The Role of Anger in Fighting

Fear and nervousness are both natural and positive safety reactions to combat. Anger, however, is not. Anger is not rooted in the primal need for self-protection. It is an emotion of conflict and the inability to deal with a given
conflict. Very few skilled fighters use anger to prepare for a fight.

Although anger is often the impetus for a real life confrontation, it has to be dispelled as the first blows are exchanged if you want to succeed. Anger destroys your emotional balance and prevents clear thought and judgment. It leads to an uncontrollable level of arousal.

If you feel angry with your opponent, channel that feeling into a more positive desire to win or to survive.

If the anger is rooted in something other than the combat situation, try to remove it, or at least control it, before you engage the opponent.

When to Use a Joint Lock in Self-defense

Joint immobilization techniques are those movements that cause hyperextension of one or more joints. Joint immobilization techniques tie up the opponent’s limbs and create such pain that he becomes unable to respond. Pain is created by pressing or twisting the joint in a direction in which it does not naturally move. For example pressing the finger backward or twisting the elbow.

Joint immobilization is useful in close to medium range combat and in ground combat for locking up or pinning an aggressor. The key to applying a joint locking technique successfully is to keep intensifying the pressure on the
hyperextended joint or transforming the technique into a more effective one by moving continuously. This allows you to control the opponent’s movements and avoid giving him an opening for an escape or reverse.

Fighting Mindset

But what is the difference between beating the opponent with an emotional attack or beating him with a well composed mind? The results are the same. Each method will make the fighter victorious if he has the physical skills to apply. But what if he doesn’t? What if he faces a highly skilled or physically superior opponent? Anger alone will not carry him to victory.

When the opponent is superior in any way, the untrained fighter will have great difficulty in defeating him. The skilled fighter will have a dramatic advantage, allowing him to overcome his disadvantages and turn them into
advantages. He will coordinate his skills to attack the most vulnerable parts of the opponent and defeat him with a minimum of effort.

This is where combat becomes harmony within conflict. Harmony inside oneself and harmony with one’s surroundings. The skilled fighter trains not to oppose his opponent, but to flow with him. This does not mean that he is passive. He has a set strategy for fighting, but he is not confined by it. If he finds a better way, he can adapt any time. He does not resist the rhythm and flow of the fight itself.

The skill of harmonizing in combat is one that is acquired through practice and experience. It does not come from practice alone. Practice can prepare you, but only experiencing the reality of engaging another person in physical conflict can lead you to understand the intricacies of combat.

Psyching Up for a Fight

The final key to psyching up effectively is mental conditioning. In combat, there is often little time to prepare for what might happen. You must be able to reach your optimum level of intensity any time. This is beyond just psyching-up. Instant intensity comes from consistent daily training. To improve your mental condition:

1. Practice every skill and movement with full intensity.
2. Make each repetition better than the previous.
3. Follow your plan with consistency and determination.
4. Live life with the same alertness you fight with.

Maintaining your peak intensity throughout a bout is the result of conditioning plus endurance. If you get distracted by pain, fear, your opponent, your environment, or other external factors, mental conditioning will help you to refocus on your original goal. Without a strong mind, your focus can easily be distracted by nonessential external factors. Mental conditioning helps you to psyche-up quickly and improves your mental endurance.

In a match of two equally skilled opponents, the one with greater mental endurance will prevail. Mental endurance allows you to be persistent and reach your goal, despite the blocks your opponent puts in your way.
Mental endurance will give you an aura of toughness and aggressiveness

that is intimidating to opponents. There is no opponent more intimidating than the one who attacks consistently, no matter what you do. He is impervious to your attacks and seems determined to fight until he prevails. This is the result of strong mental endurance.

Mental conditioning is related to the toughness of the fight and mental endurance is related to the length of the bout. With a combination of both conditioning and endurance, you will develop a determined, indomitable warrior spirit. Warrior spirit gives you the guts to attack, the patience to wait for a better opportunity, and the persistence to finish the fight though you are exhausted. Among the most highly skilled combatants, warrior spirit is all that separates the winners from the losers.