5 Ways to Make Yourself an Easy Target for Muggers in the Winter

Freezing weather can do you harm beyond just frostbite.

Part of our martial arts training is situational awareness; the need to be aware of your surroundings, always alert for potential danger. This mental preparation helps us avoid being mugged on the street while we're out minding our own business.

Here are some freezing weather scenarios that could make you an easier target for a street attack, and some self-defense tips you can apply, from head to toe, to overcome them.

Head

In freezing weather, you're probably trying to preserve body heat by wearing a heavy knit hat or ear muffs that cover your ears. Combine that cover with the sound of the whipping wind, recognize that you can't hear as well. A stalker or would-be attacker will be able to get closer to you before you hear him.

DEFENSE: Since you can't hear as well as usual, keep your head up and make sure you're looking around and over your shoulder.

Neck

Wearing a scarf? I bet you are. That's a Christmas gift for a mugger. An exposed handful of scarf can become a choke collar in an instant.

DEFENSE:  Wear the scarf, but make sure it's tucked inside your coat. Don't give anyone anything to grab.

Shoulders

You know that thing we do when we walk in freezing weather? The hunchback thing? That's our body's natural instinct to keep the heat from escaping from our neck. Our shoulders stay in a near-constant shrug, as if trying to reach up to our ears in order to crawl inside them.

That behavior also forces our head and eyes down, and tucks our chin into our chest. That's not a bad posture when in the midst of a fight. But it's a horrible posture when you're about to get in a fight with one or more people -- and you're the only one who doesn't know it yet.

DEFENSE:  Same tactic as the ear muff defense. Keep your head on swivel mode. Eyes up. Keep looking around. Swivel left. Swivel right. Like a person using a metal detector on the beach.

Hands

Wearing gloves or mittens is fine, necessary even, in freezing weather. With your hands buried in your pockets you set yourself up as an easy target for an attacker savvy enough to pin your hands in place. And before you can say "groin strike" you'll be face down on the ground sucking pavement without benefit of a straw.

DEFENSE: Say it with me: "I will k-k-keep m-m-my hands out of my p-p-pockets."  Instead, clap your hands together and clench and unclench your fists. That will increase the blood circulation in your hands, which will warm them up. And your hands will be out and ready to block a punch, break a choke, throw a hand spear into an eye gouge, or an open palm strike to the bad guy's nose.

Feet

Along with freezing weather comes snow and ice. And slush. And frozen slush. And snow banks. It's not easy to navigate this tundra in dressy, delicate shoes. It's sometimes hard to even stand up straight, so what if a few would-be attackers chase you? All of these obstacles keep you from sprinting away from danger like the track star that you are.

DEFENSE: Wear the shoes you need to wear. Don't be the weak gazelle in the pack. If the weather is harsh, dress to deal with it. If that means boots of some type, then so be it. Wear something sturdy enough to ground yourself, kick, or run.

Martial Arts - A David And Goliath Story

"David and Goliath" from a panel on the Sistine Chapel, painted by Michelangelo. The real one. Not the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle.

I wonder if David, had he trained in martial arts back in 1100 B.C., would have left his sling and rock with King Saul. Can't you just picture David, this shepherd-turned-slinger, handing his sling and stones to his King and saying, "Here. Hold this for me while I go grapple this giant with my bare hands."

There was a lot at stake. The Philistine army was marching up the Elah valley, heading toward Bethlehem so that they could split Saul's Israelite kingdom in two. After they divided the Israelites, they would find it easier to conquer them. No more Judea. History as we know it today, changes big.

So King Saul led his army to intercept the Philistines. The Israelite army gets to the north ridge of the Elah valley, where they see the Philistine army encamped on the southern ridge. Stalemate ensues because neither army wants to be the first to give up their elevated position on their respective ridge.  Both sides knew that the first army to descend into the valley to advance on the other would be fighting up hill against an entrenched enemy. That's a recipe for losing.

Finally, the Philistines sent their champion, a 6'9"-tall warrior called Goliath into the valley to have a one-on-one, champion-to-champion fight to the death. The winner of this duel dictates slavery for the losing side's entire army.

