Post by Bob Davis on May 24, 2011 11:18:10 GMT
Just thought I'd copy this here as it seemed the appropriate place (in case everybody has given up on the old thread 
)
Finally got round to writing my report on this session from the SKFC. This is really my personal take on what went on and others may have taken different things away from it and 2 weeks on I'm already probably far enough removed from the emotional side of the session to have started rationalising what it was really about.
**************************************************
2011 May SKFC
Bringing "fight" stress into dojo training.
Firstly let me say that I thoroughly enjoy these courses and the general level of training, whilst demanding and challenging at times, is always done in a fun and friendly fashion. Having got that out of the way I'd also say that this particular session was designed specifically NOT to be fun or friendly (although definitely challenging in its way). I would also point out that even after just a couple of weeks I am probably only documenting a percentage of what went on and already putting my own interpretation on the things we did and the whys behind them.
There has been a lot of discussion on how to bring some level of realism and the stress of an actual fight into the dojo but still in a safe and controlled way. Obviously any session that is "safe and controlled" is only ever going to give an artificial view of a real fight but these sessions do go some way to introducing the student who doesn't have any actual real world experience to some of the secondary factors that come in to play when under genuine threat.
The first thing to say about this session is that it was not a "fighting" session as such, the idea was not to reproduce a street fight but to stress students in ways that replicate some of the things you'd go through in a real fight (i.e. the mental and emotional factors rather than the physical training, which we are all well used to) during very standard dojo training.
The equipment used was very simple and cheap to make and would be available to anyone (I've used variations previously in my own training made from stuff I had in the shed). There were a number of "club" type weapons lying around the dojo at the beginning of the session, closer examination showed these to be (amongst others) golf club handles with the shaft covered with multiple layers of foam pipe insulation tightly bound with gaffer tape. These clubs are heavy enough to have some heft, they will hurt if swung with force but will not injure (to any larger extent than some reddening of the skin or, if really unlucky, some light surface bruising). The point being to give enough of a threat that you'd not want to get hit but will survive without any lasting damage.
First part of the session was very simple indeed, we were just to perform a kata (Heian Shodan in this case), something that all of us had been doing for many years, can do automatically and are very comfortable with. We then moved on to doing this kata again BUT with the small twist that the instructors in the room will be moving around at random and will be striking you as you perform the kata. This immediately caused a small amount of tension as you didn't know when and where it would be coming from, there was no real stress (it seemed) at this point although it was generally agreed that the anticipation that something unexpected might happen changed the level of focus and comfort.
We then moved on to a simple drill where we learned a short combination of a double handed cover followed by a block/counter (both sides). We were given a very short time to practice this and were then spaced and lined up so that the instructors could move from person to person and strike at us with the clubs. The stress here coming from knowing if we got it wrong we would get hit (and it would hurt). We were starting to get to the stage where there was variable success with this. I personally suffered from something that I've always been prone to which was to be more focused on getting the combination correct than actually making sure I didn't get hit, you can guess the result (I fear this is a hang on from the conventional dojo training method combined with my struggle to learn new things quickly as a person of a "certain age").
The next stage of drill was another simple cover/counter combination with a similar set up BUT this time the instructor would stand in front of you and talk to you first making it plain that (one way or another) he was going to "take your head off", this was done in a non aggressive manner but now added extra anticipation to the possibility of getting hurt and the subsequent extra tension (fear?) that engenders.
I think by this stage most people were coming to terms with the style of the session and, although challenged and "under threat" were starting to adapt enough to get comfortable with the new situation and could, to a reasonable extent, now cope with the extra level of physical stress.
This is where the last stage of this particular session became very interesting indeed. The weapons were put away and we were given at what first glance appears to be a very simple block/counter combination to practice (in actuality it IS a very simple combination when not stressed, just slightly out of the ordinary "straight line" thinking). We practiced this in isolation and then as partner work and pretty much everybody struggled with it, the more everybody struggled the more Steve appeared to become impatient, the more he harangued us the more people struggled the more they struggled the harder time we were given and the whole atmosphere within the dojo changed, it suddenly became a very unpleasant place to be and (I would say almost entirely down to the emotional situation) nobody seemed able to pull it back together. This was our final drill and Steve was at pains to point out that he wasn't angry with us, just a teachers "trick" but "did we notice how the whole feel of the place changed?" I don't believe anyone failed to notice
In conclusion I would say, from a personal level, that I took some valuable things away from this session and learned a few things, (about myself if nothing else). I have learned that physically the fear of actually getting hit (and hurt) doesn't scare me anywhere near as much as it perhaps should, although I've been hit hard many times over my years of training so have perhaps already learned that that isn't the end of the world and the show stopper it might be for someone who has never experienced it.
A quick aside for a story I've probably told before but back when I was a Shodan I was competing in an inter-dojo comp with a 1st kyu, I caught him with a clean punch to the sternum with what I'd consider good "dojo" contact and he froze on the spot, just shut down completely, he confided in me after that as a 1st kyu "no one had ever hit him before", ho hum
. For those in this particular boat then I think the physical side of this session would have been very valuable indeed.
What I did find out though as someone who hasn't had to face a "real" confrontation since I left school (37 years ago) that the emotional side and the mental stresses that this causes can have a profound impact on your ability to perform even the simplest techniques and that all dojo training in the world won't prepare you for this if you've not experienced it.
Did this session give us a true feel for the real thing, I suspect not, (and I doubt many students would return to a regular session that did). Was it unpleasant enough to at least give us a taster of how it can be, be an introduction to the factors that physical training alone will not prepare you for and take us well outside out comfort zone, it certainly was!
