by Chris McKinley on Thu May 14, 2009 9:15 am
Graham,
RE: "If you want to avoid quick jabs, then why not have somebody quick jab you until you get the hang of it? All I'm saying, is that if you want to learn to deal with "attack X" then why not have somebody do "attack X" on you until you learn to deal with it? Am I being crazy or is it really not that complicated?". It's not a matter of being complicated. It's a matter of training someone's speed of perception and matching it to taking appropriate action. You and Rob aren't necessarily at odds with each other on this, it's just a matter of where the student is in his development. You're both presenting salient points.
A) If the student is brand new to fighting/training/martial arts, and has sub-par perceptual speed, unresolved flinching issues, fear of being struck, etc., it can be far more useful to start with the kind of thing Rob is talking about. The movement is purposefully slower, larger, more easily recognized, contains less threat of injury/pain should it accidentally strike, etc. Most importantly, if it's tailored correctly to the student, it won't trigger the fear response, and so will allow the student to spend significant time in the training scenario familiarizing himself both with the attacks and his own responses. It will also allow him to spend more time allowing the fear response threshold to reset at a higher level as well as allowing certain less useful behavioral responses to diminish and eventually extinguish.
As the student's perceptual speed improves, his fear response threshold begins to rise, and his tactical responses become consistently effective, the speed of the stick movement can increase and the telegraphic can be minimized. Eventually, switching over to unarmed jabs at medium and later full-speed can be introduced at a pace that matches the student's development.
B) If the student already has sufficient perceptual speed, has effective tactical responses, and lacks sufficient fear of getting hit so as to trigger the fear response, he may be ready to start in with untelegraphed jabs at close range immediately, without the kind of stick training Rob described. Depending on his level of development, it may still be useful to start with slow to medium-speed jabs at first to callibrate perceptual speed, timing, body movement, etc. Likely, such a student will quickly progress to dealing with full-speed, untelegraphed jabs at close range within a very short period of time. Such training is generally much more efficient and specific, given that the student is already prepared for it.
Again, both are good....they simply represent different training points along the spectrum of development.