Our brain have learned a fundamental behaviour through its evolutionary history.
It’s this; if a surprise or sudden experience hits you, it will make you freeze.
Maybe just momentarily, but inevitably.
This freeze, originally designed to make you ‘invisible’ as the (predator’s) eye tracks motion has another consequence; it gives you the opportunity to sense and assess the danger facing you - and choose any action to remedy the situation you’re in.
In the modern world there are few animal predators around, but the principle still applies to other threats.
The car in the road you stepped into or the sudden angry boss who’s just stepped into your office will have the same effect on most.
An instant freeze, a rapid assessment of what’s happening before you act - physically, verbally or maybe just inside your head with some thinking about an action to follow - to become safer. Because if you don’t act, you’re probably in trouble.
The same freeze and hesitation encountering a threat or a fearful situation will apply to most self defence practitioners if they ever encounter violence or the threat of violence.
Why? Because it’s something new, unusual and scary. It’s natural - don’t be surprised by it, as it’s human biology in play.
The key question is; can you start to prepare for it and get more used to the inevitable physiological reaction?
The answer is yes.
During Krav Maga or self defence training, these freezes can sometimes be an opportunity.
For example, you execute a technique or are in a slow sparring/fight scenario and something unusual happens. It’s now a learning experience. You stop and freeze. You assess the picture in front of you. Then you decide on your options and execute an alternative action to remedy the new situation you’re in. Now you’ve built in a new visual and mental picture and a new solution into your self defence mind. You’ve developed your skills.
We call it ‘improvise and overcome’. After all, violence is dynamic. Plan A must be revised into Plan B, then Plan C and so on. It’s an essential skill to have. Punch bags don’t punch back, but people do. Don’t expect to get to the final part in your learned technique or combination A-B-C-D. The dynamics of violence is more likely to demand that you adjust your plan. Be ready for it.
There are however some scenarios where this stop to ‘improvise and overcome’ approach to training can be unhelpful to your ability to reduce the freeze response in facing violence.
This limitation of freezing is your aim, after all. If you freeze too long you’re on the back foot versus your opponent, possibly already in receipt of unrecoverable blows or too late to flee the situation.
Let’s look at a couple of these and how you must train to help teach your brain not to freeze for too long.
Firstly, self defence training will involve a level of physical fighting. This is controlled, but adjusted by the level of protective gear the involved parties gave. There will be an ‘agreed’ rule as to the level of force applied. Then accidentally the ‘rule’ is broken by one of the parties. Maybe a strike that’s out of limit for the specific exercise. Maybe too much force is applied. Maybe a hit to the face or some pain is inflicted. Maybe you fall and end up on the floor.
This is a learning point. It’s a smaller simulation of the sudden onset of violence in real life. How do you react? Do you simply stop? Do you stop to apologise if you’re the ‘offender’? Do you expect a cessation to reset the ‘rules’? Do you just slowly and hesitantly recover yourself from the ground if you fell?
Don’t. This is where you train your brain to take the unexpected, minimise the ‘shock’, limit the freeze - and execute the original plan or immediately change your plan. It’s rewiring your brain to immediately go back to your self defence mindset, physically and psychologically. Get used to this.
Another freeze and hesitation scenario that often occurs, especially with new students, is where they execute an action incorrectly. Knowing it’s not quite right, the natural reaction is to return and restart the same motion, mid-flow. The mind wants to please the instructor or feeling compelled to do what’s asked of them right.
Again don’t. Continue from where you are and correct the situation you’re in.
Remember, there’s no stop and restart rule on the streets.
This could be a physical correction of your body position before you then redo the drill from the start or it could be changing into another hold, technique or movement to put yourself into a more advantageous position - even if it means holding your freeze until your instructor can aid you on what to do. If you don’t do this, you simply reinforce your mind to not overcome unusual or unexpected events during self defence - and stop if Plan A doesn’t work. That’s really bad in a fluid, fast-moving and dangerous violent encounter.
These new scenarios will always occur. Better to get used to them and be inclined to improvise and overcome every time.
This type of training take intense focus on behalf of the participants. It means always paying attention to what you do in training, is it done correctly when you translate the scenario to the street and do you work it with the mindset of improving each repetition to get better.
For example, you‘re defending against a knife attack with your partner, but the principle applies to any drill. They are the aggressor. Here are three key real-life checkpoints to you must pay attention to.
Firstly, what is your starting position; body language, posture, movement, language. If you’re already in a defensive position, involved in conflict management or controlling the distance to the threat, you need to consider how you look, what words are used, how they are stated, how you are moving, how ready your body and mind are to act. These actions need to be embedded in your instincts as you don’t want to rely on cognitively recalling them in a high-stress, adrenaline-fulled violent threat or trauma.
Secondly, when acting, work at a speed where you can consciously control your actions and make they are done with optimal consideration to the details needed to maximise your self defence survival chances. Reacting with stress or less controlled motions will only embed this mental trauma (loss of control) in your brain. Conversely, acting with care and control will cement the right actions into your instincts in a much more profound and confident way. If you do something ‘wrong’, don’t worry. Don’t stop, don’t hesitate, but find an alternative solution so that this becomes your go-to mental attitude in real life.
Thirdly, once the physical action in training is over, your part isn’t finished. Just like you wouldn’t stop and freeze on the street after surviving an attack, you need to complete the final part. This could be simply to scan the area around you for further threats, move away from the situation or maybe running away to be safe. If weapons are involved, you should check yourself for injuries and it may be useful to also train what to say to the authorities or other witnesses arriving on the scene.
In real-life self defence training, you should not stop, nor hesitate until you’re safe and away. Do you train this way?
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