The Importance of Reflex

Touch a hot stove real quick.  Notice the involuntary withdrawal reflex?  It is unconscious and tied into your sympathetic nervous system which controls fight or flight response.  These reflexes come from the spine, which is a shorter signal distance than the complex skills of the motor neurons in our brains.

So if I punch you unexpectedly during class, what happens? What about when something comes at your head or face unexpectedly, like an insect or a box from the top shelf?

I ask because your unconscious automatic response to either scenario above is likely going to be how you react to a real attack that you were not expecting.

If you are still freezing up totally, it’s ok, just recognize you have some work to do.  Your daily constant practice has not instilled your palm waving and your stances into your autonomic nervous system yet.

It is tricky, because even if we try to catch each other by surprise in class, after the first incident or two we expect the ambush and the anticipation foils the experiment to some degree. But this is why Sticky Hands and Free Play Sparring are so important to practice.  Under controlled but heightened pressure, you explore applying your Djurus and langkas against a resisting adversary.  If theopponent moves unexpectedly and you defend without thinking, that is a sign that your KunTao Silat movements are starting to live in your autonomic reflexes.

If you start having experiences where you dodge or block an object falling off the shelf, or use triangle footwork to avoid a sudden pedestrian collision without having to plan your response, you are on the right track.

Again, there are no guarantees about how you will respond to a surprise, much less a surprise threat, but the goal of KunTao Silat is to turn your unconscious response into a powerful automatic counterattack that buys you time to ascertain what is happening while placing you in as advantageous a position as possible when startled by sudden assault.

The philosophy of Daily Constant Training is not only to ensure adequate time for healthy exercise, but to literally reprogram the nervous system so that your martial movement is your normal movement.

Practice accordingly.

Dr. Jon