Rules vs Policies

In my experience, people can often be categorized into two groups when they're training: those seeking "Golden Rules" of fighting and those who want policies for surviving a violent crisis. The first group of people are the same ones who will throw a slow-motion punch at your face and ask you what you'll do. If your answer is longer than 4 words, you'll probably lose their attention. I often call this "martial ADD". I'm not saying that attention disorders are anything to be laughed at, but some students can't seem to focus enough to learn how to think for themselves. As an instructor that can be frustrating. The second group of people typically have a hard time taking anyone at their word and need to understand why something is taught. In my opinion, this is the healthiest attitude to have when learning anything, especially self defense.

Rules
When people are looking for the "Golden Rule" of fighting, they want to be relieved of the responsibility of having to think for themselves. Sadly, there is no universal answer to winning a fight. Training to defend yourself against the unpredictable dangers of the world is one of the scariest and most challenging journeys you can take. If there was an easy answer, someone would have found it and everyone would be a black belt. Rules are  for sports and games. This way, everyone is on the same level and know what they can and can't do. My favorite example are poker players. I have a fair amount of experience playing poker and I've noticed that online poker players and those who play in person are very different. It always reminds me of the difference between sport fighting and combat. Online players tend to have a pre-conceived set of rules for every scenario. Lacking the human psychology of the game, poker is much more like a video game to these players, sitting at their computer for hours and often playing several games at once. These players at a table are often easy to read. They might lack the "poker face" needed to trick players and hide what they're holding. At a table, you manipulate your opponent into doing what you want while they think it was their idea. Two very different skill sets. This is just like fighting and training. There are, of course, always a "right" and "wrong" reaction, but when you lose control of the situation you've got to be able to adapt. Train to stay calm and roll with the punches. Don't panic when the scenario doesn't follow any "rules", because they're just an illusion constructed for your comfort.

Policies
A policy is something that you can question. Concepts, principles and theories are logical solutions to a problem that have been tested under pressure. We present these policies with explanations of what the consequences are if they're not followed. This was explained to me very clearly in my first year playing rugby. My fist coach explained to me that there are no rules in rugby, only laws. Not the same thing. Laws can be interpreted by the referee to judge if there was any advantage gained by bending them. If there isn't, no need to stop the game. If you punch someone in the nose, fail to recover the ball and your victim steps on your face...play on. This might be an extreme example but the point remains: question what you learn and everything will make more sense. Now I know why punching the guy who picked up the ball was a bad idea. If consequences aren't presented, we're just all training to omit free thought and train to be robots, ready to malfunction as soon as we lose control of an uncontrollable situation. This "do what I say" training method will doom us to failure. You can question your teachings in a respectable manner. Anytime a student has questioned something I taught (very rare occasion, of course!), it made two things clear for me as their instructor: they're listening and I wasn't clear enough on this particular point. I often encourage students to do the opposite of what I'm saying so that they don't just have to take my word for it. My sensei, Kevin Secours, often makes us warm-up with the "wrong" reaction to train our psyche to feel why this isn't working. We're often brought to the point of structural failure to ingrain the opposite response. In my experience in live combatives, this has been extremely helpful. We can't train "rules" this way because we need to remain cognitive and sharpen our judgement.

As with many lessons in my years of training, this method of learning has served me well in every aspect of my life. Life is easier if you're acting out of free will and not because you're following rules that you don't quite understand. Rules create a fear of consequence mentality, whereas policies explain the alternatives and make it clear why they are undesirable. Critical thinking and proper judgement are the keys to real freedom. You'll feel more confident all the time. Question everything, fear nothing.

Jordan Bill
Fight or Die

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