The Instinctive Edge™

Streetfighting from a Combat Sports perspective.

See You On The Mats!!!

Brian R. VanCise in a Weaver Stance utilizing the Center Axis Relock system

Pretty simple, right? You train like you fight!

If you don’t take a range or skill set into account in your training you probably won’t have skills to deal with that.  If you don’t have wrestling skills, takedown defense, submissions you may be in trouble if someone takes you to the ground.  Likewise if you grapple but don’t account for the knife on the ground or dirty tactics like eye gouging, groin strikes or a gun coming into play you may be surprised when that happens as well.

If a guy has a machete and you have never trained against a medium sized bladed weapon it sucks to be you!

This really isn’t hard to understand but the same flaws traditional martial arts practitioners made are being made now by BJJ or MMA practitioners, etc.

How to avoid this?  Constantly train and learn and step out of your comfort zone.  Train consistently, learn and never discount what someone else is doing or their skill sets.  Instead, analyze everything and everyone.  If you have a friend who does something different in the Martial Sciences, learn from them.  Explore and do not discount or stifle your growth!

See You On The Mats!!!

I love watching beautiful Martial Arts. Its a joy to see someone move so effectively and efficient in training or competition. However, my experience in real world Use of Force is that it is rarely beautiful and more often than not it looks pretty ugly. Why is that? In the real world so many different factors come into play like surprise or emotions, uneven footing and more. Usually, someone has sucker punched or stabbed someone before they even know what is going on. So, rarely do you get that beautiful movement in a real world Personal Protection situation. Most of the time it is chaotic or someone is initiating movement after they have been punched, stabbed or knocked back. Most of the time real violence is just messy!

See You On The Streets!!!

Your home is your castle and layered security is so important. Layers of different types of security buy you time. Time to get away, time to prepare and time to act appropriately if necessary! Starting with the exterior of your house you want trimmed bushes that are not to high so that they do not block visibility. Lighting and motion activated lighting. Nothing deters predators more than operating where they will be seen. Physically heavy doors with three or four inch screws in the framework and deadbolt areas. Remember we’re trying to slow people down and give ourselves enough time to act. You could add a security screen door and window film or steel window coverings for extra layers. Next a dog, really any kind of dog. They hear better than us and make noise when investgating and that lets us know something is not right. Next where do we go? Inside the house to a central meeting point, possibly a panic room. Or behind a heavy object in a fortifide master bedroom. Call 911 and get help on the way, but be prepared to defend ourselves if necessary. Layer your home with security and hopefully you never have to use your skills. Predators aren’t interested in the hard targets they almost always go for the easy ones! Be a hard target!

Speedy, the best alert dog ever…

See You On The Streets!!!

Okay, I am a big fan of the Hunter Constantine Belt but there is an issue and you need to know about it. I love mine but it has stretched or loosened a bit. This means its simply not as tight around my waist and I wish I would have gotten a smaller size. I’m going to add another loop so it will still be serviceable but anyone buying one needs to have this info!

Scratch that…

Hey Hunter already figured this out.  My slider didn’t look like it was working but I got it to work and we are back to being the best belt on the market!!!

See You On The Streets!!!

Jake

So most of the readers here know that my son Jacob VanCise passed away in 2022. Our hearts have been broken ever since. Jacob was exceptional in every way and is dearly missed by his family!

Nick and Speedy

One of the things that helped me get through this tough time was my oldest son Nick’s dog Speedy! Speedy was our therapy pup and took us under his care. Speedy passed away this morning doing one of the things he loved most going for his morning walk!

Speedy was the best!

You will be missed buddy!!!