Understanding the mindset of
“fearlessness and determination”
In order to analyze how a person functions during combat and under fear, it is important to understand the mental and physical states that he may experience before the physical aspect takes place – at the Pre-Conflict.
Combat anxiety – defined as “the anticipation of danger” may lead to a gradual deterioration of both mental and physical skills. This type of condition is related to the mindset of any person that finds himself in a survival conflict (rape, mugging, attacked, war, etc’). The main effects that it has on a person are related to these facts of “survival stress” and “combat stress”:
1. During the conflict the survival stress deals with the post event mental & physiological symptoms known as “backlash”, which may distort the memory.
2. On post conflict combat stress transforms into Objective fear perceptions – Fear of death, injury, killing, incorrect decision-making, failure, or just plain fear.
As more one can predict fear, the higher the level of arousal becomes. Once you feel threatened, your level of arousal is not under your voluntary control however; your perception of the threat level and your behavior during levels of high arousal can be strongly influenced by training you receive prior to the threatening situation.
Our arousal is controlled by our autonomic nervous system, which operates automatically in the same way that we breathe and our heart beats automatically. Our autonomic nervous system has two parts; the parasympathetic part is operational under no threat conditions. However, under threat conditions, the sympathetic part will switch on and the cause profound changes in our body that prepare us to do one of three survival behaviors:
Flight – Fight – Freeze
With freeze being the most dangerous behavior to us, the profound changes in your body happens during high arousal states will not only influence your behavior, but also your thinking processes and your ability after the event to remember what happened.
A backlash effect, which is known as vasodilatation will increase the normal bleeding. Therefore, it is critical that all gunshot / knife wounds be treated as soon as possible. If a wound is bleeding excessively during stress activation (sympathetic nervous system), it indicates arterial bleeding and appropriate countermeasures (such as pressure point and/or tourniquet) should be given strong consideration. Backlash effect can also slow down the visual process. It reduces oxygen delivery to the photoreceptors, especially to the cones. This in turn, results in a temporary loss or distortion of a person’s vision.
All perceptual senses, (sight, sound, touch taste, smell and the six sense), provides the brain with a constant flow of information. However, when the brain becomes focused on an activity or a threat, the brain will “tune in” to the sensory system that provides the most relevant information at that given second. Other sensory inputs will be “tuned out” by the brain because they lack immediate significance for the victim at that given second. This is a phenomenon referred to as perceptual narrowing or selective attention. As a result, the brain stops processing information from the other senses, particularly the auditory or hearing system. This is referred to as “auditory exclusion.”
Each of these physiological changes will affect combat performance as it relates to our vision, our ability to perform basic motor skills, and our ability to cognitively process information, accuracy skills and a significant increase in reaction time.
When stress (activates the SNS) arousal occurs, these negative effects upon vision cannot be avoided, but they can be minimized through proper training. For example should be taught to pivot their heads, rather than just darting their eyes, in order to compensate for tunnel vision.
In addition, shooting programs can emphasize instinctive shooting techniques that reduce the need to rely on the gun sights when firing at close range. (See our Israeli combat Point shooting programs ICPS 1-3).
Combat Fitness is recognized as an integral component of survival and use of force training. The combination of aerobic (cardio/respiratory) and anaerobic (strength) conditioning not only enhances a person’s ability to control a subject and survive, but contributes to long term health.
When one’s fine and complex motor skills are being trained constantly in a specific way, they affect immediately the performance of the gross motor skills that are used naturally by our body in a combat (stressful) situation, thus enhancing the overall performance and ability to overcome any threat situation with increased probability to survive.
If you’ve made the commitment to start investing time regularly in a weight lifting workout programme, the next step that you must take is getting your nutrition and supplement protocol in line so that you are able to maximize the results you get from your workouts.
Failing to take into account this portion of the equation is a critical mistake because not only will you not be as effective at changing your body composition, but you likely won’t have the energy that you otherwise would to put into those workouts.
