4 Ways to Increase Resistance in Your Self-Defense Training
Learning to apply martial arts techniques for self-defense purposes is a large part of what we do in our dojo. What we teach is not intended to be a purely theoretical practice, but rather a system of techniques with real world applications should a bad situation go down and you’re forced to defend yourself physically.
One problem with training realistic self-defense techniques is that it isn’t safe to practice many of the techniques we teach full tilt. At the same time, you don’t want to lull yourself into thinking that practising techniques on a compliant partner is enough to train you for what to expect in a real physical attack. As you become more familiar with techniques and how to apply them, students should start practising them against partners exerting more and more resistance so as to increase the realism of their training. Here are my thoughts on how to do this:
- Get Comfortable. Whatever self-defense scenarios you want to increase your resistance on, make sure you’re very familiar with them first. You should get to the point where you are comfortable  performing the techniques on a compliant partner without having to think through each move. This means you’re no longer using your conscious mind, which is slower to react, rather your unconscious mind does the work for you, responding to the situation without pause. The reason for this is that as you increase the resistance, the mental pressure will also increase. Since the conscious mind doesn’t deal well with pressure, you may find yourself “forgetting” everything you’re supposed to know.
- Start Slow. As you increase the resistance, you’ll find new challenges in the self-defense techniques you’re learning to apply. Your partners will move in unexpected ways. Your sense of distance and timing may be off. Weaknesses in your form will come to light. With all this new information, it’s important to start slow in terms of resistance. Start with a lower level of resistance until you gain your confidence at that level, then take it up a notch. This allows you to learn incrementally and keeps the training safer.
- React Appropriately. If you’re the attacker, you have to role-play a bit when it comes to resistant training. If you’re training specific techniques, as opposed to live training with protective equipment, you have to react in ways that are realistic to what your partner gives you. For example, if you grab their wrist and they react with a shin kick that is way off target, you should maintain your grip solidly. If the blow is well-targeted though, you should react by at least loosening your grip slightly depending on how convincing the blow is.
- Communicate with Your Partners. Everyone has different comfort levels with resistance training, physically, mentally and emotionally. If a partner is pushing you too hard, don’t hesitate to reel them in a bit. Vice-versa, if they’re not pushing you hard enough, tell them to take it up a notch. The more you do this, the better you’ll understand each others’ training levels. Eventually you’ll get to a place whereby you are so familiar with what each other needs you won’t even have to discuss it as much. It’ll become intuitive.
These principles can be applied when doing partner training, or if you want to increase the intensity further, they could be applied to training circles in which the people outside the circle come at the person in the middle with random attacks. You can limit the attacks to certain types and at a lower level of resistance for newer students. Alternatively, you can give the attackers more leeway to be creative with higher level students, requiring the defender to be more spontaneous.
We're proud to announce that Lori O'Connell Sensei's new book, When the Fight Goes to the Ground: Jiu-jitsu Strategies & Tactics for Self-Defense, published through international martial arts publisher Tuttle Publishing, is now available in major book stores and online. More about it & where to buy it.
That’s basically how we train, it’s no use throwing someone into the deep end when they can’t swim. For higher belts techniques should be practiced in an interactive fashion so as to get familiar with stress and the unknown. The most interesting exercise I ever did was three attackers against one with weapons, a 3 minute round each: both exhausting and stressful but great fun.
Just to clarify: were you training or is that consideref foreplay for married martial artists? 😉
Just kidding,
Zara