Speed!

[USCMAAI]

This post was originally published as an article in a dedicated KarateForums.com Articles section, which is no longer online. After the section was closed, this article was most to the most appropriate forum in our community.

When you think about speed you have to divide it (speed) into three categories: perceptual speed, mental speed and physical speed. Each of these categories of speed is important to your overall speed and each can be enhanced or improved through training. I will attempt to discuss each category and give some suggestions on how to improve each type.

Perceptual speed is the speed at which you observe and recognize a threat in your environment. The threat can be picked up by any of your senses (touch, hearing, sight or intuition). Intuition is a valid sense, anyone who has been in combat or in a life threatening situation can attest to the fact that sometimes you "feel" danger long before you "see" it. Many things can affect your perceptual speed, such as: environmental conditions (weather, lighting, excessive noise, etc,), your emotional state (if you just got into an argument with your wife/husband, you probably won't be as alert to danger as you would be if you just received a threatening call from an enemy), your physical condition (health, fatigue or injury) and the relative distance (how close the threat is to you when it appears). Recognizing a threat is the first step in developing a quick response. Slow perceptual speed affects your overall speed dramatically.

Several training methods can be used to help students develop their perceptual speed. Here are a couple that I use.

Teaching environmental awareness is probably the most important of these methods. Teaching your students that their surroundings can either help or hinder their defense is essential. I place emphasis on the fact that a threat can "materialize" from just about anywhere and at anytime. During sparring and self defense practice introduce "spontaneous attackers" and "hidden/unconventional weapons." This should only be done with your middle and upper level students and should be random. This teaches what Doc (my Sensei) calls "healthy paranoia." It forces your students to maintain awareness of their surroundings. I also teach my students to use environmental advantages. Those students, who are used to the idea of "spontaneous attacks", "hidden/unconventional weapons" and other environmental factors, will be less surprised if these things occur and be able to deal with them more effectively.

The second training method that is valuable is threat recognition. This involves teaching students observation skills such as identifying aggressive body language (non verbal cues the body shows as it prepares for aggressive action), group dynamics (how to recognize likely multiple attacker situations) and profiles on the basic personality types. Have your students watch people role play various scenarios and have them try to identify when aggressive actions are about to occur. The second part of this training is students recognizing "unsafe" conditions such as poorly lit alleys/doorways, suspicious vehicles/people and then asking them how they would deal with each condition. You can also expose students to other stimuli such as the sound of various firearms being chambered the sound of a blade being unsheathed or locked (in the case of folding or switch blades).

As you can see this training goes into mentally preparing a student to recognize what type(s) of danger he/she is in. Learning this can be the thing that saves his/her life.

Mental speed is the rate at which you analyze the threat and formulate the appropriate response. This stage is crucial because the response falls into three sub-divisions: flee, fight or freeze. Even though each one of us respond to various threats differently. We all have to go through this process.

Fight. When you decide to "fight" you have to determine the following:

A. What type of force is appropriate? This can range from verbal defense (shouting for assistance) to lethal force (using a knife or gun). Many combat martial artists train techniques that cover most of the force continuum. Many factors dictate the level of force that is required. Some of those factors are size, sex of attacker(s), number of attackers, proximity of attacker when assault begin, and weapons used. Whatever the result of the variables, you must be mentally prepared to go "all out" in your response. This means if you decide to fight, then you must fight!

B. What type of conditions will dictate my response? During all the confusion of being assaulted, environmental considerations must be taken into account. If you are not aware of these conditions, your response could be completely inappropriate and even assist in your defeat. Although I already covered this in the perceptual speed section, I say again, constantly scan your environment and play the "what if" game. If this is done you can greatly reduce the chance of conditions adversely affecting your response to a threat. You may even be able to turn those conditions in your favor.

C. What specific techniques should I use in response? The selection of technique is very important. I am often amazed at how some systems teach 19 or 20 different responses to the same attack (some have more than 20 defense against 1 attack). Hick's Law states that "in a stressful situation (combat), the more responses you have to choose from, the longer it will take you to respond." Doc says that if you have 3 or 4 good responses to an attack or family of attacks that should be all you need. What he means by this is that you should train for what we call "family of related moves." This is training a family of techniques that can be used on similar attacks. An example of this is that the response to a front two handed lapel grab (someone grabbing your shirt/jacket from the front) can also be used to defend against a front two handed choke with only subtle changes to the techniques. Many instructors insist on overloading students with various techniques, some of which have very limited practical use. Please remember Hick's Law - it is very important! Simplifying your system is key to being successful in teaching self defense. I love the acronym KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid) because it makes perfect sense. Simplicity is the key to successfully teaching self defense skills.

