10 Shares

When the fight is real, everything changes

In the street (read Why martial arts do not work: 5 reasons), the difference between a good fighter and a novice, dies in the ability to control natural behaviors like:

Panic
Adrenaline
Instinct
…

Note – This article has been asked by one of our Core Course practitioners on Patreon (see how to attend our home study classes here Learn Kung Fu online: a beginner-to-expert course).

The difference:

While the beginner remains prey to the natural human reactions (read Self-defense and mental preparation: what they do not tell you)
The experienced practitioner should be able to exploit their flow (through his / her preparation, concentration and discipline, read also How to use emotions in workout and combat)

Learning how to manage a real combat scenario is not simply at all but a first good step toward this goal is to understand what are the most common errors; this way, despite the inevitable stress, it will be easier to spot and correct them. In this regard, we want therefore analyze a list of some of the most common mistakes to correct.

The most common errors during a fight (beginner level)

A note by Master Kongling – For the Core Course members: in terms of self-defense, in this article, it must be stressed that we are talking about the last step of the S.A.F.E. method, the “engage” phase (read Personal defense: the S.A.F.E. method).

Let’s start from some of the most trivial errors:

Have a too low / open guard – To keep a poor quality guard, allows our opponents to easily reach the most vulnerable areas of the human body (first and foremost, head, genitals and hips, the casual aggressor normally focus on them)
Underestimate the opponents – Assume without a particular reason that the opponents we are facing are inferior (eg. because we did martial arts, because they are thin, etc.)
Lose control in the fight-or-flight moment – Such as when we get hit hard (humiliated, etc.), adrenaline and instinct can give us that “special” energy which urges us to ignore defense to attack to the bitter end (in a violent but extremely predictable way); if on one side, this could work with common people, it could mean a certain defeat against a slightly more skilled adversary
To act “blindly” (irrationally) – Improperly using (in defense / attack) things like strength, grabbings, too wide / predictable movements (etc., maybe with no guard, no overall view, no strategy, no idea about what might happen next, etc.)
Use our forces as they would be infinite – Paying no attention to energy preservation and recovery during the struggle is totally wrong; especially if we do not train on a daily base, as soon as we can imagine, we will find ourselves defenseless
Go for contacts that inevitably leads to ground fighting – Letting the opponents bring us (or directly go) to the ground; ground fighting is not always evitable but in most cases, the novices are passive victims of the flow of the struggle and do not try to avoid the ground nor try to stand up when there (as they would be able to fight everywhere and in every condition)
Insist on the same target / technique – Focusing on a single goal, target or (even worse) on a single technique that we want to apply at all costs; this makes us exponentially uneffective and predictable
Experiment new techniques (or try to reproduce the ones of the opponents) – During a real fight, nothing could be more wrong than testing something that we are not certain that our body has understood (physically and mentally, read A scheme to quickly learn any kind of technique); for an intermediate level practitioner, in a situation of real danger and intense stress, the probability of correctly execute something (totally) new is lower than 10-20% (for a novice is lower than 1-2%)
Limit or extend too much our arsenal – Ignore the use of the limbs that we can handle (eg. using only the right arm) or think that we can use limbs that we have not adequately trained (technically and physically, eg. the legs)
Let pain (or the complexity of the scenario) to convert in irrational behaviors – Giving in to fear / despair before the exhaustion and then commit serious errors such as freezing, collapsing, close our eyes, let our guard down, crouch down on the ground (etc.)

A note by Master Kongling – It is useless to say that this list is only (in a non-exhaustive way) a selection of some of the most typical beginner’s mistakes (not contextual to specific scenarios): let’s take it as a starting point for a deeper analysis.

Final notes

A few conclusive considerations and tips to individuate our mistakes:

If we do not have an instructor who can professionally criticize the way we fight (consistently and honestly), the best thing that we can do is to film ourselves with a camera during our sparring sessions (read The meaning of sparring fighting in martial arts) and then comment with our training partners our strengths and weaknesses (with reciprocal respect and humility, read 5 effective ways to find a training partner)
In any case, individual or group training cannot compensate the absence of an instructor but with shadow boxing, we can certainly discover the difference between what we think we are doing and what we are truly doing; substantially, simply using a mirror we can have an, albeit minimal, idea of the quality we are expressing
…

A note by Master Kongling – The idea behind this mini-guide is to describe the most simple errors to gradually arrive at those that, even the experts, have difficulty correcting. We have separated problems and solutions because, this way, we have the time to think about them, one by one: personally.

In the next article of this series, we will see a few solutions to the listed deficiencies.

In-depth video courses

Worst combat errors to avoid – A video course about all the most important combat mistake to avoid
Basic 6 Dragons Kung Fu Exercises – How to start build the right set of skills for combat
Basic free hand fighting techniques – The base of 6 Dragons Kung Fu fighting system

In-depth articles

Self defense: 10 correct attitudes during a quarrel – What to do to try to avoid physical violence during a quarrel
What is the difference between real fights and combative sports? – the (apparently) small differences between street and sport

Questions

Reply in the comments and share your experience:

Have you ever faced one or more of these problems?

Author: Master Kongling

Founder of 6 Dragons Kung Fu.

Twitter Facebook

How to master 6 Dragons Kung Fu?

Are you searching for:

Daily training exercises?
Synthetic theory and concepts?
A step by step path from white to black belt?
A path (clear, consequential and gradual) designed to build real martial skills?
A direct contact with Master Kongling?

Go to our Patreon page and choose a training plan: starting from the Practitioner level, you will gain access to all this and much more.

Inside each Premium Lesson, you will receive the same teaching (practices, tips, concepts, small secrets and corrections) reserved to the live students of Master Kongling.

Important - Once a certain number of registrations are reached, no other participants can be accepted. For more information write to: [email protected].

Follow the White-to-Black Belt Course (25$ / month):