Always ugly-EWO EIR

One of the things that seem to stand out for everybody when doing any of the Shivworks courses like the one I did this weekend in Charlotte, NC is the evolutions. Everyone attending ends up learning unbelievably internal things about themselves where they previous thought very differently. An evolution or “Thunderdome” is where you put on a couple of soft shell helmets with a clear face guard and basically go to town using the skills you have learned up to that point. You might be set up with a specific situation, or you might have a training weapon, but everyone there is going pretty much 70-75%. I am not going to lie, I felt I was going 90-100% out of desperation. You are basically getting the crap beat out of you in the safest way possible for the sake of training. It’s fast, gassing no matter how athletic you are, and eye opening. The thing that is the most interesting is that no matter the experience in the room, and I have been privileged enough to watch several certified and uncertified bad asses fight for a knife, it is always ugly. There are no elegant fights.
I sent a video of one of my evolutions to my two oldest daughters. It was a two person attack where I had to reach and control my concealed training knife. My oldest texted me back and said she could, “barely stomach,” watching it because it made her so anxious. I understand that sentiment exactly, its even worse in person. The last evolution round of the weekend was started off by GI Joe, a Jiu Jitsu YouTube celebrity named Eli (I had no idea who he was until I was telling my husband and he fan-girled all over him) and Nate who could definitely hold his own and told the weirdest/grossest damn stories (I will never unhear about the shoe and spit). GI Joe was at the ECQC (Extreme Close Quarters Concepts) class in Missouri and had come into Charlotte specifically for the Edged Weapons Overview by Craig Douglas. He is an Army Ranger and is attending the classes for teaching purposes. Since we have now attended two courses together we are now friends, I mean he may think differently but…. Just ask Michael about my forced friendship. LOL!
At this course Craig had a right hand man named Scott Oates whose specialty is in talking trash, not necessarily that he is a retired Navy Seal and 2nd degree BJJ holder, just trash talking. He definitely held a comic relief in certain situations that made it feel like home. When talking trash it is a definite, “takes one to know one,” thing and dark humor tends to alleviate being uncomfortable for me….. As a family man and father of three he offered up different perspectives like having children with you in dangerous situations and that information to me was invaluable. Being a mom I am constantly thinking about scenarios and the, “What if?” situations for self defense when that third party is such precious cargo. He has also owned a restaurant, an MMA gym, and did a pilot episode for HGTV since he and his wife are contractors in Virginia Beach. Seriously I feel super under accomplished in life….
GI Joe, Eli, and Nate started off the last evo’s for the course and it was violent. There is no way else to describe it. I was there watching and my heart rate spiked just being a wall of Thunderdome. Everyone is there to test their skill level, what they have learned that weekend, and just a general, “what would you do?” And here is the thing, every evo after that was exactly the same savage way. I am not going to lie, it crossed my mind to sit it out. I actually asked Craig half joking, “has anyone ever puked in those helmets?” I was assured it would flow out the breathing holes….
My previous evolution was the hardest. It was about striking back hand with a knife and the man against me popped my helmet back so many times I feel I may permanently be looking at the ceiling. The point I am trying to make is that I don’t care what skill level you are, the scuffle is not pretty. GI Joe holds a brown belt and Eli, a black belt in jiu jitsu as well as training in many other things; they were still rolling around with hard, fast, ugly hits. It wasn’t coordinated, no specific move was pulled from their repertoire of martial arts history, hell breathing through those helmets I am not even sure athleticism played too much into it when you are are dealing in adrenaline. Everyone seemed to gas out at the same time. ALL evolutions were ugly. ALL fights are ugly, they aren’t this dreamscape choreographed plethora of showy shit as if Chuck Norris and Steven Segal were making out, it’s a scuffle of flailing violent limbs. There were Navy Seals, Krav Maga instructors, several black belts in BJJ, three rather successful YouTuber’s on a variety of all things fighting; they were all ugly and stupid fast.
Edged Weapons overview is set up to basically tell you there is no good knife fight. Women tend to carry knives more than guns because they feel safer, hell I carry a knife more often than a gun. However after this class I am not saying I wouldn’t keep one on me, but am more inclined to conceal carry more. The thing that is most magical though about this class is how quickly Craigs curriculum can bring a person with little to no knife defense skills and have them fairly on par with most of the group in the room. There were a couple of people there with little to no experience in martial arts and they did not look clumsy in their last evo. Ugly just like everybody else? Yes, but not clumsy. This leads in to my next point.
One of the things I have heard a lot from people is that you cannot teach self defense to women in two or three hours. I agree. I cannot teach them everything they need to know for every situation out there in two hours; you know why? I can’t even teach myself everything I need to know for every situation, period. What I can do, and feel I have met many skilled people who will back me up on this, is trim the fat on the crap stuff and get to the meat of what they would really be facing and how to head it off to get them started. That I can do in two hours. I want to teach a woman to think through her adrenaline and have action. Craigs first three to four hours of both ECQC and EWO are all about deescalation tactics. He goes through what are the more likely scenarios, two man attacks, voice fluctuation uses, and arcing to keep a person at a distance. He does this perfectly broken down so that each action builds on the next and it is brilliant. That is the meat and potatoes.
EWO was hard. In my opinion it was significantly more difficult than the ECQC class. Mentally I had to talk my brain into not justifying the thought of stopping especially after watching the start of the last evolutions. Physically EWO is two eight or more hour days which is about six hours less than ECQC but those two days are a constant go. I was flat out exhausted. Craig is extremely clear with the first goal of always, “Stay on your feet and stay conscious,” and then builds with knife defense of, “Get them off of you, keep them off of you.” In the words of GI Joe, “I don’t think there is a question that this is some of the best training out there.” I am inclined to agree, but it is still ugly.
End Note: The people hosting, Fit To Fight, were amazing. All those who attended the class I felt incredibly privileged to meet and train with. The Fit to Fight crew were so impressive that I was planning on including them in this article, but felt I needed to give them their own. So more on that to come!
End Note End Note: Apparently if I want to be all tactical this would be called an AAR… I am changing the name to EIR or Ego Injury Report because that’s truly what it is….

---