Uncertainty

How can we train for what we don’t know? Sounds impossible, right? And yet, the fight is unknown. We don’t know who our opponent will be. We don’t know where the fight will be. We don’t know when the fight will be. This is the unknown reality of training for self defense.

Luckily, life provides us with a problem solving template as it too, is unpredictable. Nothing is certain (except death and taxes, as the cliche goes). S what do we do to manage our lives? We acquire a generally applicable set of skills and continue to expose ourselves to novel situations.

What are our generally applicable set of skills for martial arts? Striking, kicking, throwing, grappling, blocking, tumbling, stances, grab counters and conditioning. Through all these different modes we hone specific skills that often (but not always, because the fight is uncertain) come up in a self defense situation.

What are the novel situations we expose ourselves to? Today in staff form class it was doing the form holding 2 sticks in one hand instead of the usual 1. Weird? Yes. Novel? Certainly. Likely to come up in a confrontation? Probably not. The point? To challenge our on the fly problem solving abilities (and also to get everyone smiling).