Written by Andy Seatherton 5th Degree Black Belt

An interesting quote? I think so, but you may be asking, "How does it relate to my martial art training?"  If our attitude is poor then our actions will equally be poor. So a strong and positive attitude should be our first and foremost consideration, this in turn will make for a strong and more positive individual.

If we only train with the attitude of " My opponent attacks, and I react to that attack", we are dwelling in the "Defence" Mindset. Such a mindset keeps us on a back footing only allowing us to formulate a response when our opponent provides a stimulus. This puts our opponent in control of that combat situation, and dictating the direction it will take. This is a completely "REACTIVE" position, which we should avoid at all costs. We must endeavour to be in control leading the path of the conflict, either by halting it immediately thereby taking complete control oneself, or by allowing our opponent only the illusion of control. This may be achieved by employing the "PROACTIVE, Protection mind set". It is this state of mental and environmental awareness which facilitates the proactive attitude. This attitude must be constant.

 By assigning colours to the different states of awareness we can more readily illustrate these phases.

· BLACK phase - Total unawareness 
· YELLOW phase - General alertness 
· ORANGE phase - Hyper alert, And 
· RED phase - Fighting  

We should avoid being in the BLACK phase, as in the principal of "BLACK DOT V's WHITE DOT FOCUS", where BLACK is representative of total disregard for our environment, in this phase we are allowing ourselves to dwell in "La La Land". We've all done this at sometime in our life, daydreaming, or NOT concentrating on matters at hand. This is when our vulnerability is at its highest and our guard at its lowest, an attack on our person at this time would have devastating results.

We should endeavour to live our lives in a state of mental alertness, constantly aware of our ENVIRONMENT (that which surrounds us, is on us, and in us (in us being THE 5 FITNESS'S 'physical, emotional, spiritual, perceptual, & mental). This phase can be given the colour YELLOW. Here we are aware of, but not worried or concerned about, things in our environment.

The ORANGE phase is entered when for some reason we become aware that something is not right or is out of place, and our body begins to acquire that "Fight or Flight" feeling, we become hyper sensitive to our environment.

If a conflict occurs which is unavoidable the RED phase is entered and we are FIGHTING.  This colour code serves to show how a PROACTIVE mental attitude will provide us with enough warning of impending dangers and the time to prepare ourselves for combat. It also illustrates how we would find ourselves struggling to ward off an assault should we be in the BLACK phase at the moment of combat. Having to go directly from BLACK phase into RED phase would place us back into the wholly "REACTIVE, Defensive mind set".

There is however a definite need within our martial arts for REACTIVE training, as even the best of us aren't a 100% 24-7, but practitioners should be aware not to fall back to the only DEFENSIVE mind set.

We endeavour to employ our proactive training to prevent us falling into a conflict from the word go,

however sometimes such a conflict is unavoidable. In these situations there are two proactive choices.

·         Induce in our opponent a type of emotional reverse polarity causing him to switch his adrenaline from positive to negative.

 ·         Or cause our opponent to induce a positive adrenaline overload.

If we were to give labels to NEGATIVE adrenaline they could be as follows...

FEAR         DOUBT          APPREHENSION                       WORRY          CONCERN

If we do the same for POSITIVE adrenaline they could be...

ARROGANCE           OVERCONFIDENCE            EGOTISTIC           CONTEMPT

These labels serve to illustrate the emotional roller coaster opponents will find themselves riding.

By the correct reading of a conflict we decide whether to...

 A Confront our opponent's aggression with our own, the intention being to turn his positive adrenaline into negative by a display of our positive adrenaline. This sudden shock creates the apprehension of maybe he has bitten off more than he can chew? Which in turn leads to doubt in his own ability, or worry\concern for his safety. This hopefully stops the conflict in its tracks.

 B Convince our opponent that he has the upper hand. Giving his confidence such a boost, that the resulting overload to his positive adrenaline makes him overconfident, more likely to present an opening for us to take advantage. Talk him down, all the time stating that we "don't want any trouble", and moving into the hands up, open and palms toward him, hidden fighting stance. Hopefully he will calm down and the situation will defuse, but if he develops contempt for you, his ego grows and conflict looks inevitable his arrogance toward your ability will ultimately be his downfall.

 In each of the above scenarios it is we that dictate the path of the conflict, being in control of our opponent and ourselves even though he is oblivious to that fact.

When you train endeavour to practice with a forward thinking proactive mindset, don't be the victim be a martial artist in control of their destiny.

Try some of the above ideas when training, shout at your training partner as they attack, see if you get a reaction.

Work your techniques from a hidden fighting stance, and remember your 3 METHODS OF EXECUTION and their POINTS OF REFERENCE

1. High - Hammering    2. Low - Thrusting        3. Crossed - Whipping

Have fun.