Getting a full spectrum of amino acids tops the list of important ‘musts’ that need to be covered, so that’s where you should start off when planning your supplement program.
The following are some of the top reasons why investing in a BCAA supplement is a smart move.
BCAAs And The Immune System
The first thing you’ll experience if you choose to supplement your diet with branched chain amino acids (BCAA’s) is healthy immune function. Every time you go into the gym and lift weights you are placing an enormous amount of stress on the body. If the body is not able to fully tolerate this stress level, that’s when you’re going to see problems develop in terms of not only recovering from a muscle building perspective, but also from an increased likelihood of illness.
Because the essential amino acids cannot be produced by the body and must be consumed directly, if you fail to get these in your body will not have everything it needs to maintain a healthy immune system. Further, one study performed by the Laboratory of Human Nutrition for Athletes suggested that taking branched chain amino acids around exercise also decreased the immune system response that is demonstrated.
Ensures No Amino Acid Deficiencies
The second big benefit you’ll experience if you supplement your diet with branched chain amino acids is that you can rest assured that you will not experience deficiencies in overall amino acid levels. Many of those who are on highly restricted diets such as those prepping for contests or those who adopt a vegetarian way of eating will run the risk of not taking in the essential amino acids, so this supplement helps make up for that.
Care must always be taken in terms of food selection when limiting protein rich foods such as meat products, whole eggs, and dairy. Overlooking this on your diet could have very large consequences, so be sure it isn’t a mistake you make.
Promotes Peak Muscle Tissue Synthesis
As a working athlete, one thing that you’re likely concerned with to a large degree is the rate of protein synthesis taking place in your body. Since new muscle mass can only be built when protein synthesis takes course and old tissue is repaired while new tissue is built up, the faster this process progresses, the quicker you will see results.
Part of making sure this process starts up is providing the nutrients, both the building blocks to build the tissue and the energy to get the job done. Glucose from carbohydrates will satisfy the latter need while the amino acids you take in will satisfy the former. BCAA’s appear to speed this rate even further when combined with the insulin response that comes from ingesting the glucose molecules.
Prevention Of Lean Muscle Mass Loss
Any time your body is under stress or you are required to take a break from training and doing very little physical activity, you will be at a risk for lean muscle mass loss. This is particular significant in those who are undergoing surgical procedures, so research has been conducted to determine what, if anything can be done to prevent this catabolic effect.
One study suggested that when patients received a solution containing the three essential amino acids compared to those who were receiving only a dextrose solution did not move into a negative nitrogen balance during the recovery period, which is indicative of lean muscle tissue loss.
From this study we can also predict that if you’re out because of a serious injury of any kind, that is the time it will be especially important to make sure you’re supplementing with branched chain amino acids as early as possible as it’s this quick treatment that helps to speed the rate of recovery in the body as well as maintain nitrogen balance.
Many individuals do a good job at making sure they are taking in enough protein and carbohydrates during the pre and post workout period. Often they will even go to the extent of looking into other supplements that will help them take their results just that little bit further such as creatine or glutamine, but yet still overlook the benefits of a good branched chain amino acid product.
Don’t be the person to let this hinder your goals. Although it may seem like a rather simple supplement, it’s one that will really make a difference in your training, particularly if you are already running a deficiency.
CQB can be described as combat taking place within buildings, cars, hallways, stairwells, rooms, enclosures, and other constricted spaces. Although CQB training first started with military and law enforcement personnel, it is now being taught to security unit personnel and civilians. CQB is important to security forces because the techniques associated with CQB serve as the foundation for recapture tactics. As a result, security units and their personnel must have the ability to respond to a “worst case scenario” by recapturing the asset that it is protecting.
CQB can involve – individually or collectively, hand-to-hand combat, weapons, and more. As a result, we need to be proficient with every move. For instance, with hand-to-hand combat we cannot assume that the enemy will freeze up when we engage him. We need to think that he will counter our moves so we need to consider this and be ready for it in the fight – whether it is with a firearm or with a knife. That is why in Kapap we include these elements as a part of the hand-to-hand combat program.
