunners Mate in the Navy Seals” I told myself “He probably knows what he’s talking about!“.
I leap out of our car, move into the space behind the one in front of us and lock eyes with the approaching assailants. As they slow down I step into an Isosceles Shooting Stance and shoot my hand in the holster. In the blink of an eye, I’ve become a “Hard Target”.
Now instead of a victim that didn’t see them coming which they could easily overwhelm, they have one that does. Now they’re the targets! They’re out in the open, I have cover behind a vehicle. They’ll have to fumble their weapons out of their jackets, mine, if I had one, would be out in an instant! It’s the biggest bluff I have ever attempted!
The assailants stop and hesitate, people on the set see what I’m doing and start grabbing their radios. The junkies know that in a few moments, besides me, they’ll have to deal with Royal Canadian Mounted Police.
They wheel around and rush for one of the many dark alleys that connect to Victory Square and disappear. I’m astounded! I’ve stopped three armed thugs with one of the key principles of the Warrior Pose and I never even had to fight!
To explain, the very act of going into Warrior 1, of placing one foot two shoulders width directly behind the other and turning your body sideways is what is termed “Tai sbaki” or “body shifting” in martial arts. Think of a door opening so that the person approaching doesn’t hit it, this ability to pivot is crucial in one of the most important strategic concepts, Evasion!
However, Evasion is based on another crucial skill, the ability to see things coming. This ability is referred to as “Zanshin” in the Japanese arts, it is a form of hyper awareness or consciousness. It actually goes hand in hand with the conscious living principle found in most forms of Yoga.
You see, the Ancients who gave birth to Yoga understood that in order to be aware of all the good in our world and preserve it, you also need to be aware of the bad so that you can avoid it. This is why they included the Warrior Pose in their art.
There’s an old Chinese Proverb “The easiest way to chop down an oak tree is to pick up an acorn.” If you can see danger begin to arise, you can take action to prevent it.
The lesson I’d like you to take out of this is to make yourself a “Hard Target”.
When FBI Profilers were in their early stages and interviewing serial killers and rapists to determine what characteristics they may share, one of the questions they asked was “How do you pick your victims?“.
This answer was one of the few things that most of them shared. They were looking for women who were “Soft Targets”. Women whose body language displayed signs of weakness. Women whose shoulders were slumped and heads bowed, who walked with their eyes on the ground. People not aware of their surroundings, whom they felt had a weak spirit and wouldn’t put up much of a fight. These days they like victims who are totally hypnotized by their phone, they never see an attack coming.
The last thing they wanted was a woman with her head back and her eyes defiant, watching her whole environment, perhaps slinging her keys around on a lanyard. In their opinion, this kind of target significantly raised their chance of being hurt or captured. For this reason, they would most often pass a hard target up and continue searching for a soft one.
So even if you don’t know how to stop an attack, go ahead and adopt the body language of someone who does! Pull those shoulders back, get your eyes up, put a lanyard on your keys and learn to use them as a weapon (In my next post, I’ll have more info on improvised weapons and a link to my friend Master Moran’s site, His instruction can turn a key chain into a serious weapon).
Most importantly, for Pete’s sake, have the discipline to leave the phone in your pocket until you’re in a safe place.
Better yet, take the time to get some training so you don’t have to fake it! My free class “Unlocking The Warrior Pose – The Untold Secret Of Yoga” will give you the skills to take out nearly anyone you meet, it’s also easy to learn and remember and will be available online in the near future.
For more details and class schedules please visit our main site 10moves.org or our Facebook page. Facebook.com/10moves.org
Thanks For Reading! Sensei Brett
