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.

Directional Principles of Striking and Throwing Combinations

A directional classification defines your movement in relation to the position of your opponent. Direction is an obvious and external quality of a combination. We can easily see it and it is rarely deceptive. There are two types of directional classifications: lateral and planar.

Lateral Combination
Lateral combinations are those that attack the sides of the opponent alternately or randomly. They are primarily combinations of circular movements including striking, kicking, throwing, locking and takedowns. They can consist of any combination of high-low, foot-foot, hand-foot or hand-hand attacks.

Lateral combinations work well for fighters with good mobility and speed. Their randomness confuses and frustrates opponents, especially those who are big or slow. When forming lateral combinations, include variety in the type of skills, and the height and direction of approach.

Planar Combination
Planar combinations are combinations that attack the opponent on a single plane running through his body from front to back. A plane can run directly through the center line or at a slight angle to the right or left. The only requirement is that all movements are consistent in their line of approach.

Planar combinations consist of penetrating and thrusting linear attacks to the center line of the body including punching, jabbing, linear kicks, knee thrusts, back fists, and tackling. Planar attacks are meant to do serious damage by aiming for vital targets such as the face, spine, groin and internal organs. Create quick techniques and develop total body shifting to take advantage of and penetrate openings on the center line.

Planar attacks also can be combined in groups of high-low approaches with foot-foot, hand-foot or hand-hand skills.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Using Combinations in Fighting

Advantages of Combinations:

1. You can capitalize on your physical and mental momentum without interruption.
2. You don’t have to wait for another opening to appear.
3. The opponent is forced into a defensive posture.
4. The opponent is confused, allowing you to control the rhythm of the fight.
5. You can achieve a powerful finish.

Disadvantages of Combinations:
1. You have to be agile and skilled in attacking.
2. An experienced opponent can escape by stepping back or to the side or jam by stepping in.
3. You can easily lose your balance when shifting from one technique to the next.
4. You can lose control of the distance between yourself and your opponent.
5. You need stamina to attack strongly until the final movement is completed.
6. You become vulnerable to counterattacks.

Combat Assimilation Practice

Beyond technical, tactical and strategic training, combat training requires combat assimilation practice. In assimilation practice, replicate as closely as possible the conditions under which combat might take place. If your training is for competition, secure the necessary equipment and people to help you create a competition-type atmosphere. If you train for spontaneous combat, such as self-protection, try to estimate the climate of such combat and recreate it within reason.

Safety is the only limitation on what is practiced in assimilation training. If your anticipated combat is full contact, practice full contact fighting within the confines of safety rules and equipment. For full contact fighting, prepare
yourself to deal with the pain and fatigue you will experience. Both fatigue and pain can cause unexpected reactions if you are not familiar with them. Practice training through similar levels of discomfort to prepare.

When you practice assimilation drills, fight with the same mental and physical disposition you would in a real confrontation. Practice reaching and maintaining your focus under pressure. If you feel comfortable with assimilation training, move to over-assimilation training.

In over-assimilation, the realities of combat are exaggerated to make training more challenging. Fight against bigger, stronger, and more experienced opponents. Train with a weight vest or other physical impediment to your movement. Give yourself disadvantages such as using only one type of skill or bodily weapon. Over-assimilation uses anything that exceeds the normal stresses of combat.