Sdmlb

[redantstyle]

http://lateralaction.com/articles/creative-rituals/


i've trained mostly outdoors, in conventional clothing, in all weather, and in varied locations.

thoughts?

 

[Deaf Smith]

Well at least considering the article, I hope I have time to do my ritual before being mugged.

Sure I try to train realisticly, but add a ritual? Nope.

Try this in your training. It's real simple and real realistic.

Do your self defense training right after a full meal. And then see just how good you really are.

Deaf

 

[sgtmac_46]

A ritual preparation for battle is probably useful.....so long as you know beforehand the battle is coming. The application to self-defense from surprise confrontation seems more nebulous.

 

[Chris Parker]

Hi,

Hmm, a ritual in your reality self defence training? You know, this may disagree with a few people, but I think it's a good idea. You just need to understand what type of ritual you need to use.

The classical Japanese martial arts utilise ritual in various ways, just watch any demo for them. Often they involve the participants approach each other from a distance, eyes and awareness firmly on their opponent, then, at a pre-ordained distance, stop, perform a ritualised bow, sometimes with a particular phrase or prayer being said, maybe a loud clap or slap at the end, then draw weapons if being used, or move closer if unarmed and adopt the starting posture, then perform the technique. At the end, move back (keeping awareness still), a final bow, then retreat.

Basically, what all this is doing is giving the practitioner the opportunity to prepare themselves for the correct mindset for combat, and allow them to practice maintaining that focus and mindset all the way to the end of the combat (and after). This comes from a duelling background amongst high-ranking and high-status warriors who would test themselves against other warriors.

But that's not the way fights and assaults happen today. Your likely attacker isn't going to walk towards you, stop, bow, and fight you on equal terms. They are going to try to attack with an advantage, whether percieved or real. This could be a weapon, a group (which you may not realise are part of the attack until too late), drugs/alcohol, or previous successful experience attacking people. However, that doesn't mean there is no ritual involved.

Let's take two common forms of street violence. In the first, you are out with friends, and someone (stranger) decides to start a fight. They may be drunk, may have had a bad day, or may have just decided that you were the one they want to hurt. It's not personal, it's just the way it is. For simplicity, let's say they're drunk, and you or part of your group may have accidentally bumped into them, spilling their drink. That is enough for them to kick off. Here comes the ritual.

The ritual here is posturing in an attempt to intimidate the opponent. Often, the aggressor will walk back and forth, yelling, and often shedding clothing (jacket, shirt etc). Then there will be a set-up (step forward to breach distance as the striking hand is cocked, or look away as setting up the strike), and the attack.

So build a ritual involving those aspects; for example, practice a ritual before your techniques where you try to talk an opponent down, keep distance, keep awareness of incoming attacks as well as other possible participants, keep moving around, then have the attack come in and perform your defence (or attack if available).

The other is a sucker-in. This is not a street fight. The attacker is not a street fighter. This is a street predator, and an ambush assault. The aim is not to fight you, the aim is simply to hurt you. A fight will leave them open to being hurt themselves, and that is not in their agenda. As a result, good awareness and simply being a "hard" target will often be enough to put the predator off. But back to the point.

There are a coupleof different approaches that may be encountered, such as "friendly" approaches, and "sleazy" approaches. Friendly appraoches try to get in close by being nice, not giving any indication of any ill-intent (examples may include "Hey, man, how are you? Haven't seen you for ages, man, come here, l me get you a drink..." while moving into range, smiling all the time. By the time they are in range, it's pretty much over.); sleazy may be making some kind of offer ("Hey, c'mere dude, wanna show ya somethin'. Nah, c'mere, it's real cool, dude, c'mon...", and when you get here, or they get cose enough to you, again, it's all over).

So your ritual here would focus on verbal de-fusing and maintaining distance. Again, that can often be enough. If the predator doesn't get their range, they won't attack unless provoked or embarrassed into it. So don't challenge them, just mirror the approach (be firm, but friendly back to the friendly guy, firm and resolute in staying back from the sleazy guy). For the ritual, though, you can include a technique at the end if you wish, but I recommend practicing the talk-down as a technique in and of itself.

So, essentially, rituals still have use, and are still a part of our culture, even if htey are a little under the surface. After all, what is the repetition of technique but a ritual itself?

 

[BLACK LION]

some outfits use a form of meditation in which they lie on the ground with all muscles clenched and imagine hand to hand combat. Sort of like lucid dreaming or soemthing. It can be used as a prelude to training but not a part of it IMO. Simply becuase you do what you train.

Now asking the Lord for strength and courage while advancing on a threat is a different story.

