In the world of self-defense CONTROL is a central, powerful PRINCIPLE. CONTROLLING environments, fear, exposures, and even attackers themselves results in success to live another day. In Life Defense the same is true in every part of life.
We talk a lot about environments, exposures and others when discussing potential conflicts that might need CONTROLLING. However today we will focus on ourselves.
In self-defense the fear that escalates to nearly incapacitating levels is a real thing. Many of my participants have related to being forced, or assaulted physically, emotionally or mentally in different situations.
Although on the mat we simulate this by bringing ourselves to physical, heart pounding stress and sparing, at less than full contact levels, we never really achieve the complete fear that permeates a truly violent attack. I can remember my short lived experiences in full contact fighting and although there was an anticipation, there was very little fear. As I put on protective gear, and learned the rules that govern all full contact fighting, in one arena or another, what little fear existed disappeared. In the end the “full contact” experience had very little actual fear involved with it.
I can remember one sparing match where my opponent was a really fast kicker. Time and time again he landed kicks to my head, and blurred my vision putting me in a fog wondering how he could kick so fast. However, was I in fear? No, if anything I was a little irritated, and in a different time and place would have easily taken him down to the mat.
Fear then is something that is created by us and therefore can be CONTROLLED by us. In Life Defense as we go through a job interview, a potential loss in the stock market, or a near brush with death accident, we experience this fear. What then is the difference between my sparing match and a job interview or even near brush with death?
Rewinding my sparing and event fighting experiences I knew the rules, I knew there was protective gear in place and a referee. It was to a certain extent “knowable.” Job interviews, and subsequent outcomes might not be. Or even more extreme, a sudden brush with death isn’t as knowable.
Since I have experienced both I can honestly say that the more I trained for an event, practiced a scenario and walked through the possible outcomes the less fear was actually involved.The difference in our participants of Life Defense that actually step on the matt, and those that don’t is knowing and knowing comes through training or practice.
How do I train for things that happen once every 5 years or maybe once in a lifetime in the case of death…? The answer is the same as preparing for a full contact event. Practice, walk though, visualize and “know” the possible outcomes.
Life Defense is about training. There are no secrets. If you seek to CONTROL your fear…Train!
Allen Hughes Life Defense
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