Combat and Chaos...Reality Based Drills Utilizing Chaos Theory

            Chaos theory  (also known as the butterfly effect) is the study of the confluence of seemingly random and unpredictable occurrences that result in a deterministic outcome. So what does that mean? Well, in combative terms it means "shit happens" and from all angles. It means that no matter how much you train and how many rehearsed moves and techniques you do you can never be fully prepared for any given situation that you might encounter. What we can do is incorporate chaos into our training regimen and drills.A drill that I find fantastic for accomplishing this is also one for learning how to deal with multiple attackers and multiple angles of attack: 1 defender- all that person can do is block, move and parry, 3 attackers- 1 kicker, 1 puncher and 1 grappler. The object of the drill is to defend yourself from the attacks for as long as you can and keep the attackers from getting behind you or encircling you ( you can always vary the number of attackers or what they can do to add more variation). Another drill is the handball/tennis ball drill. This drill can be performed a few ways: Variation 1- bounce or throw the balls at the defender, the object is to hit as many as you can using hands, elbows, knees and feet we can vary it by using specific body parts only i.e. punches. Variation 2- punch a hole threw the balls and thread a piece of string or paracord through them. hang the balls at different heights. Have someone swing the balls and as they come within striking distance hit them, again with one selected type of strike or various strikes. this can also be used to practice knife fighting  (i.e. thrusting and slash techniques).

The Marco Polo drill is a blindfolded drill where the defender stands in the middle of a circle surrounded by attackers, who one at a time come in with attacks. This is a stimulus reaction drill where by the defender has to react to the stimulus of an attack as fast as they can ( this is not blindfolded sparring and the attacks are at about 20% power and 50% speed). There are a myriad of different drills that we can do. It really isn't so much about the drill as it is about the chaos factor. The chaos factor needs to be high, the drills have to encourage spontaneity and randomness. The drills need to stimulate your responses, help increase your response time to stimuli and get you used to responding to random and uncontrolled and unrehearsed attacks. These drills need to serve another purpose as well while the attacks are random the defense and counter strikes over time will not become systematized, but become a natural and regular response to the random and unpredictable stimuli. Your body and brain will learn to recognize what is happening and respond accordingly and with speed, that is the ultimate purpose of this kind of training. We train for chaos so prepare for chaos and add some chaos to your training. Remember if you want to stay clean you gotta fight dirty!

Real Violence Needs Real Solutions

M.U.C.T