Fear Factor

[old skool dude]

I'd like to pose a question that may have been posed earlier, so forgive me, as I am new here.
How do you guys deal with Fear? Do you ever become afraid in either a self defense or real life situation, and how do you deal with it and still function?

I recall hearing a story a couple of years ago about how an untrained female nurse fought off a mugger who had broken into her house, climbed into her bed, slapped her around, and jumped on top her demanding sex. She pretended to cooperate, then grabbed him by his jewels, took him off her bed, dragged him threw her house, to the front door, and threw him out on her lawn! The police cauught him shortly afterwards. That story haunted me because this was a woman with NO TRAINING, nevertheless she was able to impliment her plan. How was she able to do that in spite of her fear.
The incident got me to thinking about the subject and I've been obsessed with it ever since. How is one person able to do what he has to do, with little or no training, while another just freezes like a deer in the headlights? It this something innate? or is it something that can be trained, and if so, how? Your thoughts.

[IPON]

I'd like to pose a question that may have been posed earlier, so forgive me, as I am new here. How do you guys deal with Fear? Do you ever become afraid in either a self defense or real life situation, and how do you deal with it and still function?

I think everyone one experiences fear. The key is just how you react to fear. People do get paralyzed (MAist are not immune). Personally, I have from a young age looked at fear a unproductive emotion as it is far mor harmful to your survival than it could ever help.

Think about sports, let's say football I always noticed the people that got injured the most were the ones ho let fear control them. Fear of getting hit, fear of catching the ball etc all are fear of pain. No sensible well adjusted person enjoys pain, no one looks forward to getting cut or hit with a pipe. Personally, I will deal with the pain now so I can survive. Becomining physically tough is one part but if you are scared of pain embrace it more to reduce your fear. When trining do use pads and gloves take the punch and move one.

So the key is mental conditioning, expect threats so you are not suprised. If someone breaks in to your house to you want to hide under your bed or impower yourself and tak control of your situaition and protect yourself. Remember people are humans, so ou ar confronted by 6 humans or 1 human so what. There is nothing to be afraid of what can they do that is mystical, you will be beaten or possible killed those are the options so why dwell on it, if those are the options you have no choice but to deal with it (or don't and definately get beaten or killed). Do what is necesary to protect your self and your family.

I know this answer is all over th place but my 2 cents.

[old skool dude]

fear factor cont

I usually am able to control my emotions, but sometimes when there is a big guy, and you dont want to really hurt him in a fight, you get afraid of the sheer size. But pearsonally i find that once i get started i loose all emotion, and just respond instinctivly.

I realize how you can get intimidated by the sheer size of a guy. It's amazing how he appears to "get bigger" when you get in a physical confrontation! I learned to never look at a guys face while fighting but to concentrate on his body. usually the center of his body at times, and even to monitor on occassion his attacking agents (hands and feet) for me, doing this took some of the "horror" out of the confrontation as is was easy, for me, to get initmidated by a certain "look" of facial expression. By concentrating on the body I was able to relate to my opponent as a "target" and "targets" can be struck. I understand also, how "once the doo-doo hit's the fan" you can lose all emotion in the midst of the fight, What mystifies me is the PREFIGHT jitters, which can literally paralyze you, thoughts like, wow, he's wearing a blue/red bandana... he must be a member of that gang... wow, he's pretty big, what if he's strong like tyson....wow, I wonder if he has a gun.... etc. etc. I'm interested in what, if any strategies anyone has for "unparalyzing " ones self prior to the fight being IN PROGRESS. (this doesnt necessarily have to be confined to street fighting but also to sparring)
One thing I learned to do is to play a game I call "what if" I kind out informally "rehearse" or visualize possible scenarios that I would go through in case an attack was pending. I also have a habit for looking for environmental weapons, broken glass, car antennas, lamp posts and trees (to throw him into or to use as a temporary shield) If I really find myself in a potential situation I give my mind a mental command such as "CRUSH KILL DESTROY" or even "YOU"RE GOING TO DIE" I'm a firm believer that this energy can be transmitted to a potential opponent and make him hesitate or at least think twice. I cant document this, but I'm sure some "smart guys" have this written down somewhere....
your thoughts?

[TNT]

[ If I really find myself in a potential situation I give my mind a mental command such as "CRUSH KILL DESTROY" or even "YOU"RE GOING TO DIE" I'm a firm believer that this energy can be transmitted to a potential opponent and make him hesitate or at least think twice. I cant document this, but I'm sure some "smart guys" have this written down somewhere....
your thoughts?[/QUOTE]
My GM began discussing "that energy" the other night. He says he will introduce us into it's utilization. I'm looking forward to it and will let you know how it goes.

[shootodog]

one word: conditioning!

condition your mind, condition your body. relax! accept what you have to do. then just do it.

[old skool dude]

fear factor cont

one word: conditioning!

condition your mind, condition your body. relax! accept what you have to do. then just do it.

