Thanks to Todd for pointing this out to me. I'd skimmed over it and missed it the first time. Tgace quotes Dave Spaulding:
Exactly right, thus all the things we preach and practice all the time in aikido:My opinion - based solely on personal experience - is that when confronted at double-arm’s length, you need simple-to-perform (but quite effective) hand-to-hand combat techniques, such as knee, elbow, palm-heel, forearm and head-butt strikes. Unfortunately, these skills are being replaced with more complicated subject-control techniques, such as wristlocks, pressure points, grappling and arm-bar takedowns. This is regrettable, because to disengage and create the space needed to employ a firearm, you must make aggressive strikes to soft parts of the body.
- Try to stay aware enough to at least get a two arms length margin (ma-ai)
- If they start to move within this two arms length margin then you must act immediately or you will likely be engaged in a standing fight.
- Your first idea should be to push back to greater than two arms length to regain this margin (of safety and time to think).
- If they are not letting you push back, you need to be doing something simple, reflexive, and extremely effective. Something like shomenate, aigamaeate, or gyakugamaeate. Or, if you don't do Japanese aikido jargon, if they won't let you disengage, bust them in the face with a palm-heel and drive them off of you.
- Everything else in aikido, all the wristlocks, throws, etc... is a backup plan for the above. These are all special purpose things that help fill in the corners in situations that a good palmheel to the chin won't solve.
Pretty impressive that all these great core aikido teachings are coming nearly verbatim from a tactical firearms instructor.
