The concept of "pressure testing"....... Let me address this. There are those of you who may or may not have experienced the receiving end of what would be considered a violent attack. No judgment. There are those of you who may or may not have been involved on training that was "hard core" and it may have ended in bruises and lumps, and scratches and other injuries that you may or may not have bragged about the next day as "training injuries" ..... TRAINING injuries. The thing that is usually lacking is during training is INTENT. Intent makes all the difference in the world. And true "pressure testing" can only come from the actual defense against intent. I have met people whose training I respect to some extent, that has resulted in injuries.... Long term injuries. Scars, bruises, ego, and questions about their training..... Did I mention EGO???!?!? Yes.... Ego. A person's ego comes to defend a defensive method/ concept that they believe works. YAY! But under pressure, does it really work? I thought I had something that worked at one point in my life.
I thought I had an effective method of self defense. TKD. Fancy and pretty....... In theory. Hollywood quality moves.. ya should have seen me..... Now in reality? Sure, I managed to "disengage" from my attacker, but what I got in return? Punched in the mouth. And in the face. And in the gut. And again in the face. And then? I was raped. Savagely. I was a teenager, thanks for asking.
Why am I so aggressively attacking those who put up videos of things that they believe work so well against attacks? Think about this. I am a woman, standing 5'2", weighing in at a whopping 97 lbs. FEAR ME!!!!!!!!!! Yeah........ no. Sure, there are those of you who can probably make half of those cool looking things work for you (and by "half" I'm being generous. VERY generous....... ). But the reality? Can you tell me that intent doesn't make all the difference in the world? If you say "no" you're an idiot. No offense, but get over yourselves. If you refuse to actually "pressure test" your material, I don't want to know. "Intent" is difficult to express when "training", I get that. But don't try and tell me that if "attacked by XY, and you should defend with AB" because I will shut your shit down. Anything that is dictated or choreographed does not show reality. And it is NEVER that pretty or well rehearsed or fluid. EVER.
So I had Rick "pressure test" certain of concepts that we have come across in our news feed on Face Book. Every time I tried, I failed. Hard. Don't get me wrong. I would have hurt him badly if he didn't go as hard as he could have without permanently injuring me. If he had gone harder, I may or may not have been writing this from hospital. All good. I can trust him to go almost full power, at full speed, "with intent" in order to pressure test some of these things. His intent is not to damage me ( although it will hurt )... his intent is to have me / the 'technique', FAIL.
I'm not trying to be an absolute jerk by shutting down these "concepts" or "techniques" that people LOVE to show off, but if it doesn't work for someone my size, against someone three times my size or weight, I don't want to know. I will continue to question all of it. Judge me if you like, but know that I will be judging just as hard, if not harder. WAY harder in fact. Because I WILL be "pressure testing" these things as hard a I can handle, in order to be able to say, "yeah..... It works...." OR "Nope..... It's bullshit!"
And if / when we find it to be bullshit..... don't expect us to be quiet about it. There is simply too much at stake.......
And if / when we find it to be bullshit..... don't expect us to be quiet about it. There is simply too much at stake.......
