The Physiology of Combat

“The next best thing to playin’ and winnin’, is playin’ and losin’.” - Said NOBODY, EVER

We all know that combat, whether on the battlefield or in the street, is serious business. Every martial artist, no matter what their initial reason for practicing the arts, should be preparing for an actual, live encounter at some point. In today’s world, the odds are greater than ever that we will be faced with a life-or-death situation.

The martial artist who has prepared, physically, mentally and spiritually for such an encounter has increased their odds of coming out alive and with their whole skin. The martial artist who has not prepared should at least have their affairs in order, so as to lessen the burden on their family and friends.

I know that sounds somber and pessimistic, but its coming from a real-life perspective.

So how do we prepare?

Physically, 1) You must be in the best shape you can be. 2) You must practice ALL your skills, including kata, and not just the aspects you most enjoy, such as free-fighting or weapons training. Remember, kata allows you to do all your movements with full speed and power, and in the various combinations from which you can draw real attack-and-defense movements. 3) You must train yourself to focus, to use proper breathing, to practice area awareness.

However, there are problems. When you are in a combative situation, and you get the “adrenaline dump” (which is almost a certainty) you may lose focus, or you may experience audio-exclusion and tunnel-vision. Your movements will be limited to gross muscle movements, and your fine-motor skills, such as would be necessary for joint-locking or other sophisticated techniques, will be gone. There may be a general increase in muscle tension, which means you may lose fluidity and adaptability. Your blood pressure and heart rate may accelerate. And there are other negative side effects, such as the body’s desire to eliminate “waste”. (That would certainly make running away unpleasant.)

Mentally, there are numerous mental and emotional effects that may occur. Fear, doubt, anger, and other “poisons” may occur. Your opponent may appear larger, stronger, meaner, faster, and more dangerous than they really are.

This is where your breathing, your awareness, and your focus, if properly trained, come in. You can use the breathing techniques taught in another of the articles in this blog, to keep yourself calm in the situation, you can use proper focus to prevent tunnel-vision, and your awareness to monitor for changes in the situation, such as the entrance of another opponent. I have written about these aspects in the past and you can find all of them in the articles in this blog.

Spiritually, you need to be aware of how the encounter, no matter how it turns out, will have spiritual repercussions. If you “win” the fight, you may experience profound distress at having had to cause grievous injuries to your attacker(s). If you lose, you may question your training, your courage, and other aspects of your situation, and the fear that comes from being beaten up can haunt you for a long time, as well as cause you to have problems in all areas of your life.

Additionally, what about the legal consequences? You should familiarize yourself with the laws in your city, county and state, and how they view self-defense. Is the “Castle doctrine” a valid defense in your area? Remember that you cannot defeat your opponent, and run after them, banging away at their head and shoulders, and then claim self-defense.

Aftermath: what happens? Once you have extricated yourself from the combative situation (hopefully without having had to resort to violence) the adrenaline will dissipate and you will have one or both of the predictable reactions: anger and nausea. It is a common reaction to to become angry after having been forced into a combative situation, along with muscle weakness after the exertions under the influence of adrenaline. But there is also, almost always, nausea.

Anger of course, is negative and should be mentally noted (“Gosh, I am really pi$$ed off) and then shaken off. Anger causes us to react with less than good judgement. Nausea on the other hand can be not only unpleasant, but downright dangerous in fact, as you would not want to be bent over and vomiting just as another opponent enters the arena. This is where the “healing breath” can be useful, as the method can allow you to function, even when you are not feeling your best.

Consider then how you can incorporate stress into your training, so that you become used to staying aware, calm, focused and prepared for combat, even when stressed. You will be happy that you gave it the time.