Lee Morrison – The Shredder

Description

The Tokei martial arts centre in Tooley Street London was the venue hosting one of the best modern combative seminars that I have attended in a while. Canadian instructor Richard Dimitri hosted his most excellent presentation of the Shredder; a close quarter conceptual tool that would make a useful addition to anyone’s combative arsenal. This seminar was part of Senshido’s UK tour and saw many proficient instructors and trainees in attendance. The seminar kicked off around 11am and for the next five hours we were presented with a goldmine of useful information and functional drills. The Shredder is a conceptual tool that is designed to override the startle/flinch mechanism that is the hard wired natural response to a physical attack. This flinch response is an immediate reflex to any indication that a physical assault is coming and is kicked into play via the Amygdala; an almond shape threat detector that is located in the brain. (For more info on this check out the review of Dennis Martin’s 2nd International seminar) The Shredder bypasses this mechanism through its avoidance of any pre-indication of attack by using a spontaneous assault of gross motor movements that to quote Richard; are launched on a quarter beat, attacking vital areas of the face and throat making the attack virtually impossible to stop or intercept. This method of attack is extremely invasive in nature as well as psychologically disrupting, creating primal fear in the recipient by switching the potential aggressor from predator into prey. This concept also fits in with Senshido’s 5 principles of physical retaliation these are as follows and in no particular order; Economy of motion, Non-telegraphic movement, Opportunity striking, Tactile sensitivity and Primary target acquisition. Richard went on to talk in depth about the principles of de-escalation from a natural position. He demonstrated this with some of the best role playing that I have seen. Emphasising important points of non-static use of the hands as you control space along with body shifting and moving, providing you with the opportunity to actively scan your environment as well as interfering with your potential aggressor’s position. Thus taking away his opportunity to set up for his attack. I must say at this point that Richard’s ability to put forth information was absolutely top class. Richard is a funny man who teaches with demonstrative passion, he makes you want to pay attention. This is a crucial element in teaching and is basically NLP based. The ability to change voice tonality as well as present demonstrative visual demonstration is what makes a good instructor and will appeal to everyone’s learning curve.

Assuming now that talking the situation down has failed us we then went into the dynamics of the Shredder. For those of us whose game plan calls for ballistic pre-emptive strikes may find the concept of just closing and grabbing the face and head a little against what you’re used to. But as soon as you see how effective this can be you will see how the Shredder can compliment your game. You can Shred pre-emptively then strike off that as a follow up with no pull back or time delay; a principle called worming. Or you could strike first then close to clinch and shred from there. Using tactile sensitivity as you rip, tear and gouge at the eyes, nose, ears and throat you could simple continue to incorporate shredding and striking as the opportunity presented itself.

Demonstration:

Our first physical introduction to the Shredder took place in the form of a partner drill that called for turning to the person next to you, and taking hold of their head with one hand as you vigourously rub all over their face with an abrupt motion of your open free hand. Here you are keeping the hand flat and just getting an idea of how intrusive and horrible it feels for someone to anchor onto your head and mess with your face. You can just imagine how much worse the attack would be if it was accompanied by clawed fingers along with a ripping and tearing motion.

Drill one:

For our first drill we paired up with one person playing an aggressor by using aggressive role play while the other strives to talk him down and control space with the fence. At the first opportunity from a very close position you take hold of your partner’s face/head in one explosive motion with no indication of movement before the hands are on the target. (Closest weapon to nearest target) from here the shred is immediate. There is no technically correct way to shred, just get the head and face and simulate with pressure driving the nose across the face as you rip at the throat/ears, gouge and thumb the eyes and basically mash into the vitals with a constant and continuous motion. Picture the blades of a blender and you will get the idea. This movement is pure gross motor and has been around since the dawn of time. Just look at two women going at it on a clip from the old Jerry Springer shows. This was usually a ballistic clash followed by two combatants scratching at each others eyes and face whilst tearing each others hair out and you will get an idea of this primal instinct. The Shredder has taken this concept and made it into a non-reciprocal functional combative method. The difference between how it should be used for real and this replication drill is the clawed figuration of the hands. Which where possible we all tried to avoid although there was still plenty of scratch marks on view afterwards in spite of this safety measure.