The Dojo/Studio can never fully replicate real-life violence, and neither should it, however to comprehensively train yourself to handle and survive a real-life encounter, you must train all the aspects, components and dimensions that are present in a violent incident – and these aren’t just the physical ones; these include: threat recognition and identification (these are not the same thing – we can be alerted and recognize a threat, before we identify what it actually is), control of the adrenal response, effective decision making along with pain management and the appropriate physical responses. It is impossible to develop all of these skills through one method of training. Just as we have different pieces of equipment to build our physical skills, such as focus mitts for speed, kick shields for power etc. so we need different training methods to help build our skillsets in these different dimensions.

Real life violence, rarely just happens, there are predictable steps that have to occur before somebody assaults you e.g. such as them synchronizing their movement to you, this – and others - should be replicated in your training. If you simply train techniques and movements “dry”, without setting the context of the assault beforehand, you will be training something that is largely restricted to the dojo/studio, and will lack effectiveness out in the real world. If you are training weapon controls and disarms, part of your training should be to recognize the movements that a person is required to make in order to draw, and make operational, their weapon. It is necessary if training techniques to spoil knife draws to train against both fixed and folding blades – a folding knife takes longer to deploy than a fixed one. It is also necessary to train such techniques within the “midst” of the conflict, not just at the beginning. The fact that when a person goes to draw a weapon, you have no idea of what type of weapon you will be dealing with, reinforces the fact that weapon defenses should be interchangeable and work regardless of the type of weapon it is: gun, knife, baton etc.

Adrenal control is a key element of reality based training. Repetitively subjecting yourself to situations where you associate the adrenaline in a negative way, will not enhance your ability to cope when adrenalized. Sparring is a great tool, for developing certain types of threat recognition and identification, however if someone is in constant “survival” mode during a sparring match and is terrified during the experience, all of that will be lost. Not only will a person not receive any benefit from this type of training, they will also associate being adrenalized in a negative way. The Amygdala, the part of the brain, that stores all our past experiences of threats and dangers, and is also the first area to be activated when new threats and dangers are perceived. If its past remembrances are all negative, and ended in disaster, then when a new threat is recognized it can result in an emotional response that is not in line with the actual threat – the Amygdala can basically hijack our emotional response sending us into panic or shock, meaning that we’re unable to respond effectively. Adrenal training must be done in a responsible and effective manner, teaching people to manage fear and be successful in doing so.

Pain Management is an important part of training, however if training to manage pain is associated solely with fear then this type of training will be detrimental to a person’s overall survival. There are those who suck pain up and those who back away and crumble because of it; through conditioning the brain can learn how to block certain types of pain out, and work through them – this is a key skill in a fight because the possibility of blocking every strike or punch is unlikely; something will hit. Being able to continue and work despite this is essential.

I have always placed skills above techniques when dealing with real-world violence. There are many martial artists who are great athletes, who can replicate what they have been shown within the environment in which they learnt it, but to be able to translate it into different emotional and environmental settings requires additional training that many neglect. Realistic self-defense training has to train all dimensions and components of a fight, not just the physical ones.