Intent

Despite all the evidence to the contrary there are still those people who believe they will never be the target or victim of violence. They are either id denial, or are paralyzed by their lack of faith in their abilities, even with training, to be able to deal with an aggressor. Sometimes they are caught between the jaws of both. When you talk to them about scenarios, they might face, they will tell you that their lifestyle precludes them from such violence, or that there is nothing anybody can do; everything is an impossible, worst case scenario. They trust in their good sense and judgment not realizing that every predator knows what "good sense" and "judgment" is, and how to use it against them. They are potentially easy prey. These people never walk through the doors of a self-defense or martial arts school. 

There are some who think it might happen to them; it's unlikely but there's a chance. These are the individuals who trust in "tricks" and techniques. They don't want to, or don't see the need to spend time developing the skills and attributes that will save them. Show them what to do, and somehow they will be able to do it. These are the individuals who know months in advance they are going to visit a hostile and dangerous country, and show up a week before they go, to learn what they must do. They do not take violence seriously. It might happen but they believe there is little chance of it. These individuals rarely stay long in a school - they are only one-step removed from denial. 

Those that acknowledge violence could happen to them, that in many ways they are equally at risk as everyone else, do not deny the possibility, but instead see and imagine the possibility, and they want to know what to do. These individuals already have a level of awareness and have a knowledge of what could happen to them, and have taken the decision to empower themselves. Intent though, lies on a spectrum, and they may at times fluctuate from training with the intent that it could happen to them, to an intent level where it "might". Sometimes they are switched on to training sometimes they are switched off. There are times when their training is real to them, and times when it is imagined. We must train with an urgency and a zeal, that what we are learning could safe our life, or the lives of others. When I do medical training I take it seriously; I revise in my head basic CPR, as I don't want to be in the position that should someone need resuscitating I can't do it - my lack of knowledge, of seriousness when I learnt will have cost them their life. Likewise, I don't want to train against knife and gun etc. half-heartedly and without seriousness and energy because if I train this way, it could cost me my life - it is worth taking a moment to realize why we train: survival. 

The highest level of intent to train with is, "it will happen to me". If we train each session with the belief that the moment we walk out of our school or dojo, we will be attacked, we will train with a new found dedication and zeal. We don't want to develop paranoia in our training but we want to train with the commitment of someone who believes that violence is inevitable, as if each attack and threat we practice against in training reflects a real-life situation we must deal with. As we leave the dojo/school we should change the direction of our intent away from the physical, and consciously adopt self-protection and personal safety protocols, until they become second nature. In doing this, not only will we up our skills and techniques but we will also get in touch with another side of ourselves; the one that understand what survival actually means.