A thought experiment: Imagine we came across a race of aliens who outwardly were just like us – same shape, dimensions, physical and mental attributes etc – but with one peculiar difference. Located directly in the middle of their forehead was bright red button, and if you touched that button, they immediately went completely unconscious for one minute every single time. It was like an off switch that could turn their lights off as easily as the switch in a lamp. Now ask yourself – WHAT WOULD THE MARTIAL ARTS OF THESE PECULIAR ALIENS LOOK LIKE? Obviously they would be completely centered around THE ABILITY TO MAKE CONTACT WITH THE RED BUTTON IN THE FOREHEAD OF AN opponent WHILE DENYING THAT OPPONENT THE ABILITY TO DO THE SAME TO THEM. Everything they did would be to protect their own red forehead button while exposing their opponent's. Now a moments thought reveals that WE HUMANS ARE NOT SO DIFFERENT FROM THESE IMAGINED ALIENS – for we too have our own off switches that are just as available and accessible as the imaginary red buttons. In humans, the two main off switches are of course, the jaw (striking) and the neck (grappling). And as such, our martial arts are best understood as essentially a set of skills designed to expose an opponent's jaw or neck whilst hiding or denying our own. If you had to fight one of these imaginary aliens you would of course do everything with the goal of getting to his red forehead button – so too when fighting humans you must steer all your goals towards the human “off switches” jaw and neck. In a truly competitive situation where physical damage from body blows or joint locks are not enough to dissuade an opponent from further fighting – go for the off switches. When you size up an opponent always try to see their jaw and neck as your ultimate goal and your own jaw and neck as your biggest concern – it will give you a helpful basic sense of direction in any physical bout you get into and also provide a useful sense of direction for your training programs. Understand that just as the vulnerable red button would be the basis of these hypothetical alien martial arts, the reality of our vulnerable jaw and neck is the basis of ours
