The
Ultimate Guide
To Fighting and Winning
By Dr. Russ Horine, President, Fight-Fast Direct, Inc.
Part 8
“We sleep safe in our beds because rough men stand ready
to visit violence on those who would harm us.”
– George Orwell
Dealing
With Fear
Let’s talk a little about public
speaking. Hold on… this is relevant to fighting.
Because several studies have shown
“public speaking” to be the average person’s #1 fear.
Some polls actually show that “death” ranks below
“public speaking” in terms of sheer terror (so you can
imagine how “death while public speaking” ranks).
Anyway, the solution to fear of speaking
is to simply PRACTICE and REPETITION. The more public
speaking you do, the more “de-sensitized” you’ll become
-- and the less you’ll fear.
Now onto fear
of fighting.
Fear of fighting is more common than
you’d think – even among experienced fighters. Only
a stone-cold sociopath has no fear in a confrontation.
I’ve interviewed hundreds of hardcore combat soldiers
and seasoned streetfighters and found that nearly every
one of them admitted to being fearful in every single
fight.
Surprised? Well don’t be, because these guys understood that they
could easily be killed. So, they felt fear – sometimes
extreme fear -- in every confrontation.
For example, Tom Proctor is a “cage” fighter who’s been in over 300 streetfights and illegal “pit”
fights. Jim
West has been U.S. Special Forces combat
soldier and has been in over 600 bloody streetfights.
But here’s the thing: Both Tom and Jim openly admit
to having fear every time they fought, but it lessened over time.
The fear never went away, just lessened.
So here’s the good news. All you have to do is survive 600 or
so streetfights and multiple years of lethal combat
and your fear will be lessened.
Okay… that’s probably not realistic
for you or anyone else who plans on staying alive and
out of prison. Unlike the fear of public speaking, it’s
a lot harder to simply “practice” your way out of the
fear of fighting.
But there is a recent solution to
this “practice” problem.
Spec Op trainer,
John Nottingham has developed specific
“aggression drills” which are extremely valuable to
maintaining a state of readiness while avoiding “brain
freeze”. His “Viper” package demonstrates a live training exercise
in which students (some of whom are experienced martial
artists) are subjected to intensive threats, verbal
abuse and insults from a man in a “padded fight suit”.
It’s all for show -- and I suspect the guy in the suit
is really some kind of S&M nut -- but it’s kinda
like flying in a “simulator”… it
sure feels real.
Now the graphic language and the
adrenaline dump you experience while viewing “Viper”
makes it sometimes difficult to watch, but it’s extremely
useful training.
And the poor “victims” of the padded-suit
guy in this Viper demonstration group PROVES why this
kind of real world “adrenaline dump training” actually
works. Most of the new students – even the experienced
martial artists – did not perform well under the “real
world” pressure. When confronted by a large, intimidating
figure shouting threats and obscenities in their face
most students folded like a cheap card table and the
later were unable to describe even simple details of
the experience.
In fact, most couldn’t answer the
question, “was the adversary armed with a knife or gun?”
They simply didn’t know. When the yelling and threats
started, their brain became as impenetrable as a frozen
turkey.
So this “adrenaline training” is
a very effective method to get you to focus externally,
not internally on your “inside voice”. Okay… so what
exactly do I mean by “inside voice” -- or more technically
-- your “internal
dialogue”?
Well, I kinda like what Jonathan
Haidt -- an Associate Professor of Psychology over at
the University
of Virginia
– describes as the motor-mouth vs the elephant. Haidt
compares that voice inside your head – your internal
dialogue -- to a little guy sitting on top of an elephant
pretending he’s in control. As Haidt
puts it: “The rider represents conscious controlled
thought. The elephant represents everything else
and includes the gut feelings, visceral reactions, emotions,
and intuitions that comprise much of the automatic system.”
And the working
relationship between little man and elephant?
Haidt points out that “They don’t always work together
well.”
The little guy ontop loves to talk…
ramble… and bark orders to create the impression that
he’s running the show. He gets most of the attention
– and can even sometimes
convince the elephant to pick up a log, or move
a boulder. But the reality is that
it’s the elephant who makes the final decision and does
the work – the little guy is more of a nuisance “along
for the ride”.
And when the elephant simply ignores
the little guy and does what he wants, the little guy
rationalizes it (“I actually wanted him to throw that log ontop my house”) denying
that he is actually NOT in control of the elephant.
So it is with your internal dialogue.
That voice rambles on and on, but
has very little to do with productive tasks. In fact
this internal dialogue can be absolutely destructive to decisive action. Why? Well
let me explain with another simple example.
You’re standing in long line at the
ATM when a guy cuts-in near the front of the line. You
gently point out to him that the line starts “back there”.
Seems reasonable enough, but unfortunately you’re dealing
with an emotionally hijacked fellow who just came from
a drunken brawl with his girlfriend. He quickly turns
your way screaming obscenities and vowing to “kick your
ass” as he starts toward you.
And here’s where that little bastard
start babbling off desperate questions like “Did I really
insult this guy?”… “Why is this happening to ME?”… “Who
is this guy?”… “Maybe I did something wrong?”… “What
should I say?”… “Should I do something?”… “I am going
to get hurt?”… “I wonder if my life insurance is paid
up”… and on and on.
It was fine to let the “little guy”
think he was in control while standing in line, but
now that you’re in trouble – this cat’s only confusing the elephant. He’s tying things
up and distracting the elephant from taking immediate
action. It’s a HUGE disadvantage that results in hesitation
and “brain freeze”.
Yeah… that dreaded deer in the headlights.
Now don’t get me wrong, conscious
controlled thought (the “little guy”) is one of
the things that put us on the top of the food chain.
Building bridges, writing software, and balancing our
check book all depend on the “little guy”. Dealing with
immediate danger requires the more primitive elephant.
The mistake happens when we mix the duties up. The elephant
shouldn’t be involved with taxes (unless you’re fist
fighting with an IRS agent), and the little guy shouldn’t
deal with a predator (unless he’s doing his taxes).
Okay, at the risk of beating a dead
horse I want to point out to you, again, that you have
about 1-8 seconds to act. You don’t have the luxury of time. There’s a clear threat coming
your way. You can’t even read this warning before it’ll
all be over. In my next chapter, I'll
explain how to overcome it all with "external focus"
-- and it works like crazy.
Til next time...
Regards,
Dr. Russ Horine
Fight-Fast, Inc.
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