By Michael D.
Former Clandestine Officer, CIA, DIA, NSA
I played football in junior high school in Montgomery, AL.
The coach used to make us run laps until we vomited to toughen us up.
One game is etched in my memory.
It was third quarter, first down and the coach had given us a powerful pep talk about “mowing down the enemy.”
I lined up, looked at the “enemy” across from me and said something like, “I hope you are ready to die because I am going to kill you when that ball is snapped.”
He looked sick, scared, and confused.
This guy was out there to play football, not engage in a gladiator death match.
When the ball was snapped, I hesitated because my “enemy” stood up and turned slightly so that I could run past him.
In that moment, I lost my bloodlust.
Instead, I felt such powerful empathy that I tried not to even bump him while I passed him.
As I thought about that experience, I asked myself why I didn’t just mow over him.
I had the strength, training, and conviction to have taken him down so hard he would have been out for the rest of the game.
But the truth is, a man can possess the spirit of a warrior without seething at each potential target around him.
In my later years, deeper understanding came to me.
As an airborne recon team guy, I knew that I could vanquish most men who crossed me.
I was proficient in numerous martial arts (for both standing and ground fighting).
At our private gym for undercover operators at the CIA, we had several heavy bags.
Many of them had more duct tape than canvas left on them.
I trained regularly, and could hit a heavy bag so hard, so quickly, so many times that if it were a real man, he would be battered unconscious… or dead.
I realized that I did not have to prove anything to anyone, especially myself.
I can walk away, or even run away, from most fights, and I have done that many times both as a professional and a civilian.
But that doesn’t mean I am a push-over.
I have the wisdom to pick my battles.
On one occasion in Las Vegas, I decided to cross a picket line manned by union thugs.
As I casually approached the line, three of them moved into my path.
I stopped, looked them in the eyes and said, “I am crossing this line. Which one of you do I have to hurt first to cross?”
They screamed and threatened me, but they did not dissuade me, and I walked right through the line.
I did not want to have to disable any of them, but both they and I knew that I could (and would) if they touched me.
If you want peace and confidence in matters of physical self-defense, learn to master a heavy bag.
They are inexpensive, easy to use, and training on a heavy bag will hone your fighting skills.
Draw or make a tape face, throat, solar plexus, and pressure points on your bag.
And when you are working on it, wear what you wear every day – no special athletic clothing.
Make your heavy bag training as realistic as you can.
Mastering a heavy bag will vastly increase your self-confidence and improve your communication skills – no kidding.
It will increase your self-confidence should the day come that you have to stand toe-to-toe with a threat.
When you know that you can protect yourself with your own mind and body, you transform into a calm, confident, and humble powerhouse.
Become kinder through the knowledge that you can destroy anyone who turns on you or your loved ones.
