If you see a group of individuals walking toward you and they appear to be malcontents (you have that gut feeling), you should try to avoid them. If, on the other hand, you’re on the opposite side of the street and the group crosses the street to engage you, “Let’s get ready to rumble.”
Last night’s class dealt with moving through a crowd. We started the class off with creating a human circle and then trying to walk from one end of the circle to the other without making contact with anyone. After doing that a few times, we walked from one end of the circle to the other making contact. We were told that this was a sensitivity drill.
Next, after breaking the class up into two groups, we did a walk-though exercise. Each person in each group, except for one, held a kicking shield. The group walked toward the person without the kicking shield as a solid unit. The person without the kicking shield had to walk through this group.
Our next exercise was similar to the last one except there were no kicking shields. In addition, as you walked through the group, someone grabbed you by the wrist. You were expected to use a wrist release technique and move yourself to a position where you had full view of the entire group with no one behind you.
We continued with exercises that had someone from the group attempt to sucker punch you and when someone from the group comes up to you asking a question in a threatening manner.
The class ended with an exercise with you surrounded by five individuals. Three individuals held Tombstone pads and the other two held kicking shields. The first person in the group that moved acted as a trigger for you to strike. You had to punch or kick three individuals and then move away from the group.
One of the psychological responses to these kinds of situations is tunnel vision.
Peripheral vision is impaired or entirely absent…. It takes an act of will to see anything outside of this field of vision. As far as survival instincts go, tunnel vision is beneficial because it focuses the mind on the immediate threat. However, it can be a problem if you’re dealing with multiple attackers or an unpredictable environment.
The bottom line here is… the way you train is the way you react. You have to put yourself through these kinds of scenarios if you hope to survive in the street.
