WIN Prizes! NEW: Fightin' Words – ends on 05/04

[admin]

Join this discussion to be in the running to win a 12-month subscription to Blitz OR products up to $60 value from the Blitz catalogue. The forum member whose post is selected by the editor to be published in the May edition of Blitz will win this great prize! Competition closes 5th of April.

This issue we ask: In your martial art (or indeed, any martial art), how important in the learning process is facing and mastering fear, and what elements of the training help students to do this, either directly or indirectly?

[Dean Whittle]

Hasn't this topic already been covered ... and well answered by Kacey?

[ChuckManson]

Too Right Dean!!!!

This is thier lame reasoning...

Kacey won the last Fightin' Words and it was published in Blitz March issue. There is no winner for Feb's comp due to lack of entries.

I agree it was well answered by Kacey and the fact that this forum and competitions are unpopular and therefore lack enteries shouldn't take away from her taking the time to write a submission.

Its just poor form on the admin (which is becoming more frequent and may be the reason this forum averages 2 posts per day these days.



How many entries does it need?

viewtopic.php?f=4&t=16426

[ChrisGillies]

I will pop in my 2 cents worth:

In your martial art (or indeed, any martial art), how important in the learning process is facing and mastering fear, and what elements of the training help students to do this, either directly or indirectly?

As I cross train in several different systems, I can say that the approach to fear management differs significantly in each. However, from a holistic self-defence point of view, mastering your fear is likely to be the single most essential aspect of martial art training.

Human response to scary stimuli is often categorised into: fight, flight (escape), and/or freeze. An individual may react in one or more of these methods when faced with violent conflict or other hazardous situations. There reaction will generally depend on their control over their emotions during an adrenalin dump. Adrenalin will effect different people in different ways, but symptoms include hot or cold flushes, tunnel vision, reduced co-ordination over motor skills, shallow breathing.

Some systems directly train methods of mastering fear, other students learn this indirectly by gradually stepping out of their comfort zones. However, unless you are regularly being cast into a dark alley with a bunch of armed and unknown hostiles, it is impossible to know exactly how you will react in a self defence situation until one occurs. Even then, your level of fear, and your control over this fear will vary in each conflict. The trick to effective fear management is finding the balance between reality and safe training methods.

Some reality-based systems such as Krav Maga find this balance very well. Training at Street Defensive Tactics in Krav Maga included fighting your way out of enclosed spaces (such as the toilet block), defending against multiple armed attackers in the dark car-park, and walking through crowds not knowing when or who may attack you at any time. These drills build an awareness of hazards, exits, and secondary attackers. They form a memory bank of potential violent situations. This gives the student a feeling of familiarity and minimises the trauma of a violent attack.

Traditional systems such as karate attempt to achieve the same result by using alternative methods. Conditioning the body to accept pain by receiving strikes or throws; or hitting makiwara are common exercises. Another novel method is training in the snow or under waterfalls. The premise is that retaining composure while being doused with freezing water requires skills similar to managing fear, as the nervous response to cold water mimics an adrenalin dump.

Personally, I believe that one of the best ways to mentally prepare to cope with an adrenalin dump is to visualise yourself winning in as many realistic self defence situations as possible. Find a quiet spot and try to imagine every detail of the situation, including sounds, smells, lighting, facial expressions, injuries etc. One teaching self defence courses, I would provide the first details and then let the students imagine the rest. Remember to keep it realistic – you must believe what you are imagining. If you find that you are recalling your favourite scene from Ong Bak then stop yourself and start again. Then ideally, recreate the situation with the help of some friends and try to implement your defensive tactics in a controlled manner.

When finding myself in a multiple attacker situation many years ago, I remember feeling the nervous charge of fear in the lead up to violence. However after the first punch was thrown, the fear completely evaporated. I relaxed into a trance-like state and was able to successfully fight and negotiate myself out of danger. This result was significantly different from another multiple attack situation that occurred 15 years ago, in which I was unable to manage my emotions. My fear prevented me from fighting and my ego prevented me from escaping. I froze until I regained consciousness to find myself being the unhappy recipient of ground ‘n’ pound. I was lucky enough to recollect myself enough to be able to escape with just a broken nose and facial stitches. This was a very valuable experience and a turning point in my martial art training.

Understanding and managing your fear is a personal journey. It is not a skill that your sensei can confer upon you. Therefore I advocate that students spend time reading about the biological process that occurs when fear is felt, and challenge themselves to confront it in a safe, progressive and realistic manner.

