Mindset/Training

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May 5, 2001
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What's more important as it applies to the street: Having the proper mindset (sometimes it's tough to get the "proper" training) to be effective if ever in the wrong place at the wrong time or having the proper training (which often leads to the proper mindset)? There's a chance that this is an unfair (or rediculous) question, but any thoughts?
 
As the saying goes, "the most effective weapon is the mind". In my personal opinion the mindset is more important than the training. Take into consideration that there are hundreds of stories about average citizens who survive life-or-death assaults regardless of the fact that they had no formal martial arts or combat training. Some of these same civilians in turn have killed their attackers with empty-hands, improvised weapons, etc. Training is valuable and important but without the mindset it most likely won't save you when you need it most.

Steve
 
I've always been told that the hands, the feet, the knife, whatever are the tool and the mind is the weapon so I agree that mindset is probably more important but that is something that must be learned and ingrained, it has to be automatic, without emotion.
 
To a certain extent (very close actually) I think Steve is correct. But, mindset should transcend technique. I recently got 3 classic WWII combatives books: Kill or get Killed, Cold Steel, and Get Tough. Especially with Cold Steel, you see that your killer instinct translated into technique is what saves your ass. If your mind is trained adn you can turn on and off the killer instinct/aggression, then you will use your techniques well, for the most part. You'll pick up a chair and smash it into that guy beating on a girl and be fine, you know? Sure, soem punches and kicks and weapons and such are better than others, but really, there are a zillion techniques that are good ones. I think that by getting the mindset right, you don't have to worry about technique so much. All you need to worry about is who's gonna clean up the mess when you kick your killer instinct up to level 10 and blast down some rapist's throat.
 
I have to respectfully disagree Steve. I have known many super tough guys who, with no formal training were great street fighters. Just would not stop, had something indefinable that allowed them to be great fighters. Some guys just have a mindset/makeup that make them hard dudes. Again just my .02 cents.
 
I agree with mindset. I've seen some well-built dudes that couldn't fight their way out of a wet paper sack. Just too darn "soft" upstairs, and they couldn't wrestle at all. However, I once had a roommate that was skinny and wiry and impossible to pin down in wrestling, even when he was drunk! Just my $.02.
 
Originally posted by kh21106
I have to respectfully disagree Steve. I have known many super tough guys who, with no formal training were great street fighters. Just would not stop, had something indefinable that allowed them to be great fighters. Some guys just have a mindset/makeup that make them hard dudes. Again just my .02 cents.

I guess that is good if you are one of those guys, but if you are going up against one of those guys, I guess you might need something more than a bad attitude, like a bad attitude and some good technique.

In the Book of Five Rings, a book almost entirely about mindset, Musashi said to train constantly.
 
I agree with you, Steve.

Mindset and physical training are hopelessly intertwined. One is useless without the other. Even if you're as desperate as a starving, caged animal and relentless in your attack, how can you defeat someone who is also in a similar state of mind and has significantly more training? You cannot.

The mind and the body work together. Train both, or train neither. But under no circumstances train only one - that is just deceiving yourself.
 
Im not saying training is not important. It most certainly is. Just that mindset in many instances is more important. Again just my .02 cents.
 
I also agree, Steve and DAJones, it's not that the training isn't important but a lot of people can train and when push comes to shove they don't have the "intestinal fortitude" to put that to use. If you've got the midset then you'll work with whatever you have even if you don't have all the best training.
 
Originally posted by NorthStarXO
...If you've got the midset then you'll work with whatever you have even if you don't have all the best training.

It is not a matter of having the best training. It is merely a matter of having effective tools to go along with your determination. In the movies, Rambo wipes out whole batalions of bad guys with little more than a knife and a sneer, but I doubt it is so in real life. Intense determination will not help a 150 pound non-athlete stop a 250 pound professional creep from crushing his skull with a pipe and steeling his wallet, car, and girl friend. That determined lightweight is going to need to possess a focused side kick which he can apply to the creep's kneecap effectively enough to allow him to get away.

It is the combination of the will, and the capability, that wins, not the will alone. If it were not so, no one would train in self-defense or combat, they would just meditate upon mayhem all day.

Of course nobody can win if they give up, but determination will only take you so far, and then you need clothes and shelter to prevent hypothermia, you need blocks and attacks that work to incapacitate an attacker, you need an air strike to keep from having your perimeter over-run. Mind set and capability are two sides to the same coin. You can say one is more important if you want to, but it is kinda like saying the motor is more important than the wheels, you have to have both, or the other isn't useful.
 
Yeah I know it is a dirty word for a man to use , but it is the second most important. Commitment to coming out on top whatever it takes. The first important being Attitude Ie. agressiveness,and Remember It usually Pays to Win. I must agree that training-tecnique are important and cant be overlooked. I belive One can come out ahead with minimal training and an overwhelming Mindset. I have seen guys turn their Adrenelane on and of like a switch. No amount of tecnique can do that. That is Mindset.
 
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