The Science of Violence

I was born in 82 I arrived too late for Bruce Lee and way too early for UFC. I don't fall into the "Millennial" category and when folks talk about the current generation they aren't referring to me. I'm a bit of a middle child of history. I grew up with cartoons like He-Man and Thundercats, I was around for the second outing of Joe 90, Stingray and Captain Scarlet my childhood still filled with good guys and bad guys. The journalists of my epoch have been concerned and reported about everything up to and including cold wars and warm winters. In Martial Arts my generation missed out on the icons but I believe we got something better. In my lifetime huge leaps in progress have been made around Sport Science, sport performance and efficient training methods. Throughout history we have been interested in the enhancement of all these things but it is during my time we really got a hold of the subject matter. Despite this the combat sports were very slow to take on the new ideas. When was the last time you did resistance training to improve your technique? I think this is what we mean when we refer to the "Old School". Back in the day there was a much greater emphasis placed on pure tenacity, doing something because it hurt. If it hurt it had to be good for you and built character? Don't get me wrong, I fully understands the need for the occasional blow out and character building, but as I gain more and more experience in more efficient uses of time, coupled with my long lasting injuries, it is natural for me to pause and think was it all truly worth it? Structured progressive overload is the only true method to develop the body. You can do something a million times over but will receive no benefit beyond a certain point. The human body adapts relatively quickly and will plateau. Doing something for the sake of doing something or because it hurts isn't really the best way to consume your time. Progressive overload also hurts, but by including the structured rest time and safe exercise technique it really is the way to go for improvement.
I think martial arts were particularly slow to take on board the science of it all. This is endemic of a pastime that holds a certain psychology and prideful outlook. It is steeped in tradition and although I do put great stock in tradition I wouldn't do it to the detriment of progress. It wasn't so much unable to jolt itself into the modern methods more unwilling to. That being said, there are many traditional practices which have fallen by the wayside, left untaught by instructors who did not fully understand them which also hindered the progress of MA. What I refer to here, in this blog is beyond those things and refer purely the physicality of combat sports. The basis for any human system of combat is grounded most firmly in human athleticism. You can defeat an opponent with a better strategy but if your strategy doesn't have to take into account failings or frailty on your own part then your strategy can be all the stronger. Work your body, make it better, your strategy becomes all the easier to execute. The science of violence is a beautiful thing to gain an understanding of. Moreover into the realms of self defence, the greatest misnomer within Martial Arts, where we can actually teach people useful things by using the science or psychology of conflict resolution and verbal de-escalation techniques. Science and strategy are like Yin and Yang, if you really want to see results from your Martial Arts I suggest you strengthen both.