None of the Israelites wanted to fight Goliath because they only could imagine fighting him toe-to-toe, in full armor, sword vs. sword. His height, reach, and strength, against theirs.

Where others saw strength, David saw weakness. He convinced King Saul to let him descend into the valley without armor, without a sword. He was armed only with his sling and stones.

David realized that his best chance to win this fight was to use the advantages he had over Goliath. With his sling, he could hit Goliath from a distance...and he did. David hurled a fast-moving stone at Goliath that smashed him in the forehead. The lumbering giant, covered under the weight of his armor, fell to the ground. David, unarmed, and unarmored, sprinted to Goliath, picked up the warrior's sword, and cut his head off; a head he could never have reached had he fought Goliath standing up.

That's one way to break a stalemate.

Martial Arts for the Modern Day Underdog

Martial artists thrive on the physical truth that a smaller, weaker person can successfully defend against a bigger, stronger person by using leverage. Practically all of the styles teach techniques that use body mechanics to bring an attacker to the ground. The smaller person can minimize the size advantage that the larger person has when they are both grappling from their knees and backs.

On the ground, height, weight, and reach, while great advantages in a stand-up fight, lose their dominance. The smaller person gets in close and controls the larger with chokeholds and joint locks. When you're that close, body-to-body, reach measurements don't matter. The two combatants now have a more even playing field.

Height advantage flies out the window as well. Both people are on the ground. At that point, the grappling begins, and it's often a race to see who will get in position first to apply the hold that will control the fight. On the ground, speed matters far more than height, weight, and reach.

And strength? That's where the joints and chokes come in. Strength measures muscle power. By directing force on some of the weakest parts of the opponent's body (because there is less muscle in these parts), like the neck, shoulders, elbows, wrists, hips, and knees, martial arts can help today's "David" defeat giant "Goliath-like" attackers.

If you're interested in reading more about how many of history's greatest achievers appeared to be underdogs, but instead turned their weaknesses into advantageous strengths, you may want to check out David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giants.

On Reinvention and Other Things New

Welcome to 2015.

Here's what I hope your 2014 was like:

You broke something
You fixed something.

You lost something
But you found something else.

You learned a new skill
You learned something new about yourself
You learned something new about someone you love.

You made a mistake...
...But you learned from it.

You made at least one new friend.
You got more selective about who you label "friend".

You got knocked down
You got back up
You got knocked down again
And you still got back up.

I experienced all of the above in 2014, and some of it was not fun. But I think I came out on the other side better for it. That's why I sincerely wish it for you.

Now, to be sure, we can absolutely change directions, work on a new project, or improve something within our lives on any day of the year. But there's something about us and the calendar, the seasons, and the way the stars line up at the changing of the year. It has pushed and pulled inside of us, unexplainably, for as long as there's been an "us."

So I say, embrace that natural momentum the world gives us right now, when the New Year looks us square in the eyes to ask, "What's next for you? Will this year be a year you grow? Or will this be a 12-month, no-change, business-as-usual, snooze-fest?"

Now is the time of the year to choose a big goal or two, and run after them hard. Out-of-breath-hard.

This is the part where we reinvent ourselves.

One Thing I Learned About Resistance

"The path of least resistance leads to crooked rivers and crooked men."

-- Henry David Thoreau

I have a reputation.

All of my life I've been known in my circles as "the one with the willpower."

"I wish I had your discipline," they'd say.

I'm the guy that has always risen early. Army PT, work, whatever. Set your clock to it.

I'm the guy who stops after one scoop of ice cream. "I just wanted the taste. I've had enough."

I don't miss workouts. I just don't. I may have to do it later or earlier than planned. I may have to do it at home instead of in class. But I do it.

And for over 3 years now, I've written almost every day.

My secret? I take Resistance with me wherever I go. Well, more like she follows me. I've tried to shake her, but she's always there. But I know she's there, and always will be, so I plan on this.

