Training Krav Maga (or other self defence systems) is naturally a physical experience.
Techniques must be improved through actual movement and tactics are practiced during movement.
Fitness is a by-product of the experience and not the exclusive intended central aim, but anyone who have done a great Krav Maga session know it’s a hell-of-a workout at times.
The repetition of instinctive action and responses helps your mind create neurological pathways that all practitioners hope will kick in and perform sufficiently during the high stress situation of a violent attack or threat.
Although these facets are physical in nature, and many love training them and reaping the benefits on their health and conditioning, there are several aspects of self defence where you can considerably enhance your training simply by going inside your mind.
Sound surprised? Don’t be. Let’s examine five of these.
BEFORE THE SESSION. Successful athletes have something in common. They approach their training in a certain way. Although not engaged in a sport, self defence practitioners can learn a lot from their sporting heroes’ pre-training rituals.
Do you mentally set yourself up for your next self defence session?
Visualising yourself in it?
Seeing yourself successfully executing actions?
Preparing yourself for the physical aspect?
Setting yourself up to focus intently for the full duration of the class?
Athletes get ‘in the zone’ before they deliver their best effort. You’re no different.
The day of the session, start thinking positively about your effort that day. If you know the material to be covered, start seeing yourself in your mind conducting the techniques and tactics involved.
Mentally observe yourself staying calm and switching on the necessary aggression when needed. Feel the movements involved and the mental ‘trigger’ to set them off. Think about the complete focus you’ll need to get the best from the session.
Build into the thinking of when to deescalate, when to respond, when to cease actions and when and how to extract yourself.
These are mind decisions you can strengthen into your decision-making by visualisation.
Finally, visualise how great you’ll feel after the learning and the workout, when confidence and endorphins have peaked. That’s your reward.
DURING THE SESSION. As your learn techniques and tactics, your aim is to make them as solidly embedded in your instinctive response as possible.
During violence, it’s biologically natural for the amygdala (instinctive response part of your brain) to want to overrule your neocortex (thinking part). You rely on your trained and instinctive actions, done at speed.
This embedding process - at least in earlier stages - must be a slow process. Work slowly enough for your mind to recognise each action you take so it can be ‘felt’ by the muscular and nervous system.
Sometimes you can work without seeing, with your eyes closed, working slowly and relying only on your non-visual senses - violence happens in the dark, too, right? - but also for the purpose of proprioception and balance.
Your mind should visualise where you are in space, in relation to your opponent, your footing, movement and muscular actions. This way it embeds itself faster.
DURING REPETITION. A natural facet of self defence training is to repeat exercises or responses.
You may act in response to an attack or simply conducting a strike or a series of strikes on a pad or focus mitt. Anything done repetitively carries a danger of either complacency or a little boredom kicking in. Don’t worry, it’s just how our brains work. They get used to something and relax. The work you’re doing becomes more the making of thousands of widgets in an assembly line in factory approach than a best-ever-effort every time improvement activity.
To progress as fast as possible, this is not to your advantage. Again, visualisation comes into play.
Stop before each execution. Feel and visualise the stance you’re in just prior to it. Maybe you’re starting from a relaxed position, being ready or in a fighting position. This is a small opportunity, repeated a thousand times, to embed this position in your brain.
How to be in the right starting position is not what you want to have to think about when in a high stress violent encounter. Now is the time to make it instinctive.
Your action follows next, done at the speed required. Stay focused during it. Visualise the next sequential move if time permits it. Feel it as you execute it. When the sequence is completed, your training isn’t. No violence ends by you standing there motionless afterwards. What’s the appropriate action next? Running? Extracting to create distance? Looking for multiple attackers and scanning the area? Whatever it is, it’s a part of the exercise. Do it. Make it instinctive. You should visualise all the parts before your start to help you remember them.
DURING TESTING. Whether you’re testing your self defence skills in a class with a more vigorous exercise or in an actual grading session, your mind needs to stay focused.
Actually, in my experience, visualising what you are doing technically, for example by thinking about your footwork or the strikes you are delivering, not only naturally improves these in that moment, but helps you refocus away from any pain or the physical exhaustion created by the exercise.
It’s a known psychological fact that thinking negatively about pain or tiredness makes the sensation stronger, whilst focusing the brain on something positive or creative diminishes the feeling.
Use this to your advantage. Your mind should be in laser focus on your body, how is it moving, how it is attacking and defending and how natural and good it feels. Abolish everything else through visualisation.
AFTER THE SESSION. Training self defence through visualisation is not limited to your physical time in a training session. Life will provide yourself with an endless list of creative opportunities to practice self defence scenarios and mind games. Use them. Play them out inside your brain without telling anyone. These are just for you only.
In the (less intellectually stimulating) business meeting, how would you counter an attack from another person or more people and extract yourself? What are the strikes and sequences you’d follow? Visualise and feel these. Trust me, it’ll kill meeting boredom. No pun intended.
In the social setting outside of your home, what are the defensive and offensive common objects you can use? How would you use them if guy A or guy B or both are doing attack X or Y? What about your extraction points? Where are the CCTV cameras? Who are your reliable helpers if something go wrong? How would I approach them and what would I say? You can visualise a million different options in your head and embed them.
In your house, can you picture your reactions and actions if an intruder bursts in? What about coming home and finding one already there? If you’re woken up in the night? What are my useful common objects? How would I use them? Do I act or not? What would I do if forced to act? If they have a weapon? How would I use the environment around me which should be the most familiar one I know? Think about it. Visualise what your actions and words would be. Having this prepared, at least in principles in your mind will prepare you both psychologically and physically should anything every happen.
Generally out in the public, spend some time analysing and reading people. Can you determine if they’re right or left handed by their movement, accessories or how they interact with others? This can help you tactically when you make it a habit to look for it. Can you practice analysing body language to read their emotional state and feelings? You should be tuned into this in a potential violent conflict. If you see negative conflict, even if not physical, visualise what you’d be doing in your were in the same situation? Would you act differently to what you’re seeing? Visualise and embed it.
Visualisation is a great tool to use for your self defence training. It should be continually deployed during your actual training and testing sessions to optimise these, but is equally a great mechanism to enhance your capabilities outside of the physical training environment.
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