What Is Pseudoscience?

The article from Scientific American is worth reading.

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=what-is-pseudoscience

Distinguishing between science and pseudoscience is problematic, and its prevalent in martial arts and combative training, where scientific studies are used to prove a point but are used in the wrong context, like Hick’s Law that is very popular and proponents for that it applies to combat is wrong, as it is a study of choosing between various conscious choices and it’s used for simplify menu systems and other machines or electronic products to make it easier and faster to use, but combat is spontaneous and reflexive actions take over and are unconscious with enough training. No matter what sport, if the athlete is feeling that he is loosing and start to focus on every detail, then Hick’s Law can start to kick in as he will focus on every single detail and try to chose the best action to get back to a flow state, he will loose as he descends in a negative mental spiral from fear of failure, there plenty of scientific studies to back that fact. This article has nothing to do with combat specifically but I find that many things I have been taught is based on pseudoscience, old scientific studies that have been proven wrong or used in the wrong context. Updated scientific studies and articles about how the mind works has taught me more than the vast majority of teachers I have trained under, I find that the understanding of perception and how the brain works as the most important information to evolve as a teacher and martial artist, as it is the mind that triggers the actions, having a gun but lacking the knowledge of how it works and the will to shoot renders it useless and will kill you, the gun can be any kind of martial art or combative training. The prefight stage is not prioritized at all in nearly all martial arts, preparing the mind for combat takes time and require the proper training, it is prevalent in Asian and south east Asian martial arts that the will to kill or fight is the primary and most important factor, strength as second, and technique as the last one. In Japan most systems had to change that mindset after WW2, so they could continue to practice their killing arts but had to change it to get it approved by the USA, in the western world the priority is reverse, that is to not get stigmatized as an immoral activity, to get more students by creating the illusion that technique can easily defeat strength, but pure aggression can defeat both if the opponent believes that he can be fearless and have an empty mind, but the reality is that physical and even verbal confrontation will affect the psychological state of mind, as many tend to forget that the mindset of some of the best and most efficient killers or fighters cant be used by everyone, as many are sociopaths on the right side of the fence and can write books about having and empty mind with no fear as they lack or have a lower sense of fear.

Power Corrupts? Groundbreaking New Neuroscience Study Says, “Absolutely.”

http://thoughtsonliberty.com/power-corrupts-groundbreaking-new-neuroscience-study-says-absolutely

This is a very important factor as many martial arts systems are hierarchical in their structure and has a structure that gives powers, which often lead to wars for status and creates divisions by those who want more power. Nearly every martial style is fractured into many subgroups created by the lust for power than a disagreement on a personal level or how to perform the techniques correctly. That is what attracts me to AMOK! with it’s structure to avoid that power politics crap, we train in our group as individuals and no one is valued more than other by status, we are all equal by the way we treat each other, there is off course a difference in the skills of the individuals, but no one bows for anyone, we salute each others as equals and brothers, no big or smaller brother.  The mirror system is a fact that I have exploited when sparring as I noticed that my opponents would mirror the attacks I launched, I used to do a roundhouse kick to the head and then I would do lowkicks to the standing leg as most opponents want to show that they also can do that. Knife sparring I used to have a preset list of attacks as I expected the opponent trying to mirror what I had launched and have the counter attacks ready, it was nearly always a 90% successful strategy, the inspiration came from a weird source, trying to figure out how Derren Brown, the best mental magician/ illusionist I have seen, could imbed messages and make people do things he wanted them to do, while having my eureka moment and discovered how he did some of his imbedded messages, I tried to use them in sparring and it worked. It’s a mixture of the opponent’s ego who wants to show that he can do the same and that he will repeat the last action he has seen and mirror the attack.    

The As If Principle

Clenching a fist is imprinted, if babies clench a fist when they are angry, anger will make you clench a fist, so you actually get a 40% improvement, not bad. 

Awareness is Impossible

A must read article for self defence instructors, don’t see it like a statement of absolute truth, but think about if the information will have an impact on old assumptions, assumptions is the mother of all fuck ups. 

http://www.corneredcat.com/article/psychology-and-physiology/awareness-is-impossible/

Testing Can Be Useful for Students and Teachers, Promoting Long-Term Learning - Association for Psychological Science

Testing Can Be Useful for Students and Teachers, Promoting Long-Term Learning - Association for Psychological Science

Verbal Judo: Diffusing Conflict Through Conversation

Academic-turned-cop and best-selling author George Doc Thompson describes how tactical language allows leaders to achieve their goals. Daniel Ames, the Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. Associate Professor of Leadership and Ethics, confirms that managing conflict is a critical predictor of leadership success and shows how what works in the streets converges with recent findings in social science. The workshop was part of the Program on Social Intelligences Science Meets Practice series, which pairs hands-on leadership training with breaking insights in psychology research.