A defensive technique popularised by Geoff Thompson. This is where the hands are raised in a seemingly natural manner, thus preventing an attaker to break through without triggering an attack of your own*. What are peples' experiences with this technique? What sort of "fence" did you use or favour? *This is a very basic explination from my own undestanding, read the book or watch the video for a MUCH better explination.
I think it's a very valuable technique. I haven't watched Geoff's video (although did attend his recent seminar), but had previously been taught to use my hands in front of me as a fence. If you use your hands a lot when talking, this can be made to work well.
Verbal fence - works every time for me. Usually something along the lines of "Look, I'll tell you what we'll do....." WHAM! Hit' em with whatever. The fence is very useful in my line of work because there is an instant (and erroneus) assumption that a Police Officer cannot instigate an offensive move.
When I worked as a bouncer I used a fence all the time. I've found that one of the best things about it is that it can be instrumental in preventing physical violence even starting in the first place. The potential assailant learns a lot from unconsciously reading your body language - ie. the message is 'this person's not a victim, they are in control and can look after themselves, go and find some easier prey'. Rather than having a fixed position for the fence I think it should be mobile. As Sandy said, use your hands while talking. In other words 'talk with your hands'. By allowing (within limits) your hands to do what they naturally want to do to emphasise your words you can take ownership of and control the centre ground between you and the assailant(s). Its not a frozen position or moment in time ('a fence around your factory'). Rather, its like a game of chess in which the players struggle to create an advantage by controlling the centre four squares - almost like a pushing hands exercise but without being in contact. Play this part of the game well and most opponents will simply back down. This tactic has saved my bacon on more than a few occasions. Mike
The other benefit to moving hands is that its easier to engage an object already in motion than overcome the inertia of being at rest. So the mobile hands can move faster to defend or attack than static hands. Tony Blauer's defense systems also use the idea of the fence. But in his case it's called a non violent posture. It's geared to put one hands up in front of the attacker in a calming manner. As part of it the hands should be moved gently up and down in as soothing a motion as possible. At the same time they should never get so low or so high that they can't be engaged to guard the head or body. - Matt
I like Mikes idea that it shouldn't be static, never really tought of it like that. I shall work a little on that in class...
It makes for a great advantage also when you have your hands up in a "fence" position, if you need to use them to push, you can. If you need them to gain a first strike, your close to the head. Its just great to use in almost any circumstance.
Good point. I hadn't thought of it like that. That's extremely similar to what I do. I've found that the calming aspect of this can be very helpful. This type of posture/gesture cluster (to use the common body language terminology) can help to calm an assailant who is angry but doesn't really want to fight. He wants to be calmed down, even if he doesn't realise this himself. But it also works in the manner already discussed, to control and dissuade a more determined potential assailant. What I find interesting is how very different martial artists have reached the same conclusions. I worked this out for myself as a bouncer, although I didn't understand at a conscious level everything that I was doing. Some years later, it became apparent that my current Karate teacher had reached essentially the same conclusions, largely as a result of his teaching aggression management to people in caring professions. What he added to my understanding in this area was a) a greater intellectual awareness of the things I was already doing and b) an understanding of how some of the same gestures could be used in a tactile manner to further have a calming and/or controlling effect on the potential assailant. Again, I was already doing this, but didn't fully appreciate the sophistication of what I was doing. We now see lots of respected martial artists (Geoff Thompson, Tony Blauer, etc.) having independently reached essentially the same understanding, which surely must give a lot of weight to the whole idea. Mike
Great points Mike. A good idea is a good idea is a good idea. And for the most part we're all wired the same way, which leads to the occaisional universal truth. And along that note, I think we're all in the business of rediscovery and seeking deeper understandings. I constantly find that most concepts of modern movements like RBSD and Aliveness were already baked into traditional martial arts and then lost for various reasons, only to be rediscovered later. Good training methods and strategies are timeless and not restricted to geographic locals. - Matt
"And along that note, I think we're all in the business of rediscovery and seeking deeper understandings. I constantly find that most concepts of modern movements like RBSD and Aliveness were already baked into traditional martial arts and then lost for various reasons, only to be rediscovered later." Oh absolutely - Have noticed/been witness to this a few times.
