“Speak softly and carry a big stick.”
– Theodore Roosevelt
Dear Friend:
Alright -- in my last chapter I talked about how fear can often lead to runaway Internal Dialog or "brain freeze".
Now there’s plenty of DVD programs, books, and combat course designed to control, manage or eliminate fear. This is nonsense. As I’ve mentioned, human beings are emotional creatures which makes it (by design) impossible to control your emotions.
If you could control your emotions, wouldn’t everyone just choose a constant state of bliss, (and put the pharmaceutical, alcohol and illicit drug industries out of business overnight)? The problem is that today’s mamby-pamby “feeling” based therapies have us all believing that any sort of uncomfortable or negative feeling must be eliminated as quickly as possible.
More crap. It’s like the king who convinced himself (and a surprising number of his subjects) that he could eliminate ocean tide. His delusion became obvious only when the tide ignored his commands to halt (“I said stop right there... gurgle, gurgle, gurgle...”).
And attempting to control emotions like fear and anger is similar. Don’t waste your time trying to control them. Instead recognize that these emotions are purposely uncomfortable because they’re designed to prompt you into taking some kind of action.
So what does all this psycho-babble have to do with fighting? Well I’m getting to that. There are two big mistakes than can cause us to freeze:
- Having no plan of action (such as “what’s my target”) and thus becoming stuck in indecision...
- Attempting to manage emotions instead of dealing with the cause. Because trying to get rid of an emotion (fear for example), only amplifies it. Using internal dialog to fix internal dialog, (“don’t be afraid... don’t be afraid... don’t be afraid”), is kinda like “bleeding” a person who’s sick from blood loss.
Fear can give us vital information; it prepares us for flight or fight, and motivates us to take action. Instead of wrestling with our fear, simply acknowledge it, then do what needs to be done. We don’t have to give in to fear, or try to squash it, simply feel it, and move on. This is how to overcome fear. You’re taking action in spite of your fear... and this is as good as it gets.
Overcoming Fear
Another voice you should listen to is your “intuition”. This is not the same voice telling you to bet your house on the lottery. No. Ignore that one.
Intuition is your subconscious performing “rapid cognition” – the processing of mountains of external information to form a quick conclusion. The study of this is relatively new but researchers are already discovering the subconscious’s incredible ability to quickly “thin slice” a lot of information and form an often accurate and subtle conclusion that “something’s wrong”.
Cops often experience this when “acting on a hunch”. I’m sure you yourself have had the feeling that “something’s not quite right” about a situation. Well this is your brain “thin slicing” everything that’s going on around you. If it detects trouble, you may get a “gut feeling” as well as some other subtle “signs” like sweaty palms... jittery stomach... and the feeling that something’s not “quite right”.
Now unless there’s a girl in a mini-skirt nearby, you shouldn’t ignore these signs. It may be your subconscious trying to tell you there’s trouble.
So let’s dig a little deeper into this idea of using external focus to manage fear.
- Breathing - concentrate on calming deep breaths to keep your heart rate down and out of the “hyper vigilance” stage. This is highly effective in “de-escalation” situations where for instance, a badger is venting. It’ll help you keep your cool, keep you in the game, and it’s a sure way to keep your head clear and avoid a panicking internal dialogue. On the other hand, if a guy shoves you, well, that’s a bad time to be doing breathing exercises.
- Look for targets of opportunity. Like
I said, this is a HUGE piece of advice. It’s a simple
way to avoid “locking up” with internal dialogue and
instead concentrating on target acquisition. Here’s some specific
examples. Quickly assess these targets, determine what’s
open to you right now, and decide how you’ll attack
them:
- Neck – side of the neck is a “knock out” area. The good news is that the shoulder and head offer a natural “funnel” that’ll guide your hand directly into his neck – which means it’s a “high percentage” shot. People rarely protect their neck properly and so even a poorly executed shot can often mean instant knock out.
- Groin – believe it or not, research shows that most guys do NOT protect their groin. They are so “indoctrinated” with the idea that they’ll be punched in the face that they leave themselves wide open for one of the most devastating strikes. So forget about focusing so much on getting in that right hook to the head, (which he’ll be expecting), and start looking for an OPEN target.
- Inside knee – very vulnerable. One good kick to the inside of the knee can end a fight instantly.
- Outside thigh – a favorite target of Muay Thai fighters is to kick you in the nerve running down the outside of your leg. Even a well conditioned fighter can’t stand more than a couple good shin kicks to this nerve before buckling.
So my point is that you should immediately shift your thoughts to scanning for targets to get away from the internal dialogue.
Let’s just say some guy’s walking toward you. You feel a threat. You should immediately check to see if the guy’s got a weapon in his hands... if anyone’s with him... potential routes of escape... then begin your “target acquisition”.
Target focus vs Target awareness. You should avoid complete immersion in “missile lock” on one specific target (“head hunters” do this) as you’re typically in a state of flux where you need to be flexible and able to change your targets. Do a quick once-over of the neck, groin, inside knee, outside thigh and others targets to decide which one you’ll go for. This external focus and target acquisition really works.
Now it’s important that you begin learning how to properly execute specific fighting techniques so that your targets and strikes are most effective. That’s where the 70 different Fight-Fast DVD packages come in. I’ll get more into that next time.
But for now, the four techniques I just talked about will get you out of a pinch. You’ll get scary-good is when you create your very own tailor-made collection of fool-proof nasty tricks that’ll work for you every time. First you’ll need to understand the “wire frame” on which it all hangs.
And so far, you should be getting a pretty good idea of that wire frame.
“Victory at all costs, victory in spite of all terror, victory however long and hard the road may be; for without victory there is no survival.”
– Winston Churchill
Til next time...
Bob Pierce
Head Honcho, TRS/FightFast
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