Violent Confrontation
This term is used to describe a meeting of two or more combatants (even if one or more is passive) where there is the potential for or actual use of extreme destructive force. This type of confrontation usually occurs at close range in a short amount of time.
The SOP 9 Study
This study was conducted in New York and examined every shot fired in the line of duty by law enforcement officials during the course of one year. Out of a total of 2047 shots fired that year only 217 actually hit their intended targets and only 10 percent of these shots hit vital organs. During interviews with the officers involved in these shootings the majority of them commented that they never even acquired their front sights when they engaged their target. Additionally, these officers also experienced some or all of the following:
* The confrontations took place at the range of ten feet or less with duration of less than four seconds.
* During this time, fewer than five rounds were fired.
* The typical response was from the holster.
* A sudden feeling of shock and surprise overwhelmed the officers.
The end result of this study showed that the police officers were NOT trained properly enough to handle these of life and death situations. Now, can you imagine what it would be like for a civilian who has even less training than these officers? That is why, for civilians, realistic training is needed and should be conducted by experienced firearms instructors.
Things to consider- Psychological Aspects: Under severe stress, the normal mental processes become extremely difficult and the mind resorts to its most basic processes.
The following are examples of psychological effects you may experience during a combat situation or any other high stress situation:
1. Tunnel vision: Under extreme stress your attention will primarily be focused on the greatest threat and, as a result, you will have a temporary loss of peripheral vision.
2. Auditory Exclusion: As with tunnel vision, you will focus on the greatest threat and will have the inability to hear for a period of time. For instance, you will probably not hear anyone shouting at you.
3. Electro Dermal Stimulation: A reaction of the skin that makes the hair stand up on the arms and the back of neck.
4. Time/Space Compression: There will be a slow down in the perceived passage of time and a shift in perceived spatial relationship in times of high stress. This is caused by the inability to judge speed and distance and accurately balance the two. Also, you may experience a slowing down of time. In other words, everybody will seem to move in slow motion.
5. Mental Track: In most high stress situations, to include life and death situations, a person’s ability to keep track of the details of the situation taking place around him becomes nearly impossible. In most police shootings, a police officer being debriefed after an engagement does not usually remember how many rounds that he fired. This can happen even in training. Therefore, as a shooter, you must learn to beware of the number of rounds you fired so the weapon does not run completely dry in the middle of a firefight. This concept of awareness not only applies to a shooting situation, but also applies to hand-to-hand combat and edged weapons.
Physiological Aspects: Regardless of how much training an individual has certain studies, along with the SOP 9 study; show that during a combat situation, one or more physical changes take place in an individual’s body. That is why proper training is necessary to help minimize certain aspects.
The following are examples of physiological effects you may experience during a combat situation or any other high stress situation:
1. Pulse and Breathing: In any excitable situation, pulse and breathing will always be affected. Your heart rate increases and your breathing becomes rapid and shallow.
2. Adrenaline: This is nothing more than a hormone that stimulates involuntary nerve action. The amount of stress you are placed under will depend on the amount of adrenaline released into the system. When adrenaline is released into the body, it stimulates the muscles. This causes them to tighten. Depending on the individual and the situation, this is more than adequate to affect an individual’s shooting position or fighting position.
3. Coordination and Reflexes: Under any type of stress hand and eye coordination degrade severely, especially the coordination of the hand and fingers.
The Chemical Cocktail: The reactions just discussed are the result of the body’s survival response to a potentially lethal situation. When suddenly placed in a life-threatening situation, the body will dump the below listed chemicals into the bloodstream and mix with sodium. This “chemical cocktail” creates an imbalance characterized by general muscle tightening and loss of fine motor skills. This chemical cocktail includes:
1. Epinephrine: An adrenal hormone that stimulates automatic nerve action (fight).
2. Nor – Epinephrine: A hormone that is formed naturally in the body’s nerve endings during times of fear (flight).
3. Cortazol: A crystalline hormone released to the body’s nerve endings during times of fear (fight).
The body’s reaction: The body’s response to this imbalance by releasing potassium to counteract the effects of the sodium. However, this process takes time and slows our ability to react. As a result, we must always seek to minimize the impact that this chemical cocktail has on us in order to improve our reaction times. We can do this by training to maintain the proper “mindset”.
