MIND SET FOR COMBAT

Hi Dave,

Any suggestions for a strong combat mind set in students?

I find it frustrating teaching students street combat skills which I know will give them a "fighting chance" out in the world, but I can't seem to get a more positive mind set with some of the younger one's that are getting bullied at school. The adults don't seem to be a problem generally as they have life's experiences, just some of the kids.

I tell them it's similar to bungee jumping, feels uncomfortable the first time; but once you've had a taste the fear goes away.

What do you or others think?

Your Bungee idea is OK, but only works if they have experienced it..

you need an analogy that they can relate to personally.. ask them to think of something THEY have done that required a similar 'push' like the bungee, but if they havent done the bungee jump, they have nothing to relate to.

most mental 'blocks' like that are caused by lacking something to relate to thats similar...

try asking each one to remember something like that and relate it to it

also if they have a very rough training session for whatever reason, or a heavy sparring session, or even competitions, that exeprience can be used to replicate the feelings and be used as an example...

hope that helps a bit

Dave

Can I make a suggestion?

I have never tried this, so may not work. But I thought maybe pretend they are just friends you know.

When someone is up in your face mouthing you off the adrenaline goes round everything seems big and scary.

When youre playing with your mate having a play fight, it wasnt scary then was it (ok, so theres little element of danger)

but if you think of it like your just playfighting a friend, and this person in front is a friend, maybe they can see theyre not so big and scary.

Also make sure they have no doubt what theyre going to do.

If Im walking down the street and when someone starts Im not sure what to do thats big problem.

BUT if I think, "if it goes bad, just attack" and just stick to it, I feel much more confident.

Mmm.. I can follow your hypothesis mate.. BUT the question was about the YOUNGER students, and frankly when the WOOSH factor hits, its bloody hard enough for experienced combat people to control it. never mind youngsters

The clue was in the phrase 'life experiences'... you need to relate EVERYTHING in order to deal with it and pretending it's 'play' will reduce you combat effectiveness when it DOES kick off as your 'readiness' will have stepped down.. like going from Red Alert to Orange (Amber) alert

if it works for you fine.. but kids who are being bullied already will recognise the signals of the 'bullies approach tactics' and their adrenaline will kick in as they GENUINELY expect 'pain'.. so how can the realistically turn this imminent expectation into "Oh its only play.. even those these three have kicked my arse 4 times before"

Mmm yeh I get what youre saying.

I really screw up when adrenaline hits me. But some of it is doubt in what to do.

Yeh that's true, If they have done it before then yeh I know what you mean. to be honest I may rather have a lower amount of adrenaline so I can fight better.

Mmm yeh I get you because if you think "playing with a mate" then you wont be as worried or prepared for an attack.

Maybe really, really rough play with a mate?

I can see the point that ,like bungee jumping,when doing something that scares you or makes you uncomfortable repeated practise makes it more familiar and comfortable. I,m not sure the mind set is comparable though - I've never done a bungee jump but used to do a fair bit of potholing and climbing when I was younger. Yes you coped sometimes with adrenaline , fear and fatigue but it felt more about a feeling of inward control though sometimes you needed the mental strength to make the physical commitment for eg to a move or to dive through a flooded section.
Things only went very badly wrong once and then it was more a case of a bloody minded survival mindset. You do get a certain confidence and familiarity to acting with adrenaline that tranfers to everyday life.
Fights with other people when I was probably younger than the age you are trying to teach were more an external projection of aggression and violence mindset.
I know that when I was very young fighting came very easy and natural but then school and society teach you its wrong and you lose the natural ability to just go for it and you start thinking and hesitating eg not striking first and attacking 100% commited.
I,m not sure you can work on something if its not in them but I think sometimes people have to be taught it is sometimes ok to release the animal in them and that they have to unlearn the constraints put on them by others. I know practising some of the preemptive strikes and aggression drills at the Sheffield SDF club takes me back to a more animalistic/childlike natural mindset where you can just explode into action when required. The best example of this ability to instantly switch on 100% I've seen was my old Jack Russell Terrier - though many of his other habits i would definitely not recommend learning

Trevor

Nice one Trev. Totally agree mate.

Stripping away all the baggage we "learn" as we develop. All the civilised behaviour that is of no use whatsoever in those circumstances. AND the knowledge of consequence.

An idea that I remember from Dave. Watch a two year old toddler waddle into the lions cave and they do it without any understanding of consequence. Not so the parent faced with the task of going in after them.

I've got a theory I was going to mention to Dave in line with a conversation we had last month on Doncaster. If we accept that the survival instinct is the strongest driving motivation and strongest emotional trigger then we have to be stripping away the "negative" association of the event.

Preventing a jam at the point of "I'm going to be hurt/killed here" and opening a route into "I'm going to be hurt/killed here so I have to ACT." Then we have to associate the correct action with the embedded state of "I have to act"

The question is I think. HOW do you most effectively take people past the barrier of "I'm going to be hurt" and being imobilised by that fear of consequence and move them into making action an imperative?

Not sure...

What age youngsters are you talking about? trying to strip baggage about consequences from some one young and impressionable ( know I idolised my sensei when I was very young) may have negative consequences in other aspects of there lives.
The bungee jump idea sounds like a good thing but like Dave said the student would need to relate to it, how about asking them about the first time they rode a bike with out stabilisers? they may even have fallen off and hurt them selves the first few times but after the learned to relax and over come threir fear riding the bike came naturally.

Thanks for all the feedback fellas.

Even with some of the big boys I work with in law enforcement there is that fear of confrontation, despite the fact they are carrying a variety of weapons including firearms. It's that fear of getting injured, losing some claret, getting sued by some scumbag.

Gets back to the bungee jump thing, I've been in this game for quite awhile (both policing and self defence) and sometimes the newbies need to confront an angry man, maybe experience a taste of an ass kicking and get that horrible "I wanna go piss" type feeling we all get at one or more stages through life. The next time they do it doesn't seem so bad.

Had some younger kids sparring about 3 nights ago, one copped a fist to the gut.
Nothing worse than what he'd get playing football, totally uninjured but enough to shock him into wanting to sit out the rest of the sparring session........like hell.


"Would you get a chance to sit it out in a real fight?"
"No"
"Well get back up and keep going!"

Within a few seconds he was fighting as before. Don't get mad, get even.
Point is his mind set would have him down and defeated as a result of a simple wack to the tummy. Told dad when he was collected at class end, he was all for it.

As he quipped later "thats what they're paying me for".