Situational Training

[Shorinryu Sensei]

Over the years, I've had the opportunity to watch a great number (but not enough!) of different instructors teaching their classes, and one thing I've thought was different about my way of teaching is that I frequently encourage my students to bring different "situation scenerios" into the class and we work on them

 

An example would be defending yourself while sitting on the ground, or in a chair. We even brought my recliner out from the living room (my dojo is in the garage attached to the house) and worked on defenses from a sitting, or reclingin position. Now, that was interesting! To the point we broke the mechanisim on the chair and I had to take it to the store for repair. Fortunately, it had a lifetime guarantee on the mechanicals (Thank you LazyBoy!) and they fixed it for free.

 

We also work a lot on if we're lying on the ground and our opponent is standing. Basically, we try to imagine any and all possibilities that we might have to defend against. Not all fights are started standing and squared off in a fair fight you know.

[foreveryoung001]

Interesting. I haven't done much on-the-ground work with my students, but we do enjoy... well I call it a game, but it works like this.

 

I will have one student leave the room. The rest will more equipment around, there is a gymnastics class that uses the room too, so we take advantage of the giant pads they have. Once everything is set, I will either give the rest of the students their attack assignments, or for the adults, they are allowed to choose their own role, but each one will play a different type of attacker. For example, one will hide behind the pads and jump out and try to grab a bag, or wallet, another may try to use the pads as cover and attack from behind with a knife, still another may just sit on pad like a park bench and never do anything to attack. The student that left the room will then come in and walk around our cunstructed city street and we will work on defense applications for the different attackers.

 

I don't know how much practical knowledge this teaches, but I do think it helps them translate some of their techniques from theory to application... plus it really is a lot of fun

[gheinisch]

Wow! That warranty even covers damage during a karate class. Lazyboy will be my next recliner.

 

Our Hanshi encourages us to come to class with scenerios to work on. He used to do a lot of bouncing and body guarding and reminds us all the time that no two situations are the same. In the real world you never know whats coming at you and from what direction. We also work on awareness a lot. We had a visiting Sensei come in from Florida one time and he talked about it as well. He had never been to our class before but could tell you how many chairs, receptacles and lights were in the room as well as how many exits out of the room there were. Back to the different senerios, we do one drill where we make two lines and someone has to walk down the middle of it. The students in the line can grab you from the front, side or back and more then one may grab you at the same time. It's up to the student walking the gauntlet to defend themselves in any way they want with strikes, locks, take downs(within reason of course) etc.. It's a great way to work on your reaction time which can mean life or death in the real world when fractions of seconds may be all you have.

 

Great Topic!

[foreveryoung001]

We work the gauntlet a little bit too. Thats a good one.

[Shorinryu Sensei]

Wow! That warranty even covers damage during a karate class. Lazyboy will be my next recliner.

 

well...I didn't EXACTLY tell the people at the store EXACTLY how I broke the mechanism.

 

I just sort of "sat in in one day, and it broke".

[foreveryoung001]

Wow! That warranty even covers damage during a karate class. Lazyboy will be my next recliner.

 

well...I didn't EXACTLY tell the people at the store EXACTLY how I broke the mechanism.

 

I just sort of "sat in in one day, and it broke".

 

I wonder if that would work for when my wife dented the side of the minivan. "well, I was just sitting in the van one day, and the side just sort of crumbled in like that. It's the wierdest thing..."

 

 

 

 

 

Nah, they'd probobly double my deductable.

[Master Jules]

That sounds kinda like when my master comes to live with me.....lol.......jumping out of "the shadows"......but we do have situational training.....he likes to use a lot of weapons of opportunity.....stuff youd find in a bar, since I work in one......he likes pool cues, bottles, even stools......when we train outdoors during the summer......ALL kinsa stuff....garbage cans.....anything he can get his hands on really.....hey....reality is reality.....like SS said....not all fights start off with being "squared off".....and theres no such thing as "rules" on the street.....or "timeouts".....the only trophy you need to take home with you is....your a$$....simple as that.

[Logan]

That is what I like about Jackie Chan movies. He will use whatever is at is disposal to attack or defend. I catch myself comtemplating what I would use if I was attacked in the room I am in.

[Shorin Ryuu]

Training in various scenarios is pretty useful. One thing I think that needs to be emphasized to students is that if you really don't want to be caught off-guard, don't be caught unawares. I made that statement pretty simply on purpose, but the point being is that most people have to make a conscious effort to really take in their surroundings and analyze the threats around them. Human beings are constantly bombarded with so much sensory information from the day that they are born. Thus, the human mind naturally discards and does not focus on a huge majority of everything it takes in, for simple sanity purposes as well as emotional health. If we responded to every single stimuli with incredible focus, it would be draining indeed.

 

However, it isn't too much of a stretch to tell students to simply be aware of the posture that they sit in, lie in or stand in. Even that simple thing is big, because a lot of times, people will naturally place themseves in a "comfortable" position that will render them vulnerable to attack. Not that I advocate constant paranoia, but I try to walk, sit and stand in a manner so that if anything happened (someone attacked me and I needed to defend myself, someone tripped and needed to be caught before hitting the ground, that stupid pen of mine rolls of the desk, five thousand space ninja landed on earth and started raising all sorts of racket), I could respond quickly. Obviously, except for the space ninja bit, I was exaggerating for effect, but you get the picture. Being aware of your own posture will go a long ways towards situational awareness.

 

A multitude of other factors, such as common sense, apply to perhaps more strategic versus tactical preparations for a given scenario. And there are a multitude of other tactical combinations and ways to prepare for them.. But, I'm lazy and got tired of rambling...I mean writing....

[Master Jules]

Space ninja......I love it.....lol