We're attached at the hip, and despite what family and friends think of my iron willpower, sometimes she does win. Sometimes I wolf down a bowl of ice cream. Once a month I do hit the Snooze button. Workouts have been skipped, and writing days have too.

But I've won many more times than she has, because I learned something a long time ago.

Momentum matters.

Resistance uses it too. It's a jump ball, and we both want it. Me, to do good. Her, evil.

Everyday is a jump ball against Resistance.
By Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (Flickr: 05) [CC-BY-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

If a few days click by and I haven't had any ice cream within my reach, I forget about it. I lose interest.

If I stick to my workout schedule, a rhythm develops. Instead of dreading the effort, I'm hopped up and can't wait for my next session.

And writing. Man, you want to talk about something people hate doing? Guess what. Writers don't always feel like bellying up to the keyboard either. But string a few days in a row together and it starts to get, (dare I say it and provoke her?)

FUN.

But it only gets that way with momentum. Yesterday, today, and tomorrow all have to happen. I have to show up with my hard hat and lunch pail and boots laced up. I have to work the line. I punch in, and I don't punch out until the whistle blows. That's the secret, though it's not a trick. It's just one foot in front of the other type-stuff.

But I don't get cocky. I don't look over my shoulder and laugh at her. I have too much respect for Resistance. She's jumping for that ball everyday too, and she could fill every seat in Madison Square Garden with all the tricks she'll use to win. Nothing is off limits to her. She'll throw things at me like the weather, family, work, grocery shopping, a cold, a flu, friends who want to get out for a beer...all that, and more. They are veiled as "good reasons."

Watch out.

If I (foolishly) reason with Resistance, watch how fast the tide turns on me. One day skips to the next, and now Resistance has me down on the mat. She's covering me in full guard, and I have to squirm like hell to fight my way out and get back my working rhythm.

It looks exactly like this:

Cold water on the face. Today's the day. Get back into it. Start my new streak. Day 1 (again). Write today. Write tomorrow. I don't feel like it. This is hard. Work out today. Work out tomorrow. Keep going. Back on track. 

So I keep wearing her down. Everyday. I don't wait for "when I feel like it." I don't wait for "inspiration." Inspiration is for the amateur. That's someone else, not me.

My writing could be crap. My body could be tired and crapped out. That's fine. But I'd rather do my thing crappy, than not do it at all. Crappy still says I win. And I'm not too proud to win that way.

So I string those days together because momentum gives me a shot, a blessed shot, at beating Resistance.

When Giving Is Difficult

By Mike Massie, author, Martial Arts Character Education Lesson Plans for Children

There’s a young man I see on the corner most days when I’m driving into downtown Austin, and it brightens my day every time I speak with him. I struck up a conversation with him one day due to the Medical Corps tattoo on his neck, and the fact that he’s missing his left leg from the knee down. My route takes me by his corner, and now I always make an effort to chat when I stop and he’s there.

As it turns out, this young man was a nurse in the Army, and he lost his leg in an IED explosion in Iraq. Every time I stop and whether I have any cash on me or not, he always smiles and thanks me for taking the time to say hi. We chat about how his day is going; sometimes it’s great, other times he admits that his leg is bothering him (apparently the bones have shifted in his stump, and he’s 108^th in line at the VA hospital for a new prosthesis).

But, he’s always smiling when he chats. Always. Ear to ear. It’s infectious.

The other day, I asked him how things were coming along with his VA claim. See, he’s waiting for the paperwork to get approved so he can get full disability benefits. That’s why he’s on the street corner every day. I know, it’s infuriating; I mean, I’m infuriated by it, and I’m not the one in his shoes.

Still, every day the young man smiles. And as he replied to me that in March everything should be squared away, his smile got even bigger. Not because he’s looking forward to finally having enough money to get off the street and back on his feet (both the one God gave him, and the one the Army replaced), but because he says he plans to help other homeless and disabled vets once he’s better situated financially.

“I’m going to come back out here and give back, once I’m able,” he told me with a huge grin. I told him I thought that was great, and that I hoped it came sooner rather than later. He smiled again, the light turned green, and I waved as I began to drive off.

