November 2004
Volume 6, Issue 2

"In our school, if you fake it and I know it, and I usually do, I'll make sure you find out about it when I perform my next technique. I can take the heat for failure, but I don't want false success.”

-Professor Joe Lansdale   

Inside This Issue	"Lesson Learned"
Shen Chuan Anniversary	Photo Gallery

It’s late October and the elections are around the corner. Man will I be glad when that’s over with!

Our annual Camp, held the first weekend of the month, was our best ever. I know we say that every time, and I think the Professor even mentioned that at the closing ceremonies. But, it’s true. If you attended and didn’t learn anything, you need to lay off the hard stuff next time.

Watching our students at the Camp made me proud. I may be a little prejudicial, but we have a great group of Martial Artists’ here. And listening to our guest instructor’s compliment you on your abilities bring a level of confirmation to those feelings.

The level of dedication to your Art directly relates to your abilities. Time spent on the mat in class, as well as our “extras”, such as rank camp and Annual Camps, serve to bring your abilities up to a higher level. Time spent pushing the envelope.

Coming in, working hard and making some advances. And for those who work really hard, and can prove their learned ability, advancements in rank.

This brings me to the whole point of this article. Pressure and fear.

Testing for rank or even showing your sets to the Professor and Instructors at the end of class during the demo session brings about a certain amount of pressure. Some of it real, some of it perceived. More often than not however, we add undue pressure to ourselves by worrying how we'll look or perform. These things I know first hand. I am the worlds worst. I've been told more times than I care to remember to relax and just do it. So now I'm telling you. Relax. Take a breath. Have fun.

Your instructors truly understand where you are coming from. They have been where you are now. We know when you stand before the class and your partner that the first thought to enter your mind is, "please don't let me look like a dadgum idiot in front of the Professor and the whole class". Every muscle in your body tenses and your breathing accelerates as that thought leaves your mind. It is replaced with a new one.

  "Okay, we're doing the first five of the set. Number one, called… uh … forgot the name. Oh well, as soon as he throws the right punch, no wait… left jab… what the heck number was I on??" Then your partner throws a left front kick and you stand there looking like a boob anyway. I know I have.

Or maybe you're about to do some spontaneous self defense and you are standing there thinking that if that big 'ol sucker hits me, I'm going to fall like a stack of bricks. Hard… Okay, so maybe you haven't been caught that bad off. Maybe worse. The point is that pressure and fear does affect your ability to perform on all different levels.

One of the things you are learning in martial arts, other than the obvious self defense technique is how to handle pressure and fear. As mentioned above, when confronted with pressure or the fear of something your body goes into reflexive action. Your heart rate increases. Your breathing shortens to small gasps of air. Your ears may ring, or go totally mute. Tunnel vision is also a possibility. As we are all different, so will there be differences in the severity of those bodily reactions in different people. But there WILL be some type of reaction happening in your body. How we handle those reactions will determine how we will eventually terminate the problem that started the reaction to begin with. “Fight or Flight” is the most common terminology that comes to mind. The brain will immediately start pumping the adrenaline. You will either give it your best fight or you will run like hell (and remember running is definitely a self defense option if the situation warrants it!). Things will be happening at light speed in your head. This is when your training comes to your rescue.

In class, the small amount of pressure or fear of being up in front of the class slowly teaches you to work under those conditions. By working under those conditions frequently, you become accustomed to it and therefore not as severely affected by it. You have the opportunity to slow your own breathing. To let your mind go into "neutral" and not try to "overthink" the process. And the biggest factor is that you are exposed to it over and over, again and again. Repetition makes a mouse out of the madman.

It is similar to how we use pain as a teaching method. The pain inflicted during class is slowly built up over time. The body (as well as your brain) becomes accustomed to the pain. Then if you are ever confronted with a real self defense situation and are hit, or put into some sort of lockup, your first thought will be "That's it??. We PAY for more pain than that". You will have, over time, built up the tolerance to pain. It will be less traumatic and you will be more likely to go on functioning.

This is also true of training under fear or pressure. The continual exposure to small elevated levels of adrenaline will have the effect of allowing you to build sort of a tolerance to its effects. And if all goes well in the moment of an encounter, the traumatic effect of the adrenaline will not hinder you.

Now note that this IS NOT constant exposure to fear induced adrenaline, much like what a soldier in a combat zone would experience. Prolonged exposure to “life and death” adrenaline can cause severe disabilities, such as nervousness, shaking, stomach pains, cramping, weight loss and PTSD. No, what I’m talking about here is on a much smaller scale. Brief exposure, non life threatening doses of fear and pressure.

One thing that I have noticed over my years of training is that this continual exposure allows you the "time" to work out "control" tactics that work for you. By control, I mean a control over some of those involuntary body reactions. My personal hang-up is short breathing. Actually bordering on "no-breathing" (holding my breath in very tense situations). A habit of breathing during the techniques, and using breathing as a relaxation method during class has helped me overcome that debilitating feeling.

 Another thing that has personally helped me tremendously, by the constant pounding into my head by Shihan Coy, are the words “It don’t matter”. Our training has given us a set of tools to use. We know what to do. We will do it when it is time. Don’t add unneeded stress to the situation by worrying about how you’ll perform. “It don’t matter”. Your training is superior.

You may, or may not get hit. “It don’t matter”. Even if you are struck, your training will minimize the effects, and you will prevail.

If you are faced with a knife attack (a scary situation indeed), “It won’t matter”. You’ve trained for this situation and will perform to the best of your training. You will minimize the cutting effects of the knife from the training you have worked so hard on.

So the next time you are being pressured by the Professor or one of the Shihans to perform something over and over till you get it right, relax and have fun in the lesson. You are being taught a lesson, maybe on multiple levels.

Or the next time you are up in front of the class and start to get "that feeling", take some deep breaths and relax.

 We won't laugh if you mess up.

 Not long anyway…