Friday, June 3, 2016

Brain Shift to Exit

They say that our internal dialogue is very important in how we view the world and our place in it. Language and words can be used to change the way we see things ... not necessarily how they are, but how we see them, and thus relate to them in real life.

Therefore I propose stopping using language that insists on 'stopping the fight', 'ending the duel', or 'winning the altercation'.

'Prevailing' is better, as it lends an expansiveness to the method and outcome that I like, but how about thinking of swordplay/dueling/fighting, as something even more radical? How about seeing it all as - 'Creating an Exit'?

It adds a real goal to the whole, and frames the solutions to the problem at hand (how to deal with an adversary) in a very different manner.

It flows past and through rather than stops with one, predefined ending.

It gets you to see space and time differently, both before and after potential contact ... and indeed, it's the 'after', the exit, that matters most.

Perhaps it might even lessen the human tendency to come to a mental halt within training, in range, and with nothing certain achieved?

4 comments:

Mac said...

In dueling or training, perhaps. It's like the term the po-po gives to the news when they have to - do something nasty to someone to stop them from doing nasty things to innocents - "neutralizing the threat." How -- politically correct. How reality disguising and feelings considerate. What actually happens is you go in to kill the mother f'er, quickly. And thus, my point about training (ha! point! the point! point of the sword!) - you train in martial arts to kill the opponent as quickly and nastily as possible. The only difference in training is, you strike the "aura" (a term from GM Bruce Terrell of Wu Yin Tao Karate) and not the body. But your mental state should be the same, a vicious playfulness.

Maija said...

The point I'm trying to make is that the goal is to live ... whatever that entails. I see far too many people thinking the fight ends at the moment they have a supposed 'finishing strike', and that they then either stay admiring their handiwork, or worse, enter without understanding that getting back out of range safely, and then getting away, are also part of the problem to be solved.

Sonny advocated targeting areas 'so they cannot chase you'. He was not always focused on killing.

Perhaps it could all be simplified into the phrase: "Be careful! They are probably not dead yet" :-)

Rory said...

For some reason "cutting your way out" is resonating in my head.

Jim said...

Along the idea of the phrasing framing the actions... "Stop the threat" for law enforcement and self defense is NOT a politically correct euphamism for "kill the bastard first." It's a precise definition for when the use of force stops -- when the threat is gone. Not killed -- gone. If the guy shooting at you sets his gun down, you stop shooting. If the guy fighting you quits -- you stop hurting him. Yes -- with a gun, and with most LE training on shooting, odds are that you will inflict a fatal injury on the attacker -- but the goal is not to kill the person. (If it was -- why on earth would you summon rescue for the bad guy?)

There's a lot of power in the words and imagery you use to describe and shape your actions.

And your point here in the comments about getting out safely... GOLDEN! and very often overlooked in self defense or in sparring...