Quick reasoning in combat: how to develop it
What is the connection point between strategy and instinct?
In mental terms, the sooner we become aware that any type of combat is a real-time chess match, the sooner we understand the importance of a mind capable of (relatively) complex quick reasoning.
Note – This article has been asked by one of our Core Course practitioners on Patreon (see how to attend our home study classes here Learn Kung Fu online: a beginner-to-expert course).
Before entering into the details, it is however important to say that in any kind of scenario (self-defense, combat sports, etc., read The 6 types of martial clash), our school recognizes this ordered sequence:
- General strategy development (very slow)
- Specific tactics choosing (rapid)
- Fighting techniques application (very fast)
- Instant reactivity activation (instantaneous)
A note by Master Kongling – We discuss this more in-depth in Martial arts real-time strategy: how to.
In this scheme (excluding the first point that cannot be elaborated while involved in a combat scenario):
- Quick reasoning – Covers the second point and part of the third (in the rare case of very complex technique applications)
- Instinct – Despite being the fastest human combat capability, it covers only the third and the fourth points
Let’s try to understand why.
What is quick reasoning and why it is better than instinct
Quick reasoning is:
- A simple, tactical and voluntary choice of the path to follow in order to reach the goals of our primary strategy
- In most cases, a rapid but rational selection between already-known specific tactics
- The adaptation of a well-tested (in training) tactic to the present scenario
- Not the deep and slow reasoning we need to formulate a good general strategy (that must be chosen instead in the preparation phase)
- Rarely, the eventual formulation of a new tactic (in the case in which all the known ones fail)
- Often a way to discover the opponent’s errors (to exploit them) and a way to avoid his / her traps (read also The study of the opponent [MINI-GUIDE])
- Not a way to organize a combat reaction to the opponent’s action nor even a way to coordinate our body during the execution of a technique (all of this requires infinitely smaller time spans that can be covered only by a well-conditioned instinct)
- …
Why if instinct is faster, we cannot count on it to express superior tactical performances?
The reason is that instinct is incredibly fast exactly because it skips all the normal steps of good-quality decision-making (it’s as if it slavishly repeats a sort of pattern as animals do):
- On one side (as long as it has proper conditioning behind it) this could not be a big problem against a low-level adversary
- On the other, against a not-basic opponent, it risks making us predictable and easy to deceive
A note by Master Kongling – What we are trying to say is that instinct plays a crucial role in the economy of combat but it must be relegated to the most simple and faster tasks (read Fighting with the reason at the speed of instinct). To have a reference, we can just think about the fact that the pure application of instinct represents at the same time the strongest and weakest point of most animals, as well as the sad reason why they fall into our traps very easily.
How to correctly develop quick reasoning
This is a basic path to start to develop this capability (read All the skills of 6 Dragons Kung Fu):
- Primarily we have to work with sparring, alternating slow-motion and normal-speed sessions (read Sparring type 1: slow motion fighting)
- Secondly, we have to start to familiarize ourselves with the (often misunderstood) concept of “multitasking” (read Multitasking: how to develop it and why)
- Third, it is necessary to directly train the mind to make practical high-speed voluntary decisions, analyses and evaluations gradually more and more complex (read for example The 6 stones: an exercise to develop coordination, An exercise for the cyclical concentration: pencil and paper and Drastically improve concentration: 1 exercise)
- …
A note by Master Kongling – These are only the first steps but all of this must be done with the idea of starting extremely slow and simple: we will automatically know when to increase at the exact moment we reach a stability of results. At each improvement we aim at, the idea must be to never lose the past quality level acquired (read also Speed and quickness).
In the next article of this series, we will discuss more in practical terms the combat combination between instinct and quick reasoning (read Concentration: reason and instinct).
In-depth video courses
- Basic 6 Dragons Kung Fu exercises – The fundamental technical conditioning of the body for combat
- Advanced speed and reflexes training – Advanced methods to learn to develop real combat speed
- Mind self-control hacks – How to take control of our mind to obtain better mental performance
- Advanced combat tactics – How to build good quality strategies made of interchangeable tactics
- How to develop a good timing – How to gain control over your pace and impose it on the opponent
- How to use feints in combat – A video course about deception in combat
- Basic free hand fighting techniques – All the basic combat moves of 6 Dragons Kung Fu
In-depth articles
- Concentration and abstraction in combat – The right level of detachment during a fight
- A meditation mini-guide: how to start – At the base of a strong combat-ready mind
Questions
Reply in the comments and share your experience:
- Do you feel able to manage quick reasoning in a real scenario?
Author: Master Kongling
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