Stress training was introduced into the WingTsun system a little over 11 years ago, shortly after I started WingTsun at the Heidelberg Castle. It was developed when the SEK (German SWAT team) sent some of their instructors to the Castle to learn WingTsun. Juergen K., the first student from the SEK and instructor of the SEK Baden Wuertemberg, and now a Fourth Level Technician in WingTsun, started shortly after me at the Castle. He was still in active duty with the SEK at the time and we became good friends and training partners. Over the first two years of our WingTsun education we exchanged countless bruises, bloody noses and the odd cracked rib as we both enjoyed a pragmatic and realistic approach to training. As stress training is a constant part of the SEK’s training curriculum we did not have to "reinvent the wheel" so to speak. However, some changes had to be made as the situations and events that the SEK prepares for are quite unique, with the equipment and tactical requirements being far from necessary for the average person. Constant refinement since then has ensured consistent evolution of WingTsun DIS-stress training over the years. DIS-stress training is as important for a self-defence system as the training of the techniques and applications. To highlight this point, consider the following experience of a man who later became one of my students. He had trained in Judo for 15 years, fought successfully at national and international levels, and was also an instructor. Following one of my introductory evenings in Wuerzburg, Germany around nine years ago, he told me about a dramatic event he had experienced a couple of months earlier. He had been walking along the river of Main when he was approached by a solidly built youth, who he estimated to be around 16-17 years of age. The young man asked him for a light for his cigarette. After saying that he didn’t smoke, the youth, to the man's total surprise, started punching him violently. This attack came completely out of the blue and he did not respond in any way to defend himself, except to cover up and take the load. The thug continued punching and kicking him even after he went down. At some stage he passed out and woke up in hospital, where he spent 2 weeks recovering from his injuries and wondering why he hadn’t defended himself. Although he regarded himself as a peaceful person who had never had a street fight before and who could talk his way out of a precarious situation, in the back of his mind he was confident that he would be able to defend himself if he had to. This unfortunately proved to be wrong. If these two guys had faced each other under different circumstances, say at one of the Judo tournaments, the Judoka would have folded the thug backwards. However, he was not mentally prepared to face senseless and unprovoked aggression and attack. This "unprepared" phenomenon can have several causes, with the most common being: - Inadequate mental preparation for applying techniques under stress in a real life situation, where rules don’t apply.
- Muscle memory only holds records of techniques learned and used in comfortable dojo training situations, wearing Gi or training gear; not in real life, under heavy stress, wearing street clothes.
- A lack of simulation training to prepare for applying techniques in real life and to highlight what works and what doesn’t in such situations.
- Unawareness of self-limitations and a subsequent decrease in self-confidence when something doesn’t go as expected.
- Fear of hurting others.
- Style and techniques unsuited to self-defence situations because the movements are too complex to apply under stressful and unknown conditions.
- Unrealistic techniques that don’t work outside the dojo or kwon when facing an unknown attacker who does not arrange their attack in a familiar pattern.
Without adequate preparation, the first thing to depart in a real fight is the ability to think rationally and make conscious decisions. This could mean that all your training in the kwon or dojo, which was supposed to prepare you for a real fight, goes down the drain and you are suddenly faced with a partial or total black out. However, the risk of this happening can be greatly reduced with the right preparation. This is where WingTsun stress training and fear management can help. Stress in general is an unavoidable consequence of life. As Hans Selye noted, "Without stress, there would be no life". Just as stress can cause disease and anxieties, there are also good stresses that promote wellness. This subject, however, is concerned with “dis-stress”, which can be created in three different ways: - Through real, high-risk situations and danger to life.
- Through controlled risk where the perceived risk is higher than the actual risk.
- Through mental imagery.
Perceived levels of distress can be augmented by several factors such as sleep deprivation, physical exhaustion, total darkness and many more. Obviously the creation of distress through real, high-level danger is not suitable for standard martial arts and self-defence requirements, and will therefore not be mentioned further. It should be noted that this technique is employed by the military and special forces, but in the past has been known to cause serious injury and even death. For the purposes of this article, we will concentrate on the second possibility: calculated risk to create stress. The third possibility, which uses appropriate techniques such as self-hypnosis to create imaginary situations, will also be considered. This technique is effective in triggering the physical reactions of stressful situations, such as cold sweat, tachycardia, and high blood pressure, which makes it a perfect complement to physical stress training. Pre-fight stress training equips students with the ability to react and make rational decisions under stress, the stress in this case being the expectation of great bodily harm or possible death while facing an attacker. This stress training is very important for when the actual confrontation takes time to develop and the physical fight is preceded by verbal confrontation and threats. One of the most common types of confrontation, the “Ritual Fight”, has these characteristics. In our relatively safe society, expecting great bodily harm or possible death at the hands of another is not usually a commonplace concern. Therefore, the psychological and physical impact on the average person when faced with such a situation is substantial. It almost goes without saying that most people would be extremely frightened if faced by a slavering, lunatic aggressor threatening to rip their head off. With appropriate training, however, the tables can be turned on the aggressor as the rush of adrenalin that comes with such encounters is channelled, in a composed manner, into de-escalation techniques that help to avoid physical confrontations. Stress training also empowers students to make the right decision when situations can’t be defused. Stress training takes in the following key areas: - Intuition
Intuition is employed to recognise and prepare for potentially violent situations. Intuition is a complex subject that would take an entire article, or more, to explore in detail. - Rational Thinking
Maintaining the ability to act in a pre-fight situation is crucial when faced with an aggressor. Rational thinking enables the use of de-escalation techniques, which go a long way toward preventing potentially fatal confrontations. Bearing in mind that every fight can have deadly consequences, stress training helps with defusing such situations before they have a chance to arise. - Situation Control
Stress training teaches when it is time for engagement. It also helps to stop the verbal build up and mind games that can occur when perceived loss is imminent. - Rational Decision Making
The ability to make rational decisions is vital in deciding if or when it is necessary to employ physical force. - Stress Reaction
Students gain an understanding of how they would react under extreme pressure and stress. They are taught ways that will help them maintain a relative level of calmness.
