Can Indomitable Spirit be Conveyed?

[drewtoby]

As in before a fight?

Just wondering, because in my K-12 years I got in a lot of almost fights, but no one would take the final step. They always backed down, and walked away looking foolish.

Since I am a Martial Artist and did not want to fight I would not be the first to strike. But, if someone pushed me I would push back. In one case someone basically ran after I pushed back.

I am told that I get "those eyes".

And I am underweight, so I don't have any scary features...

 

[Touch Of Death]

As in before a fight?

Just wondering, because in my K-12 years I got in a lot of almost fights, but no one would take the final step. They always backed down, and walked away looking foolish.

Since I am a Martial Artist and did not want to fight I would not be the first to strike. But, if someone pushed me I would push back. In one case someone basically ran after I pushed back.

I am told that I get "those eyes".

And I am underweight, so I don't have any scary features...

First of all, I do this stuff all the time, but you tell me. I have a baby face, but if I look the least bit irritated, people tell me I scare them; so, once you get this figured out, let me know.
sean

 

[Zero]

I am told that I get "those eyes".

And I am underweight, so I don't have any scary features...

No one wants to hit a malnourished person, it only lowers your street cred.

 

[Instructor]

I don't think it has anything to do with ones face or eyes. I think it's within, indomitable SPIRIT. It really doesn't have much of anything to do with martial arts either. It's like those people who lose everything in a fire and then clean up and rebuild their life, stick by stick. Un-conquerable.

 

[Fritz]

I know it can be conveyed as I have experienced it myself on the receiving end a few times.

I guess the question is- are some people born with it (yes), and if not can it be cultivated through martial arts training (also yes).

Are there people incapable of it and as such they would never find their way to the martial arts?

 

[Instructor]

If you have it then it get's conveyed naturally. But I don't think you can convey it if you don't have it. I do think it can be developed.

 

[elder999]

Can it be conveyed? Yes. Can you have it and not convey it? Yes.

Can you be taught how to convey it? I dunno.

There's this, which I posted here some time ago:

Bottom line, though, what it comes down to:

What am I willing to do? Whatever it takes.

Will I prevail? I will, or die trying

Call it a combination of resolve and intent, or call it mindset-call it whatever you like, but if these qualities aren’t trained and developed, then all the strategy, tactics, skills and attributes developed by whatever sort of training one is engaged in, traditional or otherwise, is just dancing. (BTW, for another tip, ala Mr. Lawson’s post, nothing beats dancing-as in ballroom dancing: cha-cha, waltz, two step, foxtrot, etc.-for establishing some critical movement skills needed for hand to hand combat.)

When I was mugged all those years ago on the subway, well, I’d gotten my pen ready as soon as I saw those young men. Fact is, in my mind, I’d killed all three of them of a couple of times before they made their move. Sure, I handed over my Rolex, and my throwdown wallet (a New York necessity, really) but when they told that kid to cut me, I put my pen in his neck, several times. So many things stick out from that incident for me, but the one that I have carried since then is the way his companions flinched when I looked at them, after sticking the pen in his neck the second or third time, and the way they ran. I’ve never been able to do it in the mirror and see for myself, but over the years I’ve given people “the look,” that look, and it’s never failed me. If I give that look (and I can feel it on my face, I just don't know what it looks like-except maybe that I want to kill someone) and say, "Sit down and shut up," well, that's usually what people do. If I don't say anything and just hit them, they pretty much go down. If they've come at me with bad intent, and there's any talking involved, they usually change their minds......if they have any sense, I guess. :lol:

So yeah. It can be done. If I could teach it consistently, I would, but it seems to come down to the individual's ability....

 

[Instructor]

When the chips are down some people bend and snap back twice as hard, some people break.... Some people bend and snap back 99 times and then break on lucky number 100...

Again, the look of indomitable spirit is merely a byproduct of having it. Don't focus on the look, it's unimportant. Focus on developing the spirit, that's of supreme importance.

 

[Zero]

When the chips are down some people bend and snap back twice as hard, some people break.... Some people bend and snap back 99 times and then break on lucky number 100...

Again, the look of indomitable spirit is merely a byproduct of having it. Don't focus on the look, it's unimportant. Focus on developing the spirit, that's of supreme importance.

I think this is right, it is not any specific look in itself, it is somehow the spirit conveyed at that moment, and this can be conveyed by different people by different facial expressions (or lack of expression, which can be even more daunting) or body language. It may even be conveyed by the same person by differing expressions, it is more the intent coming through which is behind that expression. That therefore would seem a very difficult thing to conveye/teach to others successfully, maybe not impossible but very difficult.

 

[terryl965]

Some people have that little thing in them that shows people it others are the ones that just don't care one way or another.