Warriors Train To Become Comfortable In The Face Of Fear

“Warriors train to become comfortable in the face of fear.”

 – Alain Burrese

Our martial art, self-defense, and combatives training should train us to remain comfortable in stressful or dangerous environments. Recently, my friend Bill Kipp asked on Facebook if the adrenaline state one encounters in a self-defense situation was positive or negative. Many of us answered that it depended if the adrenaline caused paralysis and prevents fight or flight, or if the adrenaline dump assists with fighting off your attacker or escaping to safety. With training, we can control this state, which can also be called fear, and remain comfortable in stressful or dangerous environments.

We realize that we won’t eliminate fear, and we really don’t want to, we just control it. We know that courage, a hallmark trait of the warrior, is simply feeling the fear and going forward anyway. Doing what must be done, even though fear is chomping at our insides. We control it.

We do this by training in a manner that pushes the boundaries of our comfort zones. It is not necessary to do this each and every training session, but we must push ourselves and our boundaries periodically if we want to condition ourselves to succeed under pressure.

Adrenal stress training like Peyton Quinn provides at his RMCAT training, or like Bill Kipp teaches in his FAST training, are two ways to work on this. There are others who also provide this kind of scenario training that induces the adrenal stress response. In the Active Shooter classes I help conduct, we spend the afternoon with these types of scenarios. Additionally, many of us in the martial arts incorporate drills to push ourselves and our students. Some of these include training with eyes closed or blindfolded, defending against multiple attacker or pairing groups up in uneven numbers (making two people face three, four, or more opponents), and various other ways to make the training harder, and more challenging.

Regardless if it is an opponent in the ring, an attacker on the street, or some other obstacle you are facing, you don’t want to eliminate fear, because you will feel it, the only variable will be to what degree. Your goal is to train so you remain comfortable in the face of fear. You will use your feelings rather than become paralyzed by them.

This is why training gives you the edge over others. Your Warrior’s Edge allows you to remain calm and act with direction and determination in stressful and even dangerous situations. And that’s an edge worth training for.

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