From Wikipedia's page on battlefield medicine. Illustration from 1517 by Hans Wechtlin. Lots o' weapons in this guy.

Over 10 years ago I was presenting training at a law enforcement conference and observed part of a TEMS (Tactical Emergency Medical Services) class. Since that time I’ve wanted to take a class that combined being armed with life saving skills. (It seems like a no-brainer.) In the many years since, horrible events involving mass casualties have become an all too common occurrence and has heightened my desire to learn some basic skills in case I end up somewhere when really bad things happen.

Two years ago, the spirit moved me to act on my desire to become proficient in the use of a pistol and at least somewhat functional with a rifle. My interest was driven in part because it is fun, in part because I wasn’t very good at it, and in part because I train people who are armed for work. I wanted to have a better understanding of what carrying that equipment involved so that I could be a better trainer. Since the timing was right, I loaded up my car, and off I went to learn the way of the gun. What an experience! I got to learn from amazing trainers who put their all into training me.

As a result of the opportunities I’ve had to meet and train with instructors in the law enforcement, military and security fields, I occasionally get to trade training for teaching. One of these opportunities landed me at Don Gulla’s Arrestling group’s annual Officer Safety Conference in Richland, Washington.

The training was amazing: there was training with SIRT pistols, real pistols and rifles, firearms proficiency and retention, force on force, simunition and a medical/tourniquet section. Finally! I got to learn a little bit of this type of first aid. What I learned: a) wow - tourniquets hurt! b) its probably the easiest and most important piece of equipment one can carry. When I got home, I promptly bought a few tourniquets and a training tourniquet. One went in my car, one in the range bag and one in my purse. Part of my interest was for the people around me to know it for themselves and, to be completely honest, for me, if the need arose. The Minnesota Kali Group got to ‘benefit’ from my new interest as I made everyone who was with in arms reach for more than 10 minutes learn how to put it on, practice with the trainer and let me practice on them.

“When it comes to self defense, it is better to have the power and not need it than to need it and not have it.”

— Kevin B. Shearer

I got to go to that same conference the next year and learn the tourniquet material again. The students, instructors and staff of the Mn Kali Group got harassed by me again to let me practice on them. About a year after this second class, I was asked to fill in the extra space in a pistol training for executive protection specialists. It was a great class except that at the end of the class, one of my fellow students shot himself in the leg. He was fine, a bit embarrassed, but fine. Needless to say, I replaced my tourniquet that I left at the range that day with a quickness. (No, I did not put it on him. I just got it to the person who did.) I was very glad his injury was minor and that I had the equipment, the training and knew exactly where in my range bag I kept it. I was especially excited that I didn’t cry, puke or otherwise shut down.

Some of the supplies for the December 3 class have arrived!

Since the tourniquet only addresses one of the top 3 causes of preventable combat deaths, I really want to learn the rest of the skills. With each new horrible mass casualty event, I feel the urge to learn more ‘just in case’. If I could help save someone’s life because of a little knowledge, it would be so much better than not knowing what to do. As I’ve looked around, crisis or tactical medical skills classes are generally only available to military, law enforcement, emergency responders, security and, you guessed it, to preppers.* I haven’t been able to find any for ‘regular’ people. Case in point, I was not able to find a photo for the flier that didn't have men and women in either military, law enforcement or CERT (Civilian Emergency Response Team) uniforms, hence the cartoon from the Red Cross’s site.

Luckily, I have recently been able to ‘persuade’ one of my badass friends transitioning out of the military to teach the curriculum. Since he has used the skills during his many deployments and has taught it to many hundred ROTC cadets, he’s got both the skills and the ability to teach them. Seems like another no-brainer to me.

My friends come from both camps: people who carry a pistol regularly and those who think that firearms come directly from Satan. I’d still like them (and me) to know how to prevent the preventable deaths. While I am sure some of my non martial arts friends think I have slipped to the dark side of doomsday prepping and conspiracy theories, I still want them to know how to care for themselves, their families and others if the situation calls for it. Also, I am really excited to take the class. (Shameless plug: If you are interested in attending, here’s the link: http://www.rathbornetraining.com/new-events/2017/11/14/crisis-tactical-medical-workshop.)

Join us for a 3 hour workshop to learn these skills. Location: Bills Gun Shop in Robbinsdale.  To reserve a space, contact Diana or follow the link to the Event page and reserve online! 

• No offense meant to the preppers. (Some of my best friends really are preppers.) But I'm worried that my camouflage wardrobe is lacking and, to be completely honest, I’m a bit scared of you all.

Here are a few photos from my training walkabout of a couple of years ago. I hope everyone has had a happy and safe Memorial Day holiday!

USS Yorktown

Vietnam Memorial

WW II Memorial

USS Yorktown

Eagles and Flags

Somewhere in the Florida Panhandle

Arlington Changing of the Guard

Richmond, VA

New Orleans, LA

I wrote this article after attending the conference listed below. I am re-posting on my blog as even though it’s over 10 years old, the base message and goal of helping martial arts instructors offer the best self defense product to our clients, remains the same.

