On July 11th I attended Jack Hoban's seminar in Spring Lake, NJ. The month of July is linked to the passing of one of Jack's life mentors, Robert Humphrey. As many people may know, Robert Humphrey was a rifle platoon commander on Iwo Jima, and also an honorary Bujinkan 10th Dan.
If you do not know about his work, I would like to recommend this benign looking but powerfully eye opening book:
http://www.amazon.com/Values-New-Millennium-Robert-Humphrey/dp/0915761041
The seminar itself began with 90 minutes of STRIKE training. This training methodology originated from Robert Humphrey's own experience in military combat in WWII. During this time of intense conflict, he became aware that during firefights, only a small percentage of his unit were returning fire and shooting at the enemy. He surmised that most of his men were suffering from shock and fear, yet, for some reason, he himself was able to overcome these emotions.
He speculated that maybe his experiences as a boxer had helped him to override much of the physiological responses to danger, and was keen to instill the same capability in his men. He took his platoon to the beach, and one by one engaged them in taunting and slap fighting, pushing his men to the point of losing their cool and fighting back. Once in this heightened state, he instructed them to go through the mechanical action of shooting their rifles into the ocean.
Although rudimentary, this strategy appeared to work. He had essentially taught his men to experience the emotions brought on by a threat to their well-being, and yet maintain enough control to perform measured life protecting responses. This methodology was taken back to the marine training facilities, with the idea of having recruits box each other and develop confidence. Except the concept backfired! What happened under normal boxing conditions was the skilled fighters often bullied the weaker ones, and the less confident became even more "gun-shy".
The solution was STRIKE as it remains today. A designated "catcher" will face off against the person undertaking the exercise. The catcher will encourage the participant to attack, and when opportunity arises deliver a measured STRIKE of their own, usually limiting themselves to lead hand attacks. At this point the participant must be encouraged to overcome the physiological shock and get back into the fight with a counter attack. Again however, this situation relies on both the catcher and the participant remaining cool enough to not overreact. For this purpose a rope is suspended between the two participants, neither boxer is allowed to cross the rope, and at any time either party can back away from the rope to create the necessary breathing space to re-organize mentally. Using the rope as cover is a key component in making strike work, and truly "develop" confidence no matter the starting level of the participant.
So why is this STRIKE training so important? As Rober Humphrey wrote in his book. "Experienced truly professional fighters do not let anything make them uncontrollably mad. Anger is usually self-defeating;physiologically, it shuts down the thinking processes". Yet at the same time, a fighter can not be paralyzed by fear. It is a balance, and STRIKE helps develop that balance.
After lunch, we continued the recent theme of Kukishinden Ryu, starting with a traditional form (in this case Iwa Kudaki), and employing different methods of pinning the opponent after the take-down. As always the underlying concepts of the Taijutsu were fairly complex and non-intuitive in nature. Three dimensional and leveraging actions from a changing safe space while maintaining good kamae. This kind of training takes time as well as mental, physical and spiritual effort to master. However, on the occasion that these elements start to fall into place, the difference in ease of application, and vulnerability of the opponent can be astounding.
Jack finished the day by pointing out that good Taijutsu requires use of the frontal areas of the brain, whereas fear causes thoughts to retreat to the brain stem, where our actions become more basic and less capable of perspective based problem solving. This understanding of brain function is not theory but scientifically known with modern technology. As Jack pointed out, before technology allowed it, warriors already were aware of methods to maintain conscious awareness, such as the use of Zen meditation. Could it be that these ancient warriors were tapping into their own form of STRIKE.
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