Interviewer:
Thanks for agreeing to discuss this topic with us, sifu. You have a very unusual - perhaps unique - background in the area of training the mind.
Sifu Zopa:
Yes. I suppose so. By chance, rather than design. Even if we consider there are a few other psychologists doing martial arts I’d guess it’d be unlikely any would also have had my Eastern mind training experiences. I know a Tibetan Buddhist monk who is also a highly qualified Western psychologist, for example, but he doesn’t do any martial arts. I’ve heard of other fellow psychologists into sports psychology who may do martial arts too, I believe - but they don’t have my exposure to Tibetan teachings, I’d be fairly certain. So my background is rare and maybe unique. Certainly very rare in martial arts circles. In Wing Chun circles I know at least one other fellow psychologist in the USA. But, again, he doesn’t have the Eastern side of things I’d imagine.
I guess with respect to training the mind that you know I’ve had a background with teachers - Japanese sensei, Chinese sifus and Tibetan lamas with whom I’m in regular contact still - which has strongly influenced my thinking. Much of what they taught me many decades ago I’m actually finding as I mature more I’m understanding far more fully. If you add in the fact that I‘ve been a psychologist for 28 years and I’ve gained five tertiary qualifications either directly in psychology or in related areas and involving a lot of psychology. I doubt very much if anyone has the multiple qualifications I’ve been fortunate enough to have gained in being a qualified teacher, a psychologist qualified in several specialisations, and having a Masters degree in Business. So, yes, you can see I have considerable interests in this area of the mind in martial arts and how to teach the use of it.
Interviewer:
Whilst most martial arts spend all, if not most, of their training time solely on techniques or physical development you also focus a lot on mind-training. I know we’re exceptionally physically fit but you also put a great emphasis on character and mind development too. Can you tell us about this?
Sifu Zopa:
Yes. Most spend all their time training the body. They might talk a bit about psychological aspects or mention esoteric Eastern concepts or regurgitate sayings they’ve read or heard but it’s obvious they haven’t grasped them. It’s apparently really rare to encounter any sustained and informed focus on mind training in most martial arts. Even modern sports psychology aspects are rarely employed in most martial arts clubs.
Yes, it’s true that most martial arts focus simply on the physical aspects of their art - be it physical exercises to increase strength, power, endurance, flexibility etc or sport tournament type sparring, technique repetitions, forms, or whatever they do. You see this if you travel around martial arts classes. Lots of interesting things happen. Some unusual things too, at times! (Laughs).
With respect to training the mind I think there’s sometimes a vague acknowledgment in some if not most martial arts that some sort of semi-mystical “meditation” needs to be done. This is more so in the classical arts from Japan - or those influenced by them. Some Chinese gung fu schools - those people refer to as “internal” spend a lot of time on training that’s not physical. Some actually know how to do this. Some do things that don’t work, mind you - they’re just a traditional exercise.
Some of the commercial schools offer something they’ve studied somewhere in some non-martial art context sometimes - like Scientology stuff - or read about but often haven’t been actually taught. So even that varies. There are some few people who really know what they’re doing and those who just see this sort of training as another commercial selling point. In Wing Chun some people sell Siu Lien Tao as a meditation exercise. As they do it - it isn’t! However, the raison d’etre of Siu Lien Tao is not meditation. The yee jee kim yeung ma - especially if done correctly - is not a stance for meditation. It seems these commercial folk looked around one day and found the market was interested in mind training or “chi” and discovered a way to meet the market demand in a sort of Wing Chun context. But, it’s nonsense. If you want to study hei gung or noi gung fine - but to market Siu Lien Tau as a hei gung set is stupid!
OK. I think a lot of self defence situations hinge for their effectiveness primarily on the control of fear. I think more people are beaten by their own anxiety, apprehension and fear than other factors. This is true of life as well as self defence situations. Of course, you have to have the technical skills and a real world street effective art, but given that I think “fear is the mind killer”, if I can quote from science fiction. I like that expression! (Grins)
What is fear? It’s a belief that we face or may face a threat over which we can’t exert control or we don’t believe we have the resources to cope. Confrontation itself doesn’t cause fear. It is our belief that we are unable to cope that causes fear. If a small pet lap dog yaps playfully at you then you usually don’t feel any fear. However, if a 75 kilo Rottweiler snarls menacingly at you then you ought to! It’s all about perceived capacity to cope. I stress “perceived” here as it’s possible you may actually have the capacity to cope and not know it - or, with false confidence, you may think you have the capacity to cope but actually don’t have! Many modern sports martial artists are in the latter boat. You can be over-confident. As we know, in the words of The Bard, that’s “mortals’ chief enemy”!
Look at this example: If I asked you to walk across the room, there’d be no fear, no need for fear. If you were afraid of that I, or one of my colleagues, would need to be treating you. If I asked you to walk across the room blindfolded, you’d experience maybe a little apprehension but not fear. If I asked you to walk across the room blindfolded and avoid obstacles - such as furniture - there’d possibly be some mild apprehension and perhaps a little fear because you might not want to fall over or bruise your shins. If I asked you to walk across the room blindfolded but barefoot and avoid broken glass, anyone would be wise to experience fear. You could be hurt and injured. If I asked you to walk across the room blindfolded and avoid broken glass but wearing shoes, there’d be no fear as we know we’d be protected by the shoes.
