A dojo member recently had to defuse a situation with an individual at his church's flea market. You would think of all places... But confrontations can happen anywhere, at any time.
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Remember when we said "it has to be the same", because it's all mental and is all one, everywhere? We've had living proof of that numerous times over the years. Once you internalize the principles we teach, you'll see them all around you.
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Violence. Such a nasty word. Ugh. Bad people do it, not good people. And men more so than women, right? Right.
Because men are big hairy brutes (say hi to Oog over in the corner there), and women are delicate flowers who put the backs of their hands to their foreheads and faint at the slightest provocation. Certainly they're not capable of that nasty word, "violence"!
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If you're training for fun, then train for fun. Divide things between training and not-training. Have two selves, two lives. A mental shift when you walk in the door and walk out again. Draw a line. Just like you do between work and not-work - you're a different person in each, right?
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That OODA loop thing? Yeah, we're talking about it again! This time we'd like to talk about how to break it - including a couple of recent examples of having your own broken!
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Yes, again! Legos (or Duplos!) are a nice visual way to represent things, so you get another post on 'em! So how do they relate this time? Read on to find out! (With pictures!!!)
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If you're looking around for somewhere to train, make sure you're comparing the same things. If you were looking at playing a sport, and were trying to compare soccer and volleyball... Well, they're both sports, but they're not anywhere near the same thing.
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So the six-week (12-class) self defense seminar one of our instructors is teaching at a government facility in the area has had 10 classes so far. Eight were techniques; one a review day; and one missed because of snow (which will be added on at the end) - so nine training days so far. New techniques are shown in each class, after some review of what was done in the previous one.
As was noted when the class was held in May 2014, the defenses and body mechanics that are shown enable students to quickly assimilate the moves and find out what works for them. That's happening again in this class - pretty much all of the students are seeing that a Lego they learned for one attack can be used in another, if they move the "wrong" way or use the less-good hand to block etc. Once they learn how the body mechanics work, they're able to see where else they can use them.
Even better, they're moving without thinking! One gentleman got a little distracted at one point during the most recent class by something the instructor said, and was attacked - and moved and reacted without thinking. Two separate times. (Or was it three?)
And the putting-them-on-the-spot exercises? (Done on two different days so far.) They're doing just fine with those as well. And it's even more fun that they're clamoring to attack each other (safely) and the instructor!
On a side note, the instructor did briefly go over how to fall properly, both during the April-May class last year, and just in this class as well. One of the students in this class was in that class last year (three of the 12 who registered this time were repeats from the previous two classes). She said she'd since slipped/fallen three times - and hadn't landed on her hand/arm/elbow, nor hit her head. Probably the most immediately practical application of what we teach!
Class 10: a different student reported that he'd slipped and fallen (sleet and freezing rain here recently)... and had slapped out! Since there was ice/snow/refrozen melt, he cut the palm of his hand some, but that was the extent of the damage. Whew! And yay!
Oh - and the word "fun" has been used several times, by various people, and there's a general consensus that they don't want the class to end...
