Thanks for the comments. To answer your question, yes I work mental game with my clients for self-preservation. I use the same mental game I teach for sparring, that I do for self-preservation. You can find out more about it here: http://www.embodiedmindperformance.com

You may also want to read this article: http://www.crazymonkeyuniverse.com/2011/12/02/mindfulness/

Hope that helped

That’s a very interesting article. Thanks a lot for that!
There are a couple of key elements I take from the article:

1. The fitter you are the better it is for self defense. No one can fake conditioning!
2. Techniques have to be easy and gross motor. So that they can be applied under stress.
3. Always pretend that the fight doesn’t end. If you think your deadly groin kick will always end a situation you could be in real danger.

In addition to the physical aspects, are there any psychological drills you do with your clients? In regards to fear management / understanding.
Scenario Trainings with gear? A modified checklist like the 4 drivers for self defense? Something like: Picture your little child standing behind you. And if you don’t defend yourself and escape, he will be in trouble. Could something like that help you mentally in a self preservation situation?

I think 75% of self defense is mental right? Detect a situation and try to deescalate things. Managing fear so that you are able to face the danger. That your attacker doesn’t see you as an easy target.

Just wondering if there is anything else you would teach your clients besides the physical skills. Or is it already enough mental preparation to do lot’s of sparring with CM principles and “face the music” a lot of times?

Besides the “secret military self defense” stuff, there are some systems who claim to have mental preparation drills. Stress inoculation training and stuff like that. Just would like to know if that’s something you automatically get with the right sparring and regular training or do you really need special drills for that?

Thanks a lot for your feedback and keep up the great work!!!
Dan

Having been around martial arts for 2 decades and beyond as a youngster in karate etc.
There is many unrealistic systems when it comes to self- preservation.
Although many have the best intention I believe it’s plain dangerous to coach some material and then pass it off as worthy. Be it the civilian or law enforcement etc.

Bottom line is after coaching civilian , military and law enforcement and had many clientele have to use this material the same outcome occurs be it stopping the threat to control or to exit.

Working with the CMD program WORKS ! Through evolution and the correct approach to a real life situation!

James
Head Coach/ Owner of crazymonkeyaustralia

First off a realistic response is subjective. How does my partner know what the correct reaction would be if it was a real hit? Considering as you propose we are not going real to begin with. So if he does give me a reaction and I work off that, there is nothing wrong with that, but it is still completely subjective. And as you suggest is a simulation on what may (or may not) be his reaction.

So the simple answer is yes, there is nothing wrong with ‘simulating’ varied response, and it is important so that you get to both play and train variations on both defending, attacking and counterattacking.

The problem lies in what is passed off as real, when the other guy never seems to fight back at all. When everything is neatly packaged so the guy pulling off the cool moves is never in risk of messing up and always looking good. Which is not how fights end up. You make mistakes, your techniques wont always work and you have to be adaptable to the environment when that happens:)

What’s your take on simulation training? In normal sparring everyone wears protective gear. So it’s hard for someone to really learn what damage a technique would do.

So for someone who never boxed someone into the face in real, doesn’t know what would happen in reality. Same for kicking the balls.

I totally agree that you should always train with someone who fights back. But what about simulating. So that a training partner gives you some feedback in regards to your techniques. So if you hit him hard or at a vulnerable point, you can easily fight back if you wear protective gear. So you could act as the technique wouldn’t harm you at all. But in reality without gear, it would hurt you and it would force an action.

So from a physical point of view, it could make sense to give your training partner realistic feedback. This doesn’t mean you stop and don’t fight back. I just mean giving realistic feedback.

Like if you get kicked to your knee. Sometimes you just continue fighting. But sometimes you simulate that it would force you to go to you knees for example.
And then you fight back from there. Grabbing the opponents legs and try to bring him down for example.

I think from a physiologic point of view it could make sense to give the student some feedback if a technique works or not. So you have to act and give some realistic responses. For someone who already has street experience, who knows how it feels to hit someone into the face and what could happen, this is not necessary. But for a lot of people it is.

There are protective suites like “Realy Gear” or Redman Suite available to help with with simulations like that.

From your experience Rodney, does that make sense at all?

Would be great to hear your feedback on this.

Further more Self preservation and fighting are to very separate things. I.e Lets say you are under attack from 8 guys armed with chains, baseball bat and knives… What is the solution? As i have personally been in a similar situation, i can tell you my survive instinct kicked in like a jab to the heart of adrenaline. What did i do? I ran, scaled over walls and building like spider man. It all took about 20seconds and i was safe again. I did not have any reality training at the time, but i had survived what could of been a life threatening situation. Did i fight no, did not need to. I got away with out a scratch.

Having a gun pointed at your head is not fun, and running is not an option (you will most likely get shot in the back.) The first thing you need to work out is, Am i being Robbed? Is he/she/they here to kill me. From personal experience, you will know with in the first 10seconds, of the confrontation. Do I act or do i cooperate is a personal choice, but we should all know that in acting someone is most likely going to land up dead. Do i fight or do i survive? fight and survive are to separate paths. Ego fights, Intelligence survives. Prepare for the worst, avoid true confrontational at all cost, Survive to teach and live another day is our attitude.

Fighting is only a small aspect of Survival, not all animals fight to survive, some run, some hide and camouflage themselves. It is important to train as unpredictably as possible, and it is important for a student to come to the conclusion and realise the truth about violence and how ugly it can be in its true form. If a student has not understood this, then he will not survive long. excuse spelling i can be very dyslexic. A very good point Rodney.

I wrote this article without mentioning any specific system on purpose as a way to contrast two very different approaches to self-preservation training. If I had to sit and write out who are the guys who get it and don’t, it would have detracted from the central premise of the article.

The fact remains that the vast majority of stuff passed off as self-defense falls into the genre I highlighted in the article. It needs to be highlighted. If someone reads that article then goes off to find a place to learn self-preservation they are better armed with good information to aid them in their choice.