Habituation

Dealing with aggressive and violent people is a frightening prospect. Not so much from a technical perspective but from an emotional one. As I always stress, 99% of assailants on the street will assault you with their best attack – the one they hope will end the fight there and then – and not plan or be prepared beyond that. This is why a push followed by a large swinging right is one of the most common types of assault. A street fight is rarely a highly physical technical affair, which is why we concentrate so much on basic movement, balance and stability. However from an emotional standpoint, to be able to perform such basic things under such a high level of stress requires an extreme emotional technical proficiency.  

Habituation is the process of decreasing a particular behavior due to increased exposure to a particular stimulus. Tolerance to alcohol or narcotics is a good example of this. The first time you had a pint of beer (in the UK that would be when you were about 13) it probably went straight to your head and you felt the full effect of the drink. If you remember the first time you stepped out on to the mats, you were probably jumpy, flat-footed and in a partial state of panic. Overtime as you were exposed again and again to somebody moving around you and trying to make contact with you, the stress you felt in this situation was reduced. Sometimes when you are partnered with somebody new who is wild and uncontrolled in the drills you begin to experience that same feeling, as you have become comfortable with dealing with controlled and calm individuals. This is the time, not to panic and lash out, but practice managing your emotions and allowing your movement skills to perform for them under this “new” stress level.

It is always interesting to watch stress tests at gradings and see peoples technical abilities slow down and decrease as well as confusing different threats and attacks and performing inappropriate and wrong defenses to them. It is not just fatigue, which decreases our ability to perform but our heightened emotional state. The fact that we train EVERYTHING and EVERY technique with movement may seem to be a frustrating way to learn and it may seem simpler to start training new things statically first however introducing a new technique without any form of stressor is unrealistic – introducing movement at the outset may slow down initial “mastery” of the technique however it gives not only a realistic representation of the attack it is designed to deal with but also puts an emotional stress component into the mix – one you should eventually overcome.

When I grade/test I am not only looking for clean techniques, which demonstrate the teaching points I am also looking for the mental state and stress level of the person performing it. Too often I see frustration and the rushing through of something, which is a clear indicator of succumbing to stress and emotion. In your practice you must repeat, repeat and repeat again the practice of a technique so the threat recognition and remembrance of it is there. It is a testament to our system, that people almost always perform the first part of the technique well but fall down after their initial response and reaction as they try and think and/or workout what to do. Keep training with movement and you will learn to think and adapt with movement.

Grading should not be a time to simply look back on what you may have achieved but to take stock of where you fell down and what you need to build on and develop. We grade again for Yellow and Orange belts in December.