Fight like a pirate, blindfold one eye

Fight like a pirate,blindfold one eye.

The reason for this title is because today I want you to fight like a pirate, I want to bring limits.

I know you like to see movies with pirates where the captain is a hard man with the bandage in his eyes, a hook instead of the hand and the wooden leg … really a disaster!

So today I want you to fight like a pirate and it’s not Jack Sparrow the only pirate who’s scar-free.

I know that thinking about being injured is not pleasant but in your reality-based training program, even if you don’t like it but I assure you that no one likes you have to think that getting hurt in a fight is possible.

Let’s face it … it can happen to get hurt in combat, right?

So you don’t want a fairy tale, you really want to know what you have to do.

• So why in most martial arts programs in self-defense training programs actually about potential injuries during an attack you don’t talk about it?.
• How to adapt your strategy and fight through this limit to survive?

Here’s how you can and should add some realism to your self-defense training and prepare you.

Any injury It can happen in a real street fight as it also happens in combat sports, so it is important that you start training with a variety of “injuries” and simulated conditions so that you are at least not surprised but be familiar with a way of fighting with pain and restrictions.

Start:

• The “shoe pebble” – Choose a small pebble of jagged gravel from the ground and put it in the shoe. The pain will make you shift the weight to the other leg and prepare you to fight in a scenario where you have taken a twisted ankle or may have been twisted, or you have been shot or stabbed. You will be forced to manage your balance with one leg since you can not fully support it. All your footwork and mobility will need to be adapted. Try to make the heavy sack, the hitters and finally sparring.
• The “pirate” – Have you ever had a grain of sand stuck in your eye? It hurts dog, right? In a real street fight, you can receive a handful of sand in your face, a finger in your eye, or be scratched with the consequence that you can’t keep it open while you’re fighting. Fighting with one eye only destroys the perception of depth and peripheral vision. Put a bandage on your eye on one eye and try to do as usual heavy bag sessions then paos and finally sparring with a training partner to see the difference.
• The “Presumptuous” – Surely you did or you heard a friend of yours say to someone: “I could beat with one hand tied behind your back”. It’s time to try it … You never know but your arm could be broken in a fight or hit by a bullet, a knife. Use a rope or belt to hold your arm to the side of your body. This exercise is similar to an exercise that is used in the Brazilian Jiu Jitsu that became famous thanks to the film Red Belt where from a bag they took marbles and based on the marble and color you had to start from a condition or position of disadvantage.
• “Dazed & Confused” – If you receive a slap to the head it can at least temporarily cause you a light, confused, and disoriented head state. Now to simulate this situation you have several possibilities. One is blindfolding you and a partner of yours makes you rotate several times on yourself bent and then takes off your blindfold or grabs a baseball bat and puts it on the ground (vertically) and then bends over it, resting your forehead on the tip of the handle. Now, holding the baseball bat still, you quickly turn your body around the baseball bat 10 times, keeping your forehead resting. Now get up and stick your heavy bag or your training partner to the pao right away. Or raise one arm point your finger up and look at it and do 10 or 15 turns on yourself and then try to make lots or better still pull combinations to pao or focus pad.
• The “cold” – you’re dressed as if there were -20 degrees, how do you move in those conditions?. Test. But I advise you more than anything to try to get all these clothes off quickly if you have to fight.

Environment limits:

This is also something you should not underestimate because you will hardly find the same environmental condition that you have in your gym.

• High Sound – Do sparring with headphones in your ears blaring. Be careful not with your favorite music but look for audio recordings with siren shots sudden noises etc.
• The Deaf – Make the sack, the hitters and the sparring with the caps on your ears as if you don’t hear anything.
• Low Light – Make the sack with little light then try the hitters and finally sparring. Try with little light and even almost in the dark.
• Strobo – Make the sack with the strobe disco lights, then try the hitters and finally sparring. Today with little money you can take this equipment, have a collection in the gym.
• Level – Make hitters or Paos on a flight of stairs or on a ladder, perform the exercise in both the upper and lower positions.

• The ground – How much affects the ground?. Usually you work out in the gym on a regular surface or on the tatami. But what it’s like to train and do the same things on sand, gravel, snow, or with your feet in the water, etc. Try to do the exercises to the Pao in a different condition. This type of exercise should be done in open environments.

• The Ice – after you’ve been in the cold for an hour you’re not able to do the things you do when you’ve done the warm-up and when you’re attacked you don’t have time to warm up. Be careful not to overdo it with certain blows and movements because you can get muscle tears and ligament problems.

These are just a few examples of how to simulate the injuries you need to include in your training program based on the reality of a personal defense.

This helps you prepare yourself mentally and physically for a real street attack and greatly increase your chances of survival!

Now you have to try many of these conditions, start with the one you prefer but consider that self-defense always sets you limits, which are of various nature:

• Environmental
• Physical
• psychological.

Psychological simulation as much as you can simulate conditions you can never really know but not being surprised for other possible limits can help you manage even the psychological reaction related to fear and strong sudden stress of an aggression.

Good pirate training!!!

Andrea