Welcome to the daily self defence training tips.
Today we want to know... how often should you train?
What is the point of training in the neutral stance?
A few years back I was teaching in my club, it was a reaction training drill. The practitioner stands in the neutral (passive) stance with eyes shut. A pad holder bumps into them at any angle, and the practitioner reacts by opening eyes, pivoting, and dealing with the pad how they wish: You probably are familiar with this or variation. But that day I had a newbie... a Karate black belt (who was in uniform by the way)... I praised him for being there, I really liked that he had the open mind and came to try something different... But I also insulted his pyjamas and we had some tension after that. When I explained the drill he disagreed... claiming he was "always ready - always alert". I couldn't get through to him, even with the obvious truth that we don't walk the street in a constant high threat state with a gaged guard and slow advance, we all have fluctuations in our levels of alertness and how prepared we are. But he insisted "always read". I started to dislike this guy, and my lesson plan changed.
We use the neutral stance and we train from positions of disadvantage. This is what we do in Krav Maga.
The reason we do this is because we base our training in reality. The reality is that we are not constantly ready, it is possible to be taken by surprise. We train from neutral stance and disadvantage so that signs of an attack trigger an automatic response in us and we start the process of reaction (positioning/defending/counters). We take the flinch response and use it to create a guard as we turn to check what's happening, in fractions of a second we assess that the threat is real and then decide to continue our process or not.
To finish up the story: The new lesson plan was: Endurance sparring: 1 minute rounds, 30 seconds break, find a new partner and repeat.
I split the class into 2, one side was Krav experience 6 months plus, the other side was beginners, the idea was to find a partner in your group. I knew his ego would march his black belt to the experienced group, and they punished him for it. He took so many hits in the first minute that he sat out round two.
We use the neutral stance and we train from positions of disadvantage. This is what we do in Krav Maga.
The reason we do this is because we base our training in reality. The reality is that we are not constantly ready, it is possible to be taken by surprise. We train from neutral stance and disadvantage so that signs of an attack trigger an automatic response in us and we start the process of reaction (positioning/defending/counters). We take the flinch response and use it to create a guard as we turn to check what's happening, in fractions of a second we assess that the threat is real and then decide to continue our process or not.
To finish up the story: The new lesson plan was: Endurance sparring: 1 minute rounds, 30 seconds break, find a new partner and repeat.
I split the class into 2, one side was Krav experience 6 months plus, the other side was beginners, the idea was to find a partner in your group. I knew his ego would march his black belt to the experienced group, and they punished him for it. He took so many hits in the first minute that he sat out round two.
Thanks for reading,
Benjamin
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