What are you prepared to do........

This is a question that crosses my mind a lot lately. It keeps popping up every time I hear some Martial Arts "Expert" or some chest thumping tough guy talk about how someone should handle a violent situation.

I am reminded of a couple incidents that have happened lately here in my home state, where one woman was attacked at knife point while she was jogging home from the gym.........at night...........by herself.........And then the other woman who left a movie theatre.........by herself........and stopped to help a man..........who's truck seemed broke down.........at night........in a parking lot..........While neither of these women asked for, or deserved to get attacked, they both exhibited the same behavior that 99.9% of all of the victims, male or female, show to their potential attacker.

They could have had a big neon sign that read "Here I am! ripe for your picking, I am doing nothing to prevent you from making me your next mark!" and nothing would have changed! I sometimes get so tired of spewing forth the same words, the same way every time something like this happens to some poor man or woman who doesn't care if it does happen to them.

What? I hear you out there yelling at me that how dare I say that they don't care if someone victimizes them. Well sit down and shut up, because that IS NOT what I am saying. What I am saying is everyday, we look the other way and keep our heads in our butts and wouldn't be able to tell if that person who just walked up next to us was a man or a woman, much less a potential threat to our lives. We just don't notice the signals that are right in front of our eyes.

Whats that? You in the back row? How can we notice the signals? OK, thank you for asking. Here is the number one way, WAKE THE HELL UP AND OPEN YOUR EYES! If you just took the time to look around you and look at the people around you, you would see an amazing thing.......some of these people look like they don't belong! If there is a sign and stories about how every woman who walks down this path at night in this park, becomes a rape victim, and you choose to walk down that path, are you asking for it? NO! Do you deserve it? NO! but did you put yourself in the situation to become a target? HELL YES!  Don't do it.

If you see a truck out in a parking lot, at night and its just you and some guy, it may be a better idea to go and get someone to walk you out, or let them know that he needs help or just walk to your car and drive away (he's a big boy and can probably take care of himself), than to go up to him alone and try and help. Common sense!

Now, to the Martial Arts instructors or the tough guys that talk about these situations, and what brought me to the title of this story. I hear everyone telling everyone that "If she would have had a gun, or mace, or a really big knife, things would have been different and she could have protected herself and survived and killed the attacker."


I ask again.....What are you prepared to do? If you have a gun, and you are pointing it at the attacker, could you pull the trigger and TAKE ANOTHER HUMANS LIFE? Or push a knife into his heart, or slash his throat and watch as he dies in front of you? I would probably be able to say with 100% certainty that the answer is no! We have been taught all of our lives that we do not hurt our fellow man, even if said fellow man is trying to hurt or possibly kill us or our loved ones, its just not right. The good sane humans that we are will just not tolerate this kind of violence, regardless of what is being done to us at the time.

If people as a society are ever going to be able to live without fear, and be able to protect themselves from whatever violence the world should toss our way, there is one way to do it. Do unto him, before he does unto us. That it! In a nutshell! You have to stop thinking like Sally goodneighbor and think more like the criminal that just broke into your house and is trying to rape you, your daughter, or kill your family. Don't care about the consequence and just destroy the bad guy who is trying to make you his next victim! Simple. If you cannot do this, then we probably need to talk. And if you can do this, then you aren't reading about it, you are out committing it.

Prepare 2 Survive
Until next time,

Just a few thoughts

Well, I have been off of this thing for a while now. I became a little frustrated with the bubble that people live their lives in. No matter what I show people or what I tell them about violence and attacks upon the person, they just seem to sit there and nod their heads and seem genuinely interested in what I am telling them, all the while I know that this information is going in one ear and the wind is taking it quicker out of the other.

This goes to show me that the majority of the population in this world still believe that "It could NEVER happen to me or my family" and they go on with their peaceful little lives and keep their head buried in the sand, or worse yet, up someplace else. Reminds me of a story that my Chiropractor told me the other day, it seems that his brother, who is a martial artist AND a "Very big guy" happened to be leaving a bar in the South Valley one night, and he had had a couple of drinks, (I know that no one has EVER done that)! And as he was walking to his car, not causing trouble of any kind, he was jumped from the blind side.......OH! imagine that.........and almost beat to death. The only thing that saved him was twofold. One, the guys that were stomping the crap out of him had no intention of killing him, or he would not be here today, and two was that he had extensive training and it kicked in and he was able to fend off the attack. Was he lucky? Hell yes, he was very lucky. Could he have prevented the attack? Even a bigger HELL YES! If he would have been paying attention and been aware of his surroundings, the attack would have probably been nipped in the bud. And if it werent for his years of training..........I repeat......YEARS OF TRAINING......he would not have survived either.

