Transitions

Blog Article/Post Caveat (Read First Please: Click the Link)

This aspect of self-defense is discussed but in most SD programs only in passing when teaching technique-based programs. At least to my perceptions and to my limited exposure to such programs. Anyway, transitions to my view are absolutely critical to applying the appropriate levels of force through the multiple methodologies applied toward stopping the attack. 

Transitions are those mini-moments between applied multiple methodologies that allow you to keep moving especially when one method doesn’t perform to maximum proficiency so you can keep going till the job gets done or the attack breaks off the attack. There is more but first, defining transitions.

Transitions: In the general translation and definition a transition is that process or period or moment of changing from one state or condition to another. As a verb it is defined as undergoing or causing to undergo a process or period of transition, i.e., change, move, transform, convert, metamorphosize or alter, etc. 

Remember:

• changing from one state or condition to another (changes are hard, the first few under the stress of an attack are even harder or so I am told)
• undergoing or causing to undergo a process (think and read about it in the book, permission and initiative)
• change, move, transform, convert, metamorphosize or alter

Other sub-principles are involved in this transitional process but first a reminder that all of this is driven by our OODA loop, the speed of that transition matters as does the speed in which one completes to OODA. Many factors previously discussed contribute toward that speed and therefore making transitions efficient. 

Transitions in self-defense also mean avoiding a freeze because to transition is to move and to move means moving from one method to another whether to repeat the one to complete the job or to move to another appropriate method to complete the job. How you transition is another factor that must be conditioned before making use of it in self-defense. That involves other factors already discussed in depth elsewhere such as the structure and grounding along with spinal alignment, etc., so power and force remain intact from method to method. 

Often in martial arts and karate self-defense training of kata or drills emphasis is made on moving, transitioning, between techniques with some hesitation but what is critical in an attack is the ability to transition without perceived hesitation because a committed attacker is going to use rapid transitions to multiple methods of doing maximize damage his chief tool to keep you frozen in the OO bounce while you succumb to the damage and so on. You won’t have time to think, consider possible techniques to score points or keeping your distance for relative safety because, as many professionals of violence have explained, in an attack of a predatory asocial nature the attacker will be up close and pummeling you while your structure, balance and mind are disrupted and in the bounce - in short, frozen and taking damage. 

I hope I have been providing some information about transitions that spur you on to further research so that with understanding you can evaluate your training and practice toward a more realistic form in self-defense but remember that is not enough and take a look at more realistic forms of training through drills that will condition your mind and body to act when attacked even in dire positions often coming from predatory attacks. 

You can find more accurate and informed ways of self-defense by looking to the Bibliography but for drills Mr. Rory Miller has a new book and set of DVD’s available on the subject, i.e., “Training for Sudden Violence: 72 Practice Drills.” As a tease, in Amazon the description says, “The speed and brutality of a predatory attack can shock even an experienced martial artist. The sudden chaos, the cascade of stress hormones—you feel as though time slows down. In reality, the assault is over in an instant. How does anyone prepare for that?”

p.s. Remember, don’t turn this into something you have to focus on intensely, it is more about understanding one small component of hearing and training so that you can properly condition the mind and body for self-defense. Once you have an understanding then your karate and self-defense conditioning system can do its job, conditioning (yes, the term is better understood in context when you read the above recommended book and I still have a lot more work to do).

Bibliography (Click the link)