The slow, high road

[Bill Glasheen]

This is going to take a while to articulate, and I don't know where it is going to go. But there are thoughts brewing inside me that suddenly have come to a crystallization point.

There's one article in particular that has my mind going a bit more than usual. It comes from this issue of the Journal of Asian Martial Arts.



Secours, K. (2004). Russian Systema flow training: A progressive alternative to stimulus-response training. Journal of Asian Martial Arts, vol 13, no 4, 28-51.

So why did this article strike me so? A number of reasons...

1) It starts by pulling a lot of contemporary literature on fear and the fear response together.

2) It continues on with "low road" vs. "high road" physiology.

3) It then establishes "high road" training as a desireable choice for a martial artist, while acknowledging the effectiveness of contemporary "stimulus-response" (operant conditioning) training methods.

4) It gives logical reasoning for one to choose a slower, high road path.

5) It uses Systema as an example of such an approach.

6) I've seen these arguments before, independently expressed by Scott Sonnen in his own material.

7) It jives with what I do on many levels.

8) I feel comfortable with the world offering all these choices for people who need to follow their own unique martial paths.

This may take a while. Jump in when/if you want. But I may continue to ponder and muse out loud.

- Bill

[Bill Glasheen]

If you've never read from experts such as DeBecker, Grossman, or Ledoux, you're missing out on a lot of modern thinking on fear and the rapid training of the modern warrior. No problem - Secours brings you though a crash course on the subject.

Most familiar with this field understand that extreme fear is physiology. When we can afford a precise response, our thalamus can send the task over to the cortex where learned responses can take over. When we need to act faster than the conscious brain can respond, there's a faster, less precise response through the amygdala. These "high road" and "low road" responses have other vernaculars associated with them. Some think of them as "either-or" scenarios. While they are at the extremes, my academic training yields a lot of interesting research on the neurohormonal gray area inbetween the extremes.

Are the extremes important? Of course.

* The gross, fast, low road approach protects us when we touch a hot stove, see a snake, or deal with the sucker punch coming right at our face. The response isn't pretty, but it's worked well enough to keep our genes in the gene pool through the ages.

* The high road is where we spend 99.99 percent (or more) of our lives. It allows us to play the piano, eat, make love, and drive to work. It even allows us to engage in more physical activities (such as sports) that can involve quite sophisticated and precise movements.

Most cannot understand low road dynamics because they don't "go there" very often. Those who have studied it know there are performance consequences that need to be addressed. Somehow, the two domains must jive for the self defense experts.

One contemporary approach taken by many is to train fighting in a manner consistent with the gross, simple movements found in low road kinesiology. Why? That's the way you move anyway when you are so scared that you piss your pants. If what you practice is where you'll be, figuratively speaking, when things are near death, then you are prepared for the worst.

There's another dynamic involved - the difficulty most people have in killing another. An aversion to killing another of the same species is hard-wired into MOST; it's part of what assures survival of a species. The modern military has learned to bypass this mental safety with operant conditioning techniques.

Thus the modern warrior who must be groomed in a very short period of time can rely on operant conditioning methods (stimulus- response training) which evolves into some scenario training where the low road responses are triggered. What comes out is a fighting machine, but there is a cost.

Grossman himself - the master of the psychology involved in training the modern warrior - points to the cost of building these fighting machines. Eventually the mind rebels. Vietnam was a worst-case scenario, where everything that could have gone wrong did. Rates of post-traumatic stress syndrome were dramatic, and the human toll was enormous. We expect less of this PTSD from Afghanistan and Iraq, but there will still be a big cost. Most humans weren't built to take this kind of stress for long.

Make no mistake about it - these modern techniques work. But it's just as important to remember that living life in the stress zone can have both short- and long-term health consequences.

Many contemporary self defense experts seem to have disavowed "traditional" training as "unrealisic" or "deluded." Maybe... Or mabe it's a choice.

- Bill

[Bill Glasheen]

From Secours...

THE POWER OF FLOW

During its evolution, the Russian martial arts adopted a different approach to combat readiness. While they deeply understood from firsthand combat experience that flashy or overly complex techniques simply did not work under the stress of a real fight, practitioners also believed that trying to reduce combat to two or three sure-fire predetermined moves through stimulus-response training was equally flawed in that no one response could work in every situation. Instead, the Russian martal arts sought to encourage the practitioner to discover their own natural way of moving. To achieve this, these arts relied on providing a slow training approach, where the practitioner was allowed to explore his/her body's capacities. As with stimulus-response training and most foms of learning, repeated exposure allowed the practitioner to gently erode their fears and uncertainties and replace them with familiarity.

