If you hit someone in class, the most common reaction is to stop and go, “Oh sorry, are you ok?” Let’s not do that. First: Ultimately we’re training to hit someone not just once, but as many times as necessary to keep ourselves safe. If you build the reflex of stopping in shock anytime you actually make contact, that training scar will really sabotage you in a real-life situation. Making contact should have the OPPOSITE effect on you: It’s a sign that you’re winning, and you should keep pushing the fight. Second: Although we should have control, and only make contact when intending to, self-defense is a contact activity. Neither party should be surprised if someone is getting hit. If it’s because of negligence or carelessness, then there’s a problem, but if it’s just the normal incidental contact of training, it shouldn’t even be acknowledged. Stopping and going, “Are you ok?” Just makes a big deal out of something that is not. Third: Within reason, we should WANT to get hit in training. Of course in sparring you’ll take a lot of contact, but even in the regular drills, it’s important to feel some hits. They should all be sub-injury of course. Personally, I like to take 1-2 good hits per class. It’s enough to inoculate me against the emotional effects of getting hit, but not so much that I’ll get hurt, or just not enjoy the class. Very few people like getting hit, and not that many people like hitting either. We can acknowledge that it doesn’t feel good, while also understanding that in most cases it’s not even worth noticing, and if we do, that has big negative downstream effects on our training.