Bob D.
)Finally got round to writing my report on this session from the SKFC. This is really my personal take on what went on and others may have taken different things away from it and 2 weeks on I'm already probably far enough removed from the emotional side of the session to have started rationalising what it was really about.
**************************************************
2011 May SKFC
Bringing "fight" stress into dojo training.
Firstly let me say that I thoroughly enjoy these courses and the general level of training, whilst demanding and challenging at times, is always done in a fun and friendly fashion. Having got that out of the way I'd also say that this particular session was designed specifically NOT to be fun or friendly (although definitely challenging in its way). I would also point out that even after just a couple of weeks I am probably only documenting a percentage of what went on and already putting my own interpretation on the things we did and the whys behind them.
There has been a lot of discussion on how to bring some level of realism and the stress of an actual fight into the dojo but still in a safe and controlled way. Obviously any session that is "safe and controlled" is only ever going to give an artificial view of a real fight but these sessions do go some way to introducing the student who doesn't have any actual real world experience to some of the secondary factors that come in to play when under genuine threat.
The first thing to say about this session is that it was not a "fighting" session as such, the idea was not to reproduce a street fight but to stress students in ways that replicate some of the things you'd go through in a real fight (i.e. the mental and emotional factors rather than the physical training, which we are all well used to) during very standard dojo training.
The equipment used was very simple and cheap to make and would be available to anyone (I've used variations previously in my own training made from stuff I had in the shed). There were a number of "club" type weapons lying around the dojo at the beginning of the session, closer examination showed these to be (amongst others) golf club handles with the shaft covered with multiple layers of foam pipe insulation tightly bound with gaffer tape. These clubs are heavy enough to have some heft, they will hurt if swung with force but will not injure (to any larger extent than some reddening of the skin or, if really unlucky, some light surface bruising). The point being to give enough of a threat that you'd not want to get hit but will survive without any lasting damage.
First part of the session was very simple indeed, we were just to perform a kata (Heian Shodan in this case), something that all of us had been doing for many years, can do automatically and are very comfortable with. We then moved on to doing this kata again BUT with the small twist that the instructors in the room will be moving around at random and will be striking you as you perform the kata. This immediately caused a small amount of tension as you didn't know when and where it would be coming from, there was no real stress (it seemed) at this point although it was generally agreed that the anticipation that something unexpected might happen changed the level of focus and comfort.
We then moved on to a simple drill where we learned a short combination of a double handed cover followed by a block/counter (both sides). We were given a very short time to practice this and were then spaced and lined up so that the instructors could move from person to person and strike at us with the clubs. The stress here coming from knowing if we got it wrong we would get hit (and it would hurt). We were starting to get to the stage where there was variable success with this. I personally suffered from something that I've always been prone to which was to be more focused on getting the combination correct than actually making sure I didn't get hit, you can guess the result (I fear this is a hang on from the conventional dojo training method combined with my struggle to learn new things quickly as a person of a "certain age"
).The next stage of drill was another simple cover/counter combination with a similar set up BUT this time the instructor would stand in front of you and talk to you first making it plain that (one way or another) he was going to "take your head off", this was done in a non aggressive manner but now added extra anticipation to the possibility of getting hurt and the subsequent extra tension (fear?) that engenders.
I think by this stage most people were coming to terms with the style of the session and, although challenged and "under threat" were starting to adapt enough to get comfortable with the new situation and could, to a reasonable extent, now cope with the extra level of physical stress.
This is where the last stage of this particular session became very interesting indeed. The weapons were put away and we were given at what first glance appears to be a very simple block/counter combination to practice (in actuality it IS a very simple combination when not stressed, just slightly out of the ordinary "straight line" thinking). We practiced this in isolation and then as partner work and pretty much everybody struggled with it, the more everybody struggled the more Steve appeared to become impatient, the more he harangued us the more people struggled the more they struggled the harder time we were given and the whole atmosphere within the dojo changed, it suddenly became a very unpleasant place to be and (I would say almost entirely down to the emotional situation) nobody seemed able to pull it back together. This was our final drill and Steve was at pains to point out that he wasn't angry with us, just a teachers "trick" but "did we notice how the whole feel of the place changed?" I don't believe anyone failed to notice
In conclusion I would say, from a personal level, that I took some valuable things away from this session and learned a few things, (about myself if nothing else). I have learned that physically the fear of actually getting hit (and hurt) doesn't scare me anywhere near as much as it perhaps should, although I've been hit hard many times over my years of training so have perhaps already learned that that isn't the end of the world and the show stopper it might be for someone who has never experienced it.
A quick aside for a story I've probably told before but back when I was a Shodan I was competing in an inter-dojo comp with a 1st kyu, I caught him with a clean punch to the sternum with what I'd consider good "dojo" contact and he froze on the spot, just shut down completely, he confided in me after that as a 1st kyu "no one had ever hit him before", ho hum
. For those in this particular boat then I think the physical side of this session would have been very valuable indeed. What I did find out though as someone who hasn't had to face a "real" confrontation since I left school (37 years ago) that the emotional side and the mental stresses that this causes can have a profound impact on your ability to perform even the simplest techniques and that all dojo training in the world won't prepare you for this if you've not experienced it.
Did this session give us a true feel for the real thing, I suspect not, (and I doubt many students would return to a regular session that did). Was it unpleasant enough to at least give us a taster of how it can be, be an introduction to the factors that physical training alone will not prepare you for and take us well outside out comfort zone, it certainly was!
Bob D.