Tension Management

Tension Management

In your daily life there is a baseline tension that you are so familiar with that you no longer even notice.   This tension manifests in fatigue, pain, and stress that many people live with.  Of course you see the benefit of reducing tension at work and in your personal life.  But tension beyond a certain level, what I call the point of “necessary tension” can impact your ability to defend yourself as well.

Many of us who have studied the martial arts are accustomed to holding powerful stances during training and sparring.  We have been taught to block and strike with great force.  But this has an impact on your body that affects your ability to adapt and avoid injury in real-life defensive situations. 

In Systema, the Russian martial art, tension is reduced and controlled such that your body is free to move naturally throughout combat.  This is as interesting as it is unique. 

Tension management is important in delivering strikes, but what I will focus on here is the way tension can prevent natural movement and ultimately cause injury in training and real attacks,  as well as how to manage the level of tension in the body.  This can and should be applied to every aspect of life, as it will lead to a more fluid and flexible existence.

When you engage large muscle groups, you in effect are connecting and combining the various parts of the body.  This is good if you need to move a refrigerator, but not if you need to survive a knife attack in a dark alley.  Once you have locked up the body, there is almost no way to unlock it.  This becomes even worse under the stressful conditions of an attack.  The tension builds up through the muscles and prevents you from changing the body’s alignment, direction, and response to new & escalating threats. 

Try it out.  Flex your entire upper body and attempt to move each shoulder independently, for example.  Experiment and try to be fluid while holding excess tension.  This should help you to see why people throw out their backs and experience other pain and/or injury during strenuous activity.  Now imagine that the activity is avoiding being slashed by a blade, held and punched by multiple muggers, etc.  In dangerous scenarios, you will need every advantage you can get.  Allowing excess tension to rob you of the freedom to move and adapt could spell trouble even if you have trained. 

There are many examples that could be stated to support this thesis.  I will assume that is unnecessary at this point.  Instead, let’s move on to what you can do to reduce tension under stress.

Breathing is very important, as holding your breath creates tension in and through the chest area.  So breathe and keep your core flexible, preventing the spread of tension throughout the body.  If you don’t think this is such a big deal, try it out.  Hold your breath as long as you can and pay attention to your chest, back, and shoulders.  Psychologically, this is difficult and many people experience a panic phenomenon.  See if continuous breathing can reduce this tension and promote natural movement.  And do yourself a favor, taking note throughout the day just how often you hold your breath (while driving, reading, concentrating, focusing, etc).

Now that you are breathing, learn to move various parts of the body independently.  This can be developed in many ways.  One example is holding a weight in one hand (which will cause that arm to move with greater resistance than the other) and start bending, extending, retracting, and swinging both arms.  Breathe and try to relax the upper body, holding tension only in the hands and forearms (these are the only body parts that must be tense).  Now add lower body movement, moving around while keeping the stomach, hips, and upper legs free of tension. 

Proper body alignment is important too.  People injure their backs when lifting heavy weight with a bend in the back.  So pull your lower back into straight alignment (removing the arch), bend the legs a little, and keep the hips tucked directly under the centerline.  Then try to  move and perform activities using the absolute minimum muscular tension required to complete the task.  You will learn just how much more the body can move and adapt if you let it.

This is a brief discussion of the topic to get you thinking.  But consider how much energy is wasted, and how little benefit is added, when tension takes hold of us.  In life, tension can impact our success, our happiness, and our relationships.  In combat and defense, tension can put us in unnecessary danger.  In any case, tension should be limited otherwise it will surely limit us.

Stand!

THREE DRILLS TO ENHANCE ADAPTABILITY

Adaptability is essential to those who want to possess real skill for defensive encounters.  I don’t care who your teacher’s brother’s roommate used to train with.  What if the thug who tries to knife you at the ATM trained with someone’s teacher’s brother’s roommate too?  J

These drills will give you ideas for improving your adaptability by increasing sensitivity (decreasing reaction time and enhancing fighting position), reducing the effect of surprise (using reactions as fighting foundations), and improving transitions (allowing you to fight between techniques).  It’s up to you to prepare yourself for the worst.  As I have said to many students, we train to fight so that we might not have to.

1. Sensitivity

Concept: It is important to learn to feel when an opponent is moving or changing his attack.  You don’t want to be in the position of constantly reacting to strikes and other attacks.  If you can keep a point of contact at all times and relax a little, you can sense subtle shifts and changes in angle of attack.  Your body’s natural reflex reactions will keep you one step ahead.  So learn to use all 5 senses (including the sense of sight) to the highest potential, and it will appear that you have the power to predict the attacker’s next move.

