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hey all
I’ve been thinking about the most realistic reaction to a hyper stressful situation such as a violent confrontation and we all know that most of what we learn (unless we happen to be an extremely experienced practitioner) will go out the window, so a premium is placed on keeping it simple. My concern is that it seems that I am learning 3 or more different methods to deal with approximately the same threat and that under pressure, I may freeze up mentally, not instantly knowing which combative is right for a given situation and that could slight delay could increase the danger.So I’m looking for advice: Should I purposely limit the number of tactical combatives I add to the ol’ toolbox to a few go-to moves for each situation or do I continue to learn and commit to memory every possible move for each situation and hope that the training will help me to make fast and correct tactical decisions under stressful conditions?
Looking forward to some insightful replies…..
Re: Too many combatives….
At the point that you are dealing combatives in a self defense situation, you are beyond the realm of reaction where the delay caused by multiple choices creates the greatest lag time and puts you in danger. You are now in the fight. At that point in the fight you should see a target and hit it with whatever weapon will do the job. The more tools you have in your tool box, the better your ability to hit in different situations and at different angles and targets.
A good drill is to do the self defense slower and then have your partner react to each weapon that you give. So if you kick them in the groin they double over; then you hammerfist their neck and they drop to a knee; then shin kick them in the face; they flip back; then you stomp on there head and they make funny noises. Each time your partner gives a stunt man reaction and covers some targets while opening others. Eventually you put on full gear and let it turn into and actual fight where anything goes. This is where training should go.Re: Too many combatives….
Once the situation happens you won’t even have the time to assess the situation as a whole or in parts very well at all. In my limited experience there often is only time to decide whether you’re fighting or not. Kind of an ON/OFF switch. Then your body takes over and you react the way you’ve trained. What I’ve appreciate about KM is the emphasis on agression and the mental flexibility the teachers have. There was an incident that one of them pointed out the other week with a young girl about 12 or 13 years old. She was working on elbows 1-7 during a drill where she would close her eyes and then on command have to open them and immediately use the appropriate elbow to hit the pad wherever it had been positioned. She had her left leg forward and opened her eyes to find the pad on her left side. Instead of doing the normal elbow #2, she bounced her stance further to the left and nailed the pad with a #1. What I appreciated about the situation is that the teacher praised her for: reacting very quickly (she pounced on it), reacting in an effective way, and reacting in a way that worked well due to her size (she was half the size of the rest of us so she needed a little more distance to really get power). In some other schools she would have been corrected instead of praised. Here she was praised for getting the point of the whole thing.
My advice is learn every single thing that you can get your hands on from your instructors. There’s a reason that they’re teaching you what they are. What they’re teaching has been shown and proven repeatedly to train your body to react correctly when it is needed. You have to think, you have to judge and you have to plan, but when you get in a fight you also just have to DO IT unto them before they do it unto you.
Re: Too many combatives….
I agree with whats already been said. Learn as much as you can, some will stick some won’t.
As you advance further into the system as the drills and multiple attacker scenarios increase so will the stress level. Its under that stress that your “oh sh1t” defense will kick in and you will with out thought react to the target presented.
Simply if for no other reason then self preservation.
Remember that KM is principle based and one of those is instinctual responses. 360 etc will become 2nd nature. The following combatives will be subjective to your personal preference, body style, mindset and any number of variables tossed into the mix.
The important part, again one of our principles, is to address the immediate danger after that it’s game on.
Re: Too many combatives….
As far as hitting things goes, I think spending lots of time on things like heavy bags, focus mitts, makiwara, wall bags etc goes a long way. It develops a visceral sense of power you can’t develop in the air. Its made things I wouldn’t do intuitively come natural. For example, the edge of the hand is now a natural way for me to hit someone, because I’ve put in the time hammering all kinds of targets with it and breaking stuff with it (breaking is kind of gimmicky, but this is the one context it can be useful). If I’m going to hit someone with it, its not a matter of knowing on a theoretical level that the tactic can damage someone, its hitting someone hard in a way that I know I can hit very hard. This goes for other combatives as well- striking with the fist, palm, hammerfist, elbow, knee, shin and parts of the foot. I try to get more and more comfortable crushing targets with these things. As far as getting past the initial freeze, well thats where sparring will go a long way, as long as you’re doing it in a way that vaguely approximates what you’re training for. I think one of the keys to getting past the reaction issues is to be able to respond with different levels of force. I might freeze if I can only respond with throat strikes against a drunk person trying to tackle me, but if I have solid wrestling skills, I won’t hesitate to sprawl and squish them on the ground.
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