Training Under Adverse Conditions

[Dave Fulton]

Sometimes we train in the parking lot of our MA facility, which can be quite interesting. The parking lot is pretty narrow. Part of it is paved (not very well though) and part of it is gravel. There are pot holes and gullies that can fill with water or one can step into. Gravel makes explosive foot work or sudden directional changes tricky, as does wet pavement. Often we do this at night, when it's dark out and the building's hallogen flood lights are on which makes seeing difficult as your eyes are constantly adjusting to radically changing lighting conditions. Also, you never know when you'll loose sight of your opponent or his/her weapon as an evasion turns you directly into one of those flood lights. Sometimes we train in the rain as well. We also train at a local park or my Guro's house (he has several acres) and these enviroments create interesting challenges as well like: tree roots, rocks, gopher holes, puddles, grass (which can be very splippery) and of course ... puppy mines

I'm interested to hear what others do to break out of the comfort of their school, with it's even floors, controlled lighting and temperatur etc. How do you challenge yourselves and prepare to apply your MA under adverse conditions?

Respectfully,

Dave Fulton



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Full Contact Martial Arts Association.

"As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another."




[This message has been edited by Dave Fulton (edited 05-30-2000).]

 

[SYK]

This is an interesting topic, I can only speak of it from the unarmed perspective.

What I did personally, is that I made sure that whatever I had, it would not break down too easily if things were changed. In my punching and kicking moves, I made it a habit never to step or move in such a way that my balance would be threatened if I was on an uneven or slippery surface.

IMHO, one cannot train one way for competition in ideal conditions and another way for self defence in "poor" conditions. Under the stress of necessity, something will almost surely give or not get learnt properly. Perhaps the best would be to have a happy "mean" which while not being perfect for both cases, still allows reasonable performance in either case.

In the end, I guess it depends on where one wants to put his emphasis.

Just my humble opinion and best wishes

 

[Smoke]

We used to practice in a large park on grass and after time, we actually uprooted all the grass. We would also practice near grassy hills which was a challenge because everything LOOKED even till you stepped down. I've also done drills where I had a light source shine in my face while I trained. I found myself ducking more and trying to look at the body instead of the head.

Another challenge, try weapons work using your other hand for the ENTIRE class. I found I took too many chances while using my dominant hand.

 

[Dave Fulton]

Also, last summer when I was at the beach on vacation, I would train every morning on the beach.

I did FMA & IMA foot work in the soft dry sand, in the semi-wet sand, in the sloppy-wet sand nearest the surf and in the surf itself. I did triangles until a wave would come and I'd try to time my take off so I could dive through the wave & come up on the other side. I did all the angles of attack and carenza in all the aforementioned stages of sand (except in the water to avoid soaking my sticks w/sea water), with solo baston, doble baston, espada y daga, daga and doble daga.

Yeah, I got some STRANGE looks from people.

It wasn't so much "adverse" conditions, but it was a lot of fun and a great work out. What better way to start off a day.

I'm planning on taking my sticks to the beach again this year for more morning work outs on the beach.

Dave Fulton





------------------
Full Contact Martial Arts Association.

"As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another."

 

[Donna Barnas]

Dave,
It sounds like you have had some real fun in spots you have trained in.

I have enjoyed training in limited spacial areas, tight corners etc. This may sound wild, but, the wildest training I did was with forumite Mitchell Lake.(memnoch) We practiced from a prone position with the other one of us standing coming into attack the person lying down with a knife. We used my coffee table in my den to lie on. What we did was similiate an attack while we slept in our beds at night. That type of ambush just doesn't happen to women but I can think of two stories which involved men. One of the men died at the hands of his knife wielding attacker who attacked him while he lay sleeping in his bed at night. This mans hands were cut pretty bad from trying to fend off his attacker too.

[This message has been edited by Donna Barnas (edited 06-01-2000).]

 

[PROTECTOR]

Outdoor training is the best! On the beach, in a river, in the brush or woods, rocky uneven terrain. Of course, I'm currently a northwest boy, who might actually fight under these conditions. When I had the misfortune to live in California it was parking lots, back alleys and narrow hallways. We also worked fighting your way out of a car. This seemed to hinge on who understood how best to use the car door as a weapon or shield. My advice, get out of the studio every chance you get!

 

[Donna Barnas]

Protector,
I like the idea of practicing while inside of your car, Kelly Warden shows some footage of this sort of thing while inside of his van.

 

[Dave Fulton]

Donna,

Yes, I do have fun when I train. It's a great way to unwind, lift the spirit and get some much needed physical activity (I have a desk job). It was even fun the time a friend and I arroused the curiosity of the Park Rangers at the the Cold Water National Battlefield Monument in Richmond, VA ... and even when some friends and I almost got arrested on a beach outside of the York Pub in Yorktown, VA at 2 AM. For a while there it didn't look like the police officers were buying our explanation and we were going to spend the night in jail!

The "bed training" ... man could that be taken out of context

... sounds really cool. I like Protector's idea about the car too. I hadn't thought of either, but one idea that I've been toying with is training in a space the size of an elevator. The problem is finding a place. Can you imagine what would happen if you tried to practice knife tapping with some realistic looking aluminum trainers in a real elevator? There'd be a stampeed of sheeple ... just prior to you getting arrested

Dave.

[This message has been edited by Dave Fulton (edited 06-02-2000).]

 

[PROTECTOR]

Dave & Donna,
We had two older, beater cars we played in. One was an old 70's Ford LTD 2 door. If you know this car, you know the doors are about 4 feet long and weigh a ton. One of our contests was to try and get out while the other guy tried to keep you in. Whoever got his body behind this door and got it swinging first ususally won.
When we had the fight in the car, the interior was big enough that you could throw panantukan kickboxing moves. Once again the key was using the features of the interior to brace yourself for power or as weapons, rather than trying to do it the normal way in a small space. This really requires good head gear for safety, because you not only get hit, but you bounce off the interior.
The other car was a smaller 4 door Volvo. In the 'escape the car' drill, the doors were short with no mass, so they weren't much of a factor and with four of them you could pop out pretty easy. For the 'attacker in the car' drill, the interior was small enough that if your were named defender your first goal was to get out, because the attacker could reach you anywhere in the car.
I am going to have to try the 'bed drill'. Did you try it with a blanket or two on you? This would be really educational for woman's self-defense training.

P.S. The 'escape the car' drill assumed you couldn't drive away. I have always taught that if you have room and the car is running, why exit a 2 ton, steel, impact weapon? Just squash 'em.

 

[SYK]

The "bed-training" part has struck a chord with me because when I was younger, I had an acquaintance who was a young instructor of fresh recruits in the army.

One of the recruits was somewhat unhappy with his training and so he crawled into my acquaintance's room at night(which he shared with his room-mate, who was another instructor), and stabbed the room-mate 16 times(if I remember correctly)before other people managed to pin him down. Fortunately, the bayonet that he was using was not very sharp and the room-mate survived.

I never thought of training in cars or in beds, but I guess it's only logical if one is serious abt self-defense.

Best wishes

 

[Donna Barnas]

Protector,
I am going to have to add the car scenario to the training regime.

On training in the bed scenario, here is what we found, you must have a knife under your pillow or on your body to survive someone who attempts to attack you while you are asleep in bed. We were able to get off one move, but the one move with a blade was quite effective and would be enough to get the attacker off of you.

Basically, his suprise attack was countered with a counter suprise attack. If you practice this you will see how limited you are in range of motion etc and if you dont have a weapon right there to grab, then you have no chance at all if you ever are attacked like this in your sleep.