Shootdog, could you elaborate on this more? when you say "condition your mind?" what does that MEAN? (make it "idiot proof" for me! ) ) Just saying "condition your mind" is the same as saying, "try to relax" Now if your say, try to relax by deep abdominal breathing, using positive self talk, and shadow box, that is more specific. I'm really trying to get at the mechanics of controlling fear here so that I'll have a method (and hopefully everyone else who is tuning in) that I can use when this situation arises again. I realize that a sense of confidence follows being in condition. I perssonally feel more confident about a potential confrontation if I've put in the necessary hours doing roadwork. Vince Lombardi is quoted as saying "fatique makes cowards of us all" and nothing is more frightening than being in a sparring match or real confrontation and feeling that your endurance is gone. Once that leaves you, you cant effectively attack, evade or even run away if you have to. I also feel more confident if I have developed a sufficient amount of strength through weight training, or calistenics. Finally, I like to have one good throwing technique, one good kicking technique and one good punching/striking technique that I can count on in a pinch. Still, there is that "intangible " quality of being able to bring your skills into play whether defensively or offensively, and THATS whee the ability to manage fear/anxiety/adrenalin comes in.

[krys]

My keywords are faith and relaxation. You must have faith in your training.... if you don't believe 100% in what you are doing you may loose your fighting spirit when the day comes. Learn also how to relax while fighting, learn how to take punishment and deal with pain during training while staying relaxed, practice (at slow pace first) with real weapons. Actually sparring at slow pace/ with real weapons/ accepting to take blows will teach you a lot about yourself....

Russian martial among other give answers to your question, you may be interested by this article:

http://www.aikidojournal.com/new/article.asp?ArticleID=510

[shootodog]

sorry for that abbreviated post.

what i mean by conditioning is this:

1) breathe- concentrate on your breathing and keep it as steady as possible.

2) don't look at what you percieve as a threat. look at the situation calmly.]

3) keep it simple- keep your training at the reflex level. make your training reflex.

4) keep training in simple aspects

5) repeat repeatedly

[shuyun]

one word: conditioning!

condition your mind, condition your body. relax! accept what you have to do. then just do it.

i agree with shootdog. it's conditioning. i've been in two street fights. the first almost got me killed because for all the techniques i learned my basic respect for human life got in the way. My hand was on his death point and my hand froze! dang!

so i set my self aside to auto suggest fury during a confrontation (its actually an acting technique, how do actors draw up authentic emotions on cue it's called the sense memory technique.) but it's a little intense when you can bring up fury on command its very taxing. i use qigong to mellow me down.

in hte next steet fight i broke a guys nose. if i had a weapon i could have killed him because in retrospect i had none of the reservations i had from the earlier fight.

[krys]

ao i set my self aside to auto suggest fury during a confrontation

Silat has ways to put you that kind of state.... you don't feel pain, you become faster, your strikes are devastating.... what only matters is destroying all your opponents.... I used to train this a little but stopped because there were some countereffects and I didn't have a proper proper mentor at that time (didn't also like the idea of hitting myself repeteadly in the head) ....

[yentao]

Sometimes fear might turn out as an anger that can response in the fear. My uncle got his house broke by three goons around 3am. They took 21,000 pesos (which at that time was already a huge sum). After he were tied up, one of the jerks slapped him and starting to cursed him about him being chinese and all. When the bandits finally leave the house immediately his children untied him. Out of anger he took his 45 cal colt and persue the bastards upon leaving he saw the three already in a jeep going for the next stop light. He followed them until a stop light and then shot them until the magazine run out. Since those guys are from the province no one claimed the body so he was dismissed with only a small amount of fine for the burial of the three d!ck$.

[johnzag]

I think that most people would say that fear is a common place emotion and also as a bi product of this so is learning how to deal with fear. The way I have approached it in a fighting sense it to do as much spariing as possible. The better the opponent the better the experience. I figure by making my sparring as real as possible and doing it as much as possible hopefully should I need to be able to utilise the skills that I have acquired efficiently and effectively they will be there for me. Its funny like some of the guys in previous posts have mentioned I too always get the jitters before sparring especially when it is in a competition format. Hopefully by doing this as much as possible I will minimise the effect my own fear or nerves will have when it comes to a real life scenario!

[johnzag]

Mate you sound like a hero! You are either extremely good (may be the case) or an absolute Knob. Tournaments can be extremely realistic depending on what you do. Granted Non-Contact Karate Kid Style tournaments are pretty much useless for Real Life experience but a full contact Jiu-Jitsu or Karate Tournament where takedowns and submissions are ok are about as good as it gets without doing the real thing!
I personally hope that sparring is as close as I get to the real thing.

[Tom Yum]

And sparring like its a game of tag does wonders for your ability to cope with real life.

Point sparring is pretty much a game of tag. I saw a TKD tournament a few months ago and it was just that. When the fighters got close to each other, they threw little haymakers or tried to seperate with crescent kicks.

Full contact sparring (boxing,kickboxing,jujitsu or MMA) is a little more than a game of tag.....

[johnzag]

Yeah fortunately I have had the oppurtunity to do a lot of full contact sparring. In Kombatan we get to do a wide range of sparring stand up, ground and of course stick fighting Double and Solo Baston. Hopefully this will help me when it comes time to use it in a real situation.