A THOUGHT EXERCISE OF GREAT VALUE.

We cannot lose a fight if we do not get into a fight.

Hey Tribe, 

Here is a thought exercise that I took part in way back when I was a youth, and it is still a valuable aid to our training, or rather an aid to understanding and shaping our training.

Sit down, close your eyes, clear your mind of everyday things, and imagine a situation in which you are called upon to use your training.

Describe it to yourself in as much detail as you can come up with, it is imagination so you can make it as simple or as complicated as you feel fit.

A few questions to ask ourselves once we have formed the imagining, purely to put the situation into a more detailed context are as follows.

Q. Where did the violence happen?

1. Obviously, we decided on this imaginary place, it is not possible for us to see into the future and know this, but we created this place, this environment is where subconsciously, we believe we stand a greater danger of violence than any other place or any other environment. This place worries us, and accepting this can help us to be aware of these dangers, and by extension be in less of a chance of being caught unaware in similar situations.

Q.  Who was the attacker?

1.   Again this is an unknowable quantity, but what it tells us is the type of person that deep down we think we may struggle to get over. It makes little difference if they are big or small, heavy or light, male or female, quick or slow. It is imagination after all, but if this is the kind of person we think may cause us problems we should focus our training on solving this problem instead of trying to solve all problems.

Identifying this can also prevent us from overreacting due to possibly unknown bias should we meet this type of person.  

We cannot lose a fight if we do not get into a fight.

And lastly…

Q.  What type of day did we have the day before this violent event?

Did we sleep well?

Did we eat well?

Was it a happy day, or a stressful day?

1. This is the most important question and one we should think hard on.

Again this is pure imagination so how can we know.

Studies have shown time and time again that how we respond to any stimulus, not just violence, is affected more by the previous 24 hours than the previous 24 months.

Our ability to solve problems is affected more by the previous 24 hours than the previous 24 months.

How well we perform physically, mentally, and emotionally is affected more by the previous 24 hours than the previous 24 months.

When we are imagining a situation that we cannot possibly anticipate, what is the role of training, and what should we focus on?

There is no one size fits all answer to this, but by its nature training tends towards one size fits all solutions to a multitude of different questions, it is very difficult to avoid this, it is how our brains are wired.

The common denominator to surviving all of these varied situations is to be able to move well, not fall over, and stay as calm as possible.

The most effective training method for this outcome is FORMS training.

Forms training allows us to work on, become familiar with, and be capable of all aspects of a conflict situation, except for the fighting itself.

Different situations, different environments, and different types of people can and do bring about completely different problems, we could have 10 fights and none of them would be a repeat situation, there could well be no common denominator in what unfolded.

This is much closer to reality than we may wish to admit to ourselves.

We end up putting all of our eggs in one basket, training one way to successfully answer 10 very different questions.

But one thing that will be the same in all of these situations is that we will be in the middle of it.

The best chance we have is if we can consistently organise our body so that it operates close to optimal if we develop one way of moving that we can control and depend on, and have a method that is founded in one simple IDEA.

This is the power and functionality of FORMS training.

If approached in the right way, FORMS training can be equal to techniques or sparring.

“The two most powerful warriors are patience and time”

Leo Tolstoy