Any training routine or drill you commonly engage in can be made fresh and exciting simply by removing the sense of sight. 

Drill:  Wear a blindfold while working on grappling, trapping, and striking skills.  Start from a static position where both you and your partner are making contact.  This could be standing face to face with your forearms resting against each other.  Be creative and create interesting scenarios (sitting next to each other shoulder to shoulder, back to back, etc.). 

Try to relax as much as possible.  If you are too tense, you will not be sensitive to subtle movements.  You will instead feel yourself move, not your opponent.  So relax your muscles such that you can receive the movement as it starts.  Then use that motion as the beginning of you counter.  Work off of the tension from the attack, allowing your body to take a better position while finding an advantage (striking, leverage, etc.).

2. Surprise

Concept:  In training we usually know what is about to happen.  But on the street, the element of surprise is enough to change the outcome of any fight.  Attackers experience fear too, and that is why they use excessive force (weapons, surprise, greater numbers, etc.).  So the more you train your psyche to allow your body to respond when under sudden stress the better.  Don’t allow your body to freeze.  It’s okay to be scared and afraid, as long as you respond.  Hesitation is what we are trying to reduce or eliminate.  It is far better to be uncomfortable in training than defeated by fear.

Drill:  Stand in the middle of the training space, with other students at various positions and proximities to you.  Close your eyes while they move into new positions.  When you open your eyes to see them coming from unknown angles, you will experience (in a small way) the feelings that are realistic on the street.  Learn to continue moving even when you panic.  Don’t have too much pride.  If you get hit, learn from it.  Who cares if you could have blocked that punch if you were ready?!  The key here is to respond with less and less tension until you are able to absorb a strike and keep fighting, move with a grab and find an advantageous position, shift off line and redirect a strike, etc.  Do not let yourself tense up and pre-load by taking a strong stance.  Just move fluidly from wherever you find yourself at that moment.

3. Transition

Concept:  Things change all the time.  It’s what makes life interesting.  It’s also what makes fighting dangerous.  You may take an opponent to the ground and dominate him (until his friends come around the corner and join in the fun).  You may be the better striker (until he pulls a knife).  Get it into your head that there is always the possibility of an unexpected event changing the equation.  You need to be able to adapt and keep fighting.

Drill:  Work from one standard to another.  For example, begin standing and transition to the ground.  And then start out on the ground and work to get back to your feet.  Or better yet, move fluidly from standing to sitting to kneeling, to lying down to standing, and keep transitioning as you learn to work against attacks of all kinds.  Don’t think of certain techniques as “ground” and others as “standing”.  You will be a step behind if you have to change approaches all the time.  Continue to fight through changes and transitions as if there is no difference between them, because there isn’t.

 Concluding remarks:

Have fun in training, and keep it as practical as you can.  The key is to make progress, learning about your art and yourself all the time.  Position yourself in a fight, as in life, for the best possible outcome.  And above all else, don’t let others dictate the limits of your existence.  Don’t live in fear.  When others crumble, rise above. 

Stand!

Key #3: Natural Movements

Natural Movements

I love traditional martial arts, so don’t take this wrong.  I am not saying common training methods are without merit.  What I hope you will understand is that there exists a disconnect between the expectations of many new martial arts students and the reality of traditional teaching objectives. 

All it took for me to get the bug for martial arts (like so many others) was to watch Bruce Lee dispatch a room full of foes with a continuous flurry of kicks.  I started kicking everything in sight, and my parents decided to get me some lessons (read discipline). 

After spending weeks and weeks learning the most awkward positions I had ever seen, I started wondering when I would get experience in hands-on defense.  I was told that I needed a firm foundation in the basics before “advancing” to scenarios involving actual attackers.  I accepted that answer (sort of) for the time being. 

That’s when I started to notice that almost nobody in my school practiced in a practical way.  This showed in the way sparring sessions (even with the black belts) devolved into a brawl that resembled amateur kick boxers.  Where was the art we spent so much time “perfecting”?  I asked my instructors why the art wasn’t more applicable in combative applications.  Guess what?  They didn’t appreciate my criticism.

Go figure.  People don’t like it when you punch holes in an endeavor they have spent years of sweat and effort in.  When I eventually watched the first UFC fights, my concerns for realism in training were validated. 

