11/11/2025
ONE FOR MARTIAL ARTISTS
Have you ever been in an environment where an argument got really heated?
Voices were raised, obscene and abusive language being screamed in anger.
If you've ever been around that, how did you feel?
Most people would say they just wanted to escape (perfectly normal), others say they felt like they weren't even there, almost like watching it unfold in the third-person.
These are two exceptionally common trauma responses, flight and freeze.
It is actually very rare that a person can be around real or perceived violence and actually feel like engaging (verbally or physically), this is classed as 'fight' in the trauma response model.
Understanding your own trauma response (trauma survival pattern) is number one in terms of importance when it comes to self defence.
Knowing how your body is going to respond to danger (real or perceived) in a real world scenario.
I add "real and perceived" danger, as the human mind (and body), can't differentiate between the two. An online character attack can cause the same physiological response as being chased by a tiger.
Where these lines become blurred and people lose all sense of reality, is that the person who doesn't like full contact sparring, hates the concept of risking having their nose broken or suffering a mild concussion, feels perfectly fine learning to defend against a knife or machete attack, or even a firearm defence drill.
The reality is, take the fear you feel when someone puts on a set of 16 ounce boxing gloves and a mouth guard ready to spar you, and times that by approximately 900 billion ...
Cause that's what a legit knife attack will feel like.
When your heart rate reaches the levels it's about too in a situation like this, you have lost all your ability to respond (even your complex motor skills have deteriorated beyond use).
As a final point, remember that 90% of violence is committed by a person known to the victim. These attacks are set up and calculated (ambushed), so the chance of a physical response is next to zero.
Whilst it's fun to train in a variety of systems to avoid boredom, you risk falling down the rabbit hole and suffer the John Wick delusional thought process.
Remember the KISS principle:
Keep it Simple Sensei ๐
