Secret Fighting Arts
When I first became a medic, I didn't do it to become a professional paramedic or firefighter (though that is my Grass Is Greener job). I had two specific reasons - (1) to be able to respond to any emergencies that come up with my team when we are playing paintball or hunting and (2) so I could learn all of the secrets of being a medic.
I wasn't so concerned with number games like "is 110 BPM is not a good heart rate?" or "what level is the woman in triage if she has a 290 over 178 blood pressure," but rather what are the best techniques for helping folks in the out-of-doors when you know that the real doctors are hours or even days away.
Well, after all of these years, I finally got a glimpse of some of those techniques in a Wilderness First Aid class I took with my local Search and Rescue team (which I later joined). Now I am not advocating pouring sugar in the gaping wound of your friend or coworker, but it is nice to know that plain white cake icing has almost the same effect as oral glucose (and tastes better to boot!).
I have been a life-long martial artist and throughout my career (some good schools, some bad) I have heard many legends and tall tales about some secret fighting arts that really got my attention. Now every ninja fan worth his salt has heard of Dim Mak - the death touch - or of a ninja's ability to stop their heart or breathing while lying in wait for their quarry.
These below are the secret fighting arts that have become urban legend around our campfire . . .
The SEAL Shotgun: My buddy Allen attended a LE-only firearms training session where there was a non-descript dude with some subtle tattoos sticking out from around his shirt sleeves and shorts. Turns out he was a Navy SEAL who was taking some martial art wherein the ranks were shown via tattoos, i.e. the more tattooes, the badder the dude (wow - just like my mom always told me).
Anyway, Allen assures me that this gent was able to fire a Mossberg 500 shotgun - emptying the entire tube in one long blast (no discernable sound between shots). He asked the SEAL about it later (all of the DEA guys in attendance were too busy collecting their jaws off the ground) and he told Allen that he had taught himself to use the recoil of the previous shot to cock and fire the next shot.
Groovy.
The FrontSight Knife Trick: Another friend, Mike, was out at FrontSight instructor training at their facility near Las Vegas. There was another guy there who was interested in becoming a knife instructor (FrontSight doesn't currently teach knife curriculum).
This guy drew out his knife and was able to flip out the knife, score twenty-something cuts, and replace the knife back in concealment - all in the matter of a few seconds.
Mike made him show him the technique in slow motion (it involves holding the knife with one finger on the rear lock - like a Spyderco - for a open/shut with a flick of the wrist).
It was the real deal, but the technique and the dude faded into legend when he got kicked out for advocating techniques that bordered on criminal.
The Delta Force Leg Kick: One of the many cool tidbits in Mark Bowden's Blackhawk Down is his description of the ultra-secret training that Delta guys get to go through. He mentions one technique where a Delta operator is taught to knock-out an opponent by kicking him in the leg.
Obviously, this is some kind of interupt to the femoral artery - but at what point of the leg - or how the kick is delivered isn't revealed.
The author John F. Gilbey (if actually a real person at all) describes some interesting techniques in his two books, Secret Fighting Arts of the World and The Way of a Warrior. These books have been described as both real and fiction - depending on your source.
Sometimes the legends are better than the truth.
When I first became a medic, I didn't do it to become a professional paramedic or firefighter (though that is my Grass Is Greener job). I had two specific reasons - (1) to be able to respond to any emergencies that come up with my team when we are playing paintball or hunting and (2) so I could learn all of the secrets of being a medic.
I wasn't so concerned with number games like "is 110 BPM is not a good heart rate?" or "what level is the woman in triage if she has a 290 over 178 blood pressure," but rather what are the best techniques for helping folks in the out-of-doors when you know that the real doctors are hours or even days away.
Well, after all of these years, I finally got a glimpse of some of those techniques in a Wilderness First Aid class I took with my local Search and Rescue team (which I later joined). Now I am not advocating pouring sugar in the gaping wound of your friend or coworker, but it is nice to know that plain white cake icing has almost the same effect as oral glucose (and tastes better to boot!).
I have been a life-long martial artist and throughout my career (some good schools, some bad) I have heard many legends and tall tales about some secret fighting arts that really got my attention. Now every ninja fan worth his salt has heard of Dim Mak - the death touch - or of a ninja's ability to stop their heart or breathing while lying in wait for their quarry.
These below are the secret fighting arts that have become urban legend around our campfire . . .
The SEAL Shotgun: My buddy Allen attended a LE-only firearms training session where there was a non-descript dude with some subtle tattoos sticking out from around his shirt sleeves and shorts. Turns out he was a Navy SEAL who was taking some martial art wherein the ranks were shown via tattoos, i.e. the more tattooes, the badder the dude (wow - just like my mom always told me).
Anyway, Allen assures me that this gent was able to fire a Mossberg 500 shotgun - emptying the entire tube in one long blast (no discernable sound between shots). He asked the SEAL about it later (all of the DEA guys in attendance were too busy collecting their jaws off the ground) and he told Allen that he had taught himself to use the recoil of the previous shot to cock and fire the next shot.
Groovy.
The FrontSight Knife Trick: Another friend, Mike, was out at FrontSight instructor training at their facility near Las Vegas. There was another guy there who was interested in becoming a knife instructor (FrontSight doesn't currently teach knife curriculum).
This guy drew out his knife and was able to flip out the knife, score twenty-something cuts, and replace the knife back in concealment - all in the matter of a few seconds.
Mike made him show him the technique in slow motion (it involves holding the knife with one finger on the rear lock - like a Spyderco - for a open/shut with a flick of the wrist).
It was the real deal, but the technique and the dude faded into legend when he got kicked out for advocating techniques that bordered on criminal.
The Delta Force Leg Kick: One of the many cool tidbits in Mark Bowden's Blackhawk Down is his description of the ultra-secret training that Delta guys get to go through. He mentions one technique where a Delta operator is taught to knock-out an opponent by kicking him in the leg.
Obviously, this is some kind of interupt to the femoral artery - but at what point of the leg - or how the kick is delivered isn't revealed.
The author John F. Gilbey (if actually a real person at all) describes some interesting techniques in his two books, Secret Fighting Arts of the World and The Way of a Warrior. These books have been described as both real and fiction - depending on your source.
Sometimes the legends are better than the truth.
posted by golgo13 at 10:39 PM
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