 

[redantstyle]

im actually looking at the reverse, or inverse, of the article.

i use no rituals.

i train in everyday clothing, in a natural environment that varies by location, and as well, i train in most all weather. the ground is generally uneven, and at times i train in extremes, like pouring rain, or at night. or at night in the pouring rain. there's not much i do that is standardized. have'nt spend much time in a dojo in the past twenty years.

therefore, i am liable to be less state dependant than someone who goes through a long process before they actually train their self defense skills.

i.e. uniforms, bowing, meditations, chants/sayings, warmups, kata, kihon, etc.

in a basic sense, even the assumption of a stance/fiighting position is a kind of state 'dependancy'.

i do mostly cold start, void training.

i dont do chi sau, daisy chains(hubud/lubud drills), bridging starts, and anything like that.

imo, that is all state dependancy and presets a certain expectation that may very well not materialize.

'techinques' are never uniform because techniques are never uniform.

my art is heavy on jeet/intercept and therefore has little or no time for a variety of 'rituals' that people tend to enact before actually moving to attack or defend. mostly these are funny little telegraphs that spring from who knows what.

anyways, i heard about this theory and thought it was interesting because it reflects the way i train...trying to avoid sdmlb.... though i wasn't conciously doing this.

i just like to train without the frills.

regards.

 

[redantstyle]

After all, what is the repetition of technique but a ritual itself?

a 'technique' is a vehicle to learn the principles of operation that lies behind any given strategy or tactic.

how a technique plays or is expressed is as varied as snowflakes.

you know, you might be able to standardize your entry, particularily if your uke keeps a good format, but your timing, distance, angle, power, cadence, etc will vary everytime, as will his spinal reflexes.

we definately TRY to make techniques a ritual, as it is one of the only ways to catalogue techniques and technique options.

problem with ritualizing them too much is that you come to expect a series of reactions from your uke.

what you want to do is wire gross motor option plays.

not rituals.

 

[still learning]

Hello, "Sumo" is heavy into Rituals.

This ritual thing like wives tales does become a important thing for lots of people. Mainly to bring luck, or a positive outcome. In everyday life for business, for sports, for martial arts, even for SEX.

It can be very religious too....for many the rituals.

Fisherman are heavy into rituals for catching fish.

When I was training? ....I always take a bath before I go to any martial art classes....just want to be clean....that was my ritual. Yes I took another bath when I go home too!

Aloha, What's Your ritual?

 

[redantstyle]

well, i guess it would be smoking a cigarette, in some cases. oh and drinking some coffee or tea beforehand. but that is socializing, and likely as not to occur.

my point was, in the context of ma, that the use of rituals of all kinds may very be detrimental to the desired goal...i.e. 'natural movement'.

a posture has to be taken up and all that...

so if you are attempting to build up your reflex/response, oda, etc., then anything that is not directly contributing to that is essentially a waste.

for instance, i read here about a few terrible instances in which LEO disarmed gun wielding opponents, only to return the weapon immediately to the assailant. and this was due to a training ritual.

i dont allow 'returning the weapon', or helping someone up once you've downed them, or anything that resembles cooperation with the 'opponent'.

and if by chance anyone does fall back on social graces in the course of training, it is utilized against them via cheap shot. nothing injurious, but something used merely to point out their error.... a little kick, poke, or takedown. whatever is an option.

i have found that some take offense at this approach, as it offends their sense of ritual. i in turn find it offensive to 'half teach', or wire conflicting responses.

my students come to me to learn self defense.

so that is what i teach them.

regards.

 

[redantstyle]

Hi,

Hmm, a ritual in your reality self defence training? You know, this may disagree with a few people, but I think it's a good idea. You just need to understand what type of ritual you need to use.

The classical Japanese martial arts utilise ritual in various ways, just watch any demo for them. Often they involve the participants approach each other from a distance, eyes and awareness firmly on their opponent, then, at a pre-ordained distance, stop, perform a ritualised bow, sometimes with a particular phrase or prayer being said, maybe a loud clap or slap at the end, then draw weapons if being used, or move closer if unarmed and adopt the starting posture, then perform the technique. At the end, move back (keeping awareness still), a final bow, then retreat.

Basically, what all this is doing is giving the practitioner the opportunity to prepare themselves for the correct mindset for combat, and allow them to practice maintaining that focus and mindset all the way to the end of the combat (and after). This comes from a duelling background amongst high-ranking and high-status warriors who would test themselves against other warriors.

But that's not the way fights and assaults happen today. Your likely attacker isn't going to walk towards you, stop, bow, and fight you on equal terms. They are going to try to attack with an advantage, whether percieved or real. This could be a weapon, a group (which you may not realise are part of the attack until too late), drugs/alcohol, or previous successful experience attacking people. However, that doesn't mean there is no ritual involved.