Now this brings me to my rant for the week. If you have not had years of training, and been put into this same situation, could you have survived? Oh, did I forget to mention that he was jumped by FOUR guys? No? Sorry, I thought I did. Ask yourself this, if you and your family were to be acosted by four thugs, who wanted your money, your car or something far more valuable, would you have the ability to protect them? Could you fight off four guys? Three? How about two? Could you even handle one? You really need to ask yourself this simple thing......Do you have enough of the instinct or intention to go up against those kinds of odds. If you hesitate for even one second now, then you will hesitate for longer when it happens and then you will be in bad shape or worse yet, DEAD!

So, I may continue to use this to vent and share stories of true violence with you from time to time. Or I may just give this up all together, as I hate wasting my time, and just take care of those that really feel the need to want to have the tools that it will take to protect their loved ones from the face of a knife, or gun weilding attacker who actually can and will hurt you without a seconds thought and without regards to your feelings. I think what I may be doing now is just going to the park in Heber City and giving my family and few friends the knowledge it takes to survive. If anyone feels like they would like to observe or maybe even participate, then you can either call/text me at 310-437-9951 or email me at patrickneelans@yahoo.com, and maybe I will invite you to come on out and play.

Until next time,

Prepare to Survive.

I have to get this off of my chest.

Welcome everyone to 2012, I haven't posted in a while as I have been very busy with a new job and also getting ready for my first teen course that I am teaching at the Wasatch Parks and Recreation Building in Heber City , Utah. I have been taking alot of time to study and make sure that I am giving these kids the lessons that they will need to know how to identify and survive a potential situation, whether it may be a peer pressure or bullying incident at school, or a possible deadly encounter on the streets.

Which brings me to my blog for this evening.:

I know that sometimes I can sound a bit harsh on alot of the "experts" in the self defense industry and people that teach others how to protect themselves and their loved ones, and I apologize if I offend anyone or hurt feelings, but I just have to be honest with you.

Every single Martial Art out there today, while having good intentions, is leading people astray. Oh I know, I see you there in the back row, jumping up and down and I know that you are probably calling for my head, but it is the way that I feel. Please let me say that I am not trying to make you believe that these classes dont have their place in the world as they do. What I am simply trying to point out is the few following points:

1. How can a Martial art, take a child of 8, 9 or 10 years old who has trained for a while in a given style, and slap them with a black belt? If my 12 year old son, who is 5 feet tall and weighs about 90 pounds comes up against a pedophile who is  6 foot 5 inches and weighs 290 pounds, what do you think would happen? What good is that black belt?
2. How can a Self defense class take a 120 pound woman and each her a 2 or 3 hour course on self defense, expect her to walk out the door with the tools necessary do survive a "real life" knife attack?
3. What is going to happen to anybody in a dojo setting who is dressed in a gi, and learns to fall on a 2 inch thick soft mat and learns to "tap out" at the first sign of any kind of pain, gets jumped by two or three gang members and beat down in the parking lot of the school?
4. What is going to happen to that student who trains regularly and practices his/her art daily, and is taught how to defend themselves against a co ordinated attack by other students in the school who know what they are going to do and what the counter is and how to fall so they don't hurt themselves, when they are walking home one night and are jumped from behind and thrown to the ground so violently that it knocks the wind out of them?
5. And what happens to the new, timid white belt who took this class to learn to be more confident, and to learn to defend themselves and they are taught different forms and katas and techniques from this 1000 year old art, do when they are confronted by an attacker with a gun as they leave their first class and are robbed or raped? Are they confident enough to use what they learned in that first class, or even100 class to survive and go home?

You see, I'm not bashing these people's art, I am simply trying to make sure you realize that true, real world violence is going to happen when you least expect it, and it is not going to be "just like class" and its not going to be pretty or co ordinated.

If you are ever in a real situation, it is going to be damned scary, and violent, and bloody and painful because there is not one predator in the world who gives a crap about your feelings, or the police, or the consequences of their actions. All they care about is taking what you have at any and all cost TO YOU! Not to them. True violent criminals do not play by society's rules, they make up their own. And unless you are prepared to play by the same rules, which means throwing out the passive, non violent life that you have grown up in, and the "don't fight at any costs" way that your mother and father raised you in in then you will be the next victim that the attacker will claim! It is just that simple.

Whew! That was a load off my chest, and yes, you in the back, I hear you screaming that I am teaching people to be the next violent criminal and to go out and look for trouble! Well sit down and shut up! I am in no way saying that you should go out and find the guy on the street who looks like he is up to no good and just pound on him for a while, nor am I saying that the next time someone comes up to you on the street you should take a bat and beat them to death.

What I AM saying is that if a true attack were to happen, and you will know when that is (And if you don't then we seriously need to spend some time together), I am saying that you will have only two choices to make, survive or die. It is your choice.

Prepare to Survive, until next time.