Mindset for Wheelchair Self-Defense

Now we're gonna talk about mindset. In my opinion, this is the most important piece of information in regards to wheelchair self-defense. The reason for that is, my personal experience in dealing with my own injuries, being a strong, capable warrior type with the Marines and then being reduced to wheelchair status, if you will, and dealing with other people in similar circumstances, and since meeting people who were born to those circumstances or who have dealt with those circumstances for long periods of time, there is a mentality that is bred into the circumstance, that if you're in a wheelchair, you are a victim already. There are already things that you just can't do. And that's really not the case.

All this is, everything that we've talked about, are methods of problem-solving. A gunfight is just a problem, or a series of smaller problems. We seek to find answers for them. Sometimes the answer's shooting. Sometimes the answer is running away.

Sometimes the answer is covering yourself in a bulletproof blanket and waiting for it to pass over. But it's clearly identifying the problem and then finding solutions. But the first thing that you have to address is where these holes are in your mentality regarding your own disposition, this victim mentality that's bred into the wheelchair mindset. It's in many ways handed to us, for those of us who were able-bodied and then put into a wheelchair due to circumstance, due to accident, due to a certain injury or medical condition. A big part of this recovery process that many of us go through breeds a victim mentality.

It says there's things that you can't do, things that you'll never be able to do again, and the answer is that it's simply not true. Identifying that in yourself and saying that I'm not going to be that way, saying that I'm gonna take personal responsibility for those things that need to get done regardless, is the first step in establishing a solid mindset for this type of work. You have to say that I'm going to do this. This is now my responsibility. I'm not gonna rely on other people's defensive capacities to protect me.

When you make that mental shift, then we can start to really proactively work and give you the tools you need to take matters into your own hands to protect yourself. The first step in applying this dynamic problem-solving mentality to this dynamic is establishing the ability to clearly identify what our individual problems are. For those in the wheelchair, some of the problem we've already discussed, mobility, where can you go, where can't you go, what's blocking you, what are your physical limitations and what you can do in that situation? Once you have clearly identified what it is that you can and can't do, what are you physically capable of, how well can you handle your firearm, can you manipulate it one-hand, can you multitask, like we talked about, being able to push yourself around, be able to pull yourself around with one hand, being able to fire with the other hand; what is it that you can do? What is it can you do and what is it that you can get done?

When you have really given yourself an honest assessment of yourself and where your physical capabilities are, then you can start applying those possibilities to your training. Your training has to be marked appropriately. You have to be able to challenge yourself in real-life-type scenarios. So you have to be able to induce stress. What you should most importantly be doing is be training in that environment.

Do you live in an urban environment where you're crossing parking lots a lot? Are you outdoors a lot? Do you live out in more of a rural area? Are you practicing on the right terrain? Is your wheelchair set up for that?

Your training has to reflect the reality that you live. And then you have to constantly reassess honestly both yourself and your training regimen. You've started to go down this training route, and we start to establish these techniques and these methods and these tactics, these strategies for you as an individual. But maybe we start getting too abstract and it stops applying to your reality. Something you have to do is constantly go back and reassess your training capacity.

"Am I doing this the right way? "Is my training accurately reflecting my reality? "Am I building myself up to protect myself, "or am I developing techniques that are just gonna hurt me," like we talked about, some of the flat-range techniques, just sitting still and pointing a weapon and shooting. That's not gonna help you in the long run. So, taking responsibility for your training is not just taking responsibility for saying, "I'm gonna protect myself now." You have to constantly say, "This is working for me.

"This is not working for me. "I can do this," or "I can't do this." The most important thing I want you to take away from this is all of these things, clearly identifying problems, applying your training to those particular problems and abilities, constantly honestly reassessing yourself. All those have to do in the end with empowering you as an individual. We talked about taking responsibility for your own life, for your own protection. It's not about going to a class and having an instructor hand you techniques and hand you these tactical concepts that may or may not work for you.

"Here's a pill. "Take this pill and call me in the morning." It has to be you that identifies what's relevant to your life and where you're gonna take it, what you're gonna do with it. Is it working for you? Is it going to keep working for you? Constantly be honest with yourself and do what you need to do to build yourself up and take responsibility for your own life and your own protection.