The two main distinctions between conventional stimulus-response training and the Systema approach are that no one response is reinforced in the Russian method relative to each stimulus and that training occurs at a slower pace. Training that moves too quickly, runs the risk of only triggering the practitioner's innate "flinch" responses, reinforcing existing knee-jerk reactions and stopping the cognitive brain from functioning. This prevents new learning from occurring and permits the students to instead continually repeat their existing responses over and over again. The old adage "practice makes perfect" is simply not true. If you are practicing something badly, or performing mechanically inefficient movement, then you will only further ingrain these negative responses. Mindful, deliberate, slow practice is the only way to perfect a movement. This allows the practitioner to safely experiment with their own bodies and the bodies of their partner and to familiarize themselves with the various stimuli involved in a combat dynamic.

More later...

- Bill

[maxwell ainley]

Hi Bill ,Being involved in the martial arts 37 years ,and still learning ,lots I read on these matters were brought to my attention involved in various violent encounters ,plus living with some one who lived covert tactics .
The average martial artist trains maybe two three times per week 1 to 2 hrs tops, personaly I don't think this is any use at all ,other than introduction methods to a system ,my point is regardless of the quality of a system ,input will suffer regardless of method taking people right across the full spectrum in turning up to perform .

Systema sounds good .

[IJ]

Interesting stuff. It's be silly to expect uechi or anything else to work well for everyone done the same way... we have short, tall, big, small, weak, strong, fast, slow and everything in between. So I'd guess the reason for the uniformity among those practicing the art of karate has to do with the straight forward goal, which is usually organized around "do," and not "jutsu." Judo's goal (per a handout i received from one instructor) is the betterment of society through perfection of the individual; fighting has nothing to do with it. A traidtional japanese dojo I'm visiting at the moment has a variety of dojo kun everyone recites at the end of class--and they're all about self improvement and a code of conduct.

That said I wouldn't call 3 nights a week karate "useless." Believe me, if I had a twin that'd never been, and I fought him, I'd whoop his butt. People just need to be honest about what they're doing... I can still train my Seisan jump but plan on using a charge, knees, elbows and other nastiness if attacked... I train those too.

Bill, why might the toll be less from Iraq? Same stuff--can't tell friend from foe, could be shot at or blown up any moment, mission difficult with obscure exit strategy, fanatic foe willing to torture and use unconventional warfare. Afghanistan was highly preferred as much less stressful in the new england journal article on the matter.

[MikeK]

Just read the JAMA article and while I'm not sure about the warm fuzzy SPETZ image being put out, I do like the training ideas being presented. I have a couple of Vasilievs tapes and they are interesting at the very least. If you don't have any of his work, get it, it's a must have. I can see where going slow and relaxed can get a person past the sticking points. Oshima sensei had students do slow jiyu kumite to explore, so approaches like that in the article, NLD drills and Bill's SloMo brawls fit in very well with any art. I also liked the below stress level training and if you see any of Vasiliev's tapes you can see that the students are very relaxed.

Maybe Darren & Scott Sonnon will pop in and add their smarts on this subject.

[JimHawkins]

I can see where going slow and relaxed can get a person past the sticking points. Oshima sensei had students do slow jiyu kumite to explore, so approaches like that in the article, NLD drills and Bill's SloMo brawls fit in very well with any art. I also liked the below stress level training and if you see any of Vasiliev's tapes you can see that the students are very relaxed.

Maybe Darren & Scott Sonnon will pop in and add their smarts on this subject.

I agree completely, that the slo mo is the way to go. I use the slow mo (at the first level) in the Sun Sao (single beat intercept) drills that work on visual sensitivity, this allows the students the chance to work correct mechanics and correct distance and follow through that otherwise just wouldn't get trained right at faster speeds. Then we turn the speed up step by step.

[maxwell ainley]

Self defence skills stand a far greater chance of working when they ; your specific system is within your every day movements interactions in every day life ,and not just in the dojo etc,admitted lots of folk in life can only spare a few hrs per week ,my point again ,how can one connect a few hrs back to the flow of life ,its all too disconnected .

[JimHawkins]

Self defence skills stand a far greater chance of working when they ; your specific system is within your every day movements interactions in every day life ,and not just in the dojo etc,admitted lots of folk in life can only spare a few hrs per week ,my point again ,how can one connect a few hrs back to the flow of life ,its all too disconnected .

An interesting point Max.

You know when I was a young WC student I (and my buddies) never stopped training. I would leave the school, but be working on 'sinking' in my horse on the rough subway ride to Grand Central, no one noticed.

On the commutation train ride back to the suburbs I would sit in a seat, on the empty late night train, that had no one sitting in front of me and I would work generating short range power by punching the seat in front of me, hardly anyone heard the loud thumps.

