I like practicing with all kinds of weapons, and without weapons, so that I do not become a one trick pony.
Without weapons, you use your left (weak) hand like a fly swatter, and a spear. Turn your body sideways with your left hand forward as a guard and the hand opened. Use the hand like a runningback in football to push back and ward off any assailant. Also use it to swat away any jabs or thrusts made by your opponent. You can also use it to spear your opponent's eyes with your firm fingers. You can strengthen your fingers by jabbing them into a bucket of beach sand.
Use your right hand clenched in a fist to jab and punch to the face, especially the nose, which breaks easily and really hurts when it does. You can also use the right as a tomahawk with lethal power to break a neck from above and slightly to the side.
Dont waste time kicking with your feet, just keep a firm stance under you, but jump on top of your assailant's instep of his front foot if you get the chance with both your feet. This may break his foot. Works like a charm if you jump with your full force on it. This works better if you are wearing motorcycle boots with really hard rubber soles.
A good combination to practice is dance like a butterfly, noting his front foot, then snap your forward hand to his eyes while you jump onto his front foot, then jab with your right fist into his face. This is a 1-2-3 move that you need to practice fast. It should break his foot and nose at the same time. Usually they fall to the ground after this. At least, so far.
With a knife, have 2 knives, one in each hand. Stand the same way as with empty hands.
Jab to the eyes and the throat quickly with the forward knife. If you can get close enough safely, jab with both knives alternatingly. The assailant should be blinded and bleeding badly no matter how you get stuck. You can recover from your wounds later. It is really hard to kill someone quickly with a knife, but very easy to blind them quickly. If you are both stabbed and bleeding but he is blind in both eyes, you win and the knife fight will be over. And as a blind man in the future he will never bother you or anyone else again.
With a machete, this is similar to sabre fencing, so take a sabre fencing class at your community college. Most colleges teach olympic fencing, and sabre is one of 3 styles (foil and eppee are the other 2).
With a 45ACP I practice my draw as stated above, and shooting at the range as taught by the USMC. The USMC and the FBI are the best firearms instructors in the world. I would give the edge to the FBI on handguns and to the USMC on rifles.
With a shotgun practice at the pattern board with targets at the range. Note that on a short barrel without a choke, shot tends to spread 1 inch for every yard of distance from the muzzle.
With a rifle practice at each distance you can shoot, from 50 to 500 yards at least, or more.
With my Remington model 700 300RUM, 200 grain 3000 fps mv loads (B/C 0.395) the bullet drop when zeroed at 100 yds is --
- 3 inches at 200 yds
- 11 inches at 300 yds
- 25 inches at 400 yds
- 46 inches at 500 yds
- 76 inches at 600 yds
So by setting the scope to 600 yds, I can hit the chest of a man-sized silouhette target very quickly without changing scope settings by using the following aiming points --
- for 600 yds aim obviously for the chest
- for 500 yds aim for the belly button
- for 400 yds aim for the knees
- for 300 yds aim for the ankles
- for 200 yds aim for the knees
- for 100 yds aim for the belly button
- for less than 100 yds aim for the chest.
Remember the achronym: chest-belly-knees-ankles-knees-belly-chest.
Now you are safe, and prepared, from 600 yards up to face to face, armed or unarmed.
And you are not just a one trick pony.