| Stress training is also useful to police and security personnel, whose objective is to remain calm, in control, and not be provoked into using violence when dealing with verbal assaults. Most security personnel who have worked “on the door” will be able to recount several incidents where they were lured into delivering a quick knock out to individuals intent on verbal provocation. Stress training is a powerful tool when dealing with such incidents. Fight-stress training aids in the ability to apply learned WingTsun techniques to real life situations and enables the defender to temporarily neutralise the attacker with physical force. In self-defence, the normally forbidden objective of hurting someone is justified provided no excessive force is used. However, many decent people have a natural hesitation to hurt another person. This applies particularly to women, whose upbringing is generally slanted toward non-violent behaviour and who often see physical confrontation as unacceptable. Fight-stress training, if done the right way, also gives a good indication of what does and doesn’t work in real life. The key outcomes of fight-stress training are as follows:
- Students maintain the capacity to act, even under heavy pressure and with the expectation of possible death or great bodily harm. This is an uncommon situation for most people and is, therefore, usually accompanied by intense stress.
- Students are enabled to apply learned WingTsun techniques under the extreme pressure of a fight situation.
- Students are enabled to use reasonable force, if possible, to stop an attacker.
- Inhibitions regarding the possibility of seriously hurting another person are overcome.
- The capacity to act when in pain and impasse is maintained.
Both pre-fight and fight-stress training familiarise students with fighting in a variety of clothing, in constantly changing situations, and with opponents of differing physical structure and appearance. Students are also acquainted with the different surfaces and lighting conditions of various environments, such as street, club, bar or park. WingTsun stress training is conducted at three levels of intensity with each level being suited to the individual student. This type of structured training system is very important as every person has different levels of stress tolerance. For example, a very traumatic event for one student could do more harm than good, whereas another student may handle the situation effortlessly. Experienced and responsible instructors should only conduct this kind of tailored training as a responsible attitude towards serious injuries or to a potential mental breakdown of the student (which under normal circumstances must be avoided at all costs) must be assumed. Regarding the levels, Levels 1 and 2 are offered as non-compulsory aspects of regular WingTsun classes. These levels are tailored to the individual capabilities of the student. Level 3 stress training is compulsory for Instructor students. For regular students, this level is voluntary and is conducted only at special Warrior Day seminars with a limited number of participants. The different levels encompass the following: - Light stress, pre-fight verbal abuse scenarios (Blitz Defence).
- Light stress role-plays and de-escalation techniques (Blitz Defence).
- Medium speed attacks with limited physical contact.
- Execution of techniques with light contact.
- Clearly defined role-plays.
- Medium to high physical exhaustion training.
- High intensity pad work without third party interference.
- Use of complete set of protective padding.
- Training is conducted in WingTsun uniform and in the kwon.
- Medium to high stress pre-fight verbal abuse scenarios (Blitz Defence) with one or two aggressors.
- Medium contact Lat Sao (sparring).
- Medium to high stress role-plays and de-escalation techniques with one or two aggressors (Blitz Defence).
- Loosely defined simulation training with multiple opponents and surprise elements (Blitz Defence).
- Range of defined attacks (single or double) possibly with full speed and medium contact. Fights can go to the ground and be continued there.
- Very high physical pre-exhaustion training.
- Very high intensity, advanced pad workout with surprise elements and involvement of other people.
- Use of complete set of protective padding.
- Training is conducted in a variety of street clothing and footwear and in differing locations.
- Very high stress, pre-fight verbal abuse scenarios (Blitz Defence) with one or several aggressors and weapons involved.
- Very high stress role-plays and de-escalation techniques with one or several aggressors and weapons involved.
- Full contact Lat Sao.
- No definition of simulations (everything goes) with multiple opponents, weapons and surprise elements. Fights can go to the ground and be continued with full contact.
- All attacks possible at full speed and contact, and successive (if possible).
- Very high, physical pre-exhaustion training.
- Very high intensity, advanced pad workout with surprise elements and harassment from other people.
- Use only limited set of protective padding.
- Training is conducted in a variety of street clothing and footwear (clothing must be dispensable and might not survive), in different locations such as a car, pub (rented for this occasion), and street, and at different times, including day, night and early mornings.
Warrior Days are announced well in advance but registrations are usually only taken around one to two weeks before the actual day. For most people, participating in a Warrior Day means overcoming a lot of fear, hence the late registrations. Indeed, just the action of registering adds another level of stress! A slow adrenalin release will commence at the time of registration, and continue until the actual event. We point out to participants that this gives them another chance to analyse and overcome their fear, and to learn how to deal with the effects of a slow adrenalin release. Fear Management Another part of the overall concept of reality-based training are our Fear Management seminars, which deal with the psychological aspects of stress and fear and which can help to prepare students mentally for real life situations. This, however, will be the subject of future articles. Conclusion Self-defence training without stress training is like sailing in your backyard. You don’t know what you can and can’t do. You don’t know which techniques will work or not. And you haven’t a clue as to how you will deal mentally with high stress situations. Stress training should be a firm part of the program for anyone interested in real self-defence. |
