There’s an old samurai proverb I’m very fond of; “A thousand hours of training for five minutes of chaos.”
It’s an understated simplification of the reality of violence, and like most proverbs, has an incredible depth, with layers of understanding for the initiated.
As someone who’s been exposed to the reality of violence in the modern world, I feel the resonance of its truth and meaning.
I’d happily go through the rest of my life without ever finding myself in conflict again. But then again, I chose a warrior lifestyle, a warrior occupation, and a warrior philosophy to guide my principals, so it seems like something of an enigma to say I’d happily avoid conflict.
Welcomed or not, conflict exists; it pervades as an undertone of even the most civilised societies. Order can truly only be kept through the expenditure of good people stepping into harms way. Combating evil deeds requires sacrifice by the best and most capable amongst us.
As heroic as it sounds to run towards violence, it would be naive to assume that good intent is enough to gain victory. Triumph takes skill and preparation; a strong mind and body, and most certainly; an appreciation of our limitations.
The concept of training for ‘five minutes of chaos’ is as relevant to anyone as it is to those who run towards danger, but those who head towards it are likely to have significantly more than one ‘five-minute experience’ over the course of their lives. Those five-minutes add up, and so to must the ‘thousand-hours’ of preparation time in order to bear us up to the task.
If you’re going to run towards danger, the reality of your training must penetrate every aspect of your life, just to ensure the scales of preparation remain balanced. It’s not enough to concentrate on skill alone, to build brute strength, to work on your fitness, or rely on your access to personal protective equipment, or a positive mental attitude in isolation.
None of these aspects of our training guarantee a win on their own. In any fight continuum; any one, or combination of, these attributes could be what makes the difference. We must up-skill across the board and take every advantage we can.
In the midst of combat, there’s no time to regret a missed opportunity to prepare. There’s rarely time to strategically plan once the conflict is engaged. Instead; the body and mind must react instinctively and flexibly to the hyper-dynamic nature of the fight. It is not the moment of combat that decides the outcome so much as it is the path we took to get us there.
I’ve made stupid mistakes in the heat of conflict and experienced the fog of violence and adrenaline. It’s fast, it’s dirty, and it’s never neat. Any calm in that chaos comes from the ‘thousand hours’ of preparation time.
I’ve never been interested in competition sparring, I’ve found it to be a poor simulator for the real thing. That’s not to say that it’s without it’s benefits of course. But with real-world violence, there’s no rule book. Or, to be more accurate, there’s no balance of rules. After all, as warriors fighting the good fight, we’re bound by law, principal and ethical considerations. The other side typically fights without any such restrictions.
There’s no such thing as a fair fight. There’s no safety net, no referee or corner judges. There’s no ‘time-outs’, no medics on the side-lines, and no time limits to safeguard us.
And so our training takes on a more serious tone. The consequences of losing have potentially severe ramifications, both for ourselves and others.
In the arena of an unfair fight, we win either because we’re better trained and better equipped than our opponent, or because we fight smarter than they do.
If we can fight as a team, we’ll take that advantage. If we can utilise force multipliers to give us the upper-hand, we’ll make use of personal protective equipment or defensive weapons.
The fight is over quicker, and less damage is caused to both sides, if we can win the fight with overwhelming and calculated force.
In that sense, contrary to how it sounds, a ‘fair fight’ is something to be avoided.
The lead up to violence is often more scary than the violence itself. Within the maelstrom of combat, there’s no time to be scared. The physiological impacts of violence are more acutely associated with the lead up, and aftermath, of the aggression, rather than being lived in the act itself.
An understanding of the warrior mindset comes largely from exposure and experience, but must be founded upon the reality of our limitations. It’s not like the movies; it’s not choreographed or graceful.
Adrenaline gives us the shakes and narrows our field of perception, stress reactions limit our fine motor skills, and fear causes a natural, self-preserving, doubt.
As much as the human body is built for violence, it is primarily a function bonded to survival and self-preservation. Avoidance trumps conflict, every time. Social survival, the act of defending a stranger or even a principal, is not so natural. There’s nothing ‘normal’ about running towards danger. For most, it takes a great effort to overcome those natural instincts of self-preservation.
That’s where our training needs to extend beyond the dojang (dojo). Knowing how to throw an effective punch or apply a joint lock under resistance can only get you so far.
If we want to prepare for real-world violence, our training must permeate into our psychology. We must develop realistic understandings, and expectations, of conflict. We have to delve deeper into our minds and have an honesty of intent and resolve.
As much as we develop our skill, speed, strength, endurance, etc; we must develop the consent to engage in violence, and a deeper understanding of the complexities of engaging in unnatural acts.
As much as we prepare for it, if we’ve chosen a path that leads us to regularly run towards violence, we also need to prepare for the aftermath of that engagement. Survival goes far beyond the moment.
Only by doing this, can we prepare ourselves for the five minutes of chaos that comes after the first five minutes, and the next. And the next.
What have you done today to prepare for your five minutes of chaos?
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