The
Ultimate Guide
To Fighting and Winning
By Dr. Russ Horine, President, Fight-Fast Direct, Inc.
Part 10
“Speak softly and carry a big stick.”
– Theodore Roosevelt
Alright
-- in my last chapter I talked about how fear can often
lead to runaway Internal Dialog or "brain freeze".
Now there’s
plenty of DVD programs,
books, and combat course designed to control, manage
or eliminate fear. This is nonsense. As I’ve mentioned,
human beings are emotional creatures which makes it
(by design) impossible to control your emotions.
If you could control your emotions,
wouldn’t everyone just choose a constant state of bliss,
(and put the pharmaceutical, alcohol and illicit drug
industries out of business overnight)? The problem is
that today’s mamby-pamby “feeling” based therapies have
us all believing that any sort of uncomfortable or negative
feeling must be eliminated as quickly as possible.
More crap. It’s like the king who
convinced himself (and a surprising number of his subjects)
that he could eliminate ocean tide. His delusion became
obvious only when the tide ignored his commands to halt
(“I said stop right there… gurgle, gurgle,
gurgle…”).
And attempting to control emotions
like fear and anger is similar. Don’t waste your time
trying to control them. Instead recognize that these
emotions are purposely uncomfortable because they’re
designed to prompt you into taking some kind of action.
So what does all this psycho-babble
have to do with fighting? Well I’m getting to that.
There are two big mistakes than can cause us to freeze:
- Having
no plan of action (such as “what’s
my target”) and thus becoming stuck in indecision…
- Attempting
to manage emotions instead of dealing with the cause.
Because trying to get rid of an emotion (fear for
example), only amplifies it. Using internal dialog
to fix internal dialog, (“don’t be afraid… don’t be afraid… don’t be afraid”), is kinda
like “bleeding” a person who’s sick from blood loss.
Fear can give us vital information;
it prepares us for flight or fight, and motivates us
to take action. Instead of wrestling with our fear,
simply acknowledge it, then
do what needs to be done. We don’t have to give in to
fear, or try to squash it, simply feel it, and move
on. This is how to overcome fear. You’re taking action
in spite of your fear… and this is as good as it gets.
Overcoming
Fear
Another voice you should listen to
is your “intuition”. This is not the same voice telling
you to bet your house on the lottery. No. Ignore that
one.
Intuition is your subconscious performing
“rapid cognition” – the processing of mountains of external
information to form a quick conclusion. The study of
this is relatively new but researchers are already discovering
the subconscious’s incredible ability to quickly “thin slice” a lot of information and form an often accurate and subtle
conclusion that “something’s wrong”.
Cops often experience
this when “acting on a hunch”. I’m sure you yourself
have had the feeling that “something’s not quite right”
about a situation. Well this is your brain “thin slicing”
everything that’s going on around you. If it detects
trouble, you may get a “gut feeling” as well as some
other subtle “signs” like sweaty palms… jittery stomach…
and the feeling that something’s not “quite right”.
Now unless there’s
a girl in a mini-skirt nearby, you shouldn’t ignore
these signs. It may be your subconscious trying to tell
you there’s trouble.
So let’s dig a little
deeper into this idea of using external focus to manage
fear.
1.)
Breathing - concentrate on calming deep
breaths to keep your heart rate down and out of the
“hyper vigilance” stage. This is highly effective in
“de-escalation” situations where for instance, a badger
is venting. It’ll help you keep your cool, keep you
in the game, and it’s a sure way to keep your head clear
and avoid a panicking internal dialogue. On the other
hand, if a guy shoves you, well, that’s a bad time to
be doing breathing exercises.
2.)
Look for targets of opportunity. Like
I said, this is a HUGE piece of advice. It’s a simple
way to avoid “locking up” with internal dialogue and
instead concentrating on target acquisition. Here’s some specific
examples. Quickly assess these targets, determine what’s
open to you right now, and decide how you’ll attack
them:
a.
Neck – side of the neck is a “knock out”
area. The good news is that the shoulder and head offer
a natural “funnel” that’ll guide your hand directly
into his neck – which means it’s a “high percentage”
shot. People rarely protect their neck properly and
so even a poorly executed shot can often mean instant
knock out.
b.
Groin – believe it or not, research shows
that most guys do NOT protect their groin. They are
so “indoctrinated” with the idea that they’ll be punched
in the face that they leave themselves wide open for
one of the most devastating strikes. So forget about
focusing so much on getting in that right hook to the
head, (which he’ll be expecting), and start looking
for an OPEN target.
c.
Inside knee – very vulnerable. One good
kick to the inside of the knee can end a fight instantly.
d.
Outside thigh – a favorite target of Muay
Thai fighters is to kick you in the nerve running down
the outside of your leg. Even a well conditioned fighter
can’t stand more than a couple good shin kicks to this
nerve before buckling.
So
my point is that you should immediately shift your thoughts
to scanning for
targets to get away from the internal dialogue.
Let’s just say some
guy’s walking toward you. You feel a threat. You should
immediately check to see if the guy’s got a weapon in
his hands… if anyone’s with him… potential routes of
escape… then begin your “target acquisition”.
Target
focus vs Target awareness. You should avoid complete
immersion in “missile lock” on one specific target (“head
hunters” do this) as you’re typically in a state of
flux where you need to be flexible and able to change
your targets. Do a quick once-over of the neck, groin,
inside knee, outside thigh and others targets to decide
which one you’ll go for. This external focus and target acquisition
really works.
Now it’s important
that you begin learning how to properly execute specific fighting
techniques so that your targets and strikes are
most effective. That’s where the 70 different Fight-Fast
DVD packages come in. I’ll get more into that next time.
But for now, the
four techniques I just talked about will get you out
of a pinch. You’ll get scary-good is when you create
your very own tailor-made collection of fool-proof nasty
tricks that’ll work for you every
time. First you’ll need to understand the “wire
frame” on which it all hangs.
And so far, you
should be getting a pretty good idea of that wire frame.
Til
next time…
Regards,
Dr. Russ Horine
Fight-Fast, Inc.
“Victory at all costs, victory in spite of all terror,
victory however long and hard the road may be;
for without victory there is no survival.”
– Winston Churchill
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