Let's take two common forms of street violence. In the first, you are out with friends, and someone (stranger) decides to start a fight. They may be drunk, may have had a bad day, or may have just decided that you were the one they want to hurt. It's not personal, it's just the way it is. For simplicity, let's say they're drunk, and you or part of your group may have accidentally bumped into them, spilling their drink. That is enough for them to kick off. Here comes the ritual.

The ritual here is posturing in an attempt to intimidate the opponent. Often, the aggressor will walk back and forth, yelling, and often shedding clothing (jacket, shirt etc). Then there will be a set-up (step forward to breach distance as the striking hand is cocked, or look away as setting up the strike), and the attack.

So build a ritual involving those aspects; for example, practice a ritual before your techniques where you try to talk an opponent down, keep distance, keep awareness of incoming attacks as well as other possible participants, keep moving around, then have the attack come in and perform your defence (or attack if available).

The other is a sucker-in. This is not a street fight. The attacker is not a street fighter. This is a street predator, and an ambush assault. The aim is not to fight you, the aim is simply to hurt you. A fight will leave them open to being hurt themselves, and that is not in their agenda. As a result, good awareness and simply being a "hard" target will often be enough to put the predator off. But back to the point.

There are a coupleof different approaches that may be encountered, such as "friendly" approaches, and "sleazy" approaches. Friendly appraoches try to get in close by being nice, not giving any indication of any ill-intent (examples may include "Hey, man, how are you? Haven't seen you for ages, man, come here, l me get you a drink..." while moving into range, smiling all the time. By the time they are in range, it's pretty much over.); sleazy may be making some kind of offer ("Hey, c'mere dude, wanna show ya somethin'. Nah, c'mere, it's real cool, dude, c'mon...", and when you get here, or they get cose enough to you, again, it's all over).

So your ritual here would focus on verbal de-fusing and maintaining distance. Again, that can often be enough. If the predator doesn't get their range, they won't attack unless provoked or embarrassed into it. So don't challenge them, just mirror the approach (be firm, but friendly back to the friendly guy, firm and resolute in staying back from the sleazy guy). For the ritual, though, you can include a technique at the end if you wish, but I recommend practicing the talk-down as a technique in and of itself

Chris Parker,

i dont really see what you are describing here as a ritual. it's more like psychological tactics, decoy/distraction...it's pre-fight maneouvering. in a sense, yes it is a type of ritual(often mutual), and may very well shift control of the situation to yourself, as well as allow you have ample time to 'prepare,' or as you say get that focus and mindset needed for combat.

my OP is referring more to how you will respond when someone attacks, and whether or not your training rituals will help or hinder you at that time.

to be clear, i am referring to either an ambush or an attack initiated with little or no forewarning. i agree with you that you can defuse or change the situation before violence erupts, and that is the best option in most cases i would imagine.

i'm just being a bit of a purist with this and keeping to the actual moment of combat intention/initiation.

regards.

 

[Chris Parker]

Okay, cool. My interpretation of the pre-fight as a "ritual" comes from the point that it is a repeated series or style of actions which can be recognised and interpreted. In addition, the repeated actions give rise to certain specific results, which is the point of a ritual in it's essence. That is also where my comment about repetition of technique being a ritual in and of itself.

But to get to your idea of ambush/surprise attack, and rituals involved in that, there we would be discussing rituals (techniques and drills) to instill awareness in the student, and from there getting used to the sudden shock and being able to respond. And that can be achieved through ritual as well. Whether or not your particular training ritual(s) will depend on how you approach them...

For example, you appear to be claiming that a ritual which requires a "posture" ot be adopted could be detrimental to your possible success (and survivability). I would argue that that would depend on your ritual. In our schools, we teach not only the "traditional" postures, but more "natural" and "modern" expressions of the same classical tactics, and in every technique/drill we exercise we practice moving instantly into these "street" postures. This includes moving against approaching aggressors, opponents "shaping up", and sudden assaults (including closed-eyes, sudden shove, then defend against an incoming attack). These rituals can help.

Rituals such as training large complicated movements or particularly obvious posturing, or, as you stated, returning weapons or assisting opponents back up (or even just apologising for hitting an opponent, which students do from time to time...), then we're into bad, or dangerous, territory. There I agree with you completely.

I think we just had to realise where we were both coming from...

 

[Guardian]

I don't know about rituals as much as I see habits that these folks performed in order to ensure they had a good day in battle or at work or just in living.

I speak to God and Jesus every morning on my way to work, I don't call it a ritual though.