The self-defense technique SCARS is not a fun recreational sport. It is carved, beaten and kicked. With a single line: To hurt the opponent so that he poses no threat!!
Orange Quotes “The more you sweat here, the less you bleed out there”
Green Bottom Box “As long as your leg is attached, you go on!” Trainer Jerry Peterson tells Maxim Author Rolf Kunkle after his injury.
In the conference hall of Wyndham Hotels in Phoenix Arizona, there are two dozen chairs, alone is a frame with a white board, the rest of the room lined with thick, green mats. We're in black T-shirts with letters on the side of the heart: SCARS “Special Combat Aggressive Reactionary Systems” is no school for ethics and morality, but an attack technique that has only one principle: Shock your opponent and Create Chaos. If someone accosts you and you feel that a confrontation is inevitable, cup your fingers and blow out his ear drums, it’s your duty before the other one's doing. Just never be his victim!
16 men between 25 and 62 have registered for the crash course in attack. A lawyer, a captain, an investment adviser, computer people, three soldiers of the Air Force, a construction worker, a gardener, a factory owner and the manager of a nightclub. Most already have martial arts experience and are offered an “Exclusive Civilian Counter Terrorist Training” to learn some of the most effective punches and kicks, regular courts impose a life sentence for their use. Therefore, we had previously signed three documents, freeing the organizers from any liability.
Ten hours a day close combat, man against man, and three consecutive days. The course is still less than five minutes old when I crash on the floor for the first time. And then again, with changing partners, so you do not get used to a person. Bodies fall before me, behind me, beside me. We learn how to throw an attacker to the ground face down and break his spine with one blow from our knee. Only in slow motion, then faster and faster. Not with full contact, of course, but enough that it hurts. After that a five-minute break. When I lie down exhausted, my eye sockets immediately filled with sweat.
"We teach you highly intelligent behavior on a man to man basis," says our instructor Jerry Peterson, “but if you're not brave enough to attack the attacker, you can not implement this knowledge. Fear and doubt equal disaster. But if you know how to take action, the fear disappears.” The training is based on a simple physiological fact: offensive actions pass through the nervous system demonstrably faster than defensive. We must learn to hit first, even though the opponent makes the first move. There are over one hundred targets to choose from. That lead to death, paralyzation, knocked out or an incapacity to simply struggle. Jerry leads the way, we imitate it. For some actions merely watching makes you nautious, like a stomp to the throat.
If the workout seems too brutal, you can at any time in the first 24hrs stop and receive a refund. Who wants that? We are here to learn how to play in our mobile society, a real man is: strong, brave and courageous. "Heroes are not born," says Jerry. "They are made from the circumstances the only thing you can do is to prepare physically and mentally." A man like a power plant, this is Jerry Peterson, 18 hours per day on electricity. The 54-year-old Vietnam veteran who then belonged to the 173 Airborne highly decorated unit is not built like a muscle man, not like a toothpick, but the effect is Rambo times three. “At 20, I had already killed more people than you could ever imagine”. Experiences that led to war, he set out for on the search for the perfect fighting system. For 20 years Peterson tested the effect of shock on every nerve, every bone, every organ. Not only in order to know, what injuries can occur, but to find out how the human body behaves under impact. He says: “Everybody reacts ??in exactly the same way. If I flick someone in the eye, both hands automatically go up, below, everything is free. This is the...
Green Box: "TO BE TRANSLATED"
Orange Box: "TO BE TRANSLATED"
"...moment where I burst his bubble”. Do you think its the brutal? Then you're right. Jerry calls it “non-violence, but conscious use of energy.
” Peterson was the first civilian ever to sell to the Pentagon a complete combat system and not to mention for a decent amount of money. Highest American four-star generals hold his method to be unbeatable which is now an complete training program of Navy Seals, Delta Force and Green Berets. These elite units who need something they can rely on in an emergency, fighting in the mountain tunnels in Afghanistan. Which Jerry taught. Fighting for life or death. So far, he did it mainly for the military. Since 11 September, he is pushing for the civilian market. In an action that is somewhere between patriotism and opportunism, he lowered his usual $ 5,000 fee per weekend, for more people, as he says, "to gain access to the most exclusive self-defense training in the world."
We practice extreme situations: hostage-taking, raids, airplane hijacking. Multiple expresses from Jerry here of his disapproval of the yin and yang of the Far Eastern martial arts. "What's that, if you must train many years before someone can stand on their own? Bullshit! That's what we learn in one weekend. How do you get in an airplane, with a terrorist and use kung fu kick to make him fall?" He asks. "The passage way in the plane is just 23 inches wide, 23 inches!" His words sound out, while we shape the chairs, with the seating arrangement of a plane. He wanted me to attack like a terrorist, take an indicated razor in hand, out of the seat. Quick as a flash he grabbed my wrist and twisted. I fell over him in the row of seats. A completely unemotional and yet totally dynamic action. "Fighting has to do with physics, not emotions," he says as he grabs the back of my head with one hand and rotates with the other, my jaw in the opposite direction. Yet another spin, another jerk, and the neck has broken vertebrae. In an emergency, a matter of two seconds. We note that it is easier to kill a man with his bare hands than with a gun. The hand is quicker.
