Adrenalin – the ultimate game changer

Reality check part 5

In part five of my column regarding the subject of reality based personal protection training I want to cover the very important topic of the adrenal dump. When the body responds to sudden shock or fright it releases a chemical cocktail that is designed to aid our self preservation. The physiological effects this cocktail has on our systems plays a significant part in how we react to such circumstances, it also heavily underlines why your standard self defence applications need to be put aside for a more progressive and realistic system of training.

Sensing fright.

The amygdala sits in the brain's medial temporal lobe, a few inches from either ear. Coursing through the amygdala are nerves connecting it to a number of important brain centers, including the neocortex and visual cortex. It is part of the limbic system. One of it's vast roles is to take information from our senses and have our system act accordingly. Therefore when a person receives a fright or shock, the amygdala triggers the medulla gland which releases a cocktail of hormones, those being adrenalin also known as epinephrine and noradrenalin.

Flight, fight and freeze.

Adrenalin is a hormone and a neurotransmitter. Once this is released into our blood stream a number of physiological effects can be noticed. It's main function is to aid the body during a period of extreme stress. The result of an adrenal dump in the body can be categorised into three elements; Flight, fright or freeze.

From a self preservation point of view the effects of adrenalin need to be understood and thus harnessed. Many systems of 'self defence' train without the slightest bit of understanding of the adrenal dump and how this physiological reaction to fright or the shock of a violent encounter can actually make years of training fancy release techniques a complete waste of time and energy.

The positive and negative responses to the adrenal dump.

The immediate effects of an adrenal dump can be felt as a warm sensation which engulfs the mid section. The medulla gland from which the adrenal cocktail is released is located just above the kidneys. The medulla gland is stimulated form an sharp increase in heart rate triggered by the amygdala. Adrenalin is then released and acts a vasodilator which encourages blood flow into the major muscle groups and constricts (vasoconstriction) blood flow to the extremities. This enables much swifter running and more powerful core movements as the blood is channeled into the major muscle groups that coordinate gross motor movement, therefore gross motor movement is enhanced while fine motor movement is diminished.

Gross motor movements are those found in functional striking arts. The use of the knees, elbows and hands are governed by the larger gross motor muscle groups. Fine motor skill is diminished resulting is less coordinated movement of the fine motor muscle groups that control the lower extremities such as the hands and fingers. This reaction alone makes wrist grabs and other fine motor movements like joint manipulation utterly pointless under certain stressful conditions, on a positive note however because of less blood flow to the extremities, any cut or stab wound to that region will result in a lot less bleeding than under normal circumstances.

While other positive effects of the adrenal dump include a dilation of the air passages which allows more oxygen to be pumped to the operating gross motor muscle groups, one of the most negative effects is when the adrenal cocktail inhibits our ability to make decisions.

Combative training principles guide us to understand the need to have a singular diagnostic response to threat. This is because one of the most dramatic effects of the adrenal dump is when the decision making parts of the brain are by-passed resulting in the mid brain operating as an aid to self preservation. The midbrain is the smallest region of the brain that acts as a sort of relay station for auditory and visual information.

The midbrain controls many important functions such as the visual and auditory systems as well as body movements. Before evolution brought us to where we are now, neanderthal man operated solely on midbrain functions.

Because adrenalin effects our natural self preservation triggers the midbrain is activated in order to aid the flight or fight response. The decision making elements of the temporal lobes are by-passed. This is where memory, decision making and speech are controlled.

So with memory diminished and fine motor skill diminished, questions need to be asked about the usefulness of many fine motor techniques (some martial arts boast hundreds of techniques for one attack!) trained two or three times a week. On a related note, school goers will associate with diminished memory under stress as result of cramming for exams, i've been there myself!

With decision making diminished well so then is target acquisition, the ability to strike small regions of the body under stress are rendered useless. You only have to look at your common street brawl to know it's nothing short of an unsightly mess of missed haymakers and hair pulling. This is why when training with Combative principles in mind we target the entire high line as a generic target with a view to shutting down the functions of the brain with temporary unconsciousness.

Other positive effects of the adrenal response include a reduction in pain due to the anesthetic effects of adrenalin, hence why people who have been injured in fight don't realise it until after the event.

Other negative effects include the body wanting to get rid of any excess waist that it is carrying, this results in the need to go to the toilet and or vomit.

Understanding these effects of the adrenal response means we can train within it's parameters and improve on the functions that it gives us to prevail. In order to do this you must create scenarios that will come as close to the real deal as possible and throw compliancy out the window. Only then will you understand for yourself if your training is productive and functional or whether all your fancy lapel releases and thumb locks quickly become as useless as an ash tray on a motor bike.

Non compliant scenario training by its very nature carries an inherent risk, however with the right guidance and training it can become a very enlightening part of your self protection training. Whatever you are training in, ensure you pressure test it under the influence of adrenal stress.

Peace.

Reality check part 4 - ECQ's

A critical factor within combat that determines what techniques we can use is of course the range we find ourselves in. Range dictates what weapons that can be deployed effectively to deal with the opponent. Many combat sports today will exclusively deal with only one range, boxing for example as a striking art will train within the range of striking with the hands. Kickboxing like wise with the added range of the legs. Judo works within the range of clinch and ground fighting with MMA dealing with all ranges within a sporting context. Range can be defined as that workable distance between you and your opponent in which you can deploy your trained techniques, both offensive and defensive. All combat sports will compete within these ranges and within the guidelines of their respective rules settings.