Mindset: is a term used to describe an individual’s state of mental readiness to act or react to a stimulus in our environment that ensures survival. This proper combat mindset is neither learned nor can it be taught, it must be developed from within. The tools you need for proper combat mindset can only be exposed in a schoolhouse environment to help you to develop yourself.
The Breakdown of the Mind: Conscious Mind: The conscious mind is the thinking part of the mind. It takes seconds to make decisions when using this part of the brain. In any type of combat situation the conscious mind’s decision making process is too slow to keep you alive. The conscious mind is a hindrance causing you to have to react to every situation instead of acting.
Sub-Conscious Mind: Reacts to situations. This part of the mind works in quarter seconds, which is much faster than the conscious mind. It has to be trained in order for it to work properly.
When training, the skills being learned need not only to be simple, but sound and effective. The sub-conscious mind is only developed through proper repetition (muscle memory) in training.
You must strive for perfection each and every repetition.
If you train poorly, or if the training is too complicated or too detailed, when the sub-conscious mind takes over it will not be able to respond properly to the situation. What occurs is the conscious mind identifies the situation, realizes it cannot handle it, and then turns it over to the sub-conscious mind to react. That is why we say that in any type of combat situation a person must rely on his training in order to survive.
The Optimum Combat Mindset: Optimum combat mindset is the state of mind where you have prepared yourself mentally (both consciously and sub consciously), physically, emotionally, tactically, and technically to endure the rigors of combat for prolonged periods of time and under extremely adverse conditions, and still remain effective.
Developing a Combat Mindset: Like the body the mind needs to be conditioned to respond or function properly in combat. When faced with a combat situation you want your mind to be free of distractions so that all of your focus is on the mission at hand – such as getting out of a situation and if it’s at the killing zone, killing the enemy and surviving the encounter). You need to be mentally prepared for death and injury and you need to go into the fight prepared for the worst. For instance, if you find yourself in a knife fight you should expect to get cut or if you go into a shooting you should expect to get shot.
Remember, response time is a critical factor in surviving a violent confrontation in a CQB environment. Do not waste time analyzing and second-guessing in an attempt to make the best possible decision. The time that is saved in the thought process will in turn save your life as you fight to end the fight.
“True courage is being afraid, and going ahead
and doing your job ~ General Norman Schwarzkopf .
IN A LIFE OR DEATH SITUATION OR A STREET FIGHT THE ONLY CONDITION IS SURVIVAL
SELF DEFENCE OFTEN HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH FIGHTING.
It is important to know that in history there are more untrained people who successfully defend themselves than there will be black belts in the martial arts.
Why is this?
Why is it that people who train so hard and spend countless years perfecting self defense can be murdered, and people with no training get away and survive.
The answer is that people, who train on a particular system, rely on their self defense answers from that particular system. Judoka, train against Judo techniques. Kung Fu people train against Kung Fu techniques. Boxers train against boxers.
Let’s say we have a woman who is walking alone in garage parking lot. Two men are following her. She has no training at all, and she is scared. She doesn’t have enough time to use her cell phone because the two men are closing fast. She thinks about screaming, but she wonders if she is afraid that people will ignore her.
We ask a group of martial artists about the situation:
The Judo instructor wants her to throw one attacker into the other, so she can get away quickly.
The Kung Fu Instructor wants her block any oncoming strikes and hit them in they eyes.
The Krav Maga Instructor wants her to kick the first attacker in the groin as soon as he comes close, and then use her keys in the eyes of the second attacker.
