Martial Arts Training - Self Defense Training - Neko Ryu Goshin Jitsu: Principles of War: Self Analysis

I’m analyzing my martial arts skills, capabilities, and style through the lens of the Principles of War as defined in U.S. Army Field Manual FM 3-0. My commentaries on each principle are available through the links below.

Mass
Objective
Offensive
Surprise
Economy of Force
Maneuver
Unity of Command
Security
Simplicity

So far I’ve graded my personal martial arts style as follows:

Mass - a "C"
Objective - a "B"
Offensive - a "B"
Surprise - an "A"
Economy of Force - an "A"
Maneuver - a "C"

This time I’ll grade myself on the Principle of War: Unity of Command

For every objective, ensure unity of effort under one responsible commander.

Obviously, when you’re alone in a self defense situation you’re the person in charge of your defense. There’s no competing “commander”. So, for the self defense situation, and for martial arts generally, I interpret the Principle of War: Unity of Command to mean you must be decisive - you must not “be of two minds” or uncertain as to the actions you will take. Either fight or flight may be okay but freezing is fatal; as is second guessing the fight or flight decision.

Because, under stress, we tend to do what we’ve repeatedly trained to do - any effective self defense system must include lots of drills. Drills must repeat techniques and movements over and over again until they become natural; until they’re performed automatically - without thought.

When this level of training is achieved you can hope and expect that in the stress of an attack you’ll do what you’ve trained to do without hesitation – with one mind.

All of the martial arts in which I’ve participated have incorporated drills to ingrain movements and techniques into your subconscious – into “muscle memory” as it’s generally called.

I’ve developed my own drills and I cycle thru them each week. I’ve performed my drills so many times that I have to force myself to slow down as I do them so I can see the techniques and speak their names.

I’ve done my drills so many times that today; it’s actually easier to flash thru them without thought.

For the Principle of War: Unity of Command I award my personal martial art style – along with every other martial art and combative sport style I’ve ever seen - an “A”.