Some years ago, I was at a major “contact” Karate tournament that had attracted fighters from across the country for many years. More than a few of the matches are decided by knockouts, and the action is always hard and fast. The rules allow for full-contact kicking to the head and body, but hand strikes to the head are forbidden. Throws and sweeps are all allowed, and martial artists of any style are permitted to enter.
The fights are quickly re-set by the referee, if the fighters go to the ground, without some immediate resolution. This is not a no-holds-barred type of event.
At this tournament, I witnessed a rather disgraceful incident, which provides a very good example of how adrenal stress can make even strong and well-trained martial artists suddenly “forget” their training. It shows how otherwise decent martial artists can simply “flail” ineffectually when “pumped” with the adrenal rush.
The incident was a general melee outside the ring between eight or more fighters on each side. All the participants in this shameful melee were “Black Belts” and contact-tournament fighters, too. They wanted blood.
…everything changes completely when a fight is real.
I saw one Asian man being strangled by a front choke. His adversary had both hands at his throat and was bending the Asian over the fixed seats of the auditorium. All the “non-combatants” quickly escaped the area at once when the fight began. This left only the two opposing forces, with plenty of room to battle.
The two forces were easily differentiated from one another. One group was dressed in black T-shirts and pants and the other group was dressed in traditional white gis and Black Belts. Both sides were going at each other tooth-and-nail with fists and feet.
Now, you might ask, did the man receiving the front choke execute any of the escapes that he had almost certainly been teaching his students for years? Absolutely not! His response was totally “natural” and clearly not the product of any training at all. He was simply trying to use brute force to pull his assailant’s hands from his throat, and quite ineffectually, too.
He did ultimately escape, though, by means of a sudden, very violent wrenching of his entire body. I would judge this move to have been the result of pure animal desperation and panic. Thus, it was also executed with the powerful benefit of a full adrenal pump. That’s why it worked.
I saw several other fights occurring. Most were “one-on-one.” Kicks and hands were being thrown very fast and continuously, but also apparently without any effect.
Under the adrenal stress of an actual fight, I observed that even these experienced “full-contact” martial artists were experiencing a nearly complete loss of fine motor control; and, thus, they couldn’t seem to do any real damage to one another. This was true, despite their very vigorous and clearly sincere and heated attempts to do such injury to one another. They were all furiously trying to throw every technique under the sun and as fast as they possibly could.
In fact, they were trying to throw those techniques too fast and thus “were ahead of themselves,” such that there was simply no “juice” or real power or accuracy behind their strikes. I saw very few solid shots land on anyone during the entire fight.
As if in a Hollywood martial arts film, one fighter jumped onto the elevated ring and used it to launch a running, flying side kick. This aerial technique was directed to the head of one of the opposing force below that was engaged in an upper body struggle with one of his guys. Surprisingly, the kick connected and knocked the other fighter to the floor, but not too surprisingly that same fighter jumped to his feet and began throwing an energetic flurry of fists at the man with whom he had been grappling.
He was unaware that the other guy had struck him with a flying side kick! Again, none of his shots connected with any damage either.
Overall, I saw a few bloody noses, and probably some bruised and busted hands, but otherwise not much damage was inflicted during this entire battle. This was despite their best efforts to effect maximum injury.
The fight that had continued for nearly two-and-a-half minutes now suddenly ended. Yet, no doctors, ambulances or EMTs were needed to treat the injured.
My primary point is, just as I discovered as a bouncer so many years ago, everything changes completely when a fight is real. If you haven’t trained for that adrenal pump that’s guaranteed to occur during an actual fight, then even your full-contact experience may not be enough to overcome the adrenal-stress factor. If you can’t overcome and use that adrenal rush, then you may have no effective access to any of your martial skills and training in a real fight.
Understand that I have no doubt that Joe Lewis would have dropped those assailants one after another, and with little effort, and possibly with only a single blow to each man. Mr. Lewis, however, mastered not only his arts long ago, but also his ability to deal with fear and the adrenal rush. I believe it is well worth your time to contemplate personally and seriously what Master Lewis means when he says that the outcome of fight is “Ten percent technique skill and ninety-percent heart and fighting spirit.”
Peyton Quinn is an author, a multi-art Black Belt and the founder of Rocky Mountain Combat Applications Training (RMCAT). He has become internationally renowned as a teacher of teachers for his unique self-defense program, which is based on adrenal stress conditioning and scenario-based training.