“Thanks for taking the time to talk!” he said, with people behind me honking because I was holding up traffic in order to respond in kind. I checked the rearview as I drove away, wondering at how we can ask so much of our service members and give them so little in return. And as I drove a little further I couldn’t help but wonder at how this guy who has lost so much can still be so focused on helping others.

So if giving is difficult for you this year, perhaps because you’re irritated at one more holiday expense or one more charity asking for donations, please think about that veteran and reflect on how good things really are for you and yours this holiday season. For me, I must admit that I was finding it hard to give this year, at least until I received a Christmas reality check from my roadside friend. I can’t help but think that if we all shared his attitude and spirit, the world would be a much better place.

- - -

If you’d like to find out more about our wounded veterans, and also find out how you can help wounded veterans who are having a difficult time making the transition from military to civilian life, please visit http://www.garysinisefoundation.org/ and http://www.woundedwarriorproject.org/.

Exercise and Brain Health: Can Martial Arts Make You Smarter?

What is "Brain Rule # 1"?

According to John Medina in his book, Brain Rules: 12 Principles for Surviving and Thriving at Work, Home, and School Brain Rule # 1 is, "Exercise boosts brain power."

Medina, a developmental molecular biologist, has spent his professional career researching how the brain reacts to and organizes information. For his book, he dug deep into human history, examining how the human brain developed, and the environmental factors that made our brains evolve into the organ it is today.

How Early Human Daily Activities Shaped How the Brain Works

Medina investigated the work done by generations of anthropologists to find out how early humans spent their days. And surprise! They didn't spend their days sitting in a chair in front of a computer.

They walked.

In fact, our ancestors walked an average of 14 miles EVERY day. Searching for shelter, hunting for food, and running away to avoid being some large predator's food, these early humans moved. And this was the pattern of human life for a few million years.

In contrast, we've been sitting in chairs, seated at desks, and called that 'work' for only a few hundred years. Our brains simply have not had enough time to adapt to this new life reality yet. So guess what? The brain you carry around in your head right now, is still programmed to react and grow (or not) based on the daily movement patterns of our early human ancestors. They had brains first, and longer, in our history than we have.

Exercise and Brain Health

The millions of years spent moving at the beginning of our species' development has continued to link exercise and brain health today.

Studies have shown that our brains process information better while our bodies are moving. That's why we learn martial arts in person, in a class, interacting and moving with other people, instead of simply reading a book or watching a video. Those may be helpful supplements, but you'll retain so much more if you learn by doing.

But let's take it a step further. Sure, you're probably convinced that learning martial arts by physically practicing it, rather than reading about it, is the most effective way to learn. But let's examine today's environment and how martial arts training can make our brains healthier and thus more powerful. Imagine the possibilities that open up before you in other aspects of your life, in school or at work for example, if you had a more capable brain.

Exercise, like the kind you get from martial arts training, has been shown in research studies to have the following improvements in brain function:

• executive function
• spatial tasks
• reaction times
• quantitative skills
• memory
• and the growth of new cells that protect against the damage stress can cause our brain

So let's define some of the jargon.

• "Executive Function":  "Executive function includes the ability to manage time and attention, switch focus, plan and organize, remember details, curb inappropriate speech or behavior, integrate past experience with present action. When executive function breaks down, behavior becomes poorly controlled. This can affect a person's ability to work or go to school, function independently, or maintain appropriate social relationships." (WebMD)
• "Spatial Tasks":  Researchers at Johns Hopkins University describe spatial ability as the ability to see, process, and understand how multiple things relate to each other. For example, reading a map, finding your way around a new school, and in subjects like math, engineering, and architecture, to name a few.

Biologists have discovered that exercise nourishes your brain. Oxygen-rich blood washes through your brain during exercise, delivering the nutrients our brains need to react, think, grow, and defend against the damages of stress. The brain works this way because that's how it developed through millions of years of humans roaming the Earth, nomadic, unsettled, hunting, and being hunted.

