Lakeshore Martial Arts - weapons training

07/12/2022

03/25/2022

New Blog Post: “The Sword That Gives Life”

“Katsujinken, Satsujinken.” Or in English, the sword that gives life or the sword that takes it away. This was one of the mottos of Munenori Yagyu, an accomplished and famous warrior of feudal Japan. The meaning behind this simple phrase has not lost its relevance in the centuries since Yagyu’s time.

The sword that takes life is force without morals. An oppressor, a brigand, a criminal, or a terrorist can each be skillful at violence. But without an ethical underpinning, force is just force, and can be used to achieve horrible ends. Indeed, violence has been used many times in history to commit atrocities and injustices. Man’s inhumanity to man is all too commonplace.

The sword that gives life however, is force used for the common good. Force that takes some lives to save many more. Make no mistake, violence is still violent. It’s ruthless and often ugly. But, just like the carnage caused by the surgeon’s scalpel, violence can be used for a positive purpose. This is different than the old trope “The ends justify the means.” That invariably leads even the well-intentioned down a very dark road.

The distinction between these two has not lessened in importance in the centuries since Yagyu and his samurai fought to reshape medieval Japan. Two decades of war have proven that. Good men should not shun necessary violence. But what they must always shun, if they wish to remain good men, is unnecessary cruelty and needless brutality.

Which sword do you want to wield? The sword that takes life? Or the sword that gives it?

03/10/2022

New Blog Post: “Awareness”

“Drop as deeply as possible into stillness, into whatever is unfolding in the present moment.” - John Kabat-Zin

Awareness. This mental attribute is essential for anyone who wishes to excel at shooting, tactics, or combatives. Awareness is not attention. Attention is active, focused on something specific. Awareness is diffuse, non-specific. Once you have internalized the fundamentals of technique, the more you are simply aware, the more effective you will be, both technically and tactically.

In shooting, you should be aware of every piece of input the gun is giving you. The feel of the recoil impulse and trigger reset and break. You should know in great detail how the sights move throughout the entirety of the recoil arc, and still be aware of the empty brass tumbling out of the ejection port. And at the same time be aware of your surroundings and those of your target.

In tactics, you need awareness not just of your field of fire, but your teammates’ movements and positions, as well as the details of the environment around you. The best teams almost never talk in CQB except for radio calls to higher. Their awareness of each other is developed to the point that they can read each other’s nonverbal communication, apply the proper tactical principles to their environment and just flow through a structure.

In combatives, lack of awareness makes you vulnerable to feints, and susceptible to environmental hazards, not to mention other combatants. Proper awareness allows you to exploit those same factors against your opponent instead.

Cultivate your awareness. Strengthen your internal observer. Train yourself in this well and it will dramatically improve your performance in any aspect not just of conflict, but also of life in general.

02/27/2022

New Blog Post: “Emotion and Will”

“There is no weapon more deadly than the will.” - Bruce Lee

Emotion. It’s both extremely valuable if harnessed correctly, and extremely damaging if allowed unchecked by reason. Decisions born of emotion are rarely correct ones, and physical and mental acuity are negatively impacted by strong emotions such as anger or fear. Our reactions to events, especially in the moment, should be dispassionate in order to be effective.

What emotion is valuable for is giving us motivation and determination. Giving us our “why” for our priorities and actions. We can use emotions to feed our will, and will is an incredibly potent thing. Will enables us to overcome the odds and triumph when the weak-willed would surrender to their emotions and give up. Will is what enables people to perform seemingly superhuman feats of heroism. People like my life-long friend Ryan Ahern, who held off overwhelming odds and kept his team alive until QRF arrived, or another friend Jared Reston, who was shot seven times, including once in the face, and still killed his attacker.

Will matters as much or more than technique, than fitness. I’ve seen technically proficient and highly fit individuals crumble under the pressure of conflict. Use your emotions to build your will. Rule your emotions and put them to good use rather than serving them. Cultivate an unshakeable desire to achieve and win. Make no mistake, skill matters, as does physical preparation, but without a fierce and indomitable will, they are useless in conflict.

02/10/2022

Learning how to clear a room by yourself is one of the most complex and dangerous skills a LE officer or private citizen can acquire

01/07/2022

“The greatest ideal man can set before himself is self-perfection.” - W. Somerset Maugham

People who’ve never spent time in the close company of warriors often think of them as brutish and unintelligent. Even in law enforcement and the military, support personnel and upper management often think of those who do the actual fighting as “knuckle draggers” or “grunts.” Nothing could be further from the truth. Especially at the top of the craft.

The “mental game” is vital to athletic excellence, and this just is as true for “combat” or “tactical” athletes as for any other. In my opinion, there is no other pursuit where the mental game matters more than combat. It quite literally is the difference between life and death, not just for the individual warrior, but for those he fights for and alongside.

This incontrovertible truth is why historically warrior cultures placed a heavy emphasis on meditation, philosophy, and religion, as well as art, literature, and games of strategy. They were sharpening their warriors’ minds with these pursuits. This is also why combat sports and martial arts are so often seen as vehicles for self-improvement by devotees who will most likely never fight for their lives.

Technical skill and physical preparedness are both useless without a commensurate development of the mind. And not just an academic or scholarly one. The warriors mind must ride the edge of a razor like a samurai’s zen or a praetorian’s stoicism. In the moment, unflustered, and resolute. No attachment to consequence or reward, only process and standards. It is vital that you devote yourself to the development of this or all of your other training will prove fruitless.

01/01/2022

interviewed me for a feature in the ’s First Freedom magazine. It’s now out, check it out in print or online. #