[ChrisGillies]

I agree it was well answered by Kacey and the fact that this forum and competitions are unpopular and therefore lack enteries shouldn't take away from her taking the time to write a submission.

Its just poor form on the admin (which is becoming more frequent and may be the reason this forum averages 2 posts per day these days.

Bit harsh mate. I think the forum and competitions are a great idea. They expand the content of Blitz beyond the scope of the regular contributors. And who are we to argue with free prizes?

[ChuckManson]

I agree it was well answered by Kacey and the fact that this forum and competitions are unpopular and therefore lack enteries shouldn't take away from her taking the time to write a submission.

Its just poor form on the admin (which is becoming more frequent and may be the reason this forum averages 2 posts per day these days.

Bit harsh mate. I think the forum and competitions are a great idea. They expand the content of Blitz beyond the scope of the regular contributors. And who are we to argue with free prizes?

No mate, I dont think it was harsh at all....

This is a contest and not some random "Free" prize as you put it, meaning it takes effort to enter, the effort was made, the contest was won, but the Admin chose not to honour it.

It wasn't a "free Prize" it was a win (there is a huge difference)

Plain and simple jib thats all, but your're entitled to your opinion,

Cheers,

[Blitz Admin]

Guys, the reason the thread has been renewed for another month is because it is supposed to be a discussion and given there was only one real post (Casey's) on the topic last month, we have left it up for a bit longer, rather than replace it with another topic. Casey's reply was good but not of the depth wanted for publication, therefore it was not selected, which is the criteria for getting a prize. We instead chose to publish in the March issue Casey's great post from the previous 'Fightin' Words' thread (it would not fit into the Feb issue), and she was duly awarded a prize for this.

So there is no confusion from here on, the rule is as follows: a prize will be given for EVERY POST SELECTED FOR PUBLICATION. This may be one or two posts, but at times when no posts are chosen (this is at the editor's discretion), no prize will be awarded.

The aim is to publish at least one post, if not two, in each issue and if these threads are active with good discussion, we will certainly be able to do that. Obviously, the fewer entries, the less likely it becomes that we'll find a post we want to publish, as was the case last issue.

[juggernaut]

Part 1:

In your martial art (or indeed, any martial art), how important in the learning process is facing and mastering fear, and what elements of the training help students to do this, either directly or indirectly?

Facing ones fears is apparent and beneficial in many facets of life, whether it be martial arts, sports, school, personal issues or relationships.

As it applies to martial arts performance and importantly self defence, you have to firstly ask exactly what is fear?
Fear is often labelled an emotional response, but in real terms it is a physiological response to perceived stimuli. That response involves Chemicals such as adrenaline and the stress hormone cortisol being released into the blood stream causing certain physical reactions such as:
• Rapid heart rate
• Increased blood pressure
• Tightening of muscles
• Sharpened or redirected senses
• Dilation of the pupils (to let in more light)
• Increased sweating
All of this affects our performance, the more stress or fear that the mind perceives the greater the physical reaction. Fear and its effects can be quite debilitating and can have a profound effect on performance. It can also enhance performance in the right quantity and under the right circumstances.

So how do we overcome this negative response and hopefully gain a positive response.

Seeing that there are two factors involved, firstly there is the stimulus and then the physical reaction, we need to look at how we can effect one or both of these factors.

Keeping in mind that the physical reaction is determined in large part by the mental stimulus, it’s obvious that by changing the one, the effects of the other can be greatly changed, and for our purposes, generally reduced.

So in real terms, our ability to change our physical reaction to external stimuli can be limited, but changing how we perceive the circumstances can be more readily changed.

A simple way of looking at the effects of perception on us is to compare two people who are about to jump out of a perfectly good aeroplane (with a parachute of course). One has already completed over a hundred jumps, the other is a first timer. Both will experience the effects of an adrenaline dump, but it will be to varying degrees. The experienced jumper will still feel the heightened heart rate and increased blood pressure, but is used to seeing the ground from an elevated height, and knows what to expect, so the effects are not debilitating. He can still function well, and may even function better in many circumstances due to the extra adrenaline and cortisol in the bloodstream, helping to focus his attention.

But the novice jumper whilst looking at the same view from the plane will be interpreting the situation in a very different manner. Without the experience of many jumps, his perception of the risks involved can be greatly exaggerated, due to the effects of another facet of the human mind, the imagination. So our novice jumper sees all the worst case scenarios in his mind. This ‘perception’ of the situation greatly enhances the perceived risks involved in the jump, which in turn illicit’s a stronger physiological response. A far greater response than the physical reaction experienced by the veteran jumper. This physical response could be construed as fear of the impending jump.