Since we no longer move 14 miles per day like our ancestors, we need to find replacement activities to keep that oxygen rich blood feeding our brain. Martial arts provides the exercise, the movement, and the mental challenge we need now. You may have thought it was a great way to get your body in shape, but it also develops brain ability too.

This is the kind of brain health we can take from our martial arts class to our office at work, or our classroom at school, to thrive. 

So martial arts can be a fun way to boost my performance so that I don't fall behind my peers in school or in my career? Sign me up for life.

The Surprising Reward When You Do What You Set Out To Do

I tried to research for you how many students, globally, continue training in the martial arts until they earn their black belt. It turns out, there are far too many variables to find a true percentage.

One thing is for sure though; the percentage is "small". Some guesses were as low as 1%, but many others were in the 3% to 5% range. A few reports believed the number was a bit higher.

Whatever the actual percentage, reaching such a promontory in martial arts resembles the journey in other aspects of life. The more personal commitment required to get there, the fewer who will have the determination and stamina to go all the way.

Are We Here For The Belt?

So do you train for the black belt itself? Or do you train for what it represents?

There are many personal reasons why people sign up for their first martial arts class. For many kids, it began with a nudge from a parent. For other kids, it truly was their idea after they fell in love with a movie or comic book or video game hero.

You'll hear a variety of reasons from adult students too.

"It looks like a fun way to get into shape." 

"I wanted to learn some self-defense skills."

"I started so I could meet new people."

So there are many reasons why we walk through the door for the first time. I'm fascinated by why we stay.

That reason, why we stay, shapes who we are as a person. That's why I started my hunt for a percentage of people who stay with it, to black belt and beyond.

Do you stay for the black belt? There's no shortage of people in the world who would argue how important it is for you to set clear goals. A clear goal, well-defined, well-visualized, goes a long way toward helping you achieve it. 

And proving that you've set a goal, and achieved it, helps high schoolers get into the university of their choice, and it helps adults ace the interview and land that job.

But those accomplishments, as great as they are, are just more rungs on your ladder, (yes, even when you tie the black belt on for the first time), if you only look at it as a conquest. By that I mean, something to have.

But what if, instead, it was something to be? 

Our Surprising Reward From The Martial Arts

Consider the martial artist who trained for years and earned her black belt. And then stopped.

Goal achieved, right? Isn't it time to move on?

For two reasons, I say, "No."

Reason # 1: Henry David Thoreau believed there's more richness we can draw from our accomplishments than what we get.

"When you achieve your dream, it's not what you get, it's who you've become."- Henry David Thoreau

Why should you care what one of the most prominent philosophers of the modern age thinks? Well, I care because Thoreau spent a lot more time contemplating life than I do. He had no cell phone, no rat race job, no television, no internet, and no Hollywood. He lived, he thought, and he wrote.

He had time to see and experience life on this planet without the insane distractions we have today. I don't gamble, but I would bet on him and bet that he got it right.

Reason # 2 is that trump card we all have, and love to play. Personal experience. What's more convincing to us than that?

I can't count how many times I've told my friends and family that I will practice martial arts until my last breath. I simply get too much out of it. Let me list only a fraction of the rewards I experience anew each day:

• self-defense skills
• more confidence
• new friends, supportive of my development
• fitness, and better physical health
• the reminder that I am able to learn new things

This list, and other things, is who I've become. And I know that if I put my martial arts practice aside one day, even with the satisfaction of checking off my list of accomplishments "black belt," I will have lost a part of who I am, simply because I stopped.

Don't stop. Don't lose a part of who you are. That, and the fact that you'll find friendly, familiar faces right there alongside you for the long haul, will be the most rewarding part of your martial arts journey.

The Shocking Truth About Multitasking (And How Martial Arts May Help)

For decades, we've celebrated multitasking. We've been asked about it on job interviews, and we've held it up as one of our strengths when relating stories of our workplace prowess in order to land that job. 

Even on the homefront, parents (and let's be honest, especially Moms) have long had the uncanny ability to juggle the baby, the toddler, the dog, and everyone's schedule in the house. Beginning their days in a fine-tuned, efficient regimen that would make any Army Drill Sergeant proud, everyone would be roused from slumber, washed, dressed, fed, walked, and out the door within 60 minutes flat.

