How Good Are Your Perceptions Skills?
It is amazing to see the difference that good perception makes when it comes to martial arts and self-defense. People with greater perception are able to see openings that others are not able to detect.
Try the following perception test and see how good yours is:
Did you fall into the trap set in this experiment? I know I did the first time. So what does this mean to us as martial artists?
In a past blog entry, I discussed conditioning the mind to look for multiple attackers. The reason why is that when you’re experiencing the stress that comes when being attacked, there is a tendency to tunnel vision and focus on the primary threat. The video you just watched refers to it as attention blindness, but it’s much the same thing. When the stakes are high, your perception hones in on the primary task or threat. This is a natural reaction in our minds. We are hardwired to do this.
This is yet more evidence to support the concept of training to keep a broader perception when under attack. You never know when there is going to be additional threats, so you have to keep your eyes and mind open to the possibility so you can handle them if they do materialize. And you have to actively train to do this to fight your body and mind’s natural reaction.
If you do competition martial arts, whether it’s sparring or grappling, this is something to keep in mind, particularly because you’re training specifically to fight a single attacker. This makes you even more prone to tunnel vision should you need to defend yourself against multiple attackers.
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I saw it the first time, but only because I'd seen a similar clip before.
It's a little scary isn't it?
Interesting video, I certainly didn’t see it. A good lesson, I know firsthand your attention narrows in stressful situations: I once went out with a couple of friends and we were attacked by a group counting somewhere between 7 to 10 people. I focused my attention on protecting my best friend’s back: someone tried to separate us by blocking my path, I threw him with an o-soto-gari but I didn’t see the other guy who tried to jump my back. While another friend took care of him and I probably could have taken him too (if someone jumps on you just throw him with seio-nage or a similar technique) since he obviously wasn’t very experienced (a street fighter will hit or kick you in the back instead of trying to grapple and giving you the possibility of defense) it’s still something to watch out and train for. I notice this in everyday life too: sometimes your mind is so preoccupied you just don’t see what’s right in front of you and I sometimes wonder what would have happened if that one person I really didn’t notice until he got really close had violent intentions. While you shouldn’t get paranoid (only a very small minority of people you pass on the street are criminals or shady characters wanting to do you harm) it still means there are gaps and lapses in my awareness and this is indeed something to work on. If someone’s really close your chances of a successful defense decrease dramatically and if he produces a knife you’re pretty much done for. Being a good martial-artist is not all about perfect technique or performing well in sparring or competition: it’s mostly about spirit and the ability to foresee and avoid trouble. Your article serves as a useful reminder of that fact, for beginners and experienced practioners alike.
Zara
This reminds me of the opening sequence of Bas Rutten's self-defence video: first he introduces himself, outlining principles of self-defence and just being his jolly self. Then he produces a small knife he held in his right hand the whole time. The lesson: always watch someone's hands when you smell trouble, if you don't spot the danger it's impossible to defend against it and you don't want a bottle smashing into your face not to mention all the nasty little things that can be done with a knife. A friend of my brother lost an eye due to some drunken psycho who smashed his head down onto his own glass, he was just minding his own business yet this guy thought it necessary to maim him for life. People these days…
Zara