Month: December 2008

Take a partner and a small ball like a tennis ball and place both of you in the static push up with the ball suspended by both your foreheads. Have your partner move his body without affecting the ball and you need to do what he does and after a while change places. Go over all the joints and what you can move of the body and after the drill check how you are able to create tension in one point and keep the rest of you moving and free.
This is a drill for your eyes and your mind which can help a lot in detective work and the like. Watch a movie or any DVD you care to and during the viewing think what is the point of reference the camera or in some cases the person with the camera has. This type of work will allow you to see things with less emotional attachment and to make a more educated decision on how to use the material. This can be done with a Disney movie or an action movie the idea is what matters which is reaching freedom from within.
A few audio tips on survival:

1. To hear better open your mouth slightly and than the sounds of your breath will not be echoed in your skull and you will have less white noise.
2. In order to pass gas without sounding like a trumpet change the opening meaning hold and part your behinds a bit and you will be able to pass the gas without a lot of noise. This goes the same way with breathing and opening the mouth to avoid controlling the amount and speed of the pass.
3. To move in mud without the flopping of falling mud pieces and the sucking on the boots simply relax the ankle and just like you walk in water walk in mud from the body and whipping the legs from the center.
4. Many times you have to leave zero trace behind you and in warm weather everything that comes out of you will attract animals and people will be able to notice this shift in natural animal movement. If you need to gather your piss into a bottle and you don’t have a wide opening bottle take out the entire apparatus out of the pants and than the aim will be natural and you will be able to get a hit on the first shot.

This is meant to illustrate that when you are working you should do a good job in every detail. If you expect to perform differently when you do the same things you do every day you will make life difficult for you and maybe others. When you learn every  day you do something different every day so notice it.

Take the static push up position either face down or up and start to tense and relax part by part on the inhale. Finish and shake the tension from your body and repeat two more times on the Exhale and on the pause between breaths and on the last one go and tense to the max and keep it as you listen in to the pulse in the tensed up area. Once you are done note if you feel your body to be more alive and next time change your position a bit to learn more on the way you keep and move tension in your body. The same can work for rolling in different ways during those three breath phases and if you are ready do a set of three rolls: one on the inhale one on the exhale and one on the pause and repeat it a few times till you feel the overbreathing or tension build and than when you reach a point of stress which makes you want to quit you are ready to learn something about yourself so let this gift arrive and find a way to clean the tension away and keep working.
First take a partner with a non sharp rigid knife and stand at a comfortable distance from each other. He will work on stabbing you swiftly and hard in the stomach and you first just feel how your body reacts and feel the pain and fear. Next become aware of how your body naturally acts in response to this and add to that a movement of the entire body meaning that if your body jerked back and to the left, relax the hips and let the whole body take a step in that direction aligned and blending with the movement of the blade wielder. Next work on seeing how the limbs move as a result of the body movement and making that movement work for your survival. For example if you are stabbed at the upper back (yes work from all directions) you bend slightly from the hips and turn and also move forward to avoid being stabbed deeper (this only sounds complex, have a partner push you with a finger under the shoulder blade and you will feel all the directions) Now both shoulder are moving one to engage the forearm of the knife hand (unless both are knife hands) and the other is going down to press on the inner side of his knee where the density is low and the direction fits his natural intention to have him fall so you can kick him and run away to shiver and shake in the privacy of your own home…
Next have him stab and slash at you with a knife in each hand to make you more aware of your entire body because you cannot devote your entire self to his knife and the last drill is to have him with a knife in his belt or on his person walk around and you simply decide how close is safe and comfortable for you and ACT to make it so.

Brave men have monuments, Smart men have grandchildren.

Consider how you do the 4 basics drills. Take for example the sit up and note how the first one when you chance your position is different from the next. Note if you are keeping yourself tense to make the work swifter and less of a transition ? Work on relaxing on the ground every time just like in the first time and learn to use all of your body to do the work.

It is possible that you will tire faster due to the changed states of tension you will learn but that will prepare you better for the ever changing and never repeating style of life itself. There is a lesson to be learned there.

And smile. It makes everything simpler and easier.

Speed

Many people are very focused on the speed of their movements but that is like thinking that shooting is the only thing a sniper needs to excel at or a mother just needs to give birth. Speed is your perception of the movement and not a finite thing. The more you relax and become aware you will know the movement is coming before it even starts and all will seem simple. The more you tense up the slower you work (note this is not move, I mean work) and it matters who hits first not who strikes first.

I returned this Friday from the bush and wish all my brothers in arms a safe return to their families.

A few notes on rifle handling:

1 Never let the barrel touch anything as you shoot. It distorts the barrel action and you can hit something you don’t want to and get hit as a result.
I know this is a novice advice but I have seen people who are supposed to know how to shoot do this under pressure so this is a reminder. A floating barrel which touches nothing but air is the most accurate and we are limited in bodies and bullets.

2 Dry practice is good in many ways and here is one of them. Stand and look around. As soon as you see something moving (a partner if you have any) raise your scope to your eyes and note how long it takes to put him on the cross hairs. Do this drill everyday and add walking, running and different positions to it. It will make you a better shot.

3. Avoid letting your body fall asleep as you shoot. Even if you are prone and relaxed be aware of all your parts and keep both eyes open. After some practice you will note a faster relaxation and awareness when you get into a shooting position and a better control in switching positions.

4. Note that there are strong and weak points in any tool. Don’t strike with the barrel and take your finger out of the trigger hole before you knock on the door. Work on getting to know the ups and downs of your tool which is first you and than anything else.

5. Wherever you go take your rifle with you. This way you will know how to climb a wall with it and how to sit with both hands free with your rifle ready before you have to figure it out under pressure. It is worth it and will make you a smaller target when the time comes.

6. An angry man with a rifle parts with his rifle very swiftly. Avoid being let by emotions when you are working even if you consider your emotions positive such as helping a friend climb a fence or blocking a loud mouth. First there is you and once this is clean and free to work than you can lend the rest to other tasks.

7. Smile on the outside but keep your survival and the work at hand in this order clear in your mind.

8. Find variations to the work you are used to do on a daily basis in order to avoid tension from building up. If for example you are used to do sit ups and leg raises and the ground you are on is full of edges and poison do hip bends and add a friend’s resistance to the work. There is always a way. You just have to find it and know it is not only yours.