Violent Encounters

Any time you get a group of guys together (usually guys who do this...) and the topic of martial arts/ fighting comes up, people get weird. Guys all have complicated theories and elaborate Bruce Lee/ Chuck Norris fantasies about what actually happens in a fight, whose style is more effective, and what they'd be able to do in that situation. Frankly, it's not much different than listening to a couple of stoners watching Animal Planet opine whether the polar bear or the elephant would win in a fight.

So, rather than focus on this sort of BS, you should read about what actually happens in real life.

This is a US DOJ publication from 2006 outlining a number officer/ offender violent encounters based on reports and interviews with BOTH officers and offenders.

Remember Reed and Chris talking about how the guy jumping you has probably been doing this all his life:

The offenders generally had been exposed to more overt violence at an earlier age than had the officers. The offenders were more readily able and more willing to use force, including deadly force, than were the officers. When contemplating the use of deadly force, the offend- ers also had fewer constraints placed upon them than did the officers.

There's lots of good stuff in here; I'll post more after I read the whole thing. I'm primarily interested in effects of stress and trauma on perception, memory, offender behavior and how to train realistically.

Highly recommended.