Get Scared?

Nick,

There's a good number of your posts where you have talked about your past confrontations,and it seems that dealing with violence isn't something that scares you at all .Do you feel much fear in a fight situation now,or are you too desensitised for it to bother you?

If you had a student who was really scared of fighting/confrontation what measures would/could you take to ger him/her over this step? Do you thinkyou could take someone who wasn't good "raw material," someone who wouldn't say boo to a goose,and develop then to your level ?Over a decent periond of time of course.

Mate,

Everyone gets scared...anyone who tells you differently is either lying or crazy. Now, it is true that I don't get any sort of adrenalin rush at all anymore on events that may traumatize someone less experienced but, if guns and knives enter the equation the adrenalin starts pumping (thank goodness). With the above, that's not braggadocio, some people I know of get an adrenalin rush when someone so much as raises their voice to them whereas I, and others on the forum, having been exposed to so much violence at work that we've become inured to minor level conflict.

The first step, in answering part two of your question, would be to get them along to training. Now, when I say that I'm assuming the training is the real deal stuff. A good dojo, should be intimidating. There were nights in Oz when I was scared to go to class, and I'd be even more frightened when I walked in and certain black belts were there (these were the big guns when it came to sparring with reputations for heavy contact etc) but I'd force myself. The more I did that, the easier it became to deal with.

The next step after that was working on the doors. I went initially with my brother, so I had him "holding my hand" so to speak while I learnt the ropes and then I toddled off to the heaviest club I could find in the city. After a month or so of that I only got the rush when weapons, or vast numbers were involved.

Unfortunately it's become much harder nowadays to put people on the door route that Bob Jones used to do in Oz. Over here for example, if I told my students they had to do doorwork to become ranked, and someone was injured as a result of that work, I'd be open to a massive law suit. My approach now, and admittedly it's a poor second, is to use a lot of stress innoculation drills in training and try and prepare people that way.

I will say this though, I think, even with the type of training we were exposed to in Zen Do Kai, that the first few times you get into it for real, you will have the adrenalin/fear thing to deal with. The real beneift of the traiing is being able to recognize it for what it is, and not freak out as a result.

Nick

Hi Nick,

Thanks for your reply.

BN.

I'll tag this on here.

What mindset do you promote instead of scared?

Can you operate completely coldly?

If I'm honest I operate when I get annoyed/pissed off. I see a threat as cheeky, which is an insult that pisses me off provoking a response.

It depends on the circumstance. If I'm working it's usually totally detached as it's got bugger all to do with me personally. Someone has their feet on a seat? Not my seat. Someone picking fights with other clients? Not picking fights with me. Someone ripping off the barman? Not my drinks, not my barman. I'm just there to enforce rules that someone else puts in place.

On the extremely rare occasion it involves me personally I still try to be as clinical as possible (though I do put on a hell of a show that I'm a frothing at the mouth nutter) because getting angry fooks with the fighting process. (It's why Musashi did his damndest to upset people emotionally before fighting them)

Nick