Like most people these days I enjoy social media, forums, networking, keeping up to date with new trends, training applications and constantly building my knowledge base.
One thing that amazes me when reading, discussing and researching combat orientated material are certain buzz words and phrases that have been with us for ever and are used today in totally the wrong context with regards to combat. The first is ‘React’ and the phrase Fight or flight. What is worse than hearing these words from inexperienced individuals is hearing them from so
called experienced individuals and no less than experienced professional individuals.
Lets take the word ‘React’ first. A reaction is a natural act performed by the body, hard wired into our system from the days when we were cave men. We eat, our natural reaction is to digest and get rid of the waste unless it is bad for us then our natural reaction is to puke it up. We put our hand against something hot our natural reaction is to pull our hand away as fast as possible. We get blinded by a flash of light, our natural reaction is to blink or sharply look away. This is all perfectly normal for everyday living when not engaging in any form of combat. Reactions have no place in combat and this is why I do not teach the flinch response. OK firstly, the two words flinch and response when used together are confusing, the flinch is a natural reaction and a response is a learned action. Many people flinch differently, blink, crouch or duck, stand rigid, jump, throw their arms in the air or pin them at their sides, I have even seen people curl up while standing on one leg. There are as many flinch reactions as there are people so to teach a response you first have to find out what that persons flinch is and then build the response system around that. If you are reacting to some stimuli then you are not making a cognitive decision.
Onto ‘Response’. A response is a decision, a learned action that you choose to employ and which overrides any reaction the subconscious mind is trying to make. One that hopefully is the correct decision under whatever circumstances you find yourself in.
Fight or Flight, how often have you heard this term? You would be surprised at how many experienced professionals still use this term. The correct phrase is Fight – Freeze – Flight. We all know about the freeze but for some reason people seem to leave it out of the equation as if it just floats around and happens somewhere in the fight or flight sections. Here we need to understand that fight and flight are cognitive responses, the freeze is a natural reaction controlled by the subconscious mind and should effectively lie in the realm of the untrained individual but you will find it manifesting itself in the actions of the incorrectly trained individuals also.
I recently read this equation Fight – Freeze – Flight –Feint, again though feinting is a natural reaction and belongs firmly within the freeze section.
You will have heard the term ‘any idiot can fight’ right? Replace idiot for untrained – WRONG most if not frozen to the spot will choose to run, fighting is not now a natural act for most decent law abiding individuals, we see this when the have a go heroes end up either hospitalised or dead for getting involved without proper training, engaging in combat at whatever level is being bred out of our psyche due to societies rather peaceful way of life,
the wolves know this that is why they do what they
do.
You can find out more on this subject here.

Stay Dangerous
Rock