marlon said:
It came up in discussion with a black belt school owner that he cannot make contact with his students...even at brown belt for fear of loosing students. Can one teach others effective street martial arts without hitting them with some increasing degree of contact? Obviously, it is not a question at beginner levels and we are not talking about injuring someone. Do people still do body conditioning? Are black belt still expected to be able to defend against realistic attacks? Can they take a hit? Do they train regularly with contact...or is it "well we know we can hurtr each other so let's barely touch each other for the rest of our training? Is progressively increasing contact necessary?
Respectfully,
Marlon
At our school we begin desensitizing people to contact in their very first lesson. I find that one of the biggest challenges many students face, especially at the beginner level, is making physical contact with another adult, especially in a violent context. Look around, many adults go through their daily lives without touching other people. In fact, many go out of their way to avoid any kind of physical contact what so ever, except possibly with their loved ones, and beginners are often uncomfortable touching or being touched by another adult.
I find that several steps are helpful in desensitizing students to contact. First and foremost is professionalism. Make sure that everyone understands that all contact is done purely for the purpose of training. The best way to convey this message is to simply be professional in your dealings with your students. I have found that even when in compromising positions which could be misconstrued, even when working with children, if I am focused and professional and conveying honest useful information, everyone focuses on that and pays attention.
Secondly I have found that using focus shields with my students is a good way to help to get them used to feeling incoming force without frightening them unduly. Using the focus shield allows the student to feel differing degrees of force through an intermediary. This allows the student to adjust to force, and practice resisting the force, and see another student throwing blows at them, without actually hitting them, yet.
Thirdly we practice techniques on the body with increasing degrees of force. The students are taught to practice their techniques at touch and light contact, and contact is increased over time as the students move into more advanced classes. Beginner students are repeatedly reminded to use control and touch their targets. Intermediate students are taught to use heavier contact while still using control. This process continues in more advanced classes. At all levels students are practicing on shields, heavy bags, and other punching targets with heavier contact so that they can continue to develop power with their techniques.
Additionally I do regular drills in my classes where my students grab or push each other to work defenses against those attacks, both in the context of techniques and in spontaneous, motion based drilling. This helps to break down the barrier that the students have put up against contact. This process continues into all categories of attack with greater contact at more advanced levels.
One other drill that I like is designed to teach the student how to tense their body to resist force as well as to desensitize the students to contact. I have a student stand in a horse stance and another student moves around them lightly striking the body with punches, elbows, or open hand strikes. The key here is for the student to feel the force as they are very lightly struck and tense the muscles in that area to protect the internal organs.
These are just some of the basic steps involved. There are many other drills and training techniques which can be used, such as sparring and sensitivity drills, but the real key is to begin the process early. If the instructor waits until the brown or black belt level to hit someone, several problems arise.
1. The student has already adjusted to and accepted the degree of contact inherent in his training. To drastically increase that, especially after so much time, without ramping it up slowly, would certaintly intimidate the student.
2. Students who were naturally predisposed to heavier contact, or looking specifically for it in their self defense training have probably already left the school, leaving no one who can role model "sucking it up" and "taking the punishment" for the weaker students to emulate.
3. It seems hard to except that a student could learn effective self defense and acquire street applicable skills without engaging in some level of contact with a resisting opponent.
Especially at the beginning levels, it is important to pair up students with similar attributes, physically, mentally, emotionally, even experientially. Not every time, but more often than not. Certaintly it is important to pair up students of different sizes and strengths so that they can learn to effectively execute technique against a variety of bigger, stronger, or faster attackers, but that can be emphasized to a greater degree later in their training. If you put too much on a beginning student, you will lose a student, and then you can't help them at all.
The most important aspect in my opinion is to care about your students and be concious of their unique challenges, while also pushing them to reach outside their comfort zone. That is what a good coach does. You have to listen to the students and be concerned with helping them grow as martial artists. You know what they need to achieve, but you have to listen to your students to know what the best way to lead them to that goal is. All students learn and process information differently and being sensitive to each student's needs will help you to motivate them to improve.
-Rob
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