Don’t Train to Fight...Train to Be The Last Man Standing
...but in reality, it’s everything but easy.
Author: Steve Hanafi (Silat Sharaf Practitioner, Malaysia)
As martial artists, fighters, warriors, we all train. Some train 7 days a week, some fewer, some don’t train at all. But the real question that we should ask ourselves is not how often we train, but how effective? Are we really training to fight? Is it going to do us any good in a real-life violent situations where the consequences aren’t just losing points or losing matches but losing your life and your loved ones. Are we really preparing for that?
Practicing Silat Sharaf transitions and ambidextrous movement
If all you do is train inside a bubble, a vacuum, a “safe zone” where the hits aren’t even strong, there are not stress factors or pressure testing, no such thing as sparring, etc. Instead you are training with guys who you are smaller and weaker than you, then you should know that you’re training inside what I call as The Imagination Bubble. This is where you’re the King of all Knights where you win every fight, where everything is comfortable and easy, where nothing bad ever happens to you. This is where you get out of a fight unscratched even if you fight against five guys are armed with knives. It’s delusional, and it’s gonna give you a false sense of security and guess what, it’s gonna get you killed when the real shit hits the fan. However, nowadays martial arts school, classes, dojos are doing this. The instructor gets the money without teaching students what real violence is all about and how to survive it, and the students gets harmed or worse, killed when real shit happens.
Transitions on multiple levels
Ever wondered why the people from the older days were able to protect themselves using the martial arts that they learnt? It was because regardless of whether it was silat, karate or kali or whatever it is, the training was everything but easy, covered with blood and sweat, and ever wondered why MMA fighters can easily beat martial arts “Masters”. The answer to both are the same, because they train like a warrior. Their training is nothing but hard, intense, gets them pounded. Back in the days, if you learnt silat, getting bruised, scarred or even bleed during training was normal. If you come home unscathed, either because you’re the Guru or you didn’t train properly. Their training includes conditioning, contact sparring, lifting heavy weights and dealing with real stress and force that are trying to kill them or take them down to the ground, not just dummies waiting for them to execute their “Super-ultimate-technique”.
“You cant train like a bitch and expect to fight like a warrior.” – Tim Kennedy
So how should you train? Does that mean you should go all out and beat the crap out all of your training partners? Or just smash everyone in the gym you’re training in? Does this mean that every training should be sparring or hardcore drills? Does this mean that there will be no more situation where one-man attacks and the other executes a technique?
No, it doesn’t mean that you should do all these. The slow-paced, one man strikes and the other waits should still be there (for the sake of learning and building muscle memory). This main purpose of this writing is not to disregard all of the training methods that has been passed down for generations, but for two purposes; to stop the delusional training routine / regime that has been done for so long, and to help those who seek to really be able to fight in real life situation to find out how to actually train for a fight. Let’s break it down to three components; Physical, Mental, and the techniques themselves.
We see a lot of martial art school / classes skip this part. Yes, we do see some jumping jacks and runs for the warm-up, but that’s just it. You don’t see any weightlifting or tire flipping, brick throwing, rope climbing, rope pulls, or anything that involves strength and stamina (heck there’s not even push ups or pull ups or squats done). But why do we need to do all of these? People in the old days weren’t seen doing this. Sure, but they cut logs, moved them from one place to another, hunted, gathered food, and all other strenuous activities every day. Have you ever looked at how fit and strong they are even when they’re 50 and above? Since we don’t do all of those, the modern days exercise can replicate the movements and build muscle strength and endurance.
But again, why? Because when it goes down, you won’t be able to pick who’s gonna be your opponent. When someone wants to do evil to you or your family, they will either be Bigger, stronger, armed or in larger numbers than you. That’s why. We don’t train for conditions when it is breezy, windy and the enemy is weaker than us, we train when the enemies are hard to overcome, we train so that we’re harder than them.