As I noted in my February 2018
blog February “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.”
Continuing to practice
consciously and properly, so you understand your habits, and being committed to
ensuring correct position/alignment, have coordination, agility, focus, and
speed all are critical in preparing to use your techniques in a real situation. But to test how effective your techniques are
when your body is under stress, you need to prepare physically under such
conditions.
One way to physically prepare is
to train while your heart rate is high.
To increase your heart rate, you can push your physical effort and force
so you are winded to a point of being out of breath. For example, practice a hyung at full speed a
few times one right after another and then perform self-defense. See how well you maintain your control, how
effective your techniques are, and how quick your reaction time is. Pay attention to other ways your physical
body may have reacted such as: did you
have problems concentrating? Did you
have problems thinking clearly? Did time
slow? Did you freeze up? These are all indications
that your heart rate is high or you have a large amount of adrenaline in your
body.
In addition, you need to train
during scenarios where you experience an adrenaline surge into your body. Some ways to accomplish this is to perform
exercises / drills that increase your level of stress:
·
Drills you are very
uncomfortable with (e.g., a timed drills with others observing)
·
Drills that are more
dynamic (drills where attack types, speed, etc. are random),
·
Drills that try to
mimic more realistic scenarios (e.g., a drill that evokes a sense of fear, 2-on-1
training, 3-on-1 training, drills where the attack is a surprise (either the
attack itself or the way the attacker attacks), attacking with weapons, drills
where there is a lot of loud noises such as a crowds, drills where the light is
very dim such as at night on a dark street, etc.)
For all these drills, it is
important to try to maintain a safe environment which will limit the level of
stress that can be induced.
Mastering your breathing is also
critical. If you can control your
breathing it can help control your heart rate and if you can control your heart
rate it will help you maintain control, clearer thoughts, and allow you to last
longer in an altercation (among others things).
I discussed breathing and its importance in more detail in my December
2016 blog titled ”Deep Breathing…Could Be A Life Saver”.
Each of us has different scenarios that evoke high heart
rates and adrenaline surges. And each of
us has different levels of adrenaline that we can effectively tolerate. The key is to train to understand those
limits so you understand how you may react in a real self-defense
situation. Then you should continue to
train to induce those levels and push yourself incrementally to move the needle
so you are more and more effective under higher stress scenarios.
There are also ways you can
prepare mentally for being under stress which I will describe in a future blog.
Regards,
Kelly
“The more we sweat in training, the less we
bleed in battle” ~ Old Chinese Proverb
References:
1. http://www.handgunsmag.com/tactics-training/training-stress-6-ways-prepare-defensive-scenarios/, Retrieved 3/11/18
2. http://pacificwavejiujitsu.com/blog/how-to-us-adrenaline-flow-martial-arts-self-defense/, Retrieved 3/11/18