On the way through the stations I would open doors here and there with the tools I was learning - you know Bong Sao can open doors On the walk home I might do intercept movements as I was walking/jogging or do some punches.

Once home watching TV I might do forms or whatever. I also made a single arm dummy with a soloflex pivot that I worked early chi sao movements on now and then.

I would find other non-marital arts friends and teach them whatever drill I was on so I could get more time in.

You know my better students do the same things.

We all have something in common: We don’t want to ******..

So, I guess it's up to the student - those who want it will get it. 'No class' never meant 'no training', at least not to me and those who loved what they were doing, like me. We never really stop, so for us die-hards I think this is our daily lives. You know?

[maxwell ainley]

Nice thoughts Jim,

To see /feel your systems movements into daily life raises awarness ,to disconnect at the dojo door is a fatal mistake ,which is unaware .
Awarness never goes out of date ,its always current ,but only if one can see the point of going to efforts to make current .
Becoming aware of movements in the dojo is one thing ,but to apprehend them in the flow of life is a greater test ,to let go of them at the dojo door is dead easy ,to walk out with them is hard .
Most take the path of least resistance ,at first to transplant to life is a great stuggle ,try it tomorrow and watch yourself go to sleep , mega times through the day , attempting to plant into lifes flow .

[Bill Glasheen]

Bill, why might the toll be less from Iraq? Same stuff--can't tell friend from foe, could be shot at or blown up any moment, mission difficult with obscure exit strategy, fanatic foe willing to torture and use unconventional warfare. Afghanistan was highly preferred as much less stressful in the new england journal article on the matter.

Before the military understood how to use operant conditioning to overcome the reluctance to kill, they had no idea that this "programmed" mind would eventually rebel after enough killing. So you can understand how everything that could have been done wrong to increase the likelihood of PTSD was done wrong.

The general rule of thumb about PTSD is the following:

(Degree of Trauma) X (Degree of Absense of Support)
= (Magnitude of Post Traumatic Response)

The things that were wrong in Vietnam (that are now corrected) include:

* Soldiers were sent into and out of units one at a time, rather than in groups.

* Soldiers had to kill kids in civilian clothes

* There were no rear lines (place to get away from battle to decompress)

* Departing soldiers took a quick flight back to the states with little debriefing (vs. the old-fashioned slow boat home with combat buddies)

* Once back in the states, they were called depraved fiends, psychopathic killers, baby killers, murderers, and butchers by protesters. Beautiful movie stars led the protests against them. There were no welcoming parades.

Source: Grossman.

- Bill

[IJ]

"how can one connect a few hrs back to the flow of life ,its all too disconnected"

Everything and anything will work better if it's all you do; I for one am glad my life doesn't revolve around fighting. Who'd go and choose that??

Bill, our boys in Iraq are killing (sometimes kids) in civilian clothes, they get missile attacks in the green zone, and perhaps outweighing the effects of a welcoming parade remains the constant threat, the inability to tell friend from foe, and other morale problems among them the armor issue and extended deployments. We'll see how things come back--it won't be completely easy to compare because psych is largely made up and standards for diagnosis change.

[JimHawkins]

Everything and anything will work better if it's all you do; I for one am glad my life doesn't revolve around fighting. Who'd go and choose that??

Many see martial study, finally, as a study of the self, and the search for certain fundamental truths, both internally and externally, that may better our understanding of who we are and how to get the most out of this life and stay in this life. Well worth the time to many.

[maxwell ainley]

Ian, I understand what you are saying .

Lets say we have all day at our disposal to practice fighting and tactics ,any system ,and the contents of our study are on target . But in reality we don't have that much time ," all day " at our disposal .

Looking at the first case [the practioner can't very much connect all day [training time back to life ] quite simply there is no life other than [training time and feeding sleeping .

Karate is supposed to enrich our lifes experience .

We would look silly walking down the high street in sanchin ,parts of postures connect to our practice if seen in the flow of life .
A part ] our practice however small ,connects with life ,increases awarness of life ., which at that point in time [the movement of life ] was maybe taken just for granted ,our lifes experience at that moment was dull ,unaware etc .

[maxwell ainley]

Connecting to life does not imply walking around all day long in condition red alert etc , but if a part or larger motion is apprehended it raises our perceptions [awareness ] our life is more aware ,our motions [life ] [dojo] blend at that moment creating a fusion were prior it was non-existant .

This is the start of a fusion process , okay its difficult thats a reality ,but we have all day at our disposal to do this don't we, a major problem is at first is wanting to go back to life's sleep .
One fusion ; when apprehended will start to pentrate matters .