Combat Weaselcraft

I first heard the term Combat Weaselcraft from the great trainer of them all, Massad Ayoob. It is the art of using all the dirty tricks in your repertoire to save your butt in a bad situation. Be sneaky, hit below the belt, and no holds barred. You see, in a fight for your life, the scum bag of the day will most likely not care that you’re wearing glasses or have your Sunday best on. In fact, he’ll probably see these disadvantages for you as advantages for him and may be part of the reason he picked you on this lovely day. So if the bad guys don’t care about a ‘fair fight’ then why should you?

Should that fateful day ever find you, be prepared to fight dirty to the bitter end. In a fight for your life nothing is off limits. Gouging out eyes, kicks to the groin and bullets through the lower pelvic region are not only acceptable but possibly preferable. If the bad guys are willing to hurt you in any way possible, to rape you, stab you, leave you lying in a ditch naked bloody and half dead, why should you be afraid to accurately place a knee into a strategic place in the groin? If you find yourself in a hand-to-hand struggle with your pistol out you may not be able to obtain a two handed grip in an isosceles stance, but rather have your pistol in one hand unable to level the sights to your eye. If, in this moment, you find your pistol in line with the perpetrator’s pelvis then take the shot. You will most likely cause the bad guy to drop to the ground and effectively be out of the fight, unable to pursue you further.

A gentleman whom I respect very much for his writings, teaching and experience, Sgt. Rory Miller laid out on his blog Chiron Training his biases and assumptions. Therein he states, among other things, that he expects the threat to have the advantage in size and strength or to be crazy. Advantages in size and strength create a disparity of force. If the person does not have the size or strength advantage then they must be crazy to attack someone bigger and stronger than themselves, thus creating another disparity of force. Funny how that works out. Miller also explains that it is stupid to go into a fight without a weapon, and that unarmed resistance exists purely for emergencies when you didn’t see it coming. After all, if you had seen an attack coming you would have surely armed yourself. Either way, one might say you are fighting dirty. Exactly! Unarmed countermeasures are a result of surprise attacks and should be treated accordingly with any means of survival employed as necessary. Armed responses result from anticipated but unavoidable encounters. Knowing you have a fight coming, trying to avoid it and still having to fight anyway shows a level of commitment on the part of the attacker. This ill intent is your green light to defend yourself as needed.

Where does the red light come? The signal to stop your counter attack comes in two ways; ending of the threat and a shift in your intentions. The shifting of your intentions is a subject to be discussed at length on its own, but suffice it to say that if you no longer act out of fear for your life but in a mind of vengeance, then you are receiving the signal to stop your attack. On the other hand, if your attacker ceases to be a threat to you then you must stop defending yourself. This change of dynamic can come about in several ways too. Perhaps your attacker has secured your purse and is running away. That would be a good time to stop trying to shoot him. Say your attacker is down on the ground with several new perforations in his body. He may or may not be a threat to your livelihood. Keep an eye on this suspect, scan the area for accomplices, and prepare to defend yourself further if needed. Your daughter’s date tried to get a little fresh in the theater and she slapped him across the face. When you arrive to pick them up you see your smiling daughter and a very embarrassed young man with a hand print across his left cheek. That threat has not only been neutralized but possibly cured from further recidivism. Drop him off at home and take your daughter out for ice-cream.

No matter the situation that arises, we must train to be ready to defend our lives and the lives of our family and loved ones. Remember the Heinlein quote at the top of this site: The price of freedom is the willingness to do sudden battle anywhere, any time and with utter recklessness.