And now we're learning about the dark side of multitasking. Teenagers, and yes, even adults, are trained like Pavlov's dogs to check their cell phone for every beep and buzz for the latest text, Snapchat, Facebook update, and even that nearly-extinct mode of communication, the phone call. We do it in meetings at work, and in gatherings with friends. And when we look up from the warm glow of the phone, thinking we can indeed "do it all," it takes us a minute to wipe the "Huh?" from our face and recall where we are, who we're actually with, what they may have just said to us, and what we're doing.

Texting while driving has been called the new "drunk driving" because it's proven to distract drivers more, and slow their reaction times more, than alcohol. Given what we know alcohol does to the brain and nervous system, the fact that texting while driving makes us more dangerous underscores the idea that our brain simply cannot perform two tasks at once well.

Multitasking takes us out of the moment. It is the opposite of millenia-old techniques and philosophies like Zen, meditation, and other salves that humans have found improve focus, rather than detract from it.

So where does the jury stand on multitasking? Is it a virtue of career and parental excellence? Or is it a parasite eating away at our ability to focus on what we're doing in the moment? 

Dr. Travis Bradberry published an article in Forbes that presents the results of a few studies conducted by prominent institutions, including Stanford University, about what multitasking does to our brains. The truth will shock you.

How Multitasking Impacts Our Brain

I encourage you to read Dr. Bradberry's full article, but here, in list form, are the highlights. When you're done reading this, perhaps you'll deem "lowlights" to be a better word choice.

• The Stanford study found that multitasking makes us less productive.

• People who focused on one thing at a time accomplished more, and had better memory recall.

• The Stanford study even analyzed a specific sub-group: those who believed they were really good at multitasking, and actually thought it made them perform better. The results from Stanford? In a word: Hogwash. This sub-set of people performed the worst. They "had more trouble organizing their thoughts and filtering out irrelevant information, and they were slower at switching from one task to another," Bradberry tells us.

• Conclusion: Our brains can only focus on one thing at a time. That means, you can't, in fact, text and drive. You're not doing either effectively. Here's what I mean:

• A University of London study found that multitasking lowers IQ. (Quite a bit in fact.) Grown men in this study lost 15 IQ points, which dropped their IQ levels down to the level of the average 8-year-old child. Bradberry drives the point home in his article when he writes, "So the next time you’re writing your boss an email during a meeting, remember that your cognitive capacity is being diminished to the point that you might as well let an 8-year-old write it for you."

• One more study, this one from the University of Sussex, found that multitasking may cause brain damage. Researchers had study participants watch TV while simultaneously texting on their phones. When they scanned the volunteers' brains in an MRI machine, the investigators found damage to the parts that are responsible for empathy, and cognitive and emotional control. Scary stuff if you ask me.

So I'm sold. I've seen enough. I'm trying to get better at putting aside my distractions and staying focused on one thing at a time, whenever possible.

But perhaps the most important task ahead of us is to cast shadow on multitasking, and place a new virtue into the light. Let's praise the lost art of doing one thing at a time, and doing it well.

That's one of the reasons why I value my martial arts training so much. I've found that when I am in class, it's one of the very few times in my week when I am in the moment. I'm truly and deeply focused practicing my technique. The time flies by because I enter this flow state.

Aside from keeping my IQ out of the 4th Grade level, I find the focus I have in my martial arts class enhances my mood too. I'm sure there will be more studies about multitasking that will report out in the next few years. I look forward to reading them. And I won't be surprised if researchers conclude focus improves mood.  But I promise you I won't be reading them on my cell phone when I'm in the company of my friends.

From now on, instead of lauding my juggling skills, I'll be keeping distractions at bay, and elevating the role of focus in my life.

What about you? For sure, there are events during our day when we are forced to switch gears and perform a few tasks at a time. But will you look for those opportunities where you truly can control where you'll place your attention? 

I think your brain will thank you, and so will the people around you.