It is not often that we take our RMCAT training on the road, but some time ago, Mr. Ernie Reyes asked us to bring our armored assailant, adrenal-stress-driven, scenario-based program to his school in California. Naturally, we were both pleased and proud to do so.
To many of us Ernie Reyes is known for his amazing demonstration team, but what I was most impressed with at the Reyes school was how the 30 attendant instructors from Reyes’ affiliated schools acted like one big, mutually supportive family. They were all clearly enthusiastic in their study and their strong, positive energy was very much sensed by every one of us on the RMCAT instructional team.
While martial arts schools are regarded as places of discipline and courtesy, we have seen that the outside world is not always so pleasant. Therefore, if we want to train our adult students for the type of conflicts they might encounter in the outside world, we must authentically and even graphically simulate those conditions in our training drills.
A few weeks ago I saw a confrontation occur between two irate motorists. The incident reminded me quite sharply of the purpose of some of the drills we did at Mr. Reyes’ school. In this traffic dispute one of the two men called out a racially charged name at the other. I could almost see an electric shock of rage race through the other man’s body. To his credit, he managed to restrain himself and the incident passed without any violence.
If someone can enrage you, perhaps even to the point of violence by calling you a racially charged, hate-mongering-type name, then you have done none other than carelessly left a weapon in the enemy’s hands. We must never allow the enemy to control our actions or our minds in any way.
Consider this important fact: Most adults have never faced direct, stand-up aggression such as hate-filled name calling. And when they do, they are often totally unprepared for the powerfully visceral effect it can have. It can rob an individual of his or her rational judgment and thought processes. Indeed, this is precisely the objective of the person calling out that racially or ethnically charged name. They want to make you so mad that you act irrationally; in short, they want to control you.
Consider the following hypothetical situation: You are walking down the street when a homeless person yells at you, “You scum bucket! It’s greedy perverted trash like you that screw up this world!” If these lines were delivered with real emotional content and hate, then they would have some effect on you. That effect might range from fear to rage, but as these two emotions are very closely linked, they can cloud an individual’s good judgment. The impact they have on their intended target can be quite powerful.
Suppose the homeless man delivered this same little speech every day? Would you simply get used to it? Would you come to expect it or even become concerned or curious if that homeless man wasn’t there one day to call out his insults? Ask yourself, what has made the difference in how you now react to this same stimulus?
This is the principle upon which some of our RMCAT drills are based. Remember last month’s article on the hockey dad murder? I wonder what name he might have been called that helped put him in that prison cell? Next month, will look at this subject a bit further. u
