Weakness and Shivering before a fight! How does this help me

Im 28 years old, 70 kgs, 6ft tall and slim built. I've been practicing basic self defence for a year now. This includes 3 months of training at a local martial arts studio. At-least 3 days a week, my work-out routine include stretches, burpees pushups, tummy crunches, defensive guard stance, 50 punches, jabs, low waste kicks, Yoga meditation and breathing exercises.

Here is what happen today, I was crossing the road while some guy in the car came almost to run me down. I stood my ground and said "Please wait while I finish crossing". He rolled the window down and started cussing which eventually lead me yell "Allright get out!". He then got out of his car to challenge me for physical fight.

This guy is short and twice my age, I could have easily socked his face. But when he got out of his car to face me, all that I felt in my body was shivering, extreme weakness and I felt like a blob of jelly. A conscious part of my mind told my muscles "wake up, you are being challenged, time to defend yourself", but my body would not listen. The more I forced my body to listen, my eyes started twitching and my voice started quivering. It was almost like the last year's practice of self defence was a waste.

After a bit of googling around, I found that this was a regular "fight or flee" response by a massive adrenaline rush. But I'm left a bit confused here, How exactly must one fight or flee when adrenaline does this to your body. Here is what should have happened - The adrenaline rush should have given my body extra energy to apply my presence of mind and the energy required to attack and throw a powerful punch or hold guard and block an imminent attack. Instead Im standing there, shivering, weak and exposed and I let little a tiny little man raise his hand upto my face. Sometimes I wonder how nature has engineered this? I'm experiencing the exact opposite of what was expected.

Is there something wrong here? Am I eating the wrong diet or something for mental preparedness for self defence? I refuse to remain a victim to this situation. I need to find a way out of this. I don't want to go out looking for fights. Is there something I can do to train myself for such situations. None of the punch and jab practices helped I can tell you that. I can go back to my room now and continue my workout routine but none of that matters if I feel like a weak chicken and throw a punch like princess sally when the moment calls for it. If I have to hire a martial arts expert to beat the crap out of me so that my muscles can finally react, Im willing to do it. What are your thoughts and advice, has anyone experienced this?

What you did experience was totally normal, no need to worry about it.

You should get used to this type of adrenaline dumb. Maybe ask a training partner to get in your face and yell at you. Something like that:



Regards
Julian

You don't have to punch out every arsehole you meet...

its all perfectly normal... Just the adrenaline/chemical cocktail charging around your body

Its a GOOD thing not a bad one

however YOU must control IT not allow IT to control YOU

Whenever I felt those symptoms I used to say "Thank you" to my body, knowing I was getting the 'extra' I might have needed

rohit.manohar wrote:
Here is what happen today, I was crossing the road while some guy in the car came almost to run me down. I stood my ground and said "Please wait while I finish crossing".

I know it is easy to say from the armchair, but this is where the problem is. No matter whether you were in the right or wrong, you challenged him. Why? Did you really expect him to turn around and apologise?

What does "stood my ground" actually mean?

This is the monkeydance or dick measuring or whatever you want to call it.

Avoidance is better than confrontation, especially if all that is at stake is ego.

You FEEL weak. Doesn't mean you ARE weak.

It doesn't sound to me as if you are actually training in self protection. If you were then you would be familiar with the feeling of weakness and would realise that if you are robbing yourself of strength it is because you are allowing those feelings of weakness to consume you rather than work through them.

The fight or flight response isn't actually reduced to two possible outcomes. There is fight, flight or freeze. Many people confuse the "freeze" response with weakness when it actual fact it is a typical "prey" response and much more common than the "flight" response which usually comes after the freeze.

As always, the best way of understanding something is making friends with it. Working drills and protocols which reproduce the effect and allow you to successfully work through it.

pressure testing should help you get used, acclimatise and 'control' (if thats the right word) adrenal dump.

Suggest you try this when you train, or look for others who can help you, Dick Best at F.A.S.T is very good for that (Red man suit and all), and our very own Mr Turton can put you though your paces believe me!!

rohit.manohar wrote:
Here is what happen today, I was crossing the road while some guy in the car came almost to run me down. I stood my ground and said "Please wait while I finish crossing". He rolled the window down and started cussing which eventually lead me yell "Allright get out!". He then got out of his car to challenge me for physical fight.

This guy is short and twice my age, I could have easily socked his face. But when he got out of his car to face me, all that I felt in my body was shivering, extreme weakness and I felt like a blob of jelly. A conscious part of my mind told my muscles "wake up, you are being challenged, time to defend yourself", but my body would not listen. The more I forced my body to listen, my eyes started twitching and my voice started quivering. It was almost like the last year's practice of self defence was a waste.

Standing in the way of a speeding car is probably not the best thing to do. Whether you are in the right or not, as you will always come off second best

Instigating a fight ie telling them to get out of the car (This will obviously be taken as a challenge) was also avoidable, and unnecessary.

The adrenalin and chemical dump is normal and is very hard to replicate in training, but now you know what it is you can expect it and understand it a little bit better.

I would tend to agree with Ace, the problem is that you got into a pointless confrontation. I am not judging here, I have done this in the past. My experience though is that in these stupid situations, the adrenaline feels much worse than when I have genuinely HAD to see somebody off. I think this is because if you are a sane balanced person, part of your brain is screaming at you to stop because it sees no advantage, only risk. This accentuates all those horrible feelings of doubt.
However, when I have been cornered or my friends have been attacked I have just reacted. The adrenaline seems to fade into the background and perform its energizing function without me being aware of it. So basically don't try to prove yourself over petty shit, imagined challenges etc. Do some hard training with a live element and save fisticuffs for when there really is no other option.

great 2 posts Dave and nw!