Seeing If Your Material Works, Testing It, and Percentages.

[MBuzzy]

Also remember that all of that training makes you react MUCH differently to the stress of a real situation. Someone completely untrained will be much more nervous about getting attacked than a martial artist. At the very minimum, even if your instinct doesn't kick in....you are much less likely to freak out and turn into a crying ball of flesh.

Take the military....We don't train shooting at real people. We don't train with real bullets flying back at us. But we train A LOT. We train at firing in many different scenarios. Different positions, different situations, different weapons. So much that when most soldiers are in an actual fire fight....instinct and muscle memory takes over. It doesn't matter that it is real, because you revert to your training.

Same with Police - a simulator like FATS (just like the military's MILES) doesn't mean that you'll be perfect and reactions won't be different in a real situation....but you have a much better basis - you will react to those stressors much differently.

To me, the difference between someone who is trained in Martial Arts and someone who hasn't is the same correlation between a police officer and a civilian. Neither is EXPECTING a fight...but when happens, one is much more prepared than the other.

 

[Em MacIntosh]

Hot girls excluded, of course!

Amen!

 

[Em MacIntosh]

Martial arts are usually better than nothing. Sometimes, except for the physical conditioning, a guy is a better fighter before becoming a martial artist. The most effective part of MA training is the physical conditioning not the techniques. The conditioning IS wheras the techniques are MAYBEs. How your mind gets trained only becomes apperent when the situation arises. I have confidence but still get the shakes. I'm scared as hell. They call this fight or flight and there are very few reasons for me to stand and fight. Another example of the conditioning, your ability to outrun an aggressor. Not a lot of dojos put enough emphasis on conditioning and too much emphasis on technique. Sometimes you might be better off going to a gym and not joining a dojo. Training to be a "nice guy" can sometimes curb your natural aggression which you might wish you kept if the situation arises. The logical/rational/calculating abilities of humans are a part of us but can't be relied on very often in the tussle where it becomes feel and instinct. Nature has been doing the nature thing for millions of years and sometimes you were better off keeping your animal instincts rather than trying to apply human rationality. I, for one, believe that all martial arts, when you go far enough in them, are the same. There's what works and what doesn't (my favorite is kicking the knife out of someone's hand). Almost all of the techniques you learn have a place somewhere in the tussle where it'll work but in the heat of the moment you have to decide which of your techniques you will use. If you know too many techniques you might be indecisive. Indecision is the biggest killer. Followed by making the wrong decision. I think this is the whole basis of JKD. Take what is usefull, discard what is useless and add what is specifically your own. That way you make a decision, increase it's chances of being the right one and your physical conditioning will back it up. There's only one way to hit a guy. HARD. Just my theory. Feel free to tell me I'm full of it.