the way of your opponent. It gives him a visual and phys-
ical barrier to the most common “one step up” attacks.
(Initial attacks on escalations tend to be in the form of a
shove or a finger thump on the other person’s chest.)
Chat cover and talking with the hands forces your
adversary to skip a step. The need to make that leap may
cause him to stop self-escalating, which is what he must
do to escalate because you’ve stopped playing the game.
While he’s getting himself riled up, he still will tend to
move one step at a time. Forcing him to skip a step can
lead him to rediscover his self-control.
DEFEND AND DIAGNOSE: The meaning of “defend” is obvi-
ous. You’re ready to move. You’re ready to block. You’re
ready to attack. You’re ready to maneuver. While you
try to listen your way through or talk your way through,
you’re physically prepared for the fight should it occur.
“Diagnose” refers to your ability to know the other
person’s intentions. Forcing him to skip a step facilitates
this. If he skips past the shove and tries
to punch you, you know he means to get
violent, and that is something you need
to know as soon as possible because it
gives you permission to defend yourself
at a higher level.
Following Up
If the encounter is about to get violent,
you have a number of options. From
chat cover and talking with the hands,
martial arts moves from almost any
style can be used. Here are a few of the
techniques I teach listed in order of
ascending violence.
STERNAL-NOTCH PUSH BACK: This is
the move Jimmy used in the first case
study. The whole hand, fingers first, is thrust forward. The
middle finger presses into the notch above the sternum.
Some call this the “cough point.” Pushing straight in is
sufficient for many situations, but the real way to activate
this point is by pushing either down or up diagonally.
The progression of your push is to press in and down
with your finger, to let your palm push against his chest
and, if necessary, to let your finger swoop upward. For
most people, the press down will be enough to make
them back off, even if it’s an escalating situation. If that
doesn’t work, the push option and the “flow upward with
the finger” option can be used to activate the point in the
other direction.
The sternal-notch push back creates space. Do it casu-
ally while an adversary is getting in your face, and he
may have no idea what happened. He knows only that
you did something and he went back without being
pushed hard. That moment of confusion can give you
another chance to talk things down.
The final key is to keep your hands
open and casual so it doesn’t look like
you shoved the person back. In his
confusion, he’ll look at you in an effort
to figure out what just happened. Your
posture should give him no clues.
For many people, they’re done at this
point. They may continue to make
comments as they disengage, but the
physical portion of the confrontation
could be over with no one getting hurt.
GROIN HUNT: This includes three possi-
ble movements. The actual groin hunt
is designed to remind you that you
have a move that can drop the average
big guy, which means you can stay
calm during the engagement. Depend-THE WHOLE HAND,
FINGERS FIRST, IS
THRUST FORWARD.
THE MIDDLE FINGER
PRESSES INTO THE
NOTCH ABOVE THE
STERNUM. SOME
CALL THIS THE
“COUGH POINT.”
Sternal-notch push back:
(left) straight in, (top right)
diagonally down, (bottom
right) diagonally up.OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2019 BLACKBELTMAG.COM 65