What’s the point?

Application is everything.  People turn to martial arts for defensive ability first and foremost.  So I feel a burden of responsibility, as an Instructor, to give my students experience working with concepts they can use in short time to defend themselves. 

I don’t mean we shouldn’t teach basics (stances, postures, etc.) as a foundation.  In fact I think that is essential.  However, there is no excuse for stringing along students for months.  While they are learning the repetitive basics, they can engage in exercises and drills that utilize natural movements to fight violent attackers.

Natural movements are those that you already know, do, and can depend on under stress.  Think about how you would react if someone hauled off and threw a punch in your face.  What do you feel?  Do you tense up, and where?  Do you cover your head, or throw your hands up, palms out (and eyes closed)? 

It’s important to know your true reactions today!  Know yourself!  You naturally shift your weight a certain way.  You naturally rotate your elbows a certain way.  You naturally push threats away, or you naturally grab and contain a threat.  These are reflexes currently programmed into your very being.  That means they are reliable.  You are going to move. 

Traditional styles have a very specific way of moving and transitioning that define the identity of that style.  That’s great!  But that means you have to break down natural movements in order to build brand new muscle memory, etc. 

Beginners should be encouraged to embrace their natural movements in a way that provides them a means of defending against aggressive attacks right now.  Then they can walk in confidence while they develop technical aspects of their chosen style.  I think this is the best approach.

The ultimate gift we can give to our students is power and choice.  Power to participate in life without anxiety.  Choice in exactly what that means for each individual.  I am not urging people to abandon traditional methods.  On the contrary, my vision and passion are for the development of supplementary tactics that will allow students to fulfill their goals of martial proficiency throughout the entire journey of becoming an artist.

Pass it on…

Richard Moore

Founder/Chief Instructor

Applied Fighter

For more information about Applied Fighter and Instructor Richard Moore
Please visit http://www.appliedfighter.com/

Don't be emotional!

Your attitude and mind-set are very important in life and in combat.

Think about the emotions you would experience if you were attacked in violence.  How will you feel toward your attacker?  I know this may seem strange, but to be at your most effective and efficient performance, you should not feel anger, or any other powerful emotion.

It goes like this...

When you have an intense emotional reaction, you limit your bodily responses.  Tension takes over parts of your body as you try to appear bigger, stronger, more fierce (primal animal instinct).  When you are angry, your eyes narrow and you gain laser-focus on the target.  This is good in athletic competition, where one-on-one action is ensured. 

But on the street (as on the battlefield) you don't always know all the variables.  There may be others who will join in to attack you.  There may be weapons coming into play.  You need to have maximum flexibility and adaptability as you work to destroy the attacker.

The solution...

Do not think (or form an opinion) about the attacker.  He is not evil.  He is not anything.  He is simply in your way.  He stands between you and the rest of your life.  Do not assign value to anything the attacker does.  Just go through him into your future. 

When you are indifferent to the attacker, you can work freely through any attack.  The point is to give yourself as much of an advantage as possible. 

Take it! 

Key #2: Reflex Triggers

Key 2 of 7 From the Series, "7 Keys to Accelerated Defense"

Key #2: Reflex Triggers

We must learn to fight from varied positions.  Most attacks come as a surprise, and you will not be in your favorite stance when trouble finds you.  The training you engage in must prepare you to be aware and adapt.  Let me put it another way.  If you have to be stretched out and positioned in your style's fighting stance in order to protect yourself, your technique is probably not the most reliable defense.  Let's be real, okay?  Stay practical, and be prepared.

Almost all martial arts and defense training courses utilize set stances and attitudes in order to launch protective movements.  What I mean is that punches, kicks, blocks, etc. are all initiated from a ready stance which assumes you will be ready and waiting when an attack happens.  In many ways, this seems like a good starting point, providing balance and strength from which to begin defensive maneuvers.  The problem is that most real attacks do not begin with an attacker challenging you mono-o-mono. 

In real life, attackers always have an advantage of some kind.  Often the defender is surprised and caught off-guard, forcing an ad hoc response under sub-optimal conditions.  Because of this, it is vitally important to learn to launch defensive actions from the most common natural positions.  You will not have time to restart the attack after getting into your practiced positions.  This reality based approach will result in the discovery of the power behind fundamental human movement associated with reflex triggers.

