Resistance is Futile

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Not really, resistance is a yin/yang concept in the discipline of self-protection for self-defense. Your attacker is going to resist all your efforts at self-protection while you are going to resist all his efforts to cause you serious harm and even death. It’s that simple. 

Even tho, on the surface, the use of resist seems the same in the above example in reality the one used to describe your attacker is the yang, the bad, while the one used to describe your efforts to protect and defend is yin, the good. Just as long as your resistance and effort don’t pass the line into the bad, or what would be perceived and judged as aggressive. 

In karate, in the dojo, we use things like drills and such where we are learining concepts and principles because those tools are great to achieve that objective. It is imperative that we understand that we must evolve past those levels to a state of mind and body wherein resistance is added to expose the practitioner to certain traits and concepts. 

What you do in the drills is functional to learn the concepts and principles but not good to apply them in the reality of violence. Drills and structured practices and training serve that critical part of “introduction” to concepts and principles. They provide a medium where one can not just learn but achieve creative spontaniety of applied principles and concepts so that when they evolve to the higher levels of functionality in reality concepts and principles will not trip you up. 

Violence is unpredictable and that is a concept that transcends both the introductory levels and the reality functional levels. Here is where one must begin introducing creativity, reality and functionality into their regimen. 

Introducing a creative spontaneity into those drills and such will begin the transitional stage and level you need to achieve to protect and defend. 

This is where experimentation and analysis are important, i.e., our need to test and fail, if you will, so that you can weed out what works and what doesn’t work with the caveat that even if it works it may not work in situations unique to violence. In short, “it depends.” 

You have to experience creative change through spontanious actions to be exposed to the adrenaline chemical dump, the intensity of violence, the speed at which it is applied, the surprise used in many acts of violence and what happens when your execution is hindered by it all. This comes when surprised by an unknown and uncooperative attacker. 

Context, if your training and practice is not conducive to the context of both social and asocial violence and conflict it will fail unless luck is on your side. 

If your goal is self-protection then you have to take this, and more, into consideration that also requires a group dynamic that uses the concepts of violence along with fundamental principles to achieve success.

One more thing, in general, even the most effective realistic training and practice requires a mind-state and mind-set that must overcome that chasm between the training hall and the chaos and danger of reality because a mind with no or little experience is going to cause a brain-lock when it happens.

Example: if your are not aware, if you don’t use your skills and if you are in a position that conveys to a criminal you are a good target then when the attack happens it will, “surprise you completely and utterly; it will disrupt your structure and balance; it will lock you in the OO bounce of the OODA loop; it will be a continuous flurry of damage being inflicted on you and that is how you become a soft-target for what ever the attacker’s objective be it “a process or a sought after resource.” 

Make sure to stress test your skills. Expose your skills to every possible realistic methodology used in violence and expose your mind to as much as possible that will prepare it to take the step to cross that chasm that divides the training environment from the environment of conflict and violence. 

Remember, even the best preparation does not necessarily guarantee success in self-protection for self-defense. 

More… “Tips for Troubleshooting Martial Arts Techniques at the martial poet blog.”

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