The rain was coming down pretty hard but we decided to push through and train. Contra was good enought to come out and play in the rain which made the morning training worth while. We did come accross a few ruckers wading through the puddles. Comet, Brushless and Cheif started off just as the heavy rain began, while Cupcake and Lear were seen off in the distance. Nice work guys,,, you almost make YHC want to put on a backpack,, almost.
We started off as usual with drills. But it was time to speed things up a bit. Learning to do more than two things are once is important in training but Once the basic drills are learned well enough, hand speed becomes very important. And this speeding up becomes a very tiresome workout. There are two things that severely hinder our abilities in a fight… Stress and fatigue. Our abilities drastically drop off when any of these take hold. Stress is usually adressed as fear,,, this will slow our hand speed sharply and limit the ability to address any attack. Fear is a natural signal that lets us know that we are in trouble. If you dont feel fear,, you dont have the ability to recognize danger,,,, and therefore should not fight. But for those of us that have the ability to feel fear,, once fear lets us know that we are in danger,, it is no longer a necessary signal. So, listen to the signal, identify the danger and let it go to allow our bodies to respond to it. Fatigue on the other hand is something that we can train to over come. But fatigue has a component to it that is not usually considered. And yes it has to do with fear. When a mind allows fear to control the actions,, the musces work against each other in a guarded state which fatigues our muscles very quickly. We must do things over and again so our bodies dont fight themselves. Actions become automatic and less defensive. With these repeated drills and increasing speed the drills become a very good at accomplishing these requirement , training the bodies endurance, strength and abilities at the same time.
The dreary weather kept the training to standing drills as rolling around in the cold puddles was not part of the plan this morning. But the standing attacks and defenses gave us plenty to work on. A good sign of confidence occured when we were able to hold a conversation while performing the drills. This helps avoid tunnel vision in a fight and allows the mind to see what is really occurring. But it can also lead to a few small mishaps (like punching the YHC in the face a few times) while each gets used to splitting the focus between physical and mental training. But you cant learn to swim without getting wet,,, and you cant learn to fight without getting hit,(or hitting others). Time went by faster than we realized and the ruckers arrived ready for the transition to te bible study given by Contra.
It was good to be back training after a week of fighting the flu. Thanks for the chance to train with you fine men. It is a pleasure to share bumps and bruises in the ongoing efforts to improve ourselves.