As is the mouse who stands before the snake...
My body, the strange opponent
Who isn't familiar with the feeling?
All of a sudden you feel hot, you feel as if you hadn't eaten in weeks, you start sweating, you wish for nothing other than a bathroom and your knees are shaking...
What causes this state in stressful situations is the body's natural drug, adrenaline, which gets pumped out of the organism's suprarenal glands to lead us to the two most original existential reactions - fighting or fleeing.
Many successful martial arts practitioners experienced a great surprise during a street fight, being provoked by a drunken attacker and then getting beaten up, unable to do anything about it.
The reason for losing the fight wasn't insufficient training; he had been training perhaps for years in his dojo showing many punchbags who’s boss.
Our practitioner's problem was, it never occured to him that apart from the attacker from the street (who alone is a mystery to him), he would also have to deal with an opponent just as treacherous - his own body.
How could he have persuaded his legs not to think of running but of self-defense? And how could he have brought his voice to abandon the irritating scratchiness and to sound strong and confident?
As we can see, fighting the self and handling the adrenaline are just as important as preparing for such dangerous situations.
This is why in our classes we emphasize that adrenaline is something helpful, even life-saving and children are taught to go about with it and understand that it is an alarm signal that should protect them from precarious situations.
With this knowledge, students are put in a place where they have to deal with stressful situations in a more relaxed way and learn to keep their cool even when in danger.
