Mental Combat

[Brad Souders]

When is a fight begun? When is a fight happening? When does the fight end?

I think all these answers lay in one place. Your mind. When your brain goes into "combat" mode is when you truly understand yourself as a fighter/combatant. Do u freak or do u relax and let stuff happen. Training the brain to release itself in the moment and allow the energy of the opponents being is extremely important imo to becoming a truly complete person and fighter.

Also when the brain can function as itself during the heat it allows u to understand the surroundings and what to do when your in deep water. It's one thing to know where u are, its another thing to understand where u are when getting your face nailed. Many people lose themselves as tough guys, when the matter of it is they base their ego on the fact they don't know. They are so hyped on they are a badass, due to the lack of confidence in their own ability to fight or even act as a normal functioning human.

This is why i think it is important to condition your brain just like one does the body. Through reps. Why treat your brain unlike your other polished techniques. Sometimes i think we all forget why we are the dominate species on earth. Its our ability to use our minds to our advantage. So why not take a theory that is proven over years of evolution and make your weaponary more broad then any kick,punch,throw,or submission. Know that when its time to act your not following your fear but embracing and using it to outsmart itself.

Later, Brad

[David Jamieson]

When is a fight begun? When is a fight happening? When does the fight end?

when the guns are drawn, when the guns are shooting, when the guns are quiet.

.
Sometimes i think we all forget why we are the dominate species on earth.

dude, i think that title belongs to the fishes, this world is 70% water...or more, whatever it is that has dominion of the planet, it ain't 'us'. :)

cheers

p.s 'guns' can be analogous

[Yung Apprentice]

Kung Lek- You are too smart for your own good!:D

[Oso]

good post, Brad.

The problem with answering your questions is that you have to look at it from two perspectives, imo.

The first is from our 'warrior' perspective where the answers are sooner (When does a fight begin?) and later (When does a fight end?) than where the legal system says they do.

[Former castleva]

"dude, i think that title belongs to the fishes, this world is 70% water...or more, whatever it is that has dominion of the planet, it ain't 'us'. "

I think that would be insects,as far as metazoa goes.

[yenhoi]

Since humans can kill all the insects and fishes, if we made a real effort to, I think we are the dominant ones.

What kind of reps are you talking about Brad?

So-called "reality" training? Adrenaline dump scenarios? Etc? meditation? Study of ethics? Study of Pre-fight psychology? Study of post-fight stuff? (Legal stuff, how to evade cops, first aid, self-checkout, etc?) Maybe just asking yourself simple questions like, why do I carry the knife, what types of situations will I deploy it, how will I deploy in these situations, what will I do in each situation when it happens, what do I do after Ive cut the guy, what to say to the cops... pickup lines for the jail house etc?

:confused:

[TigerJaw]

Nah, we can't kill the ants. Try as we might.

[Brad Souders]

Yenhoi,

Sup bro. I believe one should train themselves in all the areas u mention. To know the in and outs of a fight allows one to remain more calm during it. Especially understanding the limits of the fight. If i kill a man after the threat is over then i become no better then him. And obvious with "reality" training you condition your brain to function under the stress and adreline rush of combat. Being able to think clear during the heat of the moment could be the difference of walkin away or being carried away.

Later, Brad

[Xebsball]

flip out and bite people of course

[TheWarriorHeart]

This is a very interesting topic. I have studied the mental aspect for myself during combat and how my body responds to the stress. I think anyone of us who reality trains (hard sparring) and/or has been in competition or street fights gets the shakes or jitters right before or at the start of the encounter. Years ago I used to think this was a weakness but now I embrace it with all my being, because I know my body is releasing that adrenaline which will make me stronger, faster and more impervious to pain.

One thing I have realized though is it can make you slightly more clumsy perhaps.....so it is easier to stick with blows and grappling manuevers then say...a wristlock. However, I have been trying to channel this energy while my mind stays completely calm so that basically I can do whatever I want in a combat situation. I do this by concsiously sort of realizing this during my sparring matches but last night I tried it while I blasted this guy's face at work( I am a bouncer) and the adrenaline didn't hit me till after it was over...but I think that is because it happened so fast.

In conclusion the mental aspect of combat training is extremely important for us to realize, refine, and use for our benefit. So train hard!

[JAZA]

Since bacterias or viruses can kill all the humans, insects and fishes, if they made a real effort to mutate like SARS, I think they are the dominant ones.:)

[StickyHands]

Originally posted by Kung Lek


when the guns are drawn, when the guns are shooting, when the guns are quiet.

