Fear: Does it affect ability?

Hi Everyone,
This is my first post on this list, I look forward to making many more!

Fear in martial arts has interested me since I began training. I've just launched a website exploring fear as a martial artist, and I would love honest feedback from the community. Yes, it promotes an eBook on overcoming fear in martial arts, but I sincerely believe my fellow practitioners will find it useful information.

http://www.kerwinpublishing.com

If you're curious, please take a look. I'm very interested in your opinion and personal experience.
Respectfully,
Mike

or you could read my article here for free
To go or to go off?: Fear and the fight and flight response

drgndrew

Great artical very informative, and accurate, and it is FREE!

Mike,
What is the back ground of the author? What art perspective is he coming from?

I have not found many arts that even acknowledge this important topic and few still that have an actual method for training. Frankly most arts I have seen tend to build the fear inside their students rather than release it.

Any information is appreciated.

Mark J.

PS. I do not wish to be negative but the marketing on that site is aweful. If it was reduced to 1/10th the size it would still be way, way, way to much. Quality marketing is laser focused and too the point. Very few folks will read volumes of words with no point or a repetitive point. Furthermore, if they do the marketer has no idea what the potential customer will take away from the volumes. Throwing a bunch of stuff on the wall to see if any of it sticks is the worst method to market a product. Focus on one or two points you want the reader to remember an hour later. Each point should be no more than a phrase.

I think that 'fear' is an embedded topic in the Japanese arts. Japanese techniques for dealing with stress and fear are currently studied and used by the U.S. Marine Corps. Many of the exercises that take place in the dojo are designed to promote a level of present focus that basically leaves no mental room to be thinking about how scared you might be in a particular situation.

Kathryn, I respectfully disagree. From my experience thus far with Japanese martial arts (I moved there to train in very traditional martial arts, and have since come back to the USA , where I share it as my full time career), I believe that the effects of fear are quite directly incorporated into the methods.

The startle/flinch response is inherent to the movements of very old Japanese martial arts, and they benefit from mostly gross motor movement, scanning motion, lowered hips, etc - all things that happen when the body experiences various stages of fear.

I've enjoyed "Sharpening the Warrior's Edge" as a quick informative resource on some of these effects.