- This topic has 17 replies, 8 voices, and was last updated 17 years, 10 months ago by
.
-
Posts
-
My line of thought was more on avoiding fights that could have been avoided if someone has resources other than simply the combatives and defenses they’ve learned in class. I agree with John that they’re not top priority, because there are a lot of situations when trying to engage in verbalization will simply put the defender in worse danger altogether.
GK, you said \”I think this may be a typical reaction if you are suddenly confronted by an enraged stranger – you’ll be so stumped, you won’t even have time to get angry\”
And I think that’s a dangerous reaction, which is probably the best argument for training how to not have \”confusion\” be the primary response, but something that can facilitate avoiding a confrontation or being prepared to respond if the person does physically attack. Also, your posts seemed to imply that as long as a person didn’t respond, they’d be fine. I can tell you from first-hand experience that this isn’t true, and it’s another dangerous assumption to make.
One group of predatory people that comes to mind right off the bat is any person or group of people with a racist mindset. They will fast-forward to that sort of verbal attack since it is a great way to incite violence without a simple attack. Many white supremecists have avoided legal problems by using carefully chosen words to get someone else to attack them, even though a gang of them is close by to jump into the fight to make sure they win.
Revancha and John, I’ve heard that Ryan Hoover and Jeff Jimmo both have invested a lot in including verbal training in SP. Is there anyone else that includes it on a regular basis
That’s what I thought you meant, two people getting into a verbal confrontation that might turn into a fight, which could be avoided if you only you knew how. That’s why I was getting a little nitpicky about the term \”verbal de-escalation\”, assuming that you did not talk about more general preventive measures.
Being stumped is something that happened to me a couple of times, when a guy (or girl), just appeared out of nowhere and started yelling and screaming. I was confused, but still alert. Of course it could always turn into a more violent confrontation, so one should be ready for that possibility. When I was talking about the \”right thing\” I meant that in that situation you are less likely to be angry/enraged yourself and so it should make it easier for you to keep yourself from shouting back and thus escalating the confrontation. It would be easier for you to speak in calm tones, even apologize etc and hopefully get the person to eventually turn away. Still, of course, you should always be ready to defend if the altercation goes out of hand anyway.
The racist thing is interesting – it may get back to the part of \”don’t let yourself be provoked\”. If the racists care about legal matters that may help, however, if they have made up their mind already that today they were going to find a (insert racial slur here) and beat him up no matter what, there probably is little in terms of verbal de-escalation you could do about it and then you’d have to get back to your Krav skills.
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.
