Thursday, February 1, 2018

You Will Fight How You Practice - Chief Instructor's Blog February 2018


In martial arts, we study and practice many different aspects so we become proficient, efficient, and stay safe, including but not limited to mechanics, agility, balance, coordination, focus, speed, and force.  All of these are important.  We practice much of the time in a manner that allows us to be in control so we can perfect these aspects. 

In time of stress, the body will produce large amounts of adrenaline and there may be no time to think, so you will react strictly by body memory.  What this means is how you have practiced and trained is how you will defend yourself if you are ever attacked.  Let me repeat this: how you have practiced and trained is how you will defend yourself if you ever are attacked.

This means it is critical how you practice.  One of our members on the Board of Directors, Brian Rainie, met a police officer who was also studying Aikido.  In their drills defending against knives, they were in the habit of taking the knife away and immediately handing it back to their partner to practice again.  In a real situation while on duty he ran across an assailant with a knife.  He was able to take the knife away using his training, and in this highly stressed scenario, he went to body memory: he disarmed the assailant and immediately handed the knife back to him.  He was very lucky the assailant was surprised by this and he was able to disarm him a second time. 

Dave Grossman, a retired United States Army lieutenant colonel states in his book On Combat: The Psychology and Physiology of Deadly Conflict in War and Peace, “If you spend years and years dialing 4-1-1 and never practice 9-1-1, then under stress you are likely to dial 4-1-1.”

Therefore, we all need to pay very close attention to our practice habits (recognize some of our habits may be unconscious, so we must be extra conscious to pick up on them) and practice our skills so they will be effective in a real self-defense situation.  If you consistently adjust your uniform that will be a habit you will perform under stress.  If you always look down or relax during or after a turn in basics or a form, then you will naturally do that in a stressed situation.  If you do not keep your wrist straight all the time while practicing, it will not be there for you in a stressed situation.  If you do not stay focused in class during a one-minute round of sparring maintaining controlled breathing and focus, you will not be able to maintain that focus and breathing in a controlled manner in a real situation where your life may depend on it. 

It is also very important to train pushing the speed and force of your techniques constantly while maintaining good mechanics and control.  If you never push your force or speed, it will not become natural in a stressed situation and if you try to go faster and with force it will be uncontrolled and ineffective. 

I know our intent is never to have to use our techniques in a real situation.  That is our true goal.  But we must train as if we will be forced to fight.

So, I challenge each of you to look at your practice habits and understand which ones need to be adjusted so your techniques will be effective and efficient whenever you need to call upon them.

 
Regards,
Kelly

“There are no lazy veteran lion hunters.” ~ Norm Augustine (1935-present), a U.S. aerospace businessman who served as United States Under Secretary of the Army from 1975 to 1977, from his novel Augustine’s Laws



 

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