Abstract
In this article we are going
to look at the development of 2 sensory skills, the sense of touch or
feel (which will be relative to grapplers and mixed martial artists) and
the sense of sound or hearing (which will be relative to martial artists
that fight competitively). Most martial artists probably haven’t
stopped to think about the development of these 2 particular skills, however
if you fight competitively and rely on instructions from your instructor/trainer
during combat or you are a serious grappler or mixed martial artist, then
you might be interested in this article.
When looking
at striking forms of combat, in particular how striking contest are performed,
two combatants stand facing each other in a stable stance, this stance
also allows the combatants to move around freely and launch their bodies
and limbs offensively and defensively at their opponents. Between our
combatants a safety distance is usually maintained, this safety distance
is designed to keep opponents just out of striking range, to launch strikes
the appropriate footwork is used to bridge the gap bringing the combatants
in and out of striking range. This safety distance not only keeps our
opponents just out of striking range, it also keeps our opponents at a
distance where our field of vision can pick up oncoming strikes. If we
look at combatants that use kicks when striking, you’ll find that
their safety distance is that which keeps them out kicking range and also
allows them to use their field of vision to pick up oncoming kicks and
punches where a boxers safety distance is some what shorter as they only
have to stay out of punching range and their field of vision only has
to pick up oncoming punches.
With grappling contests, combatants fight at such a close range that their
field of vision is usually partly obscured by their opponent, this means
that often there is a lot of movement going on that the combatants can’t
see. When we looked at information processing in “skill development
part 1”, our perception skills revolved around what we could visually
see, with grappling contests our perception skills revolve around partly
what we can see and partly what we can feel.
If you have known someone who is visually impaired you would have noticed
that their sense of smell is such that when you walk into a room they
can identify you from your body odor and or fragrances that you wear,
likewise their sense of hearing also is such that when you walk into a
room they can identify you from the sounds of your footsteps. What this
means is if we loose one of our senses (e.g. your sense of sight), other
senses develop to above normal levels to help compensate our loss.
When grappling, because our field of vision is often obscured, over time
we develop a better sense of touch/feel as to what’s going on during
combat, this sense of touch/feel can come into play when we are in the
situation of not being able to visually see what’s going on such
as instances where our legs are used to control or maneuver our opponent
or when our opponents legs are used to control or maneuver us, for example
1) You are in your opponents guard and your about to
be swept, you cant see this however you can feel what’s going on.
2) You are in your opponent’s half guard and your
opponent is about to slip you into their full guard, once again you generally
can’t see this, however you can feel what’s going on.
The above 2 situations are just 2 of many situations that arise during
grappling contests where the sense of touch/feel is used and I’m
sure you can appreciate the importance of developing this particular skill
as a contributing factor in your over all development as a grappler or
mixed martial artist.
The best way do develop your sense of touch/feel is to close your eyes
when you are going through set grappling drills (in particular, situations
where your field of vision is obscured) then progress to closing your
eyes when you are free wrestling (grappling with out submission). As our
sense of sight is our brains first preference of senses when it comes
to our perception skills during combat, taking it away will speed up the
development of other sensory skills (e.g. your sense of touch/feel) and
if practiced often enough will force other senses(e.g.
your sense of touch/feel) to develop to above normal levels.
If your martial arts training have led you to fight competitively, I’m
sure some of you will be able to relate to this next section.
When we train at our dojo, hall, gym etc we usually have 2 training environments.
1) The quiet environment with the exception of the instructor
shouting commands (this environment usually represents traditional martial
arts).
2) The somewhat noisy environment with music such as
AC/DC, Metallica and the theme from “Rocky” etc. in the background
serving as motivation to train (This environment often represents boxing
and kickboxing gyms).
When training for a specific fight or tournament, it is beneficial to
the combatant to replicate the environment of their contest when going
through combat drills and sparing, especially if you are the type of combatant
that relies heavily on advise from your instructor/trainer while competing.
The development of our sensory skills is no different to other development
of the human body (e.g. strength, speed, endurance etc) in that your development
is a product of our environment. If we train in quiet environment and
we compete in a quiet environment, then during the contest we wont have
any problems hearing instructions from our instructor/ trainer. If we
train in an environment where there is loud music in the background and
we compete in an environment where there is loud music in the background
then once again our auditory skills should have developed to tune into
our instructor/trainers voice over the music (so long as the music is
the same as what you train to).
The problem arises when you train in either of the above 2 training environments
and you compete in an environment where there is lots of crowd noise.
The question is how do you pick out and concentrate on 1 voice over hundreds
if not thousands of other voices during combat? (Keeping in mind you need
to be focused 100% on the task at hand).
You need to make your training environment the same as the environment
you compete in by recording crowd noise and playing it in the weeks/months
leading up to your fight/tournament. Ideally your trainer would position
them selves approximately the same distance away from you as they would
be at ringside (remember your instructors/trainers voice is still going
to be one of the closest and therefor one of the clearest voices at ring
side), initially the volume of the recorded crowd noise would be quiet,
as you get use to the crowd noise and your instructors/trainers voice
becomes clearer, you would increase the volume in stages until it replicates
the volume you would expect at your contest.
Continually tuning into and listening to your instructors/trainers voice
over crowd noise will help your auditory skills develop to the point where
they can identify and concentrate on that one voice (the voice of your
instructor/trainer) over all the other voices.
If you’re a grappler then you have the added advantage of being
able to close your eyes at times during training with crowd noise in the
background, this will even further enhance your sense of hearing over
crowd noise.
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