MAKING GOOD DECISIONS.

This post could save your Bacon.

Guys.

Do not get nervous about there being more than two paragraphs to read and no video you can listen to on the toilet.

This post could save your Bacon.

Martial Art knowledge is a skill set, and like all skill sets it will work at different levels in different situations, excelling in some and being unsuited to others.

Think about it this way, being a great swimmer will not particularly help with your Maths homework.

We all get this, but for some reason, we do not think it applies to getting the most from our Martial Arts training.

To be able to fully utilise any skill set we need to have two things.

#1. As deep an understanding as possible of the ‘capacity’ of our skill -set.

#2. As deep an understanding as possible of the problem we hope to solve with our skill set.

Hopefully, now my swimmer doing maths homework does not sound so frivolous.

There is no easy or binary answer to this, it is always subjective, ‘Can I use the things I am learning to deal with the problem I anticipate’?

The first priority is of course identifying the problem.

What do we anticipate happening that we will need this skill set for?

This is why it is so subjective, my fears may not be your fears, my goals, may not be your goals.

I am choosing to generalise so that most of us can get the most out of reading this.

For us as Martial Artists, the potential problem is violence.

There are two sides to this coin.

#1. Violence that we chose to engage in.

#2. Violence we did not choose to engage in.

Let’s present this as option #1, a fight, and option #2, a mugging [being attacked].

Do we fully understand the difference between these options?

We must, many students fail or fear to recognise that they do not understand this.

If I am training to fight I will most likely fail in a ‘Mugging’.

Equally, if I am training to escape/survive a ‘Mugging’ I will most likely fail in a fight.

You can try to train for both but the requirements of time and effort are beyond the best of us.

Even professional fighters get mugged, never forget Anthony Mundine getting mugged at Brighton Beach [N.S.W.] at pretty much the peak of his ability.

Once we have made the decision the next question is….

What type of situation was our training devised for?

In our case, the training of Wing Chun, it is the training of a counter-attacking Martial Art.

It should be clear to all that we only counter-attack once we have been attacked [otherwise we are the attacker], so the primary objective of Wing Chun is to escape/survive a ‘Mugging’.

If we need to beat the ‘Brown Stuff’ out of the attacker to achieve this, so be it, but our primary intention is escape.

If you do not tick this box your future could be perilous.

In my imagined scenario, my justification for why I train in Wing Chun, I find myself in a situation where I have been attacked, I did not choose to be in this situation, but luckily, the skill set I possess is a great fit, I can engage this situation from a position of confidence.

It is of critical importance that we understand this not only before the violent situation materialises, but before we begin training in the first place.

I am pretty sure that we will all be in a different head-space over this, so here is some more information to hopefully help establish a more representative stance.

There is a tendency amongst Martial Artists to believe that whatever Martial Art they train, it is this training that will save the day.

This is very rarely the case.

No matter what style we use it is simply a tool to help us implement our current intentions, strategies, ideas, or whatever word fits the bill.

Basically, it helps us make good decisions.

Of greater importance is how we see the situation, as this will colour our understanding, influence any intentions, strategies, or ideas we may have, and it will heavily influence our decision-making.

Violent situations are won or lost by how well we understand what is happening and how well we implement any decisions we choose to balance this situation.

It is impossible to make suitable decisions if we do not know what is going on.

Are we identifying the situation correctly?

Are we fighting someone?

Are we attacking someone?

Are we being attacked by someone?

Fighting, attacking, and defending are not as is often mistakenly thought, different aspects of the same thing.

Fighting, attacking, and defending exist in different environments, and different worlds, they create different problems on physical, emotional, and mental levels that demand an almost specialist approach.

There is rarely a one-size-fits-all answer.

The old cliche of “Never take a knife to a gunfight” is a clear picture of how what may work well in one situation will just flat-out fail in another situation.

Are we fighting, are we attacking someone, or are we being attacked?

Is there a difference in mindset between these 3 situations? Only you can decide this.

Is there a difference in physical preparedness between these 3 situations? Only you can decide this.

Is there a difference in our mental/emotional reaction between these 3 situations? Only you can decide this.

Let’s unpack this a little and paint a simple picture to help us come to a better decision.

FIGHTING.

Fighting is a contest of two or more people trying to better their opponent and giving no quarter along the way, for whatever reason.

The goal is to win at all costs, to give everything until it has all gone.

There will be pain, there will be injury, it will be brutal.

FIGHTERS expect and accept this.

If someone is not physically, mentally, and emotionally trained to deal with being hit, being hurt, or being injured, their chances of success in a fight are diminished.

Being fit, being fast, and being strong is of little use if that person cannot handle being hurt.

The key to being a good FIGHTER is not any chosen style, every style can be effective, the key is training to work through the pain.

ATTACKING.

It is easy to think that attacking a defending are two sides of the same coin, but this is a serious mistake, they are two sides of related yet very different coins and require completely different thinking and approach.

To the attacker, the focus is on surprise, stealth, and even cheating.

There is no wish to engage the person they are attacking on any kind of level playing field.

Speed and surprise are the currency of an attacker, the sooner it is done and dusted the better.

In a perfect attack, the victim does not get the chance to defend themselves.

Think about that.

Attackers tend to lead with their most powerful or most successful weapon or tactic to the extent that they may flee the field if they do not get early success.

Very few attackers [bullies, muggers] are courageous.

DEFENDING.

As a victim of an attack, the most important thing is time.

Time for the defender to orient to this chaotic situation.

Time to allow the attacker to fail.

This may be a simple picture but it is valid.

Where all this gets confused and conflated is that there is a real chance we could find ourselves in a situation where we begin as a defender, somehow we find the time to turn the tables and become the attacker, but then find that we cannot close it out, so we just end up fighting.

This is a negative situation for everyone.

To give ourselves the highest hope of a positive outcome the first thing we need to establish is, what group do we identify with?

Are we Fighters?

Are we Attackers?

Are we Defenders?

Only once we decide who we are can we have any hope of enabling our training.

At this point, it is very important to get on board with the IDEA that all Martial Arts styles can do the job.

No one style is any better than any other style, it is always how well the practitioner can implement the training.

If we re-read the simple painting of the situation there are already some effective answers.

Only a FIGHTER trains to ignore pain, if we see ourselves as fighters are we training for this?

I know that I am not, I am training to hurt an attacker who more than likely cannot handle pain.

This more than anything else informs my training and as such it will hopefully inform my decision-making when the “Brown gets Airborne”.

MANY PEOPLE CAN IGNORE A HIT.

NO-ONE CAN IGNORE AN INJURY

TIM LARKIN. T.F.T.