Simple Beats Fancy Everytime
- David
- Apr 21, 2016
- 3 min read
We’ve all heard it before: “The shortest distance between two points is a straight line.” We’ve also heard: “The simplest route is often times the best.” Or for those who went to business school: “Keep it simple and sweet.”
But what do these phrases truly mean and how can we apply them to different aspects of our life? In the aspect of traveling, it could mean taking the planned route that will deliver you to your destination in the shortest amount of time without making too many unnecessary turns and stops. In the aspect of personal growth, it could mean setting a goal, and doing everything you can to attain that goal without losing sight or focus.
Martial arts and self defense training is no different. Should the need arise; it is always best for you to defend yourself in the most direct and simple way possible.
If you are ever attacked, there is a good chance that you won’t see the attack coming. Unless you are already engaged in a confrontation (examples can include a verbal argument, a tense stare down, etc.), most attackers will be looking to blind side or ambush you to gain the upper hand quickly.
Most people don’t have the state of mind or the training to confront this type of ambush and that is what the attacker will be counting on.
If you are attacked, a few things will happen. You will experience a surge of adrenaline and almost immediately after that you will feel an adrenaline dump. You will most likely experience tunnel vision, and all of your fine motor skills will fly right out the window. Thought process is greatly affected in this situation, as well. You will find that it is very difficult to think past what is happening at that particular second. Your mind will be stuck on the fact that you have been attacked and that it hurts. All of these natural reactions together make anything that you are going to do very difficult and overwhelming.
In the midst of an attack, you will not have the time or the state of mind to make any complex decisions. You must train yourself to react to the attack, quickly and effectively.
When it comes to training yourself to prevail when attacked, you must start by looking at what type of defense systems are out there. What system is best suited to help me in an attack that is most likely to happen in a store parking lot? Or at a bar? Or in a deserted parking garage?
Criminals and attackers are always evolving. They do all they can to keep the upper hand and to stay one step ahead of their victim pool.
In saying that, if you want a better chance of success in the event that you are ever attacked it would be a good idea to train in a system that is continually evolving as well. Systems such as Krav Maga, Kali, and Jeet Kune Do are great for this. Each of these systems was born from the need to protect individuals from newer types of threats. These systems also change with the times to remain effective.
These systems are great at addressing the overwhelming sensation I was talking about before. They take a potential attack, supply a simple and direct defense for it based on the body’s natural reaction, and create drills to turn the defense into muscle memory.
In a self defense type scenario, the best decision you can make is the one you don’t have to think about. This is why simple and direct techniques prevail over fancy, traditional moves.
Once you have drilled the technique in a controlled atmosphere, you must add in the reality factor. Systems such as Krav Maga are excellent at supplying stress drills to safely mimic the feelings you will get once blind sided with an attack. They put you in a situation where your senses are over loaded, you are physically and mentally uncomfortable, you are at a point of disadvantage, and you must defend yourself from an oncoming attack.
Your worst performance in training is going to be the best performance you deliver in a real-life ambush-type self-defense scenario. Knowing this, it is best to train in an atmosphere that will best mimic what you can expect in the streets.
There are so many different avenues of training, and a vast variety of self defense systems at your disposal. You can train in any system from anywhere in the world under any master you choose, and that is so amazing. However, one thing will always remain the same. Random and unforeseen attacks are vicious and can be deadly. When you are fighting for your life or the life of someone you love, the chances of success will raise substantially if you have been trained to do so in a simple and direct manner.
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