The mind is a focus that has to be trained.
(Video clip link at the end of the post)
When you watch video clips of assaults you can see times where the aggressor is really not that talented as a fighter but the level of their malicious intent is so high and the impacts of the assault so ferocious that the other party folds into being the prey.
We have looked at training to take an impact so that the fact of being struck has less chance of putting you into that deep freeze.
We need to look at two other areas.
One I mentioned before the hijacking of your emotions or that startling intent. Again we have drill that delves into that area and it will come later on once I have some slips put together.
The other way to put a person out of their usual comfort zone and drop them in a freeze is to hurt them.
Cause them pain.
Have them focus on the pain and crumple.
Have them turn away from what they need to do because of the pain.
The survivor mindset is one where the person is determined to "make it” no matter what.
You have to set aside conventional thoughts and simple expect that if you can get through this then you will survive.
In WW II the cargo ships sunk in the English channel had survivors pulled out of the water. The surprising fact was it was the older men and not the younger stronger men.
When questioned the younger men felt there was no way another ship would come by in time and simply gave up the struggle.
The older men felt if they just struggle through a little longer a ship would come.
The ability to go through that struggle to go through the pain of the struggle can translate into an assault where perhaps you gain the upper hand and are applying a choke but the bad guy grabs your thumb and cranks. Do you let the pain and the possibility of a broken thumb stop you from surviving by choking out the bad guy?
Can you accept that pain and go through ti to do what you MUST to survive?
A good question.
Now I do want to distinguish feeling pain in training and not being stupid enough to ignore that sign of an injury from this concept. Although the example above of the choke and the thumb was from a training and my thumb was badly sprained for about a month but I did finish the choke.
We need to train our minds to function despite pain. A small piece of the warrior’s mind.
The drill is very simple. I think many have done a Sanchin stepping drill where a person places a fist against their abdomen and they have to step across the dojo as their partner presses on the fist providing pressure. When you get to the other side it is your partner’s turn.
This is done exactly like that but instead of a fist you will do things like place shoken fists into their upper chest or solar plexus and they must walk through that digging pain.
You can create your own but here is what we tend to use:
Shoken Fists digging into the chest
Thumbs digging under collar bone.
Thumbs digging into the side of your neck.
Dig the butt end of the sticks into the cavity above the clavicle (collar bone.) Leave some stick so the STICK and not the hand is digging in
Shoken fist digging into the centre of the sternum
Anything that they have to press through to walk that hurts is great – be creative and work on those pressure points.
BUT don’t be stupid and place anywhere that will break or go beyond the person’s ability.
We want pain but never injury.
When a person first begins their spirit is hot and they grunt and press through it with faces twisted but determined.
After time the intent cools but remains firm. The mind learns how to simply be indifferent to the pain and step calmly forward with no expression on the face.
It is simply something you have to do and the pain is immaterial to accomplishing that goal.
Perhaps not for everyone but it certainly forges the mind for one piece of the self protection puzzle.
This clip is from the IUPA 2005 Black Belt test and Laird had never done this drill before so it was just one of the surprises for him on the test.
Here is the clip:
http://wpd-rc.com/blog/walk-through-the-pain/
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......and he was not happy when he found out his victim was an off duty policeman. the officer took it in his stride when I spoke to him and was quite open about it, he didn't have any feeling of inadaquacey for having been knocked out so quickly , he hadn't picked up any sign of the impending violence or even been able to stop it. I don't know any way that he might have stopped it, maybe he didn't pick up the signs because he was an officer and used to getting respect, but speaking to him he seemed like an ordinary decent sort, a good officer.
tough customer
... There is so much stuff that you can't prepare for , even if you do prepare ,and I believe that " Chance favours the prepared mind".........there is so much wild, out of the box stuff going on that it is scary.................I've looked at this stuff for 25 years, you won't get a book or a video but I'll share my thoughts 
