but in the real world i think people just go blank and unless they are trained they forget things.
happens with cpr - i've been trained every other year for 2 different jobs since i was 25 but i go back for the next training and cant believe what i've forgotten.
True. The self defense course I studied was
Model Mugging, also known as
Impact. Gavin De Becker talks about it in his book,
The Gift of Fear. It is the courses where people fight the guys in the padded body gear & the football helmets so they can be hit full force. At the time I studied it, and later became an assistant teacher for it, it was rated #1 by the FBI.
The statistics gathered by the FBI are that in most life threatening situations, 90% of people will flail and forget to do things. It is part of that fight or flight response. Plus, as you said, most of us forget, because we
aren't used to being in those situations, as the adrenaline takes over.
The
Model Mugging training is about teaching people in full force, (kicking, hitting full out) full adrenaline, real life type scenarios on the mat, to focus and FIGHT instead of flail. To LOOK for all the openings and to use ALL of our body to fight and to escape.
Kurby, your right, it is easy to yell at the TV and see the openings available, especially as now that I've been trained to do so. I forgot what it is like for beginners. (A humbling reminder.) And it is hard to know or remember we have feet, when we haven't been trained to use them. We usually go to our hands as that is what we are used to using.
But, saving someone else's life is very different from saving one's own life. You never really know until you are in those situations what you
are capable of, even without training. Everyone, just remember and file it away: use your feet. In a life threatening situation, you WILL remember this info.
As someone who has been in life threatening situations in my past, not just on the mat, but what brought me to study that course in the first place, your own natural animal instincts will kick in and come forward in incredible ways to save your life, that you won't even know or understand that you have in you till you are in such situations. You can and WILL suddenly remember, "Yes, use my feet!"
FYI, I *think* the #1 self defense/martial arts course today is Krav Maga. The martial arts of the Israeli Defense Forces. It is the martial arts that our own air marshals, pilots, flight attendants, NYPD, FBI and other people learned after 9/11.
It is also what Jennifer Lopez's character learned in the movie
Enough, when she went to kick the butt out of her abusive battering husband:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wPnrmg7DYyA
I have two Groupon coupons saved up fro Krav Maga training. When I get my thyroid fully functioning again, I am going to go kick some butt!! I miss doing martial arts.
. . . uh, no, it's Wed!"
What would you all do without me? 
I better make sure I show up a couple hours early next week so no one misses the finale 
Being 18 doesn't feel too different yet 
I'm sure I'll feel more adult-ish when I graduate...a month from tomorrow! 
)
I thought it was weird that Rossi was talking about it like he was there when it happened. He wasn't with the team 7 years ago 
