Body Armor (or Amour if you prefer)

[Dana Sheets]

So in revisiting the idea of body armour I've come to the following conclusion:

Men are harder than women.

**Dana takes a small bow and gives a quick smile to the crowd who is politely golf clapping**

"Thank you. Thank you all for your understanding. I know that is quite a revelation."


Or as Mr. Nakahodo is quoted as saying "Women are not like men."

Priceless!

We got a new student in the door who reached the conditioning level that took me 3 years in less than 3 months. hmph...men.

And the fact of the matter is that body armour (the leather kind mind you - not the dipped foam kind) serves two purposes:

1. Physchological - ah...now that I am invincible I can throw a real technique

2. Physical - I really can receive attacks better when the other person is wearing shin guards.

Another bonus on the psychological end is that when I'm wearing a large, black (but mostly useless fluff) chest protector men don't have to worry that they might be doing damage to something important and they relax and just do the training.

I've also noticed that many women who put on the armour are able to unleash kicks that I had no idea they were able to throw.

Mark Brelsford has mentioned the "lightbulb on the end of the stick" and Van Canna has mentioned how the body will not let you strike with a weapon you do not train. Bill Glasheen talks about doing the leg sled with sokusen. Mr. Tomoyose boshikens a seiken.

Armour is a back-door way to trick the mind into thinking that the lighbulb is safe. As most experienced people know - someone throwing a full, clean technique is much easier to deal with than an erratic - half-intent technique. That erratic technique is kind of like a change-up. It busts your timing. And that, in itself, is good training.

Armour is categorically dangerous to use for the very reason why I think it is important to use -- people hit with more power.

In fact my left palm is a nice blue color at the moment because of someone I'd trained with for a good long time wore some armour and developed a much faster kick. Instead of timing the kick that came I timed the kick I expected would come...and so jammed a knuckle a bit. But with a big ole grin on my face as it happend.

So if you've got a student who is slow to condition or if you have a student who won't hit a smaller partner or a female partner or anyone else they think is...fragile...then I say -- Break out the Armour!

Break through the head game and once that is done - toss it back into the gi bag until the next time it is needed.

happy training,
Dana

[-Metablade-]

I prefer this:

http://www.eguchi.net/1_tezashi_set.jpg



But spot on.

[Bill Glasheen]

Dana

You bring up a good point. And it's a point that the Systema people try to make when doing their slo-mo training. The idea is to overcome a less-desirable flinch response so you can program in a similar but more-desirable higher road response.

A side fall is a classic example. Start people falling on a concrete floor, and what will they do? The low-road overrides, and you stick your hand out. And before you know it, you have someone going to the ER with a shattered wrist. (I've seen it...) But put them on nice big fluffy mats where they won't hurt themselves so much. There they can modify that arm to do a side slap instead of a flinching side stop. And that response one day may (and usually does) translate to a functional fall in the parking lot when you have a bag full of groceries and you step on a patch of ice. In fact one student came back to tell us that she owed her baby's life to her training when she slipped in the garage and managed to fall unharmed while still protecting her new baby.

"The padding" takes on many different disguises. It also means we train in the dojo with wooden knives and maybe safety goggles so nobody loses a tendon or suffers from a pneumothorax.

But you know... It's also important to "taste the hot sauce." That's the tough part. We need eventually to bring our training to the point where we know we won't cave when we screw up. This is why the military is training with Simunition. They have a military instructor telling a pelted soldier "You aren't dead yet, damnit! Move your ass and take that hill!" That's a tough step to take, but it's a step we all need to go through if we want to be ready to take on that situation (of doom) without the training wheels.

It's all important.

Ultimately you have it right, Dana. It's about maintaining mindset under duress while doing what we train to do. And there are many wrong paths to the top of that mountain.

- Bill