Pain in training, for many this is off putting – why engage in activities where discomfort is involved?
Let's make a clear distinction between pain and damage:
Damage is to be avoided as much as possible.
Damage leaves you unable to defend yourself – the very antithesis of what we are training for.
It also diminishes you over time. Longevity is another goal.
If you look at combat sport activities that involve competition, damage is seen as an accepted risk involved with pushing yourself beyond the performance of your rival. It is inherent.
In learning self defence it is very common for the new person to fear temporary pain and to avoid it. As long as it is encountered in a controlled way and not too soon, it is a great teacher on many levels
Learn to respect the pain and damage that you can cause others.
It is an arrogant idea to assume that training is merely learning to hurt others. By experiencing first hand the pain of certain tactics, a respect is built for using them on another human being.
Without this you are only half trained.
Resilience is slowly built by learning that you can continue to fight well past a comfort zone – this is where growth is.
“Just take it and fight on” is one of the most basic counters to any attack – not just a macho idea of “not showing it” but a reality that events don't stop because something hurts.
The expectation of this is a form of feeling sorry for ourselves and is highly limiting as a trait. This is very different from some sort of deliberate self damage and is not what I mean.
Some realities of training to survive violence are:
Temporary pain in the moment and learning to work through it.
Just remember though, if you can resist the pain so can the other guy. You'll learn here that “pain compliance” or relying on “pressure points” is not some magical panacea that will work on all people.
Pain the next day (DOMS) which is common in gym work. You push yourself and break the muscles down slightly, you're sore the next day but with adequate rest and nutrition, you'll rebuild a bit stronger. You adapt.
Bruising, like in the pic above (light bruising from students performing knife blocks) – is not uncommon, you don't seek it but rarely notice at the time.
It's something that you see the next day - “what was that one from?” There's a lot of humour in comparing bruises the next session and it's healthy to laugh together at these small things.
I've taken part in training where you get punched hard from partners and that's ok – it's not personal and you're learning to work through things and mitigate the effect on you .
Sadly, occasionally you get people whose eyes light up when they hit you – enjoyment – these types need routing out and getting rid of if they persist – as they are usually the first to complain about any force applied to them.
The person striking or causing pain is always looking to help their partner learn and improve not just beat them up.
This is very different from just taking hits from strikes and sticks that cause welting that may lead to clots etc – everyone knows a stick hurts what do you learn from it?
Padding up, armour, training weapons etc are there for a reason – you can actually make it to work tomorrow!
One leading advocate of combative training states that training should be so hard that you can only face it once a week max – what a load of bollocks! Once a week is going to be slow progression technically and many will drop out over time through injury or even just fear of it.
Damage:
Joint injuries are no joke and should be avoided at all costs not just seen as “one of those things”. An injury that you carry for life is lessening your quality of life – for what?
Perhaps most worrying of all is the risk of brain injury from striking and strangles (“chokes”) as the effects can lie hidden for a long time and can build slowly through negligent training methods.
I received concussion in a grappling school several years ago that was so bad I nearly collapsed at work the next day and ended up in hospital. That's a brain injury that I need to be aware of for life now because a higher grade training partner was a competitive dick.
As you progress, yes training will involve discomfort and pain but this is part of the learning process – you're understanding of force and it's consequences is deepening and you are also becoming tougher and less precious about yourself.
As the saying goes - “You can't learn to swim in a tsunami!” - taken at a slow methodical pace, rougher but controlled training is a vital component in your development.