To maximize their effectiveness, students of self defense should embrace the chaos of combat in their training, says Richard Ryan (left). PHOTO BY RICK HUSTEAD

Fighting is chaos. Even in sport fighting an endeavor that's constrained by rings, refs and rules chaos is king. Once the bell sounds, exactly what our opponent will do and when he'll do it are unpredictable. That question mark produces a degree of pandemonium and that's the attraction. Whether it's for sport or street fighting, human combat is fundamentally a chaotic affair.

It always amazes me that so many martial artists don't get this concept. Perhaps it's because most of us are control freaks, and the very essence of the martial arts is the ability to control our environment and any threat in it. The truth is, the only thing we can control is how we react to what life throws at us. Sure, with criminal violence there are often warning signs, but the act of self defense itself is usually sudden, brutal and unpredictable.

Yet for most of us, the word “chaos" is not a description we would apply to our training. We like order.

We like to feel safe. We strive for control and order because they create a sense of security however false that sense may be. By definition, chaos is disorder and unpredictability, and that can be scary unless we're used to thriving in it.

Most martial artists train in a sterile environment and under tightly controlled conditions. Those not firmly entrenched in the mixed martial arts mind set tend to work with people and in training scenarios that make them feel confident or even dominant. For example, grapplers grapple on mats; they never venture into other environments such as a parking lot or a living room filled with furniture. Most of them don't seek out people who know how to defeat grapplers and learn from them because if they did, they would discover that they have to dramatically alter their tactics to accommodate fights that occur in the real world. Likewise, kickers kick with other kickers, and boxers box with other boxers.

Not that there's anything inherently wrong with this approach. We all gravitate toward working with people like ourselves, and we like doing what we're good at or familiar with, However, when we get too comfortable, we stop challenging ourselves. We stop looking for ways to expand our horizons and improve our skills. Worse, such situations can function as a breeding ground for delusions about our self defense ability. What we really need is to shake things up a bit step out of the safety of controlled environments and situations and venture into the world of reality, where chaos is prevalent.

Don't get me wrong. In no way am I saying martial arts training should be unsafe in the sense that it becomes negligent or that people get hurt in the process. I'm talking about "safety" in the sense of predictability or a reliance on tightly controlled drills in which each participant is utterly familiar and comfortable with what's going on. Training that's easy and doesn't push our perceptions or challenge our abilities breeds a false sense of security, not reality.

As practitioners of the reality based martial arts, we must embrace the concept of chaos and inject a little pandemonium and uncertainty into our training. For us, security is a disease. It eats away at our growth. Those who spend enough time in this endeavor discover this. They understand that there are many elements in a real fight and that the ability to deal with them without preconception or prejudice is the cornerstone of true fighting ability.

That's why practitioners of my art, Dynamic Combat, focus on stress reaction based training as opposed to constant repetition of preordained responses. Action may be faster than reaction, but the ability to effectively react to an unrehearsed situation is king when it comes to the real world. Once they have acquired the fundamentals of fighting, they strive to learn how to adapt and even thrive in the chaos of combat.

Bruce Lee single handedly started the MMA revolution by thinking outside the box and examining all the possibilities when he created jeet kune do. Modern martial artists, especially those of us who have assumed the mantle of perpetuating reality based systems, have carried on this tradition. People such as Tony Blauer, Walt Lysak Jr., Mike Lee Kanarek, Lamar Davis II and Kelly Worden understand that the truth lies outside the boundaries of security and convention and that the true path to self improvement is a difficult one. And that's the way it should be. If you don't apply the hard reality of chaos to your training, you're sabotaging yourself.

About the author: Richard Ryan is the founder of Dynamic Combat and the creator of the Tactical Defense Training System. To contact him, call (800) 945-4387 or visit http://www.DynamicCombat.com.

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