By Scott Shaw
As
martial artists we continually train or bodies and our minds to encounter
combative situations in the most effective and expedient manner possible. To
this end, we must continually reevaluate and refine our training methods to
ensure that we will be prepared to defend ourselves no matter where a battle
finds us. For this reason, Environmental Fighting is one of the best training
methods available.
Environmental
Fighting finds the martial artist setting up a situation where he or she is in
a less than ideal fighting posture and then must effectively defend him or
herself from this positioning. Thus, the practitioner develops the natural
ability to refine their defensive and offensive methodology to met whatever
type of combat they encounter.
In
most martial art classes, students train in a very sterile manner. They face
off against their training partner and then performed prescribed blocks to
specific punches or kicks. Or, they may perform specific hand-techniques
designed to defend against a specific grab or hold. Though these are all
age-old training methods, if that is the only self-defense training one
practices, if they find themselves in street combat, where no rules apply, they
are often left with a less then ideal skillset of what to do against a wildly
driven thug.
To
begin to work with Environmental Fighting you simply need to set up a combat
situation and then have your opponent move in towards you with various random
attacks. Obviously, in the initial stages of Environmental Fighting training,
your opponent is not going to come at you full speed or with full power. But,
by simply unleashing an undefined technique in your direction you will be
forced to come to understand what defense is most appropriate and effective
against that type of assault.
In
is essential in Environmental Fighting training to make sure your defensive
techniques are realistic to the environment where you find yourself. For
example, when I was a young boy, my instructor set up a chair and a small table
in the classroom and demonstrated how he could deliver a roundhouse kick to the
head of his opponent across the table. Though this was an early example of
Environment Fighting, even then I realized that if you were in a crowded
restaurant, sending a wide roundhouse kick to the head of your opponent was not
going to be an easy feat to perform as you may get hung up on the table next to
you or by a guest dining next to you and so on. The point is, though you will
obviously be training in Environmental Fighting in the dojang, it is essential
to be sure to train in a realistic manner.
The
dojang environment is a safe and controlled place where you can refine your
training skills and make Environmental Fighting a part of your overall training
regime. To do so, is quite simple. You simply need to place yourself in
an unrehearsed, less than ideal position, and then have your training partner
come at you with various aggressive techniques. For example, one
Environmental Fighting technique to work with is to have your back up against
the wall where your opponent has pinned you in. From this training position you
will learn how to effectively push your opponent back and deliver close-contact
strikes to his body that will leave him disabled.
Another
ideal training posture work with is to be sitting on the floor when your
attacker accosts you. From this position you will learn how to best deal with
low kicks that are directed towards your head and body and how to quickly and
effectively get up and reposition yourself and then continue through with
appropriate self-defense.
Laying
face down, like you may be doing at the beach, is another training posture of
Environmental Fighting to work with. By discovering how to defend yourself from
a fully prone position, perhaps the hardest of all positions to effectively
emerge from, you will gain invaluable knowledge about true methods of
self-defense.
The
main thing to keep in mind when working with Environmental Fighting is to never
let your techniques become stagnate or predetermined, nor should you ever
believe that what works for your training partner will work for you. Each
situation and each person possess a completely unique set of variables. For
this reason, you must never believe that one technique will universally work in
all situations. You must forever be willing to immediately change your
defensive strategy the moment you come to understand that it will not leave you
dominate in any physical combat situation you find yourself in. Environmental
Fighting is the ideal training method to develop the insight into what truly
works and how you can emerge victorious from any confrontation.
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