Tgace said:
Theres been a lot of good advice here about facing and overcoming fear. The above quote illustrates a point Id like to bring up. Note most of the advice has been about overcoming fear, not eliminating fear. You will never (should never) completely eliminate fear, its a natural reaction to danger. What you dont want is for fear to control you or prevent you from doing what you need to do. Fear can be a good thing when it alerts you of/keeps you out of danger. What you want is to be able to function and do what you have to in the presence of fear. I have seen this as the definition of courage.
This is to true, it's not natural to have complete lack of fear, thats is called a mental disability. All you need to do is to learn to overcome reasonable fears.
The Ju Jitsu is great, i'm glad i decided to learn another style, grappling had always been my week point, and as i said, it did scare me not knowing what to do. I'm also going to go along to some Hapkido classes to see what thats like, as it is a bit of a mix between hard and soft styles from what i hear. However, i can honestly say, if you can regularly do a grappling art like Ju Jitsu, then you can easily overcome the fears associated with being swamped in a fight.
Another good aspect is that my instuctor has spent a bit over a decade in the police force, and he is a very realistic person when it comes to applying MA training to street style self defence. He has really helped me to understand street encounters as they are likely to happen, and he has one very brilliant bit of advice, simple and heard everywhere, but brilliant nonetheless. 'You have to set a standard, draw a line as to what you think is acceptable, if someone crosses that line, then thats it, you don't back away any longer.'
This line of what is acceptable will be continually altering, and changes from person to person, and i'm talking about this particular standard as the life threatening one. With some people you will feel alot more threatened than with others, but when they have crossed that line they have all become equally threatening, thats when you go for it.
The same works though if you set a stanard for what you are willing to accept from other people verablly etc, obviously if they cross this line you don't just let fly, but you have to let them know that they have, it's best just to use a slang expression, but with a bit of emphasis. When dealing with the guys who just want to be seen as hard, if you say, 'will you please stop, your being insulting,' their likely to get worse, best to the play the game their way, if you follow me. It might feel cheap to stoop to their level, but you can only gain someones respect if they can respect you on their own terms.
The Muay Thai is also great, i love it, and the fitness you get from it is brilliant to have. It really is an upfront style, so it's a good way to getting used to being hit, but it's also a style that i find works with my mental attitude, if your busy getting beaten in a corner, it really inspires me to dish out the same back to the person
Anyway, wish you the best of luck, but you won't need it!
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