One of the most tossed around questions from many people in many martial arts styles is: “When will I feel confident that I can defend myself?”
It’s a very legitimate question, since many people train martial arts to gain a sense of security when they are out in the world. Unfortunately it seems that, for many people, this confidence never comes, even after many years of dedicated training in a martial art they believed was supposed to be very effective.
I started this thread in response to something Iblis73 mentioned repeatedly in his posts: that he has done WT for 3 years, trained very hard, and yet, he feels he cannot rely on his training in a real combat situation. He goes on to say that his lack of confidence is due to the lack of realistic training in the classroom.
Iblis has a point. Many great masters of martial arts are creamed out in the street simply because the street is very different than the dojo. There are no rules. There’s no guarantee there will be a fair fight. No one will stop the fight when a fighter is hurt. Multiple people could attack one person, etc. Also, there is no way to simulate the intense adrenaline rush during an actual confrontation and how your body will react in such a rush.
Part of your martial arts training must include lessons on the psychology of the fight. By learning what provokes a fight, and how the body reacts to the provocation, one can be more prepared (and therefore more confident) for the fight. For example: during the adrenaline rush, your peripheral vision is greatly inhibited. This is because your body has a built-in instinct to devote all of your visual sense to the object in which harm may be inflicted. This makes you susceptible to attacks that come from your left or right simply because you can’t see them coming.
One would conclude that even if actual fighting emotions cannot be simulated in training, one should keep training as realistic as possible by learning how to defend strong and fast attacks. Yet, for us Wingchun practitioners, our goal is to give way and use the opponent’s force. How can we begin to be “soft” if we were always subject to very strong attacks? In my experience with wingchun, the people who trained the most “realistically” were the most stiff in their wingchun technique.
It is this dilemma that causes Iblis and many many others in wingchun to wonder if they can REALLY defend themselves, even after many years of training. I am curious to know how confident people are in their wingchun skills when applied in a real combat situation. And for those who don’t feel confident, how much more training do you think you need until you are confident. If you feel you’ll never have the confidence, perhaps it’s time for a new style?
In truth, a training environment can never prepare you for a naked fist landing hard. Dealing with the fear of that fist seems to be one of the biggest problems.
It seems to me that this type of behavior goes totally against martial arts ethics. Has anyone out there actually done this? For me, I find I just can’t initiate a confrontation, since I’m training to defend exactly this type of behavior.