Very honest set of answers.
Not an entirely unexpected. Real self defense situations rarely go by the book (whatever that is). We do what we do, and the "experts" play Monday morning quarterback later on. What matters more is that we execute and - hopefully - we succeed. Sometimes we don't know why we do exactly what we do, and our conscious mind may never tap into what the primal mind sensed and acted upon. In several of my own self defense situations, I don't remember hitting the person; I only remember seeing them on the ground, and realizing that I hit them. It's not a plan - it's instinct. That's the stuff we try so hard to train, and debate so hard how to do.
I remember talking to a professional sports photographer one time (Scott Barrow), and commenting how many prize shots were pure luck. "Yea," he said, "and it's interesting that some people have more of that luck than others.
" As they say, luck is preparation and opportunity. If you live a life rich with confrontations under stress, you are probably a lot more likely to end up with a good outcome - labeled perhaps as "luck" by detractors..I'm surprised that I haven't seen more people speak up about the spontaneous response end of this. It's quite the hot topic on Van's forum. As I have said more than once, it's not what she did per se, but the fact that she acted (instead of freezing) and succeeded. To me, the fact that she did something unconventional (if not wrong) makes it all the more fascinating.
- Bill
