Weapon defense

The other day one of my students asked me why there was an emphasis on weapons? Shouldn't a reality based (or flinched or human reaction based) system be indifferent to if there is a weapon or not?

The idea being that you can't or don't have time to evaluate if the person is wielding a knife or brass knuckle  you only have time to react.

If you look at the movements of a weapon wielding attacker, many of them will remind of unarmed movements. A punch can be a swing of a short club or a knife. An upper cut a gutting from a knife. A straight punch a stabbing of a knife.

So just practicing "one" movement for them all should simplify training and giving time to concentrate on other aspects of self defense. A thought commonly seen, that self defense is just a matter of technique, and that the simplification of technique is the most efficient. But it is more than that.

Self defense can be seen as three time spaces: pre-conflict, the conflict it self and post conflict. Even this can be broken down to different time frames, but for now I'll keep it to these three. In the pre-conflict cues are very important to pick up on. This could be the way somebody walks, holds his hands or keeps dodging with his eyes. And the closer you get to the confrontation(the conflict) these cues might change in form or intensity. But they are also different depending on what is going to happen; if the attacker wants to hit you, he has to pull his hands out of his pockets. If it's a knife, he has to move into consideration on how he's holding the knife.

To put it simple "The scenario dictates", as Coach Tony Blauer says. So even if the technique you're doing is the "same", the situation/scenario will give you so much more information making the whole weapon defense with all phases more nuanced when a weapon is brought in.

Another factor in practicing is the mental fright for weapons. By working with specially with it, you're working on optimizing more mental space for cognitive processing in a situation with a weapon wielding attacker.

So in a sense "you're right, but wrong", we need to train weapons separately because there are other things than just the technique.

Heart Rate

A blog written by my good friend Christian Hvidberg:

The body and mind react to stress. Were as stress can be anything from a person yelling at you up to a life threatening situation were a gun is placed into your face. An indication on how the stressful situation is influencing you can be seen by monitoring your heart rate.

 

A high heart rate by itself as in running isn't enough to simulate the stress the body and mind undergoes. The surge of adrenalin can literally sweep your mind away.

 

Studies have shown that heart rates can be classified into three groups:

 

Fine motor skills: up to around 120 bpm (beats pr. min) were it starts to fall at 110bpm

Complex motor skills: up to around 175 bpm, were it starts to fall at 135 bpm

Gross motor skills: can be held to max bpm

 

The body increases the production of adrenalin, which increases the blood flow to the extremities and in the end increasing strength, but will in the end interfere with the fine motor skills.

 

All is not lost, in the sense that only gross motor skills can work at high levels of stress. By utilizing scenario training, to understand, cope and learn how self-defense situations will influence you, you'll become more familiar and be able to push the limit of when fine and complex motor skills will cease to function.

 

Breath control

 

Some would say that life begins with the first breath, indicating the signification of breathing. No matter if this is true, our breathing will influence on our performance, and stressful situations will influence your breath. This interaction with your stressful situation, gives you the possibility to influence your situation.

Hyperventilation is a response to stress; a function that has the goal to kick start you to your fight/flight mentality.

By controlling your breath, slowly and in rhythm, you can take control and regain control of yourself.

Kata

The other day I was looking at some kata's being performed. Nicely done, and everybody was doing the same; sharp, weighted, time movements.  Again and again, some of the movements working with an imaginary opponent others just a set of movements that are to be remembered and other a nice mix of the two.

 

There was no doubt they were dedicated individuals, working at a high level of achievement. With beautiful results.

 

I started thinking about who the imaginary opponent was, and his role in it all. How was he reacting, and in which environment this was happening. Was he taller, heavier, faster, in his pajamas, out running or just plain out drunk? Which queues did the kata-doer use to activate hos movements? OR was he using a timing system to activate his sequences.

 

You probable already get the idea that running through the kata isn’t taking into consideration the other factors in a scenario. Things like environment, why are we having this situation and what kind of luggage is in play here.

 

Could they be played into a kata? Yes, I think so. This might make it not so nice, and not the same from time to time. But it will make the kata more vertical to reality. Tony Blauer uses this thought set in is Close Quarter Combat Form, were variations dictate your movements(and follow ups)  . There is a fundamental structure your based on, but from that it’s the scenario that dictates the rest (a quote from Mr. Blauer: scenario dictates all).

 

Katas are good for getting your movements better and sharper, but when it is to be used in another environment, use the specifications from that environment, or you might be missing the point.