Jan 03 Dennis Jones – Killer Instinct..

SR  We finished last month’s article with the question, how do you train for ‘reality’ in the Dojo?  You have the experience of dojo martial arts, training on your own and the ‘reality’ from your work on the door, with this unique perspective, can you give any advice for those in the dojo who want to bring this aspect into their training?

DJ  I’ve trained with lots people over the years, and at least three-quarters of them weren’t, in the normal sense of the word, martial artists.

I don’t think all the shouting and screaming that some do (in reality training) really helps that much.  That is apart from the initial shock of being slagged off!  I know it’s an attempt to achieve that ‘real’ training but we all know there always seems to be something missing with that aspect to training.  It’s that ‘missing piece’ that we need to grab hold of but ‘it’ is the illusory aspect of training.  Steve I’m going to change the subject for a moment and look at aggression training.  I think it’s relevant, well it will be eventually, I hope (laughs).   Now about a year ago I wrote:

In reference to combat, it is widely known (from research carried out by the military) that only a small percentage of new recruits possess that ‘killer instinct’. In the introduction to ‘All in Fighting 1942′ Captain W.E. Fairbairn states:  ’…killing with the bare hands at close quarters savours too much of pure savagery for most people. They would hesitate to attempt it…’ And in the preface to the same training booklet Lieut-Colonel J.P. O’Brien Twohig said:  ’To conquer our ingrained repugnance to killing at close quarters is essential…’  Some 30 years later in ‘Deal the First Deadly Blow’ a training manual written for the United States Army Infantry, the author said:  ’…the most successful hand-to-hand fighter uses an aggressive approach’.  

For decades military instructors have been aware that fighting men must be trained to fully utilise their aggressive potential.  However, this type of training does not rest easy with the role of ‘peace keeping duties’ that soldiers seem to be spending more and more time doing.  Nor would it bode well for a ‘normal person’ in their everyday life.  The vast majority of people live peaceful lives and the nearest they ever get to a conflict is a heated argument.  However, the chance of ending up in court is something that we all must be mindful of and it doesn’t take much to be looking at five years in prison!  Now with every move being watched, it becomes so important that a martial artist can quickly, assess which situations might lead to danger.  That is, if we haven’t been able to avoid a problem, then if we’re stuck with it at least we know which way ‘the trouble’ is going to go.  The hard bit then is being able to switch ‘on’ and ‘off’ appropriately.  For most people conflict is always emotionally driven.  We mustn’t forget that violence (politics aside) is often born out of persistent trivia e.g. a neighbour continually parks across your drive; or they play loud music, late at night, when you’re trying to sleep etc.  The question that begs asking: ‘Does the modern martial artist need the killer instinct?’

In his book ‘The Fanatics’ (Brassey’s 1991) Professor Maxwell Taylor defines aggression as ‘…aggression refers not to presumed inner causal states, but to behaviour‘.  Violent behaviour can take the form of verbal abuse, threats and physical assault.  In 1976 a working party organised by Barbara Kahan of the Development Group published the results of a number of seminars.  The book ‘Violence’ defined violence as ‘ the use of force in a social situation in a way that those in power define as illegitimate’.  The act of being violent is in some circumstances acceptable. In fact in some situations being violent would be considered quite normal!
We are all ‘victims’ to the event/s we experience and the environment we inhabit. As such our behaviour (not including inborn behaviour patterns) will be modified so as to increase our chances of survival.

Often a martial arts teacher when training a student will require them to envisage a violent scenario.  The teacher will then teach (rightly or wrongly) technique/s that they believe is a suitable physical response to the threat/attack.  A pre-emptive attack is a response to a perceived (by the defender) attack and harm by an aggressor/s.  And occasionally the issue is pressed further by the suggestion that the student (who always plays the victim) hit the attacker with a weapon!  It could be argued that such a simple ‘role play’ constitutes ‘aggression training’.  And perhaps in a more forceful setting and with the presence of pain, including physical deprivation, the training methodology borders on brainwashing.

Distinguishing between different types of men in an attempt to determine their (future) behaviour is fraught with difficulties.  (Future behaviour is what self-defence is all about.)  However, usually when somebody is about to get ‘done in’ their survival instinct will come in to play irrespective of whether they have undergone aggression training or not. We know that most men on finding out that their wife has been having an affair will not murder her or her lover. Yet, a few do. What is or is not acceptable is determined by our peers, the society we live in and our personality.

