BN wrote: When talking about the training you do at Primal, it’s clear that you are training your guys to be able to fight. Point. Not necessarily in a ring or cage, but also anywhere they may be attacked.

So my question is, in your own training when you are shadow fighting, or just thinking about situations, do you ask yourself ‘What if” type questions and try to answer them?

For instance, What if I am out with my family and I need to fight? Or What if I need to fight whilst in my car? I mean the kinds of scenarios that a lot of people on self protection dot com think about/plan for. Imagining situations in various locations, at various times of day ect and then visualizing a response?

I would regard this kind of preparation as important if someone wants to be able to fight/defend themsleves in the real world. If you disagree, or don’t do this kind of visualization/questioning, please explain why.

Steve wrote: I think the evidence is conclusive that visualizing something before you do it improves performance, psychologically, physiologically and physically. When it comes to fighting, though, the problem lies in being set to see it through to its conclusion, no matter what happens. Whether it’s hot-blooded or cold-blooded, you have to be able to set yourself to knock him out, or beat him senseless while he’s trying to do the same to you. That requires something out of the ordinary. Until you’ve got that, all the scenarios in the world aren’t going to help.

And once you have that ability to set for the fight, then no matter where it is or when or who, you’re able to fight. But without it, all you know how to do is run scenarios.

‘What if’ this and ‘what if’ that is irrelevant. All you need to know is you’ve got the gun, it’s loaded full mag, safety’s off, and you’re prepared to use it. That’s where you’ve first got to get in this fucking game. Then you can start going about figuring out how to adapt it for different usage. But making the assumption that because you’re running scenarios and getting through them, that you can survive a real encounter, that’s a dangerous assumption. First you’ve got to be the loaded gun.

Rob Mac wrote: The thing is it’s one thing understanding (Steve’s comments above) but to me that’s just the first part of what is going to be a lifetime of constantly testing yourself and pushing yourself to the limit and beyond. I’ve just finished teaching a class and I’m absolutely fucked. Tommorow morning I’ll be up at 6.00am doing hill sprints and then a short bag work before starting work, loading blocks and shovelling sand on a building site. Then training again on Friday again on Sunday. I’m not telling you this to give it the big I am, because to be quite honest I need to be doing more but it is a big part of your life taken up and you do need to ask yourself how far are you prepared to go.

Without getting too cheesy I do however believe that ‘Morris Method’/attitude whatever is something you can use in everything you do i.e don’t just go the whole nine yards, fuck it do some more. Whether it be work, being a dad,whatever you want to do. Edit this if you think I’m totally off the mark Steve, but this is what I’ve got from your stuff and I haven’t even trained with you yet. From your Dvds and the stuff you’ve posted here/on your site I’ve gleened so much and it’s paying off. I think there’s alot of people who will ignore the truth about training etc simply because they are scared to put in the work. Sorry to go on but there you go, rant over.

Rob Dick wrote: I couldn’t agree more Rob Mac,
From what I’ve seen over the years, and it seems even more preverlant these days, is that you have your hard training serious guys, who eat correctly, train hard, and get the correct rest, in general these guys are walking around fit to fight at any time, and they have at least a gun to load.

Then there’s what I believe is the majority of todays practising martial artists, who spend, twice as much time hitting the key board than the bag, eat crap, and look & perform crap.
They are just not in shape to fight, a vicious exchange and you know they will crumble, they haven’t got a gun worth loading.
You can have all the scenario’s in the world, locked inside your head, but if the delivery system isn’t primed, they just won’t come out, when the shit hits the fan.
I believe it’s really hard work day upon day, to not only be in shape, but to move forward & keep trying to improve your lot, and I just don’t see that commitement in a lot of guys.
They would rather just talk, and it seems to me that’s where a lot of guys seem to get the wrong idea with Steve, sure he’s very intellegent & articulate, but at the end of the day it wasn’t theorizing, that produce the fighter he is, it was bloody hard work, day in day out, year upon year.
For me it’s all about that hard consistant work, do it and you can only improve.I
If your not prepared to,find another less demanding past time, because wheather in training or a confrontation away from the gym your going to get hurt.

Steve wrote: My philosophy has always been, do nothing in half measures. I fight in fuck-it gear, and I train in fuck-it gear. And I try to pass that intensity on to the guys I train.

I see so many so-called martial arts instructors, traditional and modern, who just walk around talking. When I come out of that session, I’m soaking wet.

A lot of what I see when I look at clips of people teaching martial arts is what I’ve started to call the British Airways School of Martial Arts. In other words, it looks like those demonstrations the airline stewardesses give at the beginning of a flight, showing you where the exits are and miming how to take down your oxygen mask. All very reassuring, but if I’m going to teach you to fight, I don’t want to reassure you. I want to take you to that chaos and teach you how to become the order within it. You’re in control.

Most other instructors seem to do it the other way round. They have an authoritative air, and everything they teach is organized and prescribed in an orderly way, but the fight is nothing like that. So whatever mindset the student is developing within this type of instructional framework, it’s nothing to do with the reality.

We talk about the gun, but I try to show you not only how to build your gun, but how that bullet explodes, and can keep exploding. A lot of so-called bullets out there are slo-mo. The instructor isn’t even experienced at exploding, he doesn’t even know how to go for broke, and so he can’t pass that on to his student. And when I see the students, it’s obvious to me that they haven’t been given that example. Once I give them that example, they go up another level.

So to both Robs: yes I agree with your posts, but there’s something more. It’s about going for broke, letting go, and seeing what happens. That’s how I’ve trained the whole of my life. And I just did a course up in Nottingham this weekend and I glimpsed myself in the mirror, I was drenched.

I think what you get in martial arts a lot of times is what I call ‘Old Man Martial Arts’ where the guy has reached a rank and age where he holds authority, but he’s unable to move anymore (if he ever could) and so his instruction just becomes a lot of yap. No actual demonstration of this repetitive needed violent explosion required of a fight. And unlike a good boxing coach, who has aggressive trainees to do the physical work for him, and who knows how to bring out and encourage the fighter’s natural aggression, these martial arts instructors actually teach their students to perform in the same repressed manner as they do.

That’s not martial arts. You wouldn’t win no war or fight with that approach.

As you can see, guys, this is a subject I like to talk about. I’ve got a lot of experience of it, and a lot of the material I see circulating on the web is just total bollux. It’s all too safe and non-threatening. Some guys don’t even break a fucking sweat. They’re not even warm.

I really don’t know. Like Arthur said on the other thread, it’s intensity, intensity, intensity, all the way down the line. If I can impart one thing to you, that’s what it is.

And Rob, you might think I’m articulate now but way back I never said two words. Couldn’t string them together. I just trained, and fucking trained, and trained. Like a madman. That’s the way I’d do it.

When you’re training, you’re never really sure if what you’re doing is right or wrong. And a lot of stuff that you train ends up not working. But I reckon if you do everything at high speed, very intensely, then in the same period of time you can work through much, much more. Going slo-mo for ten or twenty years, what happens if at the end of that time you find out it was a load of bollux.

Dig lots of holes, as deep as you can as fast as you can, and then move on to the next one. Invest in loss.