Patterns

Martial art mastery begins with learning patterns.  A pattern is a packet of actions strung together with a beginning, middle, and end.  A simple pattern would be a Barhito series of Slap-punch punch punch-kick and exit.  This becomes an automated process that operates as a single unit once it is started.  As a student learns and repeats many of these they become spontaneous.  Then they can be strung together in a variety of combinations.  That is the essence of the Integrated Martial Arts matrices.  Having many techniques in your toolbox that can be used for a variety of situations.  Mastery occurs when they become so spontaneous that thought is not required to perform them.  This is covered in the first state of mushin.  A mind that is open and responsive in synchrony with the attackers actions.  Once skills are mastered they turn to art.  That is why it is called martial arts.  We now turn to a deeper understanding of patterns and how they can be interrupted in the opponent.

Pattern Interruption

This is an area the few know about and can give you an important edge in self defense.  It has to do with freezing a persons actions because it interrupts a preprogrammed script.  The following stories will illustrate how this works.

Case 1 - Domestic Dispute
Police must deal with domestic dispute often including a husband and wife or other family members fighting.  Police will tell you that these are most difficult to break up and very dangerous because the parties are all worked up and can easily turn on the police.  The typical scenario involves police stepping into a altercation and splitting the people apart then trying to cool them off.  Everybody is playing their expected scripted/patterned roles.  Now if the script/pattern is interrupted by something unusual the entire pattern can be short circuited meaning stopped or frozen.  So police walk into a house while a dispute is underway and instead of breaking it up they look at each other and start sniffing the air.  "Bob, do you smell gas?"  "Yes Bill, I do! that is very dangerous the whole house could blow up!"  Suddenly the fight has been short circuited and everyone is running around trying to find the source of the gas so the house does not blow up.  The pattern has been interrupted.

Case 2 - Unexpected Bump
A man walks down the street and unexpectedly bumps into another person.  The normal script for this would involve the person doing the bumping to say "excuse me."  In this case instead of saying "excuse me" he says "the time is 4pm."  This leaves the other person standing there in stunned silence.  Once again the normally expected script is interrupted by a response which does not fit.  The brain short circuits temporarily trying to make sense out of the event.  This temporary confusion and disruption can be used to our advantage in a self defense situation.  Let's see how this operates. 

TOTE
We all operate using small automated behavior packets that make up routines in our life.  They are so automatic that we do not even notice them.  In linguistics this is called a TOTE which stands for Test - Operate - Test - Exit.   For example, if I extend my hand towards you a certain way you will interpret that motion (test) as the start of a handshake and then extend your hand (operate) and we will move them up and down then stop (test) and withdraw our hands (exit).  Now this is so habitual and unconscious that if this is interrupted in the middle of the TOTE the person will get confused and become frozen.  In the sequence the person sees or hears something 1 and goes internal to the script 2 to pull up the correct response 3 and take the action 4 which in this case is shaking a hand.  If something happens between steps 2 and 3 which is not in the script the whole system slows down and can even freeze. 

Application to Weapons Defense
Instead of a handshake consider a person holding a gun.  If this is just a robbery your best option is to give them the money or car or whatever.  By the way, if you follow the spheres of self defense discussed earlier you will not be in this situation but let's say you are and you sense that this is more than a robbery.  The individual wants you to go somewhere with him and your stomach tells you you're not coming back.  You will greatly increase your chances of disarming the weapon if you use a pattern interruption.  Here are some examples.  He gives you an order to move somewhere.  You respond with a kind of gibberish that sounds like a foreign language.  This will momentarily freeze him and give you a much better chance of doing a disarm technique.  Why does this work?  He tells you to move and expects that you will reply and perhaps plead, or say yes, or even no.  Those are all in the script.  A funny sounding foreign language is not so it is temporarily confusing.  What must the man holding the gun be thinking now?  What language is this?  Can this guy speak English?  What will I do now? In other words he will be thrown into internal dialogue and doubt.  This can buy you a half a second or more which may not sound like much but is a huge help in a gun disarm.  We practice many gun disarms with darts so we know if we have been hit or not.  In general, you can move quicker that a person can detect the movement and squeeze the trigger.  This time lag is greatly increased by a pattern interruption giving you an extra safety margin.  Even with doing hundreds of successful gun disarms in practice there is always quite a sense of fear when facing a weapon.  As mentioned before it should only be done as a last resort and if you have had a lot of training.

Pattern interruptions can short circuit an impending attack giving you vital time to defend yourself.  They mentally unbalance the opponent.  The attacker can also be physically unbalanced by pushing or striking but that is getting into the later spheres which is the martial arts training.  We are talking about gaining an edge before an imminent attack.  Hopefully you will never need to defend against a weapon but if you do you will need all the leverage and resources possible.