This spring I attended the Advanced Threat Assessment and Management conference hosted by Gavin DeBecker & Associates. Gavin DeBecker & Associates is an internationally recognized firm that specializes in the prediction and management of violence. The speakers covered managing victim fear, how to fire an employee, the Columbine High School and Virginia Tech massacres, the profile of a

spree killer and much more. I also had the privilege of hearing Lt. Col. Dave Grossman speak at the conference (Lt. Col. Dave Grossman is an internationally recognized scholar, author, and speaker) as an expert in the field of human aggression and the roots of violence and violent crime. His presentation in particular confirmed my belief that the elements of violence prediction, prevention and survival are both intrinsic and essential to our job as instructors in the martial arts.

As martial artists we hope we will be able to defend ourselves and our loved ones should the need arise.  For those of us who teach our martial arts to others, we have additional concerns. Regardless of the martial arts we teach and train, there is a much greater depth of knowledge in any art than is necessary for self-defense alone. While we hope to keep our students in the arts for their lifetime, we may have them only for a short time.  We can inspire them to educate themselves on how to avoid violence by identifying it’s potential early.  We can teach them the physical skills necessary to survive a violent encounter. Also, we can help some of them become determined not to be victimized. Each of our students is a member of a workplace/school/home and as such should be exposed to issues of Workplace/School and Domestic Violence.  We have the unique ability to do this.

What we need to do is arm ourselves with as much good information as we can get our hands on, especially if we are teaching law enforcement or the military.  The professionals in these areas will be in violent encounters and will go to work each day with the threat of violence as reality.  While we can focus the bulk of our teaching on our larger art, we have an obligation to teach functional self-defense

skills to those who want it and will need it. 

As instructors we should honestly assess our own self-defense skills and whether they will hold up in a violent encounter with an extremely hostile attacker. Do we have the best information on which of the

body's tools can do the most damage? Do we know which targets are the most vulnerable? Do we have the physical and mental ability to follow up? Are we in condition?

A good self test for the self defense self-assessment was suggested to me by my instructor, Rick Faye.  His advice: pick the biggest, scariest, baddest person you know and visualize them enraged and attacking you at the lowest energy part in your day. If you don’t think an effective set of skills will come out under those circumstances, you may need to adjust your own self defense training. Next, is the self defense curriculum evaluation.  Will the tools work on a bigger, stronger, focused opponent? Can the skills you are teaching be transferred to your audience in the amount of time allotted? Do you have a spectrum of options? The unwanted grab in a bar and the drunk, disruptive relative should have different answers than an abduction attempt. 

Techniques that require a lot of repetition, practice and development are not appropriate for a short term self defense course. For example, if the spinning reverse eye-lid lock is foundation for your personal self-defense, the information on what exactly happens in one's body under stress might cause you to reassess that particular technique. There is a ton of great written material on how to functionalize combat skills.  Only in the past decade has much of this research been disseminated to the general population.

We want our students to have the ability to make awareness and avoidance a habit; to assess and reassess a situation as it changes; and to act when appropriate. Here are a few areas your research should include:

Violence prediction: 

How to identify a predator’s behavioral cues, the markers for a school/workplace killer.                   

Awareness skills, including how to identify the body language of intimidation, manipulation and lying. 

Physical Security measures:  How to make your home, workplace, school and yourself a harder target.

Victim Education: Study the victim selection process, the domestic violence cycle, and situational andenvironmental awareness. The basics of what to assess and how to avoid potential trouble.

Violence Survival: Good ways to develop verbal assertiveness skills, stress inoculation drills, assertive body language, functional defensive skills and ingrain the survival mindset.

Each group we are contracted to teach has elements specific to that group.  What is appropriate for a police officer may not be appropriate for a bodyguard.  Curriculum presented to traveling sales people traveling to Dubuque, IA should differ from those traveling to Mexico City.  Here again is an opportunity to do some research. Include everything from what someone may be wearing to the specifics of the threats they may encounter. 

I’m often asked to teach how to “use an attacker’s force against them”, how to “disable” an attacker, and even the “one shot” ultimate self defense move.  While these things might be accomplished over many years of training and by naturally superior athletes, usually those asking the question don’t fall into ‘superior athlete’ category and they want to learn the skills right away. Unfortunately, the media has created the belief that there is a predator around every corner, that there is a nonviolent way to handle violence and that our intuition is unreliable.  Navigating these myths is where our many years of teaching and learning will come into play.  As instructors we must leave our students with enough confidence to act effectively and urge them to continually develop their self-protection skills.

The ATAM conference underscored how important it is for me as a martial arts instructor to teach those around me to pay attention to their intuition and surroundings, to think for themselves, to be

responsible for themselves, to speak up when something is wrong and to help others. While the long term development of the martial arts is more fun to teach and definitely less stressful, we have an obligation to put forth the best self defense information we can.

Thank you for reading.

Diana Rathborne