When I started training, I was taught a defensive mindset. Now, I don't (unfortunately) mean a "self-defense" mindset. I mean a defensive one. For background on how I'm using the word "defensive", take a look at this article.
Part of the reason for this was my age. I was a 6-year-old kid. Some of it may have been misinterpretation on my part. But, I'd wager, my instructor was also taught that mindset in her training. There are many reasons why that might have happened, and I'm not going to go down that rabbit hole, but it did happen.
Really, that didn't change for me until I started training in Filipino and Indonesian martial arts. That training led me to a protective mindset.
The distinction is hard to put into words, but it largely relates to the default setting. With the defensive mindset, my default setting was zero. Psychologically, I had to "rise to the level of my expectations." Unfortunately, the way we humans are wired is that, the more stress we experience, the more we revert toward our default. That meant, with my defensive mindset, if I got overwhelmed, I retreated to a defensive posture, tried to block and evade, made little or no effort to attack, and hoped I could withstand the punishment of the situation long enough for them to decide to stop attacking me.
It was a reactive mindset, and it left the entire situation largely controlled by my opponent(s). In retrospect, I'm surprised I did as well as I did in the fights I had with that mindset. But, while I often "won" (whatever that meant in the given context), I always took more damage than necessary.
After training in Southeast Asian arts for a bit, my mindset shifted. I gained a clarity of understanding that enabled me to strip away a lot of nonessentials in my mindset. I boiled my idea of "self-defense" down to "get home safely, preferably without a trip to the hospital, jail, or a pending court date." That shift meant I no longer felt compelled by my ego to get involved in situations I could walk away from.
When I did have to engage, everything was different. Most importantly, my default setting was different. My default was 100%. The more I felt threatened, the more dangerous my responses became. I didn't have to "rise to expectations." I was able to utilize my training to its full potential, and any modifications were to lower the intensity.
If you haven't experienced something similar, I don't know how much sense this post will make, but that was my experience.
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The Wandering Guru
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| Photo by Caique Silva on Unsplash |
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