You thought I was Done with this subject!?! Wrong! Here it is again in audio with additional commentary on the topics discussed of What Pokemon Taught Me. The blog Posts written earlier this year are as follows, “What Pokemon Taught Me about Losing“, “What Pokemon Taught Me about being OK with who I am“, “What Pokemon Taught Me about Health and Nutrition“, and “The First Line of Defense“.
Watch the video. What do you see?
Did you see two antelope locked in battle with a lion charging in taking one out for lunch or did you see the bigger picture and the lesson to be learned?
When we are angry or in conflict it is very easy to get tunnel vision and focused on the threat or perceived threat. This then prevents us from seeing the bigger picture and avoiding danger overall.
If you are in a self-defense situation and are so focused on the immediate threat you might not see their friend circling back and around for the sneak attack.
Or how about this, if you are driving and you are only focused on the road ahead of you and never turn your neck or move your eyes to see other dangers is it more or less likely you will crash? It is definitely more likely you will have a higher than normal chance of crashing if you are not constantly observing everything on the road.
Did you notice that well before the Lion got close, the other Antelope watching the fight stood up? Then before the lion got even closer all of the other Antelope ran? That is because from where they are standing they have a broader perspective of the situation and can see more information.
We as humans often get locked into a specific perspective or thought pattern and while it may be good for the task at hand may blind us to other opportunities or dangers.
When it comes to self-defense you 100% cannot get tunnel vision. You cannot forget to assess the entire situation around you and look for the best possible solutions to avoiding further conflict. Our goal must always to be to avoid the biggest possible threats, but know that they are there so we can effectively engage them if we need to.
Even in sparring sometimes even though students are supposed to go light I often see two individuals going a bit too hard and they are so focused on each other they cannot hear me or other instructors yelling their names to chill out.
This means that some people are more prone to tunnel vision than others. Do you know who you are? If you are a person that gets locked into tunnel vision under stress, or who focuses too much on one task or thought and not the bigger picture can you learn to take a step back?
Clearly, the antelope who are far less intelligent than humans understand this. The ones who had a broader perspective easily avoided danger. So as humans why do we often act more like the two antelope locked in battle?
You never know, you might be the one who got away or you might be the one with sharp teeth sinking into your neck as the jaws of life come crashing down around you.
Think about it. How is your perspective? Do you see only tunnel vision or can you see much, much more?
Before my wife and I had children, learning self-defence and being able to protect myself was a personal decision not shared by my wife. Her philosophy was to never put yourself in risky situations to begin with and if faced with a threat, just run away. It’s a simplistic way to look at things, but ok, fair enough if that gives her enough peace of mind. For myself, however, I like to live in a Walter Mitty world where getting myself out of a tight situation using my self-defence training was a real possibility so I signed up for various martial arts through my life, with Krav Maga being on the list.
Then, our two daughters were born and I began to look at life a little differently. I became less inwardly focussed on my self-preservation and my priority turned to how can I best protect my daughters that the brutality of life sometimes presents? In spite of my desire to want to be around to always protect them, I knew that it was not only impractical but harmful to their own development and road to independence. As any parent soon realizes as their children grow up, they have their own hopes, dreams, and way of doing things. In the early days, you can just tell them what to do and they’ll listen, but after too early an age they soon start talking back and want to do things their way. The best you can do is just introduce them to positive experiences and hope that your examples resonate with them enough that it sparks an interest in them to continue.
In my case, I introduced our two girls to the dojo quite early in their lives, and the Krav Maga kids class was their first foray into the martial arts world. For my older daughter, the concept of self-protection was so impactful that she then asked if she could take judo to supplement the ground game that is more lacking in Krav Maga. It turned out to be a good decision on her part, because she soon became quite adept at it and a natural talent that she won many competitions and continues being involved in the sport to this day. So for her, introducing her to martial arts has been very beneficial for her overall development. Conversely, however, it hasn’t quite been the same for the other daughter, who is 4 years younger. While she accompanied us to the BC Winter Games when the older daughter was competing, while I was cheering her on, my younger daughter (9 at the time) was patiently and quietly sitting beside me knitting, reading, or working on her colouring book. She sat there the entire day, which I recall being 9 hours long, with no complaints at all. But was she interested in martial arts and watching her sister compete? Not at all.
You’re probably wondering where I’m going with this. Well, as a parent we try to do the best for our children, and in spite of our best intentions, we can only do so much. However, as long as we act as good role models and do what we say we will, our children notice and hopefully, with all the things we throw at the wall, some of it will actually stick. In my older daughter’s case, even though she hasn’t taken Krav Maga for quite a while now there’s a recent experience which I think is worth telling. The other week my wife and I took them out for ice cream, and on the walk back up the block to where we parked the car, our older daughter was walking far, far ahead. Our younger daughter then started running towards her, hoping to surprise her and possibly give her a little scare. In the end, it turns out that my older daughter sensed that someone was running up behind her, and while having no idea that it was her sister, turned to face the threat while sub-consciously adopting the semi-passive stance. It’s comforting to know that some good habits are still ingrained.
And for the not-at-all-interested-in-
So, there’s still hope for the rest of us.