COMBAT MINDSET -2

COMBAT MINDSET -2

Warrior Mindset: Train Your Brain

Warrior Mindset is more than aggressiveness and determination, it is about overcoming challenge and adversity. It’s about possessing, understanding, and being able to utilize a set of psychological and physical skills that allow someone to be effective, adaptive, and persistent. It also allows someone to use optimal decision-making, psychological techniques, physical and tactical skills learned in training and by experience. “Given enough time, any man may master the physical. With enough knowledge, any man may become wise. It is the true warrior who can master both….and surpass the result.” – Tien T’aiThe goal of a ‘Warrior Mindset‘ is to integrate the psychological with physical and tactical training to add a dimension that is often overlooked, but necessary to achieve the maximal performance of a skill. If you only talk about mental toughness but don’t actively train it, you haven’t developed into a complete warrior….regardless of what physical skills you have developed. You’ll find, with proper training, that you can possess the power to overcome any obstacle and change your outcomes if you train yourself mentally. This is the point at which you will truly bring out the ‘Warrior Mindset‘ within yourself. When we think of training, we tend to focus on the more tangible elements involved: the skills and tactics, the drills, and, most commonly but incorrectly, the gear and equipment that we will use. These factors are like the visible part of an iceberg that we can see above the waves. However, like an iceberg, there is a huge chunk hidden below the surface that we don’t see – the fighting mindset that supports our efforts and from which everything else flows.

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At the moment of truth when you are placed in a situation where you must

defend your life or the lives of others you had the right to protect could you?

Could you kill?

After being trained correctly use that handgun, the knife or other weapons to defend your self or others you

had the right to protect by shooting to stop the threat and quite possibly taking

someone else’s life to save your own life, could you?

If you can not answer this question or the answer is

NO

means that is missing the mindset, the warrior mindset. This is the most important aspect when we talk about combat, more important than how good you shoot or how good you are with the knife. You can be the best in your training or in relax mode if you cannot react fast and efficient in a real situation, all your training doesn’t matter.

I also tell my students that just merely having a fire weapon or a knife is a false sense of

security. You must be trained in how to use them. But you also need to

be trained in the “combat mindset” You must realize that nearly 80% of all

attacks are happen in low or reduced light. How much low light training have you had?

Mindset can be broken down into:

Mindset towards a threat. This is the easier of the two ideas to explain and is simply the willingness to do whatever is needed to win the fight. Words matter – we want to win the fight. It is not enough that we survive the encounter; we must strive to completely dominate it.
Mindset towards training. This is a more difficult concept to convey. It is made up of the discipline and commitment to seek out quality training and subsequently engage in the proper practice of fundamental technique at all times. Manipulations and techniques must be performed consistently, all of the time. This constant, consistent repetition will lead to the ability to properly run the gun or use the knife under times of extreme stress, the kind of stress that might be encountered in, say, a gunfight or knife attack. We need to remember that, in a critical incident; a person will not rise to the occasion but rather will default to their level of training. By striving to manipulate the gun or the knife in the same way, you can develop “unconscious competence” or the ability to perform necessary actions reflexively under stress without conscious thought.Building the Mindset
Teaching someone to have a proper mindset is difficult in the extreme. A frequent topic of discussion amongst my fellow instructors is, if such a thing can even be accomplished, how does one best go about doing do. My feeling is that it must be explained and then shown by example. There are, however, several elements that are necessary and which will always be present in the fighting mindset.

The first element of a proper mindset is to seek out a proper foundation. The internet is, for the most part, not the best place to find “training.” As convenient as online surfing may be, so much of the available information is improperly explained or demonstrated, or is just outright wrong. Of course you can find also very good quality content but you must be able to identify and to select the good information.

The best opportunities for learning will come from attending a class with a vetted instructor. Select your teachers carefully and do not be afraid to ask questions. Look for an instructor who can explain what they teach and who will demonstrate the lessons. Check your ego at the door and be willing to learn.

In class, keep an open mind but don’t be afraid to ask questions. A good instructor will be able to back up what they teach and will strive to make sure information is flowing in both directions. I tell my students that “this is your class, not my class.” None of us know everything and everyone is capable of learning. We just have to be willing to invest our time and money into the process. Be willing to evolve. New information is constantly coming available. Avoid the latest fad; find what works for you and your environment. Evaluate your technique as you progress. As one’s abilities increase, so does one’s frame of reference and capacity for understanding. As a long time practitioner of Aikido, I experienced many instances where I was told something by my teacher that I simply wasn’t ready to hear. It wasn’t until later in my development that I was able to understand and incorporate the lesson into my practice.

The second element is to practice proper technique in a consistent manner. There is no single class out there that one can attend and emerge a gunfighter. Training is a journey, not a destination. Whether the training is beneficial or detrimental depends on the mindset and discipline of the individual. Bruce Lee is often quoted as saying “I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once, but I fear the man who had practiced one kick 10,000 times.” Keep it simple and efficient. The skill must be consistently performed in order for it to become an accessible habit. Inconsistent repetitions are wasted repetitions. Worse, incorrect repetitions can build bad habits and produce training scars with deadly results. In order for our training to be beneficial and assist in building reflexive habit, it must be consistently executed and proper in its methodology. In other words, we have to practice the right techniques the proper way. The old adage that “Practice makes perfect” is a vicious lie; perfect practice makes perfect, practice alone only makes permanent.

Another element is one of applicability. Everything is fundamentals. As students progress up the ladder of skill, they discover that “advanced” training is nothing more than the fundamentals applied at speed and under stress. However, too many students confine themselves to the square range and never avail themselves of the opportunity to apply their skills to different environments and situations.

As an individual’s command of the fundamentals increases, we need to start pushing the limits of our comfort zone, in terms of speed and complexity, and ultimately begin to apply the fundamentals to realistic scenarios.

The fighting mindset is a critical part of training.