This process is usually very quick, as a matter of fact; the more spontaneous self defense you do the faster this process becomes. My training advice is, of course, that you do spontaneous self defense! But also, analyze your responses. Video tape your students as they deal with various attacks and watch for the following: techniques used - what they do and how they do it. Environmental manipulation - did they use their surroundings to their advantage? Level of force used - is it appropriate? If the response is too much, then you must be able to explain why. If it is too little, you must also justify this statement. In this regard you must be very familiar with the self defense statutes of your area. I suggest doing a little legal research (it helps if you know a good attorney). Environmental awareness - is he/she paying attention to his surroundings, looking for more attackers, weapons, escape routes, barriers to use, etc.?

Flee. There are typically three categories in this section also.

A. Escape. This is a total and all out retreat. Leaving the scene, without regard for cover or making any attempt to fight back. Although this is a form of defense and is OK, it leaves you open to attack.

B. Cover/concealment. This happens when escape is not immediately possible. Situations in which you must protect yourself, before finding a way out. Someone caught in a McDonald's when a gunman opens fire may run for cover (a barrier between the gunman and themselves, which acts as a shield against the weapon). Or they may try to hide (concealment is using a object to impair the vision of the attacker, thus making your location unknown) before running for the door. In certain situations this is the wisest way to retreat. As instructors of self defense, we probably don't spend enough time teaching our students how and when to run. We also must teach the difference between cover and concealment. I love movies that show gunfights, where everyone is hiding behind drywall, oil drums and car doors. Anyone who has fired a .357 magnum or a 9mm knows that drywall, oil drums (barrels) and even car doors don't stop most of the bullets fired from these weapons. And those weapons aren't even the most powerful handguns out there!

C. Tactical withdrawal. This can be done in two ways. The first is a fighting retreat. In a situation that the odds of you fighting off an attacker(s) are low, you may just be fighting your way to an escape route! Multiple attackers and armed attacker situations should involve some elements of this philosophy. It is a mistake to teach students that once they engage the enemy that you should forget about retreating. Sometimes the situation gets out of control and retreating is the best option. The second way is when you must create distance from your attacker, in order to give you a chance to defend yourself. This type of withdrawal is momentary and should probably be followed by intense aggressive action. The reason I say this is the psychological effect. If you started retreating (offering no resistance) and then suddenly came forward with intent to serious damage, the attacker will be caught mentally off balance (mental stun). Both these methods of retreat are valuable (as are the others) and each should be trained.

Running is often thought of as "chicken" and less than manly, but I live by that old saying "a good run is better than a bad stand." There are times when retreating is the only smart option.

Freeze. This is the inability or unwillingness to act in your own or another's defense. This occurs as a result of several psychological and physiological factors:

A. Fear. Some people react to being afraid by shutting down! This shutdown can be fainting, freezing or repetitive actions. Mentally the fear of the encounter (either being hurt or in some cases hurting someone) is more than the person can take. They cannot react, because their minds and bodies just lock up. The best things you can do for this type of person is train their responses to come with little thought. If their actions are spontaneous (automatic), then fear will not set in until after they have acted (which usually happens to all of us anyway).

B. Shock. This occurs when we are exposed to stimuli that we are not emotionally prepared for. A soldier/cop/firefighter who sees his first dead body (especially if it is badly mangled) may freeze, because the sight of such carnage is something we as civilians rarely see. It is difficult to prepare for this type of shock and it is primarily why many techniques (fingers to the eyes, throat strikes, etc) are difficult for some people to do. For this type of person mental conditioning is very important. You must get them mentally prepared for certain tasks. Drilling with helmets that allow for eye gouges (extra thick batting around the eyes), Throat shields and groin supports are key to this. You can always role-play assaults using fake blood and gore, thus attempting to desensitize this person, but I doubt that it will have much effect.

C. Surprise. This is being caught off guard. Not paying attention to what is happening around you. At one time or another all of us have been caught unaware. The difference in being a "victim" and being a "survivor" of a surprise attack is your ability to quickly recover from this momentary lapse. Teaching your students about environmental awareness is the best way to counter this. Another form of surprise can occur when you actually successfully execute a technique in a real life situation. Some of us are so surprised that "it actually works," that we forget to follow up. This can be dangerous because it allows your attacker to recover. Also he/she now knows that you are capable of putting up some resistance.