As a martial artist I am extremely interested in that killer/survival instinct that we all possess in varying degrees. The ‘instinct’ is a natural phenomenon, and having witnessed numerous examples over the last 26 years, my fascination with the subject continues to this day unabated. How can the killer instinct be harnessed, so that it can be switched on and off, it is the subject of much debate. Also trying to understand what physiology a human body goes through when in that state is a notoriously difficult area to research.

Years ago I remember watching three rather large bouncers trying to prise a pair of hands off a handrail.  The small ten stone man was holding on for dear life, and even when the bouncers started to ‘bash him up’ he still didn’t let go!  They couldn’t get him to let go.  Finally I intervened and stopped them hitting him.  I then put my hand on the centre of the man’s back and while talking gently, rubbed back and forth as if placating a child.  He let go of the handrail.  I then walked him out of the club and as he started to calm down he told me that he thought the bouncers were going to take him out the back room and give him a good hiding.  The incident, for me, was fascinating, and I can clearly remember thinking ‘if only that power (if that’s the right word) could be turned on and off like a light switch’-and without the need of the ‘inner turmoil’ that always seems to precede such an event.   The Hulk is inside us all!

The subject of killer/survival instinct is as far as I’m concerned a legitimate area for martial artist to be actively involved in. Remember we are judged by our behaviour not by the inner turmoil that often rages in all of us, at one time or another. However, it does become a concern when this natural phenomenon explodes out of a trivial incident, to wreak havoc on those nearest the unstable individual. Can martial arts training (if they were a martial artist) be held responsible in such circumstances? And if the answer is yes; then at what point in a training programme does ‘no’ become ‘yes’? Perhaps at the role play stage of training.

Just a point here Steve, if training is in the manner of ‘The Way of Karate Do’ perhaps then there is no aggression training at all!

SR I’d say that energy is energy, it’s up to the skill of the individual to channel it properly.

DJ Because of what I was doing I was only interested in any thing that would make me a better fighter so after each weekend on the nightclub doors I would go home with a vivid image of what had gone on and know exactly what I had to work on both physically and mentally.  And having the right amount of aggression played an important part of my training.

I think that the first quality you have to develop is psychological strength and couple that with common sense.  A small percentage of people have these qualities naturally, but I do believe most students have to work on it.  And this is the catch, those that can’t develop it because it’s not in their ‘make up,’ the teacher must guide them into an area of training that they are most comfortable with.

The problem with some martial arts is that they are primarily a system of brainwashing.  If you look at arts like ‘Taekwondo and some karate,’ as far as I’m concerned they were developed to brainwash soldiers, giving them that psychological edge to fight and die for their country.  Fighting techniques take second place to  ‘faith and courage conquers all.’

SR  A lot of karate is militaristic, both you and I can remember standing in line and marching up and down the dojo to barked commands from Japanese sensei. 

DJ You know Steve if there was one man responsible for that sort of training it would have to General Araki, and as far as I can gather he wasn’t into karate.  From about 1932 he reworked the code of Bushido making it fit nicely with Imperial Army’s philosophy and I’m not sure that’s the right word for it!  He also brought back the samurai sword to Japan and changed school education.  According to Hoyt in his book ‘Japan’s War’ they [Araki et al]:  ‘the training [military] and the philosophy had serious flaws: they substituted courage for common sense…  They were concerned with the development of the Japanese martial sprit that this program dominated all else.’

Korea was a part of the Japanese empire and the connection between Karate and Taekwondo is much closer than most people here in the west would credit.

SR Lots of information gets lost in the haze of time.  Adding to what you were saying, we were just watching some old JKA footage on ‘you tube’.  Memories…we would stand to attention and ‘at ease’ (yoi dachi) and march up and down on command practicing various techniques and if we did it wrong we would be physically bullied.  The army bullies recruits the same way preparing them for war.  They have to do exactly as asked on command even when faced with death, they have to be just as, if not more afraid of those behind them as the enemy in front.

This is fine training for military induction and warfare, but surely not for self defence in the street where you have to make all the decisions and take responsibility for yourself?

DJ  You’re right.  And the stimuli is ‘sound.’

SR Intriguing but we’ve run out of pages!  We’ll have a break here and continue next month.

Steve Rowe

Steve Rowe is a highly successful Martial Arts instructor - an International Neigong, Qigong and Tai Chi Teacher and an 8th Dan Karate with many other senior dan grades in other martial disciplines.

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