Pain, Fear, Threshold and Tolerance

Lets get this off first, pain is often intensified by the fear one feels. It is considered the major weapon against you, fear. Fear is a major emotional issue for all martial system practitioners. Lets gets some facts out here now:

First, experiments have proven that for the majority the threshold for pain - that point at which a person notices that something hurts - is the SAME for EVERYONE. Now I can hear all those responses, bullshit. It is true but where the differences between each person comes in to this equation is an individual person's "tolerance" to pain. How long after noticing the pain can a person bear it, how much medication to suppress it, and how they cope with it overall.

The pain that can send one person to the hospital merely causes another some discomfort, they tend to continue doing their daily activities. Think perception. Pain is a very personal matter, for each and every single unique individual be they man, woman or child, etc.

You as an individual must know what you mean by "pain," real pain as you perceive it. If you wish to begin dealing with it you must come to terms with it and then train to resist it or set a new and more acceptable tolerance level for your pain.

How you and others talk about said pain also has an effect. Your tolerance level can actually be set by the influences you had as your grew up around brothers, sisters, parents and friends.

Now, how the heck is this important to martial systems such as karate? Well, if not obvious then you can begin to understand by the terms koteki-tai practice, makiwara practice, hojo-undo practice and the jiyu-kobo events in the dojo, on the street and in combat. If you don't hit or get hit you may never know your pain tolerance in a fight.

There are techiques you can use like when hit very hard in jiyu-kobo keep moving, don't stop and say, "shit - that hurt like hell," or don't roll on the ground holding the perceived pain spot letting yourself feel an intensified pain for it is intensified by tension of the body, tension of the mind and the story your mind tells you about that pain.

If you simply acknowledge in your unconscious that something caused more pressure on your body, a hit to the chest for instance, and keep moving and applying your techniques you can bypass it pretty much.

In your favor as to marital systems and fights, your internal adrenaline dump is going to anesthetize your body and mind where you feel no pain but remember there are other trade offs to that dump as well. 

That brings up another question, do you train adequately for the mind dealing with pain, etc.?