Think about it.  Around the globe, people practice martial arts by situating their bodies in every variety of stance and position in order to build muscle memory and replace the body's natural reactions with "combat" reactions.  But if you are training in a dojo in a suburban area where the chance of being attacked is very unlikely, you are conditioning your body to respond under training stimulants.  When you go out into your world, you will think about work, family, and other responsibilities and place this "combat" response behind the pressing priorities of life.  If you are attacked walking to your car, you will not spring into a cat-stance or lop-sau in an automatic fashion.  No!  Most likely you will tense up, close your eyes, and flinch in the face of violence (just like most other people).  What happened to your training?

Let's answer this by posing another question.  What is the difference between a suburban black belt and a Marine serving in a combat zone?  Well lots!  But to make an over simplification even more extreme, let's talk about the mental states of these two characters.  Assume that they received the exact same hand-to-hand combat training.  What's the difference?  Before you get to far ahead of me, I'll tell you my opinion.  It’s mental state.  The situation (environment) will cause the person to receive information differently and thus affect the way the body reacts to perceived danger.  A Marine in a combat zone is focused and aware, looking for sources of danger with the acceptance of the use of violence to defeat violence.  Not so with our suburban black belt.  He does not anticipate trouble and thus will not maintain the survival mindset required for rapid response to danger. 

I know, you are thinking of several problems with my analogy.  Too bad.  You still have to deal with the fact that you are not walking around in a horse-stance, fists at the ready.  Instead, you are probably checking email, texting, searching for weather, stocks, and free cell phone apps while you try to feel for the right key to open your door.  Did you even notice the guy standing a little too close to the front of your car?

There are ways to increase your odds at successfully defending yourself, even when taken by surprise.  To understand the solution, we will look at two aspects that are essential to any real self-defense endeavor; natural reflexes and defense triggers.

Natural reflexes are hard-wired into your being.  These are predictable responses that you can come to understand and appreciate.  Another word for predictable is reliable!  Muggers, rapists, thugs, and the like have made your natural reflexes a course of study in order to use them against you.  But that can be turned for use in your favor as well.  You know how you will be approached.  The other elements of natural reflexes are speed and efficiency.  Wouldn't you agree that movements that are described as "reliable", "fast", and "efficient" will be useful in self-defense?  Isn't this the intent of martial arts training, to learn new reactions that have these very qualities?  You already have tools that will help you survive the most violent and aggressive attacks.  You just need to learn to use them as a spring board for defensive tactics.

Defense triggers occur at the point your brain catches up with your body's natural reflex.  You will feel the surge of emotion (stress over fight or flight) with adrenalin, fear, etc.  But you will move!  And the moment you realize that you have moved is the moment of the defense trigger.  This is the space between the reflex and the transition into defensive tactics.  Your training must begin with the construction of a bridge to martial implementation of your reflex reactions. 

Consider this: imagine you throw your hands up in front of your face as you see a punch aimed at your nose at the last instant.  Come on... just do it.  Throw your hands up in surprise, covering your face.  Okay, now relax your shoulders just a little (let them drop to a comfortable level) and make your hands into fists.  Ah!!!  You remind me of a boxer I once knew :)  The point is that there are many ways your body will react to various attacks, and the better you understand these reactions, the better you will be able to prepare for the worst.  You may throw your open hands out in front of you, twist and look away while raising your elbows, step back and lean away, etc.  Some of your reactions will place your elbows in perfect position for striking.  Others will allow you to parry or trap a strike.  Everyone is different, but your reflexes can lead to effective triggers for self-defense.

You might say that you will just be more careful, more aware.  Well I wish you well and hope nothing ever happens to you.  But what if?  No really, what if?

What if?!

You may disagree with me, but I think that you will definitely move when caught off-guard by an attack.  I think you will react by flinching and blinking and tensing up.  I think you will do this even if you practice martial arts.  I think this happens every day, and it's a real shame.  Martial arts and self-defense teachers do a good job of training students to compete in matches (in the old days they called these duels).  But most people do not go about their daily lives under heightened survival mindset conditions.  And today's criminals do not challenge you like a thug in a Kung-Fu movie.  No!  You will certainly react when attacked.  But have you truly prepared yourself to transition from Joe-six-pack to G.I. Joe? 

Make your training count and awaken your inner warrior.  Embrace the power of reflex triggers.

Stay safe,

Instructor Moore


Richard Moore teaches self-defense and martial arts in the Bay Area, CA.  For more information regarding training philosophies and events visit http://appliedfighter.com/