|
The two-day Target Focus Training (TFT) boot camp taught me a thing or two, and that’s always a great thing. If I can walk away from a seminar or workshop with something useful, then I’m happy.
Senior instructor Matt Suitor — who’s spent more than 20 years training alongside TFT founder and former US Navy SEAL close-quarter combat instructor, Tim Larkin — kicked off the boot camp with some hard-hitting videos of real violence. Comparisons were drawn between stylistic knife ‘fighting’ and actual footage of knife killings. The gap between the gym and reality was obvious. The video session wrapped up with an infamous video of a lone policeman dealing with an oversized, overtrained sociopath. No matter what the cop did to subdue the attacker — pepper spray, bullets to the abdomen — the 150kg monster was still able to do harm. But would he be as capable with a broken ankle or knee, a crushed throat or if he was simply unconscious? Enter Target Focus Training (TFT).
The message was clear: TFT is not about ‘self-defence’, it’s about doing injury to your attacker. The basis for this mindset, in part, are the countless reports of severely injured attackers who continued to attack because their injury was not disabling. In a nutshell, TFT is all about applying bodyweight in motion against a critical target not rated for such force.
Suitor discussed the following targets and how to deliver disabling injuries to them:
1. Neck: Forearm-strikes, stomps and knee-drops to either deliver a vasovagal response, leading to unconsciousness, or breaks to the cervical vertebrae.
2. Throat: Forearm-strikes, stomps and knee-drops to damage the trachea and disrupt the breathing airway.
3. Eyes: Gouges to rupture or severely injure the eyeball.
4. Groin: Palm-strikes, knee-strikes, knee-drops and stomps to rupture the testicles or disable through extreme pain caused by damage to the pelvic area.
5. Knees: Stomps to cause disabling injury.
6. Ankles: Stomps to cause disabling injury.
Suitor also explained the three principles of injury: Intent + Penetration + Rotation = Injury.
Target focus trainee vs striker
What followed were exercises to build up a ‘psych image’. The objective was to identify the target, line up the striking tool and then follow through very slowly. This mental image was to be stored in your ‘kill box’.
Attendees worked in pairs and in strict silence. This surprised me until Suitor explained that the purpose was to become ‘asocial’ — a level beyond anti-social; emotionless as you employ the ‘tool of violence’ that they refer to often in TFT. Friendly chit-chat during these exercises creates an emotional connection, whereas the intention is to rehearse dehumanising the other person, so that when the time comes, you can view an attacker as merely a ‘thing’ to be broken and taken apart. As Suitor explained, “You are shutting down a machine.” He insisted our practice be “slow and correct”.
The ‘attacker’ (good guy) performed the required strike on the ‘victim’ (bad guy) in slow motion, deliberately looking for the target and following through with bodyweight. The victim, also known as the ‘reaction partner’ was to reach to the site of injury as if they had actually been injured. This was very important as it provided visual feedback to the ‘good guy’ that his strike was effective. By reaching to the site of the injury, new targets were opened up for attack. I have seen tool-and-target practice before in other systems, but I would have to say the TFT instructors possess the most realistic pain reactions I’ve seen.
The next step was to chain together the individual targets into what Suitor termed ‘free practice’. This consisted of the ‘good guy’ initiating an attack and then striking further targets as the reaction partner presented them. This drill was practised frequently over the two days and by the end of the second day, the simulated fights looked extremely realistic, like a real fight in slow motion.
For myself as an observer, I felt disturbed watching lethal blows be delivered to prostrate ‘bad guys’. I discussed this with Suitor, who explained quite simply and unapologetically that a police officer doesn’t go to the shooting range to learn how to shoot paper targets; he goes there to train in how to deliver lethal force if needed. This was all the attendees were doing.
Suitor went on to talk to the attendees on the appropriate use of what he was teaching. Essentially, what was taught would very rarely be an appropriate response to a situation. He emphasised that most anti-social behaviour is survivable through ‘inaction’ (meaning avoidance or de-escalation rather than a physical response), given that it is usually “loud and obvious”.
Target focus trainee vs knifer
The time and place to use what was being taught is when a situation is not survivable through inaction — and only the individual can make that decision. The individual, he said, would have to take personal responsibility for the level of injury inflicted on the attacker.
Suitor also introduced TFT principles to use when facing an armed attacker, be the weapon a gun, knife or baton. In all cases, the principles were the same. TFT practitioners do not practise disarming attackers of their weapons; their philosophy is to shut down the ‘machine’ controlling the weapon, using the core principles: Intent + Penetration + Rotation = Injury.
Multiple attackers or ‘multimen’ was the next topic, which again involved ‘free practice’, only this time against two opponents. TFT utilises simple principles of initiating a disabling attack on one ‘bad guy’ and then using him as a shield against the second ‘bad guy’ until he too can be disabled.
Finally, the American instructor covered some basic defences to grabs, chokes and holds, attacking the key targets but from a close-quarters situation.
The boot camp attendees came from all walks of life and locations; people travelled from Singapore, New Zealand, Queensland and Victoria to attend the Sydney seminar. Interestingly, very few martial artists attended. Among the attendees were paramedics who frequently found themselves in hostile situations, and a hospital shift worker who was in fear of walking to her car late at night.
At the completion of the boot camp, the attendees I spoke to were extremely pleased with what they had learnt and had a desire to take their training further. In the words of one participant, “I didn’t come here to learn complicated techniques; I came here to learn something simple that works, and that’s exactly what I got.”
|
Have your say (0)