Many people are uneasy with the idea of getting hit when practicing self defense, martial arts or even combat sports.
Well, that’s quite logical since no one likes getting hit!
Unfortunately, physical pain is an integral part of sports that implies getting opposed to someone else, even to all sports in general.
We could wax philosophical about the role of pain in learning and lesson remembrance, but let’s be more down-to-earth: experiencing pain helps you get used to it and cope better with it in the future.
Hence, as you are willing to learn how to defend yourself, avoiding pain during training is undoubtedly the worst thing you could do.
It is absolutely inconceivable to practice such a sport which aims at preparing you for urban violence without ever hitting someone. Violence and pain are two closely related notions.
But do you have to hit low kicks into 50cm thick bamboo to improve? Do you really have to bleed your partner to come out of training knowing you did the job?
Table of Contents
Better prepare your body to contact
Many beginners never fought before, which is great somehow since it means they have never been attacked.
However, in self defense it is a gap to fill as soon as possible given that without experiencing it, it is simply impossible to imagine how your body will react to such and such stimuli. How can you truly immerse yourself in the training and imitate your partner’s reactions if you don’t have the slightest idea of what a blow to the ribs is like?
Knowing your body and its reactions to pain allows you to better anticipate these reactions, enhance the quality of the role-play and, above all, create a déjà vu effect.
We have already mentioned before how essential this effect is to create mental images that will help your brain not being caught off guard in real life.
Experiencing pain is part of the process. A hit in the ribs, no matter how small, is a piece of information your brain is not used to receive.
At first, it will be interpreted as abnormal, and the perception of pain will vary depending on the person.
Training that includes strikes are important to achieve a partial desensitization over the medium and long term, as the repetitions go on. Indeed, as the brain is regularly confronted with strikes on the body, they will be perceived less and less as dangers that need to monopolize resources (and this will also increase your resistance to strikes).
Furthermore, receiving blows, even of low amplitude, contributes to your toughness. Thus, over time, receiving blows will be less likely to injure you since you will be much more able to take them.
Strengthening and toughening have proven to be successful in martial arts.
Strike a balance
Is it necessary to hit hard to get results?
Fortunately, the answer is “no”!
We talk about pain in its general meaning. Light to medium blows are enough to cause acceptable pain while allowing an understanding of the nature of the impact and its effect on a given part of the body.
Indeed, blows will feel different depending on the part of the body that is hit. It also depends on the intensity.
It is up to the trainer and its learners to use the right intensity and to be attentive to the reactions of their partners, taking their level into consideration.
Many people who want to join self defense courses struggle to make the first move because they are afraid to get hurt. Well, many beginners can be scared by some videos available on the Internet, showing impressive battles between high level practitioners.
Unfortunately, these people do not have enough insight, precisely because they didn’t dare giving it a trial run. As a result, they are still struck with this fantasized vision of self defense training There are many self defense disciplines (Krav Maga, Penchak Silat, Systema, etc.), and none of them promotes the destruction of one’s partner.
Do not worry, every practitioner goes back home safe and perfectly able to go to work on the next day!
Combats are more or less intense depending on sports (Muay Thai, Karate Kyokushinkai, English boxing, etc.), and it is not unusual for practitioners to go home with bruises, or even fractures in some extreme cases (although safety measures are taken to ensure a safe workout in the vast majority of cases).
This doesn’t really apply to self defense. Although contact is part of the training, the learning process is long enough to allow practitioners to overcome their fear and progress on the technical level at the same time.