If we take combat out of the sporting ring and explore it from a realistic point of view where the participants are not safe guarded by any particular rule set or sporting environment, range dictates not victory but survival.

Combative principles:

Training within Combative principles tells us that to significantly increase your chances of prevailing over an aggressor, we must where possible hit first, hit the head and keep hitting until the threat is removed. That being to seek a knock out with a pre-emptive strike or to seek knock out through a number of cycled shots to the highline while maintaining a tactile grip on the target. This of course is not always possible and the range you find yourself in will determine whether I can significantly strike my intended target for knock out or not.

Ranges within Combative training:

Ranges within Combative training and sport training are similar as they are a constant within combat. Striking range is a range where I can employ any significant shot with the hands to the highline, that being any target above the clavicle with the hand or any low line kick to any target below the umbilicus. Close quarters is a range where you can employ clinch tactics which enables the use of the big guns – the elbows, head and knees.

One step closer again is a range that stifles movement and restricts striking, extreme close quarters. ECQ’s is a range most commonly found where someone has been pinned to a wall or pinned to the ground. You can find yourself in an ECQ situation after an initial flurry of wind milling (punches thrown aimlessly, aggressively and erratically at the face) where two combatants clash and fall to the ground or crash against a static object such as a wall/hording, for that couple of seconds within a real fight dynamic that is extreme close quarters.

Maintaining dominance:

Maintaining dominance is a key factor for prevailing in a ‘balls to the wall’ mill up. Losing dominance at any stage means you are losing and are already on the back foot. All principles within Combative training is geared towards maintaining dominance over your subject in a bid to securing a clean and fast result enabling you to go home safely.

Finding yourself in a situation with an aggressor that has you both in ECQ’s means you have lost initiative somewhere along the way and now you find yourself in this tight fight where both of you will have an equal opportunity to obtain dominance, if he or she wins dominance they improve their chances of injuring you.

Closest weapon nearest target:

On finding yourself in ECQ’s with an aggressor what ever the reason, you must be immediate in regaining control of the situation. Regaining control meaning you create the opportunity for you to continue the tactic of ballistic impact to the head. In order to do that, you must have created significant distance between you and your subject since the extreme closeness has stifled the movement needed in order to strike.

This is where biting, tearing and gouging have their place within the field of Combative training.

Biting, tearing/ripping and gouging have come in for bad press, and in many cases rightly so. There are systems of “Self Defence” out there that use tactics such as this as their primary method of dealing with an attacker, or they will use the idea of gouging and biting to market what they do as being some sort of deadly street art imported from ‘X’ country in the middle east.

Ignoring all the bull shit that some perpetuate, biting, tearing and gouging have their place within the field of real combat. Bear this in mind before we press on, there are NO rules on the street, clichéd I know but never the less true.

Within extreme close quarters where our hands are pinned we can rely on the principle of closest weapon nearest target. This may mean that the closest part of the aggressor’s body might be the cheek, the neck or the shoulder, and the closest weapon you have is your mouth. Like wise within a messed up tangle of extreme close quarters the only part of the aggressor’s body I can index would be the eyes or even the ears. It depends of course on the situation you find yourself in but what ever the situation is, biting, tearing and gouging need to be used within the context of the dilemma you are in.

Not fight finishers:

Biting is rarely a fight finisher, as is sticking your fingers into someone’s eyes or even tearing skin such as an ear. The likely response to this will be an immediate reaction by the aggressor to pull away from the point of pain. This is the response that we are looking for in order to regain dominance. In effect what we are doing is creating a workable distance between the aggressor’s head and your wheeling shots to his highline. Once we regain the initiative through inflicting localised pain thus creating some distance we can resort back to ballistic impact – herein lies the importance of hitting hard, and being able to hit within a restricted environment.

Biting and inherent problems:

Biting has it’s place within the realms of street fighting but it also comes with it’s own problems of cross contamination. It would be remiss of me to write about the need to bite without mentioning the possible complications it brings with it. There is always the possibility of cross contamination anytime bodily fluids mix between one human being and another. Blood borne diseases such as HIV and Hepatitis can be readily transferred from person to person through cross contamination of blood.

Research suggests that the risk of HIV infection in this way is extremely small. A very small number of people - usually in a healthcare setting - have become infected with HIV as a result of blood splashes in the eye or being pricked by a needle.

Blood in the mouth carries an even lower risk. The lining of the mouth is very protective, so the only way HIV could enter the bloodstream would be if the person had a cut, open sore or area of inflammation somewhere in their mouth or throat (if the blood was swallowed). Even then, the person would have to get a fairly significant quantity of fresh blood (i.e. an amount that can be clearly seen or tasted) directly into the region of the cut or sore for there to be a risk. HIV is diluted by saliva and easily killed by stomach acid once the blood is swallowed.

On a finishing point, before those on the moral high ground turn to the next page, it is worth noting that the recent abduction of a young girl in England was foiled after the girl who found herself in an extremely tight grip bit her assailant. The result was him removing his arm from the point of pain which created the opportunity for her to run.

Every range creates opportunities to regain control of the fight, outside of a sporting context one must think outside the box.

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