Scenario Training

Last night we introduced a Scenario to training, quite simple, you bump into a Guy in a Pub as you are walking past, as you turn to apologise the Guy throws a Haymaker at you, the aim was to start from a non traditional Martial Arts position, from a position of surprise and unreadiness, discover how our body will respond to the surprise and then find how to get to a place to use your training. In theory it was very straight forward, but as always the reality was not what I expected. A lot of the people involved could not / would not start from the not ready position, they were pre-empting the attack, turning with their Guards raised even turning and striking as they did their play act apology, when I stepped in and asked for them to just turn around with their Hands down and no attempt at defence there were complaints that it was not what they would do in this situation, which is ridiculous because it is exactly what everyone would do in this situation.  No matter what type of "Killer Commando Ninja Warrior" you may think you are if you are not expecting violence then you will be surprised when you find it heading your way, and any "Bad Guy" that has decided that you will do quite nice in the role of "Latest Victim" will make absolutely certain that you are not ready for what he is dishing out, that you are in a very bad position and they will aim to keep you there.  Pretending that you can use your training without even the slightest notice is just going to make it even harder to get back on terms when someone has dropped their shit on you, and this should be obvious to everyone.

It is only Ego that has people pretending that they will not be caught like a Bunny in the Headlights, and sometimes it is also lack of confidence in their ability that stops them from starting in second place, but this is where we should spend most of our training time, it is easy to win a fight when everything is set up in your favour, when you are in the best position and the "Bad Guy" shows his Cards way too soon, if we are going to train in this way we may as well prepare to fight one legged Blind People.  If we hope to be able to get out of trouble we must learn how to operate from weak and almost hopeless positions, because this is where the Street Predators that we think we are getting ready for will do everything in their power to put us, find our way back into a position where we can use our training, and then play out your fantasy.

Some people do not understand what "Training" is, if we are training we are attempting to learn something new, we should not be surprised or disheartened if we cannot do it at first, we will be able to do it eventually, and when you are doing things that you can already do you are no longer "Training" you are "Practising".