Penance

I know exactly what all of you are talking about!
Anytime I'm in ANY kind of stressful or violent situation I get all rubbery. Even hours after the fact I'm shakey and upset.

I've had the same kind of dreams where I'm in a fight and I cannot move at all. Everything is in slow motion and none of my punches can do ANYTHING. Then again I've had dreams where I'm beatin' the crap out of people, so there ya go

I agree that it's all in your head. Once when I was drunk my (also drunk) room mate (who is known for putting holes in walls) banged on our bedroom wall, so to "one-up" him (I guess) I put my fist, pinky-ring-finger first through the wall. I could never make myself do that sober. But if that had been in a real fight, I'm sure I would have gone home with a couple broken fingers (darn crappy technique!) and they would have probably gotten a broken nose or jaw! Trust me, EVERYONE has way more power inside them than they realize. Mentally stable homo sapiens just do not attack at full power naturally, for whatever reason. You have to train out of it, because it really is all in your head.

Tom Yum

I guess you don't box...

Penance

I said *naturally*. People don't pop out of their mom knowing how to box, right? =) I'm sure Tyson had no problem going all out from the time he turned 5, but would you consider him to be a well adjusted individual? I really do not think that *untrained* people, in a fight, are able to use their full potential.

Hikage

To those of you who are fearing or who do lack power in punches when in real situations,

One of the major things people forget to do is to move. Most arts preach stepping through a punch or at least a twisting in the hips. This is one of the first movements to leave when in a real situation, especially for the young guys. We instead rely on muscle, which isn't good enough. Normally that snap and impact you feel comes from having your weight behind your punch. You are going to notice a sizeable difference between the impact with your arm strenght and with your body weight, which is what you are seeing in real situations. As an aside, many are guilty of this in sparring sessions as well. Too many play "tag" instead of fight.

-Hikage

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Tom Yum

Exactly. Because they are untrained.

Penance

*grin* EXACTLY. That was my whole point to begin with: that people aren't born trained, and unless they're mentally unstable, people are not going to use all of their strength or ability in a fight! Stop joking around with me, you're making me feel self conscious

Tom Yum

How about those who are trained, are mentally stable and still able to use all their strength and ability in a fight, because they can switch into fight mode really quick?

Oreomeister365

I fight because I am overcome with excitment when I do it.

SO natrually, I look forwards to doing them, but don't let that cloud my judgement of what is right.

Drache

You're from England but you type like a 12 year old American. Please redo with a spellchecker. And an adult's supervision.

Bjjexpertise@be

I've had the shaky legs before but I usually have a different problem. When in Wrestling matches I always have this fear of losing and that I gotta win. If I'm in a fight, though, I usually have no fear at all and I love every second of it, call it a thrill if you want. God I'm crazy. Ack.

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Tameo

I try to just relax and be ready, hands near my chest head slightly facing down, observing oponent's the elbows and knees in peripheral vision.

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Mike Brewer

Ben,
You're experiencing extraordinarily common physical effects of stress. Usually, they include -
1. Dry Mouth
2. Auditory Exclusion. You stop hearing a lot of what's going on around you. When I was a soldier doing indoor close quarters battle, i'd often be surprised that I could hear my team mates, but I couldn't remember hearing the reports of the full auto machinegun bursts going off all around me.
3. Tunnel Vision. You tend ot focus in on what you think is a threat, to the exclusion of all else. Most often, this is why people fail to deal well with sucker punches and multiple attackers.
4. Shallow breathing. You breathe shallow and quick.
5. "Prey" alertness. Your eyes go wide, and you have trouble comprehending why this is all happening to you.
6. Shakes. For me, it's in the knees, but basically, your whole body is trying to burn off adrenaline. Since you're usually standing there frozen in place, your muscles tremble to stay moving. Just like when you're cold and you shake to keep warm.
7. Heavy Limbs. If you don't move soon, you'll freeze.
8. Gross motor skill improvement, fine motor skill deterioration. Your hands will go clammy because circulation prioritizes oxygen to the larger muscle groups used for things like running away from danger. Thus, gross motor skills (those using big muscle groups and fairly generic mechanics) work better under pressure, which is why you feel more powerful. You are indeed more powerful with these types of motions. On the contrary, fine motor skills requiring more dexterity and precision are nearly out of the question as the blood supply simply doesn't support it.
9. Nerve deadness. Your body knows when pain/damage is imminent, and it releases mass quantities of endorphins to kill your perception of pain. You'll get hit, kicked, even stabbed and never know it happened until the next day. This is particularly true in the extremities.
10. Warped time perception. Fear brings out the primitive brains more cognitive abilities. You're not really slowing down time, but processing much more detailed information about your situation. Skydivers often talk about how long their freefall feels. It's because plummetting toward the earth at 120 miles an hour is a scary thing, no matter how comfortable you get with it, and your imnnermost mind is trying to figure a way out of danger. When your chute opens and you glide safely to the ground, you still get the benefit of all those endorphins I mentioned, so you feel a little numb and "high."

Bottom line is, these are human reactions to danger. They aren't of themselves symptoms of fear, but anxiety. You should expect to be afraid in situations like this, and you should train in such a way that brings out these danger reactions in you so you can condition yourself for what to expect. Facing fear is simply a matter of training to be brave for a few seconds longer than the other man. And if you can't be brave? Pretend you are. No one can tell the difference.

Best of luck to you.

Mike

SamuraiGuy

Err well think of it this way, if Mike Tyson gets scared before boxing matches, you shouldnt feel bad about getting scared before a fight.

I think the quote goes or is something like this

"Im scared everytime I step into the ring, but I just bite down on the mouthgaurd, plant my feet and think get ready to do this"

For me I would have more of a fear of losing, (moreso to MMA than a fight) losing and getting a loss, knowing that this guy beat you would be worse than any physical damage they could inflict. I remember I was going to "UFC" (basically a fight with a few rules, and we didnt hate each other we were friends) a kid, but he was smaller, and about half the strength, and I had far more/better training. I knew I could kill this kid, but I thought, what if he beats me... that would be the worst thing ever.

It never actually happened because I invited him to where I take Krav, to "try out sparring" (what we would have told the instructor) and he never came. Even when I told him I would drive him there and home, and I would even not punch him in the head but he could still punch me in the head. (I was this confident against this guy) He wouldnt show up.

What I take from this is, your scared, but hes more scared, use that.

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"a few User CP's that are pretty significant ones(like a BoarSpear or SamuraiGuy one). " - GracieHunter

I choke people, I dont poke people. -- Me

Were you born to resist or be abused? I swear I'll never give in, I refuse. -- Foo Fighters

I want a girl that spends more time on her back than Royce Gracie.

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SamuraiGuy

Whatever works DAWG.... learned that trick in the G-H-E-T-T-O.

lol....

actually his reasoing was that holyfield was fouling him alot, and the ref wouldnt do anything about it, so he "took it back to the streets"... haha. He actually said he took it back to the streets.

__________________
"a few User CP's that are pretty significant ones(like a BoarSpear or SamuraiGuy one). " - GracieHunter

I choke people, I dont poke people. -- Me

Were you born to resist or be abused? I swear I'll never give in, I refuse. -- Foo Fighters

I want a girl that spends more time on her back than Royce Gracie.

I'll knee you in the face like your name was Josh Koschek -- Me

Ninjoe

Hey man,

whatever you believe will happen (except in politics).