Applying Self Defense Techniques !!

[Safroot]

Just wondering, how long do you take to apply the self defense techniques you learn in your MA style to a real situation in the street?

what do you actually need to do to improve your abilities/performance in the real situations?

Your thoughts please guys

[Harkon72]

People think that you can prepare for a self defense situation; but in reality, you can't. You can practice advanced Kata and Kumite for years, but still freeze in fear at the first sign of a real conflict. Our most basic Kata can be used for self defense, but more useful is a clam mind and confidence to stand and be counted. Kumite can be Good training for contact, real Kata application with an instructor that really puts you under pressure can help. Some say that we train for self defense; but in reality we don't; this is the greatest paradox of the martial arts. Our most basic Kata can have deadly applications; but the will to perform them in reality is a different mind set altogether. I wish you a peaceful life, a path of friendship and true fulfillment; but a self defense situation can happen, at any time; it can be a life threatening situation for you or other innocents; if you are called upon to act; do so, and if it warrants the most severe reaction, perform with no mercy; to the extreme if necessary. Yours along the Path.

[sensei8]

Just wondering, how long do you take to apply the self defense techniques you learn in your MA style to a real situation in the street?

what do you actually need to do to improve your abilities/performance in the real situations?

Your thoughts please guys

It's a life time journey; time should never be concerned.

[Safroot]

People think that you can prepare for a self defense situation; but in reality, you can't. You can practice advanced Kata and Kumite for years, but still freeze in fear at the first sign of a real conflict. Our most basic Kata can be used for self defense, but more useful is a clam mind and confidence to stand and be counted. Kumite can be Good training for contact, real Kata application with an instructor that really puts you under pressure can help. Some say that we train for self defense; but in reality we don't; this is the greatest paradox of the martial arts. Our most basic Kata can have deadly applications; but the will to perform them in reality is a different mind set altogether. I wish you a peaceful life, a path of friendship and true fulfillment; but a self defense situation can happen, at any time; it can be a life threatening situation for you or other innocents; if you are called upon to act; do so, and if it warrants the most severe reaction, perform with no mercy; to the extreme if necessary. Yours along the Path.

Thanks Harkon72 ... Solid post as usual

[Safroot]

It's a life time journey; time should never be concerned.

I know it's a lifetime journey, but for me time is always a concern !!

[sensei8]

It's a life time journey; time should never be concerned.

I know it's a lifetime journey, but for me time is always a concern !!

Imho, it shouldn't be a concern.

[Safroot]

It's a life time journey; time should never be concerned.

I know it's a lifetime journey, but for me time is always a concern !!

Imho, it shouldn't be a concern.

I will try

[Zaine]

To quote a wise jedi master:

"Do, or do not. There is not try."

[CredoTe]

To quote a wise jedi master:

"Do, or do not. There is not try."

YES!!!! *whew* *regains composure from nerd-out*

To address the OP, though, gaining fighting sense from kata and training require both time and a good instructor. You must be able to put the time necessary (differs for different students) towards training/studying both in the dojo and on your own. MA is first, and foremost, a personal journey. Then, you must have good instructor that can guide you along your way. A good instructor will help you glean proper applications (bunkai) from kata and techniques and to use them effectively in a manner that makes fighting sense.

For instance, when we show beginners our first kata, we make sure that at least 2 to 3 waza (series of techniques) in the kata makes fighting sense (applications) to them before teaching anything else to them. This gives even our beginner students a few tools to put in their self-defense toolbox. Some can only wrap their heads around 1 waza, some understand more than 3; just depends.

[tallgeese]

This is a great topic and one not talked about enough in martial arts circles. Let me start by saying Harkon has a point. Freezing can always occur. However, the way we train can greatly affect our mitigation of this and we can indeed mitigate it.

One of the things to think about is building spontaneous threat responses. It's basically stimulus response training. You need to build into this by taking basic movements of your system and building them against more and more realistic threats. This lets you work from a technical pace to an actual adrenaline response to aggression.

For me, this means taking simple movements that are at the core of your art and stripping away anything that is not effective and efficient under combat duress. If you're not sure what those movements are, you will find them as you move into higher levels of spontaneous training against resistive partners.

I agree to a certain extent, time is always a factor. Of course, time on task will always make skill sets better and more time of good training is better. That said, I can be in a situation that requires live saving aggression tomorrow. Years of sorting thru theoretical tactics or decrypting kata is can just push competence out to years to reach. By stripping down movements to efficient training patterns, you can start to make this path quicker.

Of course, pure self defense mightn ot be your sole goal. If it's not, then certainly you may not want to do this. Or you might do an art for multiple reasons, self defense being only part of why you train. In that case, you'll want to balance your training to include both. But you need to take a bit of time sort out what's the most important factors for your training.

Study the OODA loop and learn how to manipulate it to your benefit. This starts with better observational skills. On the topic of learning, read on physiological effects of real combat. Grossman, Siddel, Miller, ect. Studies show that the more you intellectually understand these changes the better prepared you are to successfully deal with them.

Train under increasing pressure. This does not mean heavy contact all the time, but you'll need to from time to time. It also means scenario based training. Once you've looked at the tools you want to drill, drill them with increasing realism, and dealt with some contact, then you're ready to go. Set up situations that you might come under fire in.

Bear in mind, most of these will be ambushes of some sort. That means that you're not in a fighting stance, you're standing at an ATM, getting in a car, or otherwise occupied while you get blindsided by the initial attack. This can be truly surprising for many artist. But time spent in this sort of situational training can really cut down on the surprise factor you feel the first time your body has to deal with the real stress of a fight.

This is how we start to build "pre combat veterans" a term coined by Grossman. Essentially, it means that we're programming in the sorts of responses that people who have been there done that develop and get rookies to perform that way. To do that you have to start being stressed when you train.

Let's concede, no amount of training will perfectly simulate this. But you can design training to mimic, and this can go a long way on the street in your first combat.

Once you start getting competent with the types of drills we're talking about, try adding a time component. Set up a focus mitt drill to control but mandate control occur in 10 seconds, then 7, then 5, ect. All sorts of simple changes in drills can add stress. Shut the lights off. Add music. Strobing lights. Put them all together.

Another avenue that gets overlooked is to compete. In contact events. MMA is great for this because it mandates a wide array of tactics. No, it's not a real fight, but it mimics several aspects of one and will generally be unfamiliar. This is all stress educing and can be VERY beneficial into preparing you for dealing with your first live encounter with no rules or ref.

So yes, you can take your art and greatly enhance your ability to use it under fight duress. But it takes some specialized adjustments to do it quickly.

Let me know if you've got any specific training design questions.