On the morning of the second day I practice with the 38-year-old Don Uhlmann, owner of a company that produces toys for pets. Don makes the course in order to feel safe in everyday life. His voice is unusual from the activity the veins are...
...swollen like a thick pencil while he goes off with a red plastic knife on me. I hit his arm away and hit him at the same time with the hand edge to the carotid artery - all in a single left-right upward movement. "Sorry," he mutters, as he meets my chin in return. "Never mind," I reply, thinking of revenge.
Jerry Peterson's life experience has taught him that the knife is by far the most dangerous weapon, simply because the person has an irrational fear more than if it was a gun. "Each has been cut in the finger, and I know how it is. Blood, I'm dying! But the reality is different,” said Jerry. You need the blade to penetrate at least eight or nine centimeters deep, violating someone who's living dangerously. Besides, you’ll meet his jugular vein. The knife-statistics, which he has extensively studied, show that the victims often have 50 or more stabs. "So, even if you get hit multiple times, you still have time to make the attacker harmless." It's all a matter of technique. Rule number one: Never extend your hand or arm! The opponent will slit it open. The attack - a quick blow to the wrist - absolutely must come be seamless. The longer I practice, the more certain my movements. Surprised, I register that it's fun. Until I meet someone in the leg while falling and bursted a vein. From the internal bleeding quickly creates a pigeon sized swelling. For the rest of the day I am an observer.
During training Jerry himself with his 25-year-old son Blake. "I have been trained since birth to have all the necessary combat instincts," Blake replied to the question of what age did he get all his knowledge and experience. At 16, he worked as an assistant instructor to the Navy Seals, the youngest in history. He now has over 9000 hours of training behind him. Not even 5'8" tall, his hair cut military short, he moves with dynamic, flowing movements. He calls out before each new exercise. We reply in unison. His instructions are short, concise and clear. Sometimes he just stands there silently, listening to the collision of bodies, his lively eyes like magnets to the combatants directed. "Remember," he encouraged me when I have one of my many periods of weakness, "the more you are sweating here, to the less you bleed in the street outside."
To meet the other participants in more detail is hardly any time. In the evening you are tired of giving into the restaurant. At night you lie paralyzed in bed. Only at breakfast, we compare our bruises: bluish-purple colored forearm, swollen finger, bruised ribs. The hand of the 57-year-old pilot John Labarre, a major U.S. airline, is so swollen misshapen that it hardly can keep the cereal spoon. Don Uhlmann has other worries. Don thinks aloud about whether a killer training for civilians is the right thing. If you do not fill up too much on self-confidence and easy inning later goes into danger. Last night in a dream he wished that someone would attack him with a knife, "I was sure that what I have learned actually works!"
Orange font: “…you can knock an elephant down, if you hit the right spot."
Top orange corner: Hardly time to get to know each other, only at breakfast time to compare wounds.
Green Box: “Brutally greatest possible education”- "TO BE TRANSLATED"
Time to Strike. There were distributed padded vests. One wears the vest, the other doesn’t. Only on critical points: the heart and solar plexus. "Target shooting" we called it. Mutually, we beat our way through the whole room, until one pops back against the wall. Then it's my turn to draw. A good feeling. Bang! Bang! Bang! Every time my bare fist hits the pad perfectly, you hear a fuller, more promising sound. Caught in a real fight, the correct hit to the heart of the enemy, you will have a totally soft feel against your fist. You see the enemy in slow motion to the floor slump, because its circulation is in shock. Another hit on the same spot explains Jerry, and the enemy is over. "Gentlemen, you can knock an elephant down, if you hit the right spot." The coach always wants to see the whites of our knuckles, because the full force is transferable only when a closed fist is fixed. "Speed ??is something for idiots," I publicly listed his voice. "What matters is the body weight behind each blow. Take mass and place it on the smallest possible space. A hundred pounds from my fist to the ear or use the heel of my foot and heave with all my might on his toes - and you'll see what happens. Six months of hospital operations costing $50,000 guaranteed."
Then we put on the goggles and go right to guns. It is practiced with a real .38 revolver to get a feel for "ballistic penetration". Ear plug cartridges stuck in with primer, leaving a nasty hematoma on the skin. We are to threaten each other and to get the weapon from his hand before he can pull the trigger. The problem is nerves. The attacker is in front of me, gun at the ready, and I want to keep cool, my arms dangling motionless. I collect myself, waiting for a convenient location, then quick, hands straight up, clutching his wrist and throw him to the ground. All in a split second. The attack must be faster than the trigger movement. So far seven men from our group made it and are not taken. "Man, this is a feeling as if your cock has suddenly grown two inches," smiled Captain Labarre and grabs an ice pack for his swollen hand.
The last day. Every good trainer worth his salt knows that he must constantly keep his proteges on their toes. "Come on men, you have only three days to learn how you can progress the rest of your life." Jerry still wants us to give a piece of candy on the street. "A targeted strike with the one knuckle to cheekbone," he says, "and the eye pops out. It does not fall to the ground, its still attached mostly on the nerve. But the opponent is quite irritated."
In the afternoon of the third day most are so far beyond the point of exhaustion, that they almost fall out of their bodies. But no one gives up. All are keen on the completion certificate, which allows access to the SCARS Advanced Course. And no one wants to miss it.
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