We've all heard of the titled dichotomy: Fight or Flight. This dual choice, three word phrase is one that is, rightfully, on the tip of every street-combatives/reality-training enthusiasts' tongue. We all spout it when discussing questions of what's the best way to survive this or that scenario. We are able to delve into our memories of basic biology from high school and access our basic knee-jerk response to offer the usual "Well, the fight or flight response is a reaction of the sympathetic nervous system and in time's of stress..." and so on and so forth.
We remind ourselves, and others, just how integral it is to choose flight whenever and wherever possible over the fight half of the dictum and to fight, only if one must and then only until you are able to flee. (BTW-This conversation is only for the street combatives folks among us, MMA and other sport brethren don't flee. As a matter of fact, sport combatives are merely scheduled beatings, if we had people fleeing left and right there would be no sport and who would pay to see that?)
There's certainly nothing wrong with providing the behind the scenes biological processes that fuel the fight or flight dictum and there's certainly nothing wrong with advising victims to flee (as a matter of fact I think the moral thing to do is to advise a victim to flee whenever it is possible). What I do want to address is how much weight we give to one side of the fight or flight dictum compared with the scantiest of lip service we provide to the other. You with me yet?
If not, here's what I mean. We advise those who want honest advice on how to survive what may be the starkest and darkest time of their lives and we tell them, that if it is at all possible they should flee. And if it's not possible to flee we then unload this or that 8-week course or such and such go-to moves to get them out of harm's way. (Note: This discussion is not a criticism of any tactic or strategy, that is, it's not about what we teach, it's about what we don't teach). We spend all or (to give the benefit of the doubt) most of our time teaching or training ourselves and/or others how to fight. I get it, that's where the meat of the material is, the fun stuff, as it were. But are we assuming too much, or at least providing a mixed message when we say "Flee at all costs" and then spend zero time working on fleeing and 100% of the time fighting?
I think this might be due to a couple of reasons. The first, the aforementioned "this is where the fun stuff is." At a surface level saying "I'm taking Krav Maga" sounds way cooler than "I'm taking Urban Sprint lessons." Another factor may be the assumption that "Well, everyone knows how to run, right?" Well, maybe. Consider the following.
If one reviews incidences of violence in mass/crowded situations, that is, areas where we finds lots of law-abiding folks present when the violence begins there is usually an initial freeze or "WTF?" moment as good people try to assess a situation that is so far outside the ken of normal existence they are evaluating first, "Is this an actual threat?" And second, "What do I do?" (The fight or flight dilemma at it's stripped down most utilitarian level).
After this initial diagnosis that determines if this is indeed an actual threat, one of two things happens. Someone in the crowd/herd (I use the word 'herd' with sincerity and respect as the herding instinct can be quite useful) will run sparking others to do the same (the first to run, to get the herd moving is always a hero in my book). These people flee for any exit they can find, even in cases where the exact location of the threat is not determined (still a good call). Fleeing is a good thing-always. If there is a threat of any sort it does you no good to remain near the threat-there are people whose job it is to get close to threats, if it is not your job-flee.
The second reaction is an unfortunate variation of a single theme-staying stock-still, literally frozen with shock at what is occurring and unable to shift the gear from neutral into either fight or flight (again, not a value judgment, just an observation-law-abiding people should never have to make the fight or flight decision, but, alas, it happens). A variation of the stock-still/frozen tactic is to run a brief distance and hide. Not good in almost every case. Those who are privy to what happened in Columbine are aware of the fates of some of those who did hide. I could name instance after instance where hiding led to horrific consequences simply by dint of choosing to remain at the crime scene.
Side Rant: Why do public/government schools utilize a policy of lockdown in the case of an intruder? That is, locking children into a classroom and instructing them to hide? When there is a fire or any other internal threat we train them/drill them to flee the threat-a sound policy. I ask you, why in a situation where the threat is determined to be internal (as would be a fire or an intruder) we would advise keeping children (and adults for that matter) near the threat? This is in no swipe at any teacher who has utilized this strategy. The teachers who did and do so are simply doing their best to follow a strategy/policy handed to them by people they assume had looked into it and were passing along their "best judgment." Again, I would call attention to Columbine and ask why a lockdown and/or hide policy ever got off the ground. To be frank it smacks of willfully ignorant criminal negligence. End of rant.
Our lessons from the instances of violence among crowds can be taken to the individual level as well, fleeing is, indeed, a vitally useful tactic and we are all correct in advising/considering it as your go-to but....if we never train it, will it emerge if/when it is ever needed? We continually advise those who train to fight: "Train it and will come", and "Use it or lose it" in reference to combat skills and yet, for the most part how many of us, honestly, work on any aspect of flight?
Let's not assume that doing a little roadwork each week and running a 5K or two each season means you are ready to flee. Fleeing at its base level will be a sprint. With that in mind, adding the occasional sprint session to any and all street-combatives programs seems like a wise idea. In addition to this, might I suggest adding the occasional sprint session in footwear and/or clothing that you may actually wear on a day-to-day basis? If you wear footwork not conducive to sprinting, might I suggest drilling kicking it off and hitting some sprints barefoot or in stocking feet? Staying with sprint variations, why not multi-directional sprints where you move from cover to cover? Also try adding crouch sprints where you keep a low-profile as you run.
In addition to sprinting it might be advisable to work on other forms of locomotion, unusual methods that might be needed to get yourself away from a threat. Rapid bear-crawling to utilize cover, rapid hand and knee movement, and perhaps developing an elbow crawl/drag for very low cover.
It would also be wise to add mounting and navigating an obstacle or two to develop skill at getting yourself out of a variety of environments. I'm not suggesting that you need even remedial parkour ability but it would be nice to know that you could sprint and hoist yourself up and out a 6' window if need be. Or climb up or down to a different level using rudimentary hand and footholds.
We will be addressing several drills to assist in flight training in this book and I urge you to consider adding them to your self-protection regimen. The main point of today's discussion though is to ask yourself, honestly, if you ever utter the phrase "fight or flight": are you providing only lip service to half of that equation?
[For those who want more info regarding our take on self-protection see our book NO SECOND CHANCE: A Reality-Based Guide to Self-Defense.]
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