Combat Science and Practical Threat Strategy with Specialist Franklin Joseph

Summary: Specialist Franklin Joseph delivers crucial practical insights into real-world threat survival through combat science. Moving beyond standard martial arts, he emphasizes psychological strategy, anti-freeze fear management, pre-crime avoidance, and leveraging kinetic mechanics over raw physical power to effectively counter violent crime scenarios.

Introduction and Personal Background [00:00:02]

Transcript of the TEDx Talk by Specialist Franklin Joseph on The Science of Combat

Franklin Joseph: My name is Franklin Joseph, and I am a specialist in combat science and special tactics. Now, we are not in a zombie movie, right? Why do I say I see dead people? Let me explain that a little bit. Imagine this: there are two parallel universes, and one entity is in between those universes. In one universe, that entity chose to become an artist. You saw the other people speaking about those things. In the other universe, he chose to become a dentist. You all do that. We make choices. I want to do a small exercise with you. Close your eyes, relax your arm, relax your arm down. Close your eyes and think where you are today in your life. Think what you are, what kind of job you are in, what kind of people you are surrounded with, your family, your lover, neighbour’s wife, neighbour’s husband. Now think of that choice, that particular point where you made that choice to be where you are today, and think of that alternative choice. What if you chose to be somebody else? What if you chose a different lover?

Childhood Trauma and Survival [00:01:29]

Franklin Joseph: What if you chose a different job, a different boss? Now open your eyes. Look at me. When I was preparing for this talk, I was looking at all the ways to look friendly, like open your hands like this, smile a lot. I cannot smile because I see dead people, and it is not fun. Why? Because my life started literally at the age of four when I was sexually abused by a girl, age eight. Yes, a girl. Every time I say that, some girls actually laugh. They were like, “Oh, you should have enjoyed yourself.” No, I did not enjoy it. In fact, I suffered sexual abuse for twenty-two years, and I was born in the slums of New Delhi. If you are born in the slum of New Delhi, it is a blessing to even speak some weird English. My wife keeps correcting me all the time. The syntax is wrong, the meaning, your sentences are not good. But born in the slums of Delhi, I learnt how to survive twenty-three to twenty-five years of street violence, where I was involved in gangs. My job was to beat somebody up. You look at me today. I am a healthier fellow, but at one time I was a skinny guy. I do not have any photographs of that, and I used to beat people up.

Combat Science vs. Martial Arts [00:03:06]

Franklin Joseph: How I used to do it, not martial arts, because when I see martial arts, it is very good in what it does. It teaches you a lot of very good things. There are very good teachers out there who are teaching martial arts, but what is missing is the concept of combat science. When you see a terror attack, I think recently there was a terror attack in a city, and you see that. Let us imagine there is this room, this hall falls down. We die today. We chose to be here, right? Did somebody put a gun on your head? “Let us go to TEDx.” No. But imagine this: if there is a terrorist that comes into this room and is about to shoot you, you know what to do. Yes or no? Yes. Now imagine if your family is with you. Imagine if your lover is with you. Imagine if your wife or husband or your daughter or your son is with you. Do you know? Do they know what to do? Do you know how to protect them? No. That is why I say I see. I cannot hear you. Some sleepy people also. I am going to wake you up a little bit. I am going to teach you combat science. The first question that comes to mind is, okay.

Why Not Martial Arts? [00:04:32]

Franklin Joseph: Why not martial arts? Again, it is very good what they do. But martial art is very old. It has not been refined. It has not been upgraded properly. Modern crime, let us say, sexual harassment of a girl in an office. She cannot go and start punching the boss and ask for a next day. “Come, hey man, how you doing?” A schoolboy who has been abused by a principal cannot go and punch the principal because that boy is very small, and the abuser, who is a forty-year-old principal, is big. One punch of the kid cannot match the punch of the forty-year-old abuser. Remember, he is not going to come in a violent rage towards that kid. He will come with a chocolate. How can you fight a chocolate? You cannot do that. Remember, we talked about the terrorist who enters the room. What will you do? Matrix? You cannot do that. Combat science is about learning how not to focus on your weakness. Every time people join martial arts, they assume that they are weak.