SHE DOESN’T DO ANY OF THAT! She finds the nearest fire alarm and pulls it. A loud bell sounds instantly alerting everyone in the area that there is a fire. The two attackers are confused, and then they hear the sounds of sirens growing louder and louder. They realize that fire trucks are approaching. The woman runs for the garage elevator and presses the emergency stop button.
The fact is that all of the respective self defense instructors strategies, MIGHT work. However, they also might have failed miserably because they involve a woman confronting two large men who might be armed. She didn’t use any martial art, she didn’t even fight, yet she survived a situation that could have ended horribly! There are countless stories of people surviving using their INTELECT, INSTINCTS, and INTUITION.
The purpose of instinctive/ POINT shooting training is not to develop marksmanship; it is not to compete with other shooters; it is not to punch holes in paper targets; and it certainly is not to hunt small game. The purpose of the training is to enable one to quickly and effectively stop someone who is trying to make you a victim.
In short, instinctive/ POINT shooting trains people to win in a gunfight.
The problem is that the innocent citizen or cop must wait until a predator makes an overt act; one cannot shoot another on mere suspicion. This places the citizen in a situation where he or she must REACT to another’s actions. In a gunfight the aggressor has the advantage and the defender is usually a second or two behind. Thus the citizen/defender/victim is already coming second in the contest; and there are no second place winners !
In order to win, given this terrible disadvantage, the citizen must be able to overcome this lag time with a combination of speed and accuracy. This is what we teach: speed and accuracy in an armed encounter. instinctive/ POINT shooting trains you to win in a gunfight, even when the aggressor has the advantage.
There are no rules in a gunfight/knife fight and street fight
There are only facts, which if understood, can give you a winning edge:
Fact: Nearly all gunfights occur at distances of under three meters.
Fact: Most gunfights are over in two to three seconds.
Fact: A high percentage of gunfights occur in dim light or where sights are hardly visible.
Fact: In a spontaneous life-threatening situation the body undergoes changes which deteriorate fine motor skills, while vision is focused exclusively on the threat.
Therefore: To win in a gunfight requires great speed and accuracy in drawing and firing the gun at close range without the use of sights. This is sometimes called instinctive shooting or point shooting.
Violence, whether recreational or otherwise, is part of the culture in west society. Therefore, whether we like it or not, violence is going to be a feature of our lives for a long time to come. Rather than to ignore it or hide away from it, we must learn to handle it. If we wish to stay in this beautiful but troubled country we have to learn to deal with the problem. The only objective way we can live with violence is to avoid it, deflect it or reduce its impact by being prepared for it because it will not go away! This is a terrible notion for genteel folk who just want to live in peace but one we can no longer ignore.
As usual, it is nature that holds the key. The human animal’s natural instincts, which include spontaneous reaction to sudden attack, are formidable powers which will usually ensure survival but only if harnessed correctly. In my experience there are two factors which constantly interfere with our primordial ability to defend ourselves, inappropriate equipment and training, which have killed (and continue to kill) many “good guys”.
After many long years involvement in personal security matters I have reached the conclusion that in order to give full reign to the natural survival instincts of the human body, equipment and training must be kept as simple as possible.
Recent history has shown that as far as attacks on farmers in our country are concerned, attackers average three to five in a group. Attacks on families inside their own homes in urban areas appear to be no different. The average attack occurs at very close range and is over within a few seconds. This suggests that a handgun with sufficient firepower and hitting power is called for.
Attacks are sudden and without warning. A huge bonus during such attack is a concealed handgun capable of immediate action, one that requires no time-wasting two-handed loading operation or a frantic search for a cunningly hidden safety catch. What is needed is a handgun that can be pulled, pointed and fired repeatedly without fuss or bother as well as capable of being carried safely whilst in this ultra-ready mode.
Both the training offered and the equipment recommended by instinctive/ POINT shooting are calculated to keep people safe whilst at the same time impacting minimally on their daily lives.
Kapap Ireland 