FIGHTING
FEEDBACK
From DT Instructor Dana Jackson, Little Rock, AK
Tony,
Dana here, just heard a great story from a patrol officer. He and several other
officers were trying to talk a violent subject down during a disturbance.
When Officer Van Pelt told this guy he was under arrest, he suddenly
got very quiet and put his hands on the car. When Van Pelt began
searching him, he spun and tried to hit Van Pelt. Van Pelt flinched and drove a
protective SPEAR into the guy, bowled him over the car and the other officers
helped him handcuff the guy. He included all of this in his use of force
report so it will make it to the Assistant Chief of Patrol. From him to
me to you, Thanks.
===NEXT LETTER====
Mr. Blauer-
Just wanted to
take a moment to relay a short story to you.
I work as
a patrol officer, SWAT team member and DT instructor for the
Green Bay Police
Department. I
attended your S.P.E.A.R. Instructor Development course in
Green Bay last March.
A couple of days ago officers from our department were
Working a case late at night which involved a man who was beaten
severely in
his home, held in his room against his will and robbed. The victim was
finally able to escape and stumble to an intersection were
police were
working an accident.
This was done by friends of the victim's roommate and
they were all still inside the house and refused to answer
the door for
police. A consent to
search was signed by the victim and supervisors
decided to make forced entry.
I was sent to
the residence to assist with the entry.
SWAT was not
called out, but as a team member I was told to form an entry
team with
officers present and make entry. I was on point for the entry and we
breached a rear door and made entry into a very small
kitchen that was dark
inside. A few feet
from the door was the entryway to the living room and
bedrooms (it was a very small lower apartment with very
confined space).
Standing in the entryway to the living room was a male and I
could see others
in the dark starting to scramble and hide in the
bedrooms. The male in the
entryway was holding his ground and after two loud commands
would not comply.
The entry team was
in jeopardy of getting jammed up in the doorway in a
fatal funnel if this guy was not moved. As I closed the reactionary gap on
this guy, my left arm came up in a 1/2 S.P.E.A.R. and my
right hand brought
my handgun in close to my body. The 1/2 S.P.E.A.R. worked perfectly as it
made contact and moved this guy back out of the entryway and
on his ass. I
literally sat there afterwards and could not believe how well
that worked.
The officer behind me in the stack talked about the
S.P.E.A.R. the whole next
night at work. The
rest of the team moved through with no problem and took
four others into custody that were in the house.
The S.P.E.A.R.
System is spreading like wildfire at our department.
Myself and other DT instructors can't wait to attend your
training in the
future. Thanks for
everything!
Sincerely,
Jeff Engelbrecht
Green Bay Police Department
====NEXT LETTER====
Teenagers actually do listen, sometimes.
A letter from PDR Coach Dana Arcuri
Coach,
I
just wanted to tell you a story that happened the other day. I was teaching a Brown belt class of junior
students (ages 10-14yrs.) and I was reiterating the difference between Kata
(their art), sparring (their sport) and combat (their self-defense). One of my
young students asked “Sensei why did we change the way that we do our combat?”
and I replied “Well Patrick this way is just better. It gives you a much more realistic way to protect yourself. And we only make changes when we think that
they will help you guys get better.” By
that time the whole class was saying in unison that it was “waaaaay” better
than what we had been doing before.
Then one of my 13-year-olds asked if he could tell me a story.
Having twenty years of teaching experience, I know
that sometimes it is better to say “no” and move on. However, out of my mouth came “sure Mike, go ahead.” This is what he said. “Well the other day this kid in school, who
used to pick on me and hit me and stuff, but hasn’t done it in a while, was
com’in down the hall and I just knew he was gonna hit me. So I speared him, and he landed on his butt
and slid across the floor.” The kids
started laughing and saying cool. I
said,”Mike, I’m glad you did something so you didn’t get hit. But I think a more important and interesting
question is how did you know he was going to hit you.” He half smiled and cocked his head (like I
had asked a stupid question) and then he said matter of factly and with great
physical gestures,” Sensei…his eyes got wide then he gritted his teeth, sucked
in a big breath, threw back his arm and swung it.” I smiled to myself and
openly as the other kids chimed in.
“Duh, Mike, everyone drops their arm back. They always do when they try to punch you. Yeah, and they turn sideways too. Yeah, and they always look around to make
sure the teacher isn’t looking.” I
said, “Patrick, does it make more sense to you why we train like this
now?” He said, ”I was just wondering.”
I was so pleased that my teaching of your concepts
(ECT and “that everyone fights the same way differently”) allowed these young
people to demonstrate their knowledge and have a conversation discussing SPEAR
fundamentals. What’s more interesting
to me is that they have been taught your verbiage and lexicon within all the
drills (including verbal diffuse, spear strengthening etc.), and were
completely able to transfer their understanding of pre-contact cues into kid
language. Not to mention throwing and
awesome tactical spear. Cool!
Thanks
for everything,
Dana
