A question that I commonly hear is how someone can get experience in fighting without actually going out and getting mugged or into street fights.
Well, most traditional martial artists and modern sport fighters would say that you need to spar, "in order to be hit and learn to hit."
My problem with that is, first of all, that you shouldn't concentrate on learning to be hit, because, as I have often said, the first person to land a strike in a real street attack tends to win the fight. Either it immediately takes the person hit out of the fight or at least stuns him long enough to allow the attacker to follow-up with finishing blows while the hit person cannot defend himself effectively, so training to "take punches" is akin to training for failure.
The other problem that I have with sparring that I will mention now (believe me, I have plenty of problems with using sport-oriented sparring in self defense training, but that's a topic in itself) is that it will "train" you to "practice" very bad situational awareness. That means that sparring will actually condition you to wait and first defend yourself after some referee has made sure that both you and your opponent are ready and gives you the signal to fight. This is very bad, because it is usually the lack of situational awareness that causes people, especially good sport fighters to lose fights on the street.
For instance, I'm always sending case studies of video clips to my students to study. By watching videos of examples of what has already happened and hearing my comments, they will learn to recognize the critical point of street attacks, where the survivor was determined and be aware of the mistakes that the unsuccessful participant made which insured his failure. Because the critical mistakes were usually either in situational awareness or tactics, my students will automatically be better prepared to avoid them and position themselves to survive, BEFORE being attacked.
Sure, the clip of the girl flooring the bouncer with a headbut and the defensive tactics trainer knocking out the pimp with one blow were examples of how powerful techniques to fragile targets could allow even a "Davey" to defeat a "Goliath," but that's not what really won the fights.
The deciding factor in both clips was the fact that the aggressors underestimated the person standing in front of them and this lapse in situational awareness is what lost them fights against weaker, "less-formidable" opponents.
Because they did not assume good, non-threatening ready postures, they were totally unprepared and unsuspecting when the pre-emptive strikes came, which resulted in them being unconscious before they even knew that they were hit.
Believe me, case studies and mental training are a large part of what I teach and have definitely improved the ability of my students to learn to fight to survive inside of a very short period of time.
It may seem like "goofing-off," but surfing the video channels, looking for dashboard camera or closed-circuit video footage and the like will prove to be worth far more than the same amount of time spent bowing and practicing non-contact, or even full-contact sparring
Christopher "Bob" Roberts is an ex-soldier who relocated to Europe and now earns his living as a tactics and close-combat instructor for military, police and private security companies.
For more information about armed and unarmed self-protection, subscribe to his free newsletters at http://www.extreme-measures-institute.com and receive access to an exclusive video interview series, where he explains the fundamentals of truly effective self defense.
Dreaming And Outer Body Experien
No comments:
Post a Comment