Crime Does Not Care About Your Resume [00:05:56]

Franklin Joseph: People ask me, “What if I am a 40-year-old guy?” They literally give me a resume. “Hi, Frank. I want to do this. I am 40-year-old. I am single.” I tell them, “Boss, I am not marrying you. I am already married.” So he does not understand. He is like, “No, no. I am telling you what I am.” I said, “Crime does not care who you are. Crime does not care if you are 40-year-old. Crime does not care if you are 5-year-old. Crime does not care what miniskirt you are wearing. Crime does not care if your hands and arms can do 40 push-ups or not. Crime does not care. A criminal will not ask your resume. Combat science is focusing on your strengths, whatever you are. If you are big, good. You are small, good. You are tall, good. You are a girl, you are a good boy, you are good. You can use that, not tricks. Use yourself and your brain. That is why the science part comes in, how to defend and escape from the situation. When we talk about self-defence, people already assume that we are going to do some tricks. I remember the first time I was doing my workshops, and I went to a venue like this, and I was dressed up like this. The MC came to me and said, “Sir, where is your pajama?” I was like, “What pajama are you talking about, bro?”

The Plastic Pen Demonstration [00:07:31]

Franklin Joseph: It was like, “No, you guys wear those white pajamas. Where is that?” I said, “I do not have pajamas, man.” I am just about having food with you guys, and I took this out. I will ask you, is this dangerous? Is this dangerous? It is made of plastic. It is not made of steel. Can this be dangerous? Yes. I need a small person. Can you help me out? Can you please come here? God bless you, bro. You can see this. I know it is very small. You cannot see it, but I think you can. Please, sir, come here. Do you want this in your eye? No. Sure. I will give it for free. Do not worry. Relax, relax. Come here. Do not worry. I will not poke it in your eyes. What about your neck? No. Just feel it. It is sharp. It is sharp. Yes. But it is made of plastic. Why are you scared of it? It is very sharp here. Thank you, thank you. Go back. Did any of you see that when you were eating your food?

Seeing Dead People and Real Threats [00:09:03]

Franklin Joseph: Did you see that? No, you were eating your food. I was seeing this, and there are people like me because I was born in the slums, and my job was to hurt people like you. That is why I say I see dead people. How many of you are prepared to deal with real life terrorism, real life sexual abuse, real life kidnapping, sexual harassment, robbery? I am going to ask Crystal to help me out, to make you understand combat science, how to use your strength, not focus on your weakness. I will use this later. I will start with the simplest crime. Let us say I am a bad person. I am the principal who is abusing the kids, and this is the kid we are talking about. I will grab her hand. Can you see that? I am just grabbing with my forefingers and my thumb, and let us say I am dragging her to my vehicle to assault her. What can she do to protect herself? Come on, tell me. Shout. What else? Sit down. What else? Bite me. What else? Kick my knee. She is very specific. She can write an essay on that.

The Science of Escape: The Thumb Weakness [00:10:31]

Franklin Joseph: I will kick the knee first. Then I will go to the… Good. Really think about it. It looks great in your mind, right? What if she bites me? What if she kicks me, punches me, and the movie star is born suddenly? No, it cannot work like that. Why? Because I am an uncle, or I am a father, or I am the school teacher. In her mind, she respects me, and she fears me. That is in her mind. It is not here. But here, I remember, I was not attacking her with a knife. I was attacking her with a chocolate and love and care. “Hi, beta. How are you? Very good. You are beautiful. Come with me. Come on.” “No, no, no. I cannot come.” So let us say she tries to pull herself away. Pull yourself. Come on, use your strength. She can punch me, as you said, kick the knee, kick this. I can do the same to her, is it not? Now let us learn the science part of it. Let us leave the fantasy out of it. Four fingers, one thumb. She is focusing on my weakness, not her weakness. My weakness is the thumb.

