Hello and welcome to anew series for The Bioneer: Humanly Possible. Here, I’ll be focussing on thecoolest feats, powers, and skills from fiction to see if anything like them isremotely humanly possible.
And to begin with,I’ll be looking at the bullet-fu or gun kata seen in movies like John Wick, TheMatrix, Equilibrium, and anything directed by John Woo. Not to mention gameslike Max Payne and My Friend Pedro.
Here’s the problem:martial arts movies have been accused of being redundant. What good is it to bea top class living weapon, when someone can just pull a gun on you? Of course,a gun fight is typically far shorter and less balletic than your average kungfu throw-down! And thus, gun-fu was born: highly stylized gunplay that turnsshooting people into a highly choreographed dance. Where the hero somehowmanages to dance through bullets, often in slow motion, while usually firingtwo guns at the same time.
Can you do anything to increase your chances of not being shot in a gun fight?
So: is it humanlypossible? Can you really dodge a bullet? Or at least take on a squad ofhenchman in cool style with any chance of success? Can you do anything toincrease your chances of not being shot in a gun fight?
Can You Dodge a Bullet?
Let’s start withdodging bullets. The short answer here is that no, you cannot dodge a bullet.
This is physically impossible,due to a number of different factors: not least the fact that it takes too longfor signals to travel through your nervous system. The very fastest nerveimpulses travel at roughly 250 miles an hour (though this depends on the typeof nerve) and the time it takes for a signal to travel from your brain to yourhand is around 0.3 seconds (a blink takes about 0.1 seconds).
This isn’t evencounting the amount of time it takes for the visual information to travel fromthe eye to the brain, such that we know we’re going to need to dodge.This takes about 13 milliseconds. What’s more, is that this information isactually “delayed” to be for the amount of time it takes for the brain toreceive information from the proprioceptors of the foot. In other words, allinformation is delayed until the point in time that it takes for our lastsensory input to reach us. As Michael from VSauce explains in an excellentvideo, this is so that all the information from the body arrives at the sametime and doesn’t appear out of sync! It also means that taller peopleunfortunately have slower reactions.
Now, consider that atypical handgun fires at 2,500 feet per second. Thus, in 0.3 seconds, it hastravelled 750 feet.
The very fastest nerve impulses travel at roughly 250 miles an hour.
Bottom line? You’renot dodging that! In fact, as many bullets travel faster than the speed ofsound, you wouldn’t even hear the gunshot until you were already hit!
Can you guess whensomeone will shoot and thus anticipate the trajectory? Almost certainly not, asthere are simply too many variables to predict here , even with just oneopponent!
It should come as nosurprise then to learn that there is no real life gun kata. There are martialarts designed around fighting with guns, using them as bluntinstruments. Likewise, there are correct stances and methods for usingfirearms. Of course, many self defence techniques also focus on disarming armedassailants. But as far as a real life gun kata is concerned? Nope, doesn’texist.
So, someone puts a gunto your head and you’re dead right? Well, not quite!
Your One Shot: The OODA Loop
In a reallyfascinating experiment, two participants of “equal skill” were faced oppositeone another. One had a gun, one did not. The unarmed subject was instructed tostand with their hands up, and to attempt to disarm their opponent as soon asthey saw an opportunity. The gunman meanwhile was instructed to fire as soon asthey saw the other person move.
You would think thatthe unarmed participant would lose every time. However, almost the exactopposite was true: in nearly every case, the gun toting operator lost.
Keep in mind that thisexperiment was not published in a peer reviewed journal, but was conducted atthe Suarez International training facility and reported in Black Belt Magazine.So take it with a pinch of salt. But that said, there is actually a goodexplanation for what may be going on here.
We cannot dodgebullets due to limitations in the processing speed of the human brain. But thatis also the limitation we can use against an opponent. Why? Because ifsomeone is pointing a gun at you and hasn’t already fired, then they are likelywaiting for you to do something. That now means you can plan ahead: you knowwhat you’re going to do next whereas they have to react. Visualise a plan ofattack first, and you might just pull it off.
In nearly every case, the gun toting operator lost.
This is due tosomething called the OODA loop. First outlined by military strategist ColonelJohn Boyd, this acronym stands for Observe, Orient, Decide, Act. These fourstages are considered essential when taking any action, and are estimated toeach take at least 1/4th of a second. By preplanning, you canessentially therefore gain a small advantage over your opponent. This is called“getting inside the OODA loop.”
A similar trick Ilearned in Karate was to use a form of distraction by talking and thenattacking mid sentence. The human brain is naturally programmed to wait for theend of a sentence, and task switching in this interrupted manner takes evenmore time and processing. They’re still waiting for you to finish talking andyou’ve just hit them square in the face.
This is an example ofbreaking an adversary’s OODA loop through chaos and uncertainty. The more chaosand confusion you can cause, the harder it will be for your opponent to adaptand respond. Another good example is that if you suspect an intruder in yourhome, instead of creeping cautiously into the living room to confirm yoursuspicions, you might do better to suddenly jump and shout as you enter theroom – thereby startling them and gaining an upper hand.
Situational Awareness
There are other waysto get inside the enemy’s OODA loop too. One is to identify threats and orientyourself correctly before an encounter. We can of course accomplish thisbetter by training situational awareness: positioning ourselves smartly in aroom, being mindful of our environments, and learning to quickly scan forpoints of interest.
Remaining undetectedfor as long as possible is also a powerful strategy. I love the analogy of asubmarine. This vessel is far more vulnerable than a huge aircraft carrier orbattleship, but can potentially take out an entire fleet of each simply byremaining undetectable. I wrote an article all about using ninja concepts inthe modern day, so check that out if you’re interested.
So while you can’toutmanoeuvre a gun, you might just be able to use psychology to your advantage.Of course your own psychology must also be – for lack of a better word –bulletproof. You must be accustomed to making snap decisions under extremepressure, and remaining calmly aware of your surroundings at all times. Checkout my videos and posts on flow states for more on how to do this. Apparentlythe best performing marines are those that produce greater amounts ofneuropeptide y and DHEA which allows them to maintain a “metronomic heart rate”in highly stressful situations. We can improve our own ability to remain calmby using breathing techniques such as the fourfold breath, also taught tomilitary personnel. Engaging peripheral vision with hakalau meditation can alsohelp to keep us calmer, while also improving our ability to react to things inour field of vision.
While you can’t outmanoeuvre a gun, you might just be able to use psychology to your advantage.
A moment’s hesitationand you’re dead. And this is something that is conveyed well in John Wick: heis extremely efficient with every movement. And his unflinching expression istestament to how calm he is throughout even the most intense firefight.
So, is gun furealistic then? Not at all. And I highly recommend that if someone ever pulls agun on you, you do as they ask and then get out of there. All it takes is forthem to have a knee jerk reaction to pull that trigger and it’s game over.
But perhaps with theright psychology and strategy, steely determination, and decades of training,an assassin like John Wick could ever so slightly tip the scales slightly totheir advantage in a gun fight. And that’s still pretty cool.
And we can all benefitfrom situational awareness and understanding the OODA loop to apply in otheraspects of our lives.