D. Choice. This is an unwillingness to fight or flee. This is choosing to allow violence to be done to you and offering no resistance. I have the utmost respect for pacifist, but do not have the ability to be one. Ghandi and Martin Luther King Jr. were both very brave men and so were their many followers. Their desire to fight oppression and injustice was only matched by their steadfast belief that violence only begets violence. I tend to agree with them philosophically, but know that I could not personally stand by and let someone do violence to me without trying to protect myself. If you have a student who truly fits this category, I would ask them why they are training in a "combat" martial art system/school. Traditional/Sport martial arts allow for you to trains to learn focus, balance, cardio workouts, etc., perhaps. But, "combat" martial arts are for defense.

All of us have probably "frozen" during some stressful moment (not necessarily in combat). Teaching your students about how to manage these situations can go a long way in protecting them.

Physical speed is the speed at which you turn your perceptual and mental processes into physical action. This stage of the response process is generally the fastest. Once most of us have decided if and how to act, we generally move into action without much delay. Hesitation is usually a result of not knowing what to do or fear of getting hurt. (See mental speed). Many things can be done to increase the physical speed of your students. Here are a few:

A. Physical conditioning. The better shape you are in, the faster your reflexes will be. Now this doesn't mean that we all need to be in Olympic shape, but we should be able to move without passing out from exhaustion.

B. Muscle memory. It is a well known fact the human brain has over 1 trillion neural pathways at birth. These pathways determine things like our ability to learn and perform activities. The more you see, think about and do a specific activity; the more ingrained these pathways become (thus making doing the activity easier and faster). Repetition of technique (just like in the "old school" days) creates "instinctive motion" for your students.

Action/response Drills: these drills can be used to decrease the time between perception of threat and action. This in turn increases reaction speed. I have used simple games like "hand slapping drills" to increase these qualities.

In conclusion, all three stages of speed are something that occurs naturally in very few of us. Many of the fastest people I have ever seen or heard of (Bruce Lee, Muhammad Ali, Ed Parker) trained themselves to be fast. In all three cases (Lee, Ali and Parker), their perceptual and mental speeds were the keys to their success. Ali could recognize what you were doing and make you miss him (great counter puncher). Lee would see your attack and intercept it and Parker would recognize your attack and manipulate your attack leaving you open for his attack. There are many other martial artists who have put all three categories of speed together and I am sure you all can think of several in your own systems. The important thing is that with training anyone can be made faster! I hope that this rather long article answers your questions on speed and gives you something to think about. Any comments (positive or negative) are welcome.

[Patrick]

Thank you for your submission.

[bushido_man96]

That is a great article. So much good stuff in there, I will have to reference it many times. Lots of new stuff to me as well. Many people train to enhance their physical speed, but don't give a lot of thought to the mental aspects of speed. I will now. Thank you.

Keep contributing....you have good stuff!

[gheinisch]

Very Nice. Thanks.

[ps1]

Excellent article

[evilgollum]

I applaud the attention you give to perpetual and mental speed. I have always considered the mental speed to be far more important than the physical speed (I just never had these nice, scientific names for them). I have never given any thought to what you call perpetual speed, but it is a very nice "pre-action" speed to consider. I loved your article.

[USCMAAI]

I applaud the attention you give to perpetual and mental speed. I have always considered the mental speed to be far more important than the physical speed (I just never had these nice, scientific names for them). I have never given any thought to what you call perpetual speed, but it is a very nice "pre-action" speed to consider. I loved your article.

Of all the aspects of speed, I think that perceptual speed is always given the least amount of thought. When you think about it though, it is probably the one which as a martial artist you can develop rather quickly. Observing others fighting and watching how people start and finish various techniques can help you develop your perceptual speed greatly.

[baronbvp]

USCMAAI, it's great to see so many military combat arts strategies and tactics in here! This is good, good stuff that has applications across the spectrum of potentially or actually hostile scenarios. I've always maintained that this sort of education is as important as technique practice, and even more important than kata.

Welcome to the forums, by the way.

[USCMAAI]

USCMAAI, it's great to see so many military combat arts strategies and tactics in here! This is good, good stuff that has applications across the spectrum of potentially or actually hostile scenarios. I've always maintained that this sort of education is as important as technique practice, and even more important than kata.

Welcome to the forums, by the way.

I agree with you 100%. Although kata has some practical aspects (teaching a student to move in balance, and to combine power with speed), learning tactics and stratagey is just as important. What good is it to have perfected your side kick, if you don't know when and how to use it in a life and death situation.

[shogeri]

There is indeed a factor of speed in combat.

Great insight!