Handy Guide to Pickpocketing Video

[Peter ILC]

It seems to me there are some interesting concepts in this video that relate to self-defense/martial arts.
The pickpocket has so many feints and distractions that the mark has no idea what's going on. In particular,
the pickpocket mentions how he intentionally draws the mark's attention/vision to a specific quadrant in order to
steal an object from an unobserved quadrant.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/won ... siness_pop

[middleway]

very interesting. Thanks for this.

[RobP2]

Konstantin Komarov ran a drill around this kind of work on one of the Summer Camps.... I got the most dips....I put it down to my Cockney genes

Some interesting work and attributes to be developed here

[Sajite]

The principle of feeding the "victim" with fake sensorial stimulus has remind me a lot of some Sayoc Kali principles...

[NoSword]

Fascinating.

I want to know three things:

Does he practice or has he practiced on compliant partners? If so, how?

How does he use mirrors? (I assume he must.)

No matter how good you are, there still must be a learning curve to this stuff and you have to take some risks as a beginner. How do you log enough hours to get confident and proficient, without getting beat up/arrested dozens of times first?

AK

[kreese]

I mentioned this a long time ago, I guess someone else see's some of the connections...

[Andy_S]

Fantastic. I wondered why this was on the main board until I saw the gongfu this guy has developed.

It's all there:
Intention
Sensitivity
Deception
Even some of his physical moves, like crossing the opponent, are CMA-related.

Fascinating guy:

SNIP
He is probably best known for an encounter with Jimmy Carter’s Secret Service detail in 2001. While Carter was at dinner, Robbins struck up a conversation with several of his Secret Service men. Within a few minutes, he had emptied the agents’ pockets of pretty much everything but their guns. Robbins brandished a copy of Carter’s itinerary, and when an agent snatched it back he said, “You don’t have the authorization to see that!” When the agent felt for his badge, Robbins produced it and handed it back. Then he turned to the head of the detail and handed him his watch, his badge, and the keys to the Carter motorcade.
SNIP