Triangle Shape and Full Body Force [00:11:55]

Franklin Joseph: My weakness is the wrist, so she grabs her arm in this position. She is making a triangle. Triangle is a stronger shape. She is using a full body. The muscles being stomach muscles, back muscles, and thigh muscles. All of you have that. She is focusing the energy from the elbow coming towards me. That is it. It is a turn, nothing else. See that in real time. Go, and she is out. Simple science. We learnt that in school, and she is using that to get out. Let us see if the same science can be applied to a different crime situation. One, two. Now the power has increased. You can see both hands coming towards. Can the same science be applied here? No. Same thing. Wrist, grab the wrist up. Push the elbow in. Mass into acceleration is equal to force. Do it and out. It pains because the force that is being applied comes to my weakness. Remember, if she is 42 kg, 5 feet 2 inches, and let us say she is going with an acceleration of at least 10 meters per square inch, she is giving 400 kg per square meter per square inch force on me. That is like four people like me jumping on a thumb. That is power, and the power is coming from her brain. I will create more problems. Now remember, we were using one hand. We will use two hands. So go get out real time. One and two.

Applying Science to Different Attacks [00:13:35]

Franklin Joseph: Let us say I am not in front of her. I am behind her. Turn this side. I have grabbed her. “Come with me.” One, two, and she is getting out. Let us not use arms. I am using neck. The same principle is being applied here, but now the threat is more real. The neck is being applied in this position. I am holding the neck. Raise the arm. Turn the body. Mass into acceleration, and she is able to get out. Of course, after this, she will be able to punch and kick me if needed. All she is using is science. Now let us take a robbery situation. Previously we were talking about sexual abuse, where I was trying to kidnap her or rape her or murder her. Let us say a robbery situation. Remember we did this, and he did not like it. I am going to use this on her. Come in front of me. I am using this in this situation. How to get out? Can she punch me? Can she kick me? Can she scream? No. The threat is very real. What she is doing again? Applying her science. The knife is very close, so she is pushing the knife. Raise the hand from this position and push my hand away. Push the hand away, so you can see the knife comes out. Now grab my knife or the hand.

Final Demonstration and Choice [00:15:00]

Franklin Joseph: Now turn inside, and I am out. If you notice, she is able to get out. Of course, from that position, she can target my weak points. Thank you, Crystal. So you decide. You decide. You want to be a dead person, or you want to be a live person? Because when you are alive, you can do things like what other people talked about—dream and travel. You all love to do that. I love to do that too. So first, be alive. Focus on your mind. Focus on science, so that things like this do not scare you. I will finish it up with a simple story of a lion and the lioness. In the lion’s pride, the lion is very strong. You have seen lions with manes, and lionesses are bearing the kids. Sometimes they are assaulted and raped by other lions, but the lionesses are so strong that we do see some kind of assaults on the lionesses at times. But if the lionesses come together, they form a team.

The Lioness Pride and Conclusion [00:16:28]

Franklin Joseph: Once the lionesses come together, the team is so strong that the lion cannot even enter the pride without the lioness’s permission. Forget about rape, forget about assault. If the lion forces himself on her, all the lionesses will attack the lion. If the lionesses feel that it is a real threat, she can take her children away and go form her own pride. That shows strength. Again, not the strength of the body, but the strength of the mind. Combat science is how you use your energy, how you use your mind to escape life-threatening situations. So, my last question: Are you dead or alive? Are you dead people? I cannot hear you. I cannot hear you. No, I still cannot hear you. Are you dead or alive? (Audience responds: “Alive”) Alive. Enjoy yourselves. Thank you, guys. Thank you, sir.

The main takeaway is that survival depends entirely on adopting a warrior mindset and acting on biomechanical levers rather than relying on artistic martial manoeuvres.

Krav Maga 1-to-1 Fast-Track (UPSC NEET IIT-JEE, NDA CDS AFCAT or Doctors, Lawyers & IT Professionals), Corporate & CSR Self Defence Inquiries National Hotline: 7483520836