confidence/bottle/reaction

Posted by: treead

confidence/bottle/reaction - 10/14/02 04:07 PM

last weekend 2 drunken idiots attacked me and my friends, we had just come out of a nightclub. My friends and I are all 17, and i have a green belt in shitoryu karate. I know some elements of self defence from the bunkai(spelling?) yet i froze, and was unable to go to the aid of my friends in time. By chance everything turned out ok. How can u prepare yourself for that? ad
Posted by: Cato

Re: confidence/bottle/reaction - 10/15/02 04:40 AM

Firstly, I would say that freezing during the first few seconds of a sudden, violent encounter is perfectly normal and understandable. I've done quite a bit of study into biological psychology and this seems to be the most common reaction.

Your mental processes become clogged as you mind considers the "Fight or Flight" response to the situation. Don't worry about it, everybody goes through this process, it's just that some do it quicker than others.

Secondly, one of the reasons we learn martial arts rather just self defence is that they better prepare us to cope with the sudden physiological changes that take place during any encounter. One of the goals of any proper martial art (And Shito ryu is certainly that) is to cultivate Mushin (empty mind). In other words, you are better able to control your emotions and consequently your training becomes second nature so that techniques are done without having to think too much about them. Obviously this takes a long time and can only be achieved through continued training.

So, don't feel that your art has let you down, or that you have in any way "failed". It hasn't and you haven't. You just need to keep training, as we all do.

Budo
Posted by: MrVigerous

Re: confidence/bottle/reaction - 10/16/02 06:32 PM

I agree with the above in that you must not consider yourself to have failed in a negative sense. You have just been given a very valuable lesson in reality which as none of you were hurt badly -i presume, came at a low cost.Keeping your "Bottle" or adrenalin control is as much a skill as punching and kicking. Adrenal dump may initialy make you feel as if your body is betraying you, but in reality it is a gift. Temporarily you become faster, stronger and more resistant to pain. Sadly without control the negative aspects - tunnel vision, feeling sick, stomach upset and shaky legs may overcome the aforementioned advantages. In short, practice, experience and exposure are the tools to help you master and utilise the gift of adrenalin. You had a big lesson recently and you got through it. Idealy, you don't want to run the risk of getting hurt on the street just to work on adrenalin control. Therefore endeavour to make your training as mentaly challenging as possible. Put yourself under pressure, put on the pads and the gloves and learn to be hit and hurt to a level that is just in control. In short attempt to artificialy recreate the adrenal dump and learn how to master it in relative safety. Just my two pence worth.
Regds.
Posted by: zen_no_mind

Re: confidence/bottle/reaction - 11/10/02 01:02 PM

My advice is to use your awareness once you are out your front door. Being aware is a key most people forget. Another thing is one's breathing pattern when a situation develops begin breathing deeply and relax your upper body. You can't tell or suggest to anyone what to do because it is all dependent upon what the opponent does. You have to be aware and relaxed enough to respond with what is necessary at it unfolds. Being at green belt level suggests to me you have enough basic skills to launch a kick to someones' knee or whatever technique you learned as needed. The problem as you suggested is your froze. That is another thing totally...breathing/relaxation is the keys you need now. Being prepared actually being able to do the techniques without thought is a must. Train hard with you attention on what your doing and let the technique flow as it is needed. As you do when you drive you don't think about what to do you just do it, an respond to whatever other cars are doing without thinking.
Posted by: Jeniko

Re: confidence/bottle/reaction - 12/25/02 08:44 PM

Recentally i bought a book called "Dead or Alive" - written by Geoff Thompson. I'm sure many of you living in the UK have head of some of his books, he used to be a bouncer and alot of his books are on avoding encounters, & learning control of the mind and body in a situation etc.

One of the things it had in there which i found extremely interesting was about the adrenal dump and how to learn to control it alittle better. He recommended things like sparring with the top dogs in your dojo, as it will activate the adrenal gland causin the rushes.