Combat-ish

A friend was watching one of my black belt tests.  "It looks like you're hurting them sometimes but that they're cooperating with you a lot of time."  Movies make it look like anyone can be hit, kicked, shot, and stabbed then maybe jump up and run a marathon I guess.  Everyone is supposed to walk home from training.  Testing is verifying training, but it is still training.

Nik Wallenda, the man who walked the tightrope between two buildings in Chicago simulated 90 mph winds in his training.  "I want to make sure I've trained harder than what I will experience during the walk."  No doubt, he built up to this.  

I have heard some martial arts teachers talk about training more harshly to be ready for the dreaded phantom "street."  It is valid - to a point.  Who wants their daughter to take a Rape Prevention class where the instructor is going to be harsher than any rapist would be?

While more groups are talking about "More Realistic Training", everything we do in any class now is fake.  Training is different from doing.  Training is learning.  

I can train to assist with Ebola patients without being exposed to an Ebola patient.  The training and simulations let me learn lessons from other people who faced more danger than me, and maybe paid with their lives.  I can take my CPR and ACLS (advanced cardiac life support) and not have a patient die during training.  

Flight simulators are safer for pilots, and planes (and passengers) than "on the job training."  The old joke:  "If at first you don't succeed, so much for skydiving," need not apply to training for combat.  The majority of martial arts students will not be in a life-or-death situation, and even when they are, dialing 911 is still a better idea.

Even worse for people who are training for life and death situations, training injuries can make them less likely to succeed in an altercation!  Damage a joint.  Movement and flexibility become impaired, cardiovascular training becomes more difficult.  Training stops.  Maybe pain killers, fatigue, and depression start messing with my head.  Injure a leg; running away or dodging an attack is more difficult and maybe impossible.  Lost time at work is lost income, lost income is less disposable income for classes and maybe even other more vital daily needs. Stress becomes an ugly spiral.  Ironically, I become much easier prey.

And, it's not just about combat.  I couldn't spike an IV bag or unit of blood with a broken thumb, and I couldn't do chest compressions nor was I able to safely help a sick patient to the bathroom for months after an elbow injury.  My freelance editor wife lost days of income from a stray fingernail in her eye.  These were training injuries.

Imagine writing a qualifying exam after getting a concussion, or writing a paper after breaking fingers.  A detached retina, or a corneal abrasion, or a pulled groin muscle can serious hamper a law enforcement officer or a soldier in their ability to perform their duties.  Imagine a surgeon who gets a broken arm as a consequence of "recreation."

The people before us developed methods of training an aspect of combat that wasn't combat itself.  I develop my flexibility, strength, cardiovascular health, mental focus, my ability to strategize, my familiarity with a tool or an environment, my reactions to stress; and then I become a better fighter and hopefully a better all around person with a higher quality of life.