If we apply this to sporting competition, in particular to martial arts competition, we can clearly see how an increase in adrenaline can be beneficial; it increases reaction time and focus and decreases pain amongst a range of things. But too much also becomes a problem.

In the same vein as the parachute jumper, the more we do something the less likely we are to experience the debilitating effects of what is often called the Adrenal Stress Response (ASR).

This simply means that if you want to do well in a given endeavour, you need to undertake that endeavour more frequently. If it’s a sporting competition, you need to compete more regularly, within the conditions that normally exist for your chosen sport.

To help your performance even further, within your training you try your best to replicate the environment that you are going to be competing in. Although training of this type will help to overcome the ASR, there is no way that training will ever truly replicate all of the circumstances inherent in competition. To start with there is the fear of failure, especially if there are people watching. This is why regular and routine competition is required.

When we consider a Self Defence situation such as a knife attack or a multiple attacker situation, it can not be argued that suddenly being confronted by another person or persons with a knife that are intent on doing us harm is going to illicit an ASR. So using the principles listed above, how can we train to overcome or even beater to take advantage of the ASR?

[juggernaut]

Part 2:

The first stage is simply to train the physical response. As martial artists we all do this as part of our regular training classes.

Then we need to contextualise the response. For reasons of safety, we don’t go to the local pub or similar establishment and pick fights, we do the next best thing and we undergo some form of scenario based role playing exercise, whereby we can artificially elicit an ASR.
Although not as ‘real’ as the real thing, this type of training does help to duplicate the most likely type of circumstances that would require us to make use of our ‘self Defence’ training. This type of training allows us to elicit an ASR and create an environment removed from the safety of the dojo. This is important as it allows the mind to have a reference point from which to make use of those skills practiced in the dojo or training hall.

This type of training has long been an important part of the training curriculum for numerous law Enforcement and military units around the world, simply because it works.

On a final note, I wanted to mention repetition and muscle memory. Many people will argue that doing thousands of repetitions of given techniques is all you need to train a ‘muscle memory’ response to a given situation (stimuli). Although this plays an excellent role in training a predetermined response to a given stimuli, that response is generally trained without the effects of the ASR. Therefore the stimuli (as evidenced in the training environment) will often not be present or it will be misinterpreted as the stimulus has not been presented in the same fashion as that experienced in regular training. Training repetitions in the dojo environment, devoid of any real ASR is very different to the stress of a real life street assault.

This means that you can do thousands of repetitions of your favourite block in the dojo environment, but unless you do some form of ASR type training to place that block back into the context of a real world assault including forcing some element of the ASR, your previously practiced block, or any other response you have methodically practised, may not work as the mind does not recognise the situation you find yourself in.

So whether it is for sporting competition or for self defence, an important part of any martial arts training program will include some form of Adrenal Stress Response training in order to overcome the effects of what is most commonly interpreted as FEAR.

[ChrisGillies]

A simple way of looking at the effects of perception on us is to compare two people who are about to jump out of a perfectly good aeroplane (with a parachute of course). One has already completed over a hundred jumps, the other is a first timer. Both will experience the effects of an adrenaline dump, but it will be to varying degrees. The experienced jumper will still feel the heightened heart rate and increased blood pressure, but is used to seeing the ground from an elevated height, and knows what to expect, so the effects are not debilitating. He can still function well, and may even function better in many circumstances due to the extra adrenaline and cortisol in the bloodstream, helping to focus his attention.

But the novice jumper whilst looking at the same view from the plane will be interpreting the situation in a very different manner. Without the experience of many jumps, his perception of the risks involved can be greatly exaggerated, due to the effects of another facet of the human mind, the imagination. So our novice jumper sees all the worst case scenarios in his mind. This ‘perception’ of the situation greatly enhances the perceived risks involved in the jump, which in turn illicit’s a stronger physiological response. A far greater response than the physical reaction experienced by the veteran jumper. This physical response could be construed as fear of the impending jump.

Nice example, Juggs.

[Tai Chi Tank]

So when is a new question/competition coming up? This one seems to have live well beyond it's expiry date.....

[Blitz Admin]

Tank, the new Fightin' Words post has just gone up — usually happens as soon as the latest mag hits the printers.

Thanks for offering your opinions to all who did, and congratulations to Chris for winning this one. Juggs, your post was also great and may get a showing in the June issue.

[Tai Chi Tank]

Woohoo, rock on! now that's what I call drive by service!