What would you do?
By K.C. Wegner, Shodan
(Black Belt) in American Kenpo Bu-Jutsu
What would you do if you walked into
your house and saw one or all of your loved ones being brutally tortured
and murdered. Most people would answer this with " I would fly at
the attacker or attackers in a blind rage, and kill them." This is
what many people respond with, but what they do not realize is that they
most likely would not react in this fashion or even react at all.
Why do I say this? How would one react? This paper will be
dedicated to answering those questions.
First of all one needs to think about the situation in general. The
attacker or attackers has put the earlier mentioned loved one in a position
of complete helplessness. Whether this is through murder or severe
physical damage, it has occurred; therefore, the attacker has not only
thought about causing severe harm to a person, he has.
This means that the person is more than capable of killing you. This
is compounded if there is more than one attacker. At this very point
your chances of survival are low. Not to mention the factor of psychological
shock.
People love to be in control.
Examples of this can be found in ancient rituals to make the sun rise or
modern day computer programs to make our lives more efficient . There
is no sense of control more sacred than the control to keep ourselves alive.
Seeing someone take this control away from your loved ones in front of
your eyes can be one of the most psychologically traumatic experiences
of your life. Add to this the fact that the people who you walked
in on are going to take away your ability to control whether or not you
live or die, and you have a steel vice squeezing your heart and a dull
throb replacing your ability to think and move. This is psychological
shock. And in less time it takes you to recover from it, you are
murdered. How can one avoid this situation?
The first key is to play this tape
in your mind over and over. Anyone who says that he or she knows
exactly how they would feel in this situation is wrong; however, the aspect
of total shock can be taken away if you have some framework of what to
expect from this situation. This framework has to include your reaction.
Without thinking of a reaction in advance, you will not be able to react
at the time it is needed, because you will not have time to think.
When I say a reaction, I do not mean
the emotion driven reaction of "I would kill them". If you are in
this situation and you reach for emotion you will get emotion in the form
of a mind locking mixture of fear and depression. The ideal mental
state would be that of becoming an emotionless attacker. Though this
mental state may not be possible in an absolute, any degree of it can only
help. The physical aspect has to be one of pre-programmed quick and
lethal techniques which will end the situation as quickly and effectively
as possible. Pre-programmed, because you will not have time to think,
as quickly as possible because the longer a confrontation lasts the more
chance the other person has of ending your life, Mental and physical
forethought are absolutely necessary.
The simple point of this paper is
that without detailed thought before a self-defense situation, a person
will not be capable of defending his or her self. Thought before
the situation is what will mean the difference between life and death.
This thought can not be a simple quick answer to a question. It has
to be as detailed and constant as possible. The thought should take
place everywhere, but should work with the physical aspect of the martial
art being learned. Without prior thought the physical will not be
there when it is needed, and without physical training the thought will
have no tool to use in its defense. One without the other is useless.
Waiting until the situation to use either aspect is worthless. Prior
thought and physical training working with the thought are the keys to
being in control of whether you live or die.
K.C. Wegner is a student of American
Kenpo Bu-Jutsu and trains at the headquarters of American Kenpo Bu-Jutsu in
Oklahoma City.
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