What happens when everyone is out of town and only one shows up to Fightclub to train with YHC???? We get to fight all morning long. And this turns in to a fun situation. But we learn quickly that fighting takes a lot of endurance. The physical confrontation is taxing enough but the stress can drain the reserves of anyone very quickly. We can train for hours each day, for months at a time, to prepare our bodies but the stress of an altercation is difficult to train for. The Stress response in a Fight,,,,,, Typically the body enters into a guarded state,,, the muscles flexing, making movement slow and ineffecient. The body tires quickly because it is fighting itself at every turn. The breathing becomes shallow and fast reducing the oxygen intake. Blood flows away from the extremeities toward the center of the body making fine motor movement slow and difficult,, the legs begin to feel like they are stuck in cement and the arms become slow and powerless. The mind exagerates the dangers it perceives because the body can not respond in time. Panic often sets in as we try to defend ourselves,,,,as we lose the ability to recognise options and attacks. So, training under stress is very important. The best way is to expose ourselves to increasing levels of battle, moving from basic movement to drastic and dangerous confrontations. This will allow the mind and body to get used to functioning under serious levels of threat and stress.
Ok, so it sounds easy enough. And as has been stated before,, drills drills and more drills is the answer. We train our mind and body to respond, move, counter and attack. Each succesful conditioned response reduces the "unkown" in a fight. We realize that the person has only two hand, two feet and one head and body. The attacks and threats can only come from these body parts,, and the possibilities can be reduced using position and control. But that is another story.
This morning we focused on the intial point of contact. Contra and YHC faced off and focused on destroying certain targets on the other. Well, during the first round YHC only defended to allow Contra the time to gets used to moving in to range and targeting the body parts. Then we moved into slow responses with Contra defending and attacking. Contra has developed good blocks and movements into arcs. This is fairly impressive considering the duration of the training. Contra did well, right up the point that YHC started to control his movements by attacking and controlling the legs. Not many peope can respond to leg attacks and also head attacks…. it is not as easy as it sounds. But after repeated exercises he developed the timing to respond in an appropriate manner. We rested very little, laughed a bunch when we hit each other (remember this isnt swimmming,,, contact will happen at times,,,,, but nice and easy for now), and we sweat alot. This is fun but this also takes a lot of effort. We will continue expanding the conditional responses and active combat training. Of course we will be adding drills and techniques so we can more effectively respond to differing conditions. We will eventually fight the way we think. No one will fight precisely the way another man fights. Our experiences, strengths, weaknesses, abilites, thoughts and intent will define our fighting selves.
I look forward to meeting each mans' "warrior'.
Thank you for allowing me to share this with you fine men.