Commentary from Instructor Dave Hebler

“FEAR AND EMOTION”

FEAR: In-depth interviews with assault and rape victims have revealed that when suddenly faced with an imminent attack, most people react with shock and surprise, followed quickly by fear. In many cases this fear is totally incapacitating, rendering the victims virtually helpless and unable to function, or even unable to think. They cannot believe that it is happening to them, and have no understanding of why someone would attack them in the first place. This typical reaction is understandable when you consider that to most people, an attack is a totally alien experience. Physical violence is something that they have only heard and read about. Their total experience with violence has been limited to that which they have seen in movies or on television. The plain fact of the matter is that you just cannot expect to be able to function successfully in a situation that is totally to you.

There are ways, however, in which you can override this incapacitating fear and function successfully. The first way is to practice functioning in an attack situation. By constantly working on self-defense techniques against a variety of physical attacks, you develop the capacity for recognizing an attack for what it is and reacting in a manner that will counter the attack.

Many years ago, in the early to mid 1970’s, two people very close to me were with the U.S. Army Special Forces top-secret Detachment “A”, Berlin Brigade, conducting counter-intelligence operations against their Russian counterparts. In addition to these operations, they also performed counter-terrorist operations in the European Theater of operations. While working with other counter-terrorist organizations such as the German GSG-9 and the British SAS, they helped to develop tactics and techniques that would closely resemble real-life situations. What they discovered was that until they went to live-fire scenarios, it was extremely difficult to get the same body reaction as they would under real life situations. Several things happened when the adrenaline pump invaded their bodily function. First thing was target fixation (zeroing in on the threat) to the exclusion of their peripheral vision. This is similar to a lion chasing down a prey it has chosen and running into or close to other animals but completely disregarding them in an effort to get to their chosen prey. The next thing that happened is what is called audio distortion or disintegration. In a real situation, someone could be shouting in your ear and you cannot hear them so intent is your focus on the threat. The third thing that happened is the loss of fine finger movement or shaking because the body has diverted the blood supply to the larger muscle groups to aid in the fight or flight syndrome. They discovered that the key to overcoming these deficiencies was diligent, intense and frequent training to the point that their reactions were instinctive and time was not wasted on thinking about what to do. In moments of extreme stress, you revert to your training.  

EMOTION:

The second way to function successfully in an alien environment is to react to an attack with a very strong emotion to augment and enhance your physical reaction. In my years in the self-defense field, I have found that it is quite possible for anyone to generate very strong emotion instantly and “at will”. Furthermore, this ability to instantly “psych up” in response to impending danger is an attribute that is fairly easy to acquire. The trick of course is to utilize this emotion with control and not lose your head and wildly flail away. Merely perform the techniques that you have mastered with full power and speed motivated by a strong emotion.

I have found that training my students to generate instant rage in response to an attack seems to be the emotion that produces the most effective results. It’s an extremely strong emotion and totally appropriate to a self-defense situation. Since I can’t imagine any person who is about to be attacked having feelings of love and goodwill toward her attacker, I have to believe that the potential victim already possesses a certain amount of rage from the onset. From there, it is a relatively simple matter to amplify up to total rage. Get madder than hell and focus this rage on the animal that is intending to do you great harm.

Think about it. Now, instead of some totally frightened and helpless victim at his mercy, the assailant is faced with a raging maniac who is bound and determined to do him in. He will be shocked and surprised and he will also suffer fear, perhaps even incapacitating fear, just like anyone else who is untrained. Like most people, the chances are that he doesn’t have any experience being on the receiving end.

Clearly, the role of emotion in a physical confrontation is important, perhaps even vital.