Blindfold Work

I bought a new camera with some Christmas money and was able to get a little bit footage from last Saturday's training session. We decided to test out the blindfold a little bit more. I've decided to start a theme of sensory and psychological deprivation for the next few training sessions. This time we deprived vision. Next time I think I may exhaust our energy before training. Since none of us our certified instructors, we tend to approach training from an explorative approach. This most likely means we will stay within the bounds of what we can conceive, which will be fairly limited, but should allow for some improvement to the general foundations (movement, breathing, relaxation, form).

I didn't get any footage of us without the blindfold for a bit of contrast, but we definitely noticed that we work from a more relaxed standpoint with the blindfold on. Gene, who was filming for us, observed that we seemed unwilling to accept the presence of our aggressor. In other words, as the aggressor would come in for a grab, we would fight more than what the threat would call for. Apparently a lot of this fighting instinct came from being able to see the aggressor as he approached, as our work with the blindfold seemed to have more acceptance of the aggressor.

I also got a certified instructor to take a look at the footage. He noted that we were still being a bit too technique-oriented--not enough genuine movement. He also said he would have liked to see us escaping a bit before the attacker applied the hold or grab. In talking with him, I noticed that my last bit of work at the end becomes very greedy as I realize I have the elbow locked in a mildly clever way. I even unnecessarily throw my leg over him to keep him there rather than doing the work and moving on. Now, if we were practicing restraining our aggressor, this might have been ok. However, the other two times I am "attacked" I do the work and move on. A cop told me about the rule of assuming escalation. If there's one guy attacking, be ready for two more to attack. If a guy attacks with his fist, be ready for a knife or a gun. By locking and restraining my partner I am locking and restraining myself to some extent, making me an easy target for any other aggressors or concealed weapons.