.

dude, i think that title belongs to the fishes, this world is 70% water...or more, whatever it is that has dominion of the planet, it ain't 'us'. :)

cheers

p.s 'guns' can be analogous

Sorry to break your bubbles Mr. Fish, lol, but the world is dominated by insects. If you were to start gathering them in one place, you'd see them covering the enitre earth relatively fast, so so when your orbiting the earth from space, you wont see our planet as blue and green anymore. If they suddenly got smart, hehe, and decided to wipe us out, we wouldnt stand a chance. And then of course bacteria, who, if one decides them to stack them up above the earth's surface, they too would fill up the place pretty fast. And speaking of having intercontinental networks, lol, fungus are the best at it with their myceliums, they are usually kept hidden below ground. So I wouldnt exactly call our fishies that much of dominant species just because they seem to inhabit inside 70% of earth's enviroment.

[HuangKaiVun]

Whether we realize it or not, most of our waking lives are spent in some sort of "combat" or another.

Knowing how and when to run and when to fight applies to every aspect of life.

[Shadow Skill]

To me a fight starts based an a persons intent. The way they walk twards you. the look in their eyes. At that momment the fight has begun. when u look at some one that you want to fight your mind starts visualizing different scanerios (sp?) and the out come of each one. You begin to enter combat mode, pupils dialate, heart rate increases, breathing changes. You begin to scan the are for other potential threats. That is the start of a fight.

The end on the other hand could come as quick as walking away.
it could be as fast a hook kick to the temple. as swift as a snake to the throat.
or it could take longer than a 12 round heavy weight fight. It could be longer than a fat chick loosing a hundred pounds. (no dis to fat chicks they need luv too).

[Mutant]

Awesome post Brad!

This is a very interesting part of martial training. I think youre right in that it may the most important part of a fight, whether in the ring or a real self-defense situation. Its one of the more elusive aspects of combat too, hard to train, hard to simulate. I think a lot of MA'ists and schools don't even understand this aspect of it, often don't know that they don't know it, or a warped sense of it. This is just an observation over the years, not critisism against anyones style. I wish i had more time today to comment on this discussion but i've got a deadline and then got to run to catch a flight so I got to keep it brief.

ShadowSkill, good comment but in my experience i think an individuals fight starts when they first become aware of it, not before when someone else has the intent. Its a grey area really. Intent is very interesting too the way it affects fighting, thats a whole other interesting sub-topic. But there are a lot of crazy people walking around out there with violence or bad thoughts for me or you or everyone, and maybe intent to do harm, but you can';t react to everyones ill will. But i think as soon as you get the intuition somethings going down, or the second youre suddenly drawn ito an altercation is when youre mind and body go thru this reaction which Brad describes. I think its very interesting that you've made 'friends' with it Brad. Thats a good way to look at it.
The feelings and reaction that youre talking about really are a trip.
When i first realized that all the forms and the type of sparring that me and my partners was not addressing this enough was when me and a friend who was a very good fighter (1st round knockout in his first and only full-contact ring fight, which he didnt 'ring' train for) got jumped by a group of Iranians (true and long story) who had tools they were using as weapons, one holding a hammer with the claw side out, another a long screwdriver (they must have been a work crew or something), they were really big and tough all biger than us like 200 i bet this one dude was 300lb no joke, my friend and the biggest dude started fighting and i went to jump in and either help or break it up whatever i could do and got cold clocked from the side by another dude and my teeth got smashed thru the side of my cheek and i had a mild standing cuncussion for the rest of the fight which was basically me and my friend fending off blows in a daze, getting flying headbutted by a bald iranian guy, my friend getting smothers by this fat s.o.b. and i just did all i could not to get hit hard by a hammer or fall down (i didnt) and keep moving. some other people had called the police who were on their way and everyone scattered. i still have the scar on the inside of my cheek. anyway, the only reason to bring up this beating is becaues me and my friend where both good fighters, had both practiced karate and kung fu for nearly 10 years each and both had about 4 years at the same kung fu school where we'd...
anyway i gotta run, the final idea was we modified our training and focus and learned a lot aobut what brad's talking about and i've been facinated with it too.
peace brad, later

[Ray Pina]

Great post!

I'm realising just how important the mind/state of mind is. I've heard, said it all the time. But I used to always come out like a bull. It took me gassing out in San Da to really see why that is foolish.

My last fight I aproached with a much more, "let's see what happens" aproach, and I was able to absorb blows better and utilize my energy more efficiently. Instead of fighting everything, I waited until I could do my thing without really fighting at all .... filling holes, taking advantage of tired, sloppy, kicking, etc.

I have a lot more work to do. But it's becoming clearer.