So, fear is a belief about the probability of possible harm, the severity of that harm and its imminence, balanced against our perceived capacity to protect ourselves from that harm. It has no tangible existence. It’s in the mind. (As a Tibetan Buddhist I chuckle to myself even saying this because we believe everything is!) But, fear manifests both in the mind and in the body. And, when it manifests in the body it interferes with our physical capacity to deter and defend ourselves from attack.
How do we generate this belief of fear? We can logically perceive a threat which generates fear in four ways. We can:
• see it - the criminal makes a menacing gesture; stares angrily; if we are a woman, leers lasciviously at us; stalks us; lunges in attack at us
• hear it - the criminal verbally threatens us: “What’re you looking at?”, “Want a smack in the mouth?”, “What’s your problem?’, “Who do you think you are?” etc
• feel it - the criminal actually grabs us or pushes us
• sense it - we have a “gut reaction” something is amiss and about to go sideways.
These perceptions of the imminence of a threat do several things to our body. I won’t get too technical here as a psychologist except to say this about the bio-chemistry: the perception of a threat normally produces a degree of stress which manifests through the adrenal gland releasing adrenaline and noradrenaline. The brain’s hormone control centres are activated to release the stress hormones - cortisol, corticosterone, and cortisone. These are very rapidly transported to the organs by the bloodstream. Our bodies seem to take on a life of their own under these chemical influences. A number of reactions can manifest.
Physical symptoms we can experience under threat are numerous and can include combinations of these alternatives:
sweaty palms
dry mouth
“butterflies in the stomach”
feeling of wanting to evacuate bladder and/or bowels
strained or quavering voice
swallowing
clearing the throat
tensing or licking the lips
nervous smiling
teeth chattering
goose pimples
sweating
wide-opened/protruding eyes
muscular tension
clenched jaw
trembling legs
It is not always in being able to stop these reactions that we overcome fear. What’s important is being able to control them sufficiently and not allow them to interfere with our response. Flight, fight or freeze are the basic options open to us when we’re faced with a physical threat.
“Freeze” is often left out and people commonly refer to the “fight or flight” syndrome. However, I feel that freezing is actually the most common response to physical danger! Certainly it’s common in a real world self defence situation. Even if it‘s only tensing up and slowing down!
Flight is the optimal response if we can take it. It removes us from danger most effectively. Some people get entangled in ego and false socially constructed perceptions that others will see them as cowardly or whatever so stay and fight - or be beaten - when they ought to have fled! It’s not cowardice to flee - unless you’re defending a loved one, of course - it’s smart!
So, you see, effective self defence skills at what people now refer to as “the sharp end” when we’re faced with a threat must entail being able to control our fear and anxiety in order to respond optimally in terms of self defence.
Interviewer:
Sifu, how do we overcome our fear in a real world attack situation so that we can respond appropriately?
Sifu Zopa:
That’s a fairly detailed topic and maybe I’ll go into it more fully another time. But I will provide some comment. There are proven techniques for managing fear and anxiety from ancient eastern and modern western psychologies. Psychology is the study of the mind and of behaviour. It can teach us a lot about self defence. Some Eastern thinkers have written fantastic material on this - at times you need to have been given the keys to understand them.
As you know, I apply my psychological training and experience - both Western and Eastern - to my self defence. In Western psychology there are quite sophisticated evidence- based methods these days relating to managing anxiety and stress. This can be done by establishing a relaxation response; thought stopping; negative thought refutation; re-training dysfunctional thought patterns; and using a systematic desensitisation hierarchy - in imagination and in an “in vivo” supported rehearsal. I can’t comment in any depth here, of course.
Interviewer:
Sifu, you have a saying which I won’t ask you to repeat in full here as it’s a closed gwoon formula in its fullest form, but could you say something about the steps to gaining courage from the Eastern martial arts tradition?
Sifu Zopa:
Yes, I can truncate that to talk about it in this context. A real world self-defence system has, as part of the features that define it, two things pertinent here. One is that there is a defining, systematic, sequential curriculum which takes the trainee step by step through the applications of the art. As you know every move we make in our art - in the forms and in the sik - has a very practical application - most things have multiple applications. There is nothing in our art we don’t apply. I stress, nothing. It is this knowledge and ability of how to use the applications that contributes to the art being the real thing. I stress “applications” here. It seems to my way of thinking that if you study a martial art for self defence reasons that you must focus on being able to employ it - to apply it. And this application has to be against an unco-operative attacker - not a contrived drill with gwoon mates. The guy has to be trying to get you! Hence, anything you can’t apply - easily - under the pressure of a real world attack is superfluous and you ought not to waste your time on it.
I say this because it’s the key to real world self defence competence which is a key plank in overcoming fear. If you have no reason to fear, why would you fear? If you really know you have the resources to meet an attack and overcome it then fear is downgraded to a normal and manageable level of cautious apprehension and doesn’t debilitate us.
My formula, well the truncated version, is: “Courage comes from confidence, confidence comes from competence”. So, it’s logical if you are confident you have the competence then you won’t be afraid. It’s true to say that I see my students gain in competence, then in confidence, then lose their fear.
Interviewer:
Thank you, Sifu.
Sifu Zopa:
Thank you. Happy to share my thoughts.