Searching for reality
Published: Wed, 08/20/25
So, what was the benefit of these violent episodes? We must remember that nothing really happens by chance or accident on a geo-political level, so here is a clue. When I was in the TA (Territorial Army) in the early 1990s junior NCOs would be sent to Warminster School of Infantry for courses in combat leadership. Often those so trained would return and announce that our small unit tactics had been radically revised and we would retrain accordingly. Up until the 1990s the British Infantry was still training for World War 2. Such tactics were out of date by the 1980s and strictly speaking, when the British soldiers fought accord to these doctrines in the Falklands war, they really should not have won. The Argentinians were much nearer home, were well dug in, and very well equipped with the latest weapons and equipment. Had the ‘Argies’ been better led, trained, and motivated the campaign would have been a disaster for the British,
and very nearly was. So, short and limited though the Falklands conflict was, every detail of the combat that did happen was examined in the minutest detail possible. Lessons were learned, new methods and tactics developed, and training and manuals were extensively re-written. About 10 years after the Falklands was re-captured the TA found itself retraining according to the lessons learned far away in the South Atlantic. Another benefit to the British military was that for the next 20 years there was a cadre of serving officers and NCOs who had actually seen real combat.
For about 30 years active service in Northern Ireland also provided the experience of being shot at or risking being blown up for a great many soldiers. Yes, it was a bit rough on those who were killed or maimed, but that is what made it real. Similar lessons are being analysed and translated into military doctrine from experience in Afghanistan right now and ‘advisers’ and ‘trainers’ will be engaged in the same process in Ukraine. Were these conflicts avoidable? Of course they were. However, a military culture which is not regularly tested in combat becomes very inward looking and tends to receive a rather massive shock when it encounters a determined enemy. The BEF (British expeditionary force) actually acquitted itself very well in the early phases of WW1 because it was led by officers and NCOs who had fought in the Boer war less than 15 years before. There was a similar situation in WW2 where the senior officers such as
Montgomery had fought in the trenches a generation earlier.
I am not making any particular moral judgement here. I am just exploring a principle which applies just as much to personal martial arts training. The basic question being: How do you do realistic combat training? And there is no satisfactory answer to this question, which is why our government engages in avoidable conflicts with (usually) much weaker enemies. The casualties in Northern Ireland and Afghanistan were always going to be light enough to be acceptable from a military point of view and yet the risk was great enough to provide real combat experience. There are many ways you can simulate combat using pyrotechnics, laser simulators, and Airsoft weapons etc. However, you cannot simulate the actual fear of death or really serious injury and without having experienced that fear you are not prepared for actual combat.
I know that you can get hurt doing combat sports such as boxing, wresting, kick-boxing, BJJ, MMA etc etc and I have the greatest of admiration for those who perform well in such sports. However, the training is very carefully managed and the competitions very tightly regulated, as indeed they should be. Courage is certainly needed to engage in such activities, but there is an expectation of living to fight another day even if you loose.
Some Martial Art Clubs claim to practice ‘reality based self defence’ where they deal with real attacks and hold back nothing in defending themselves. There can be some serious rough and tumble going on but I am sceptical about the reality of it. How many training sessions result in someone going to hospital with serious injuries? How often does someone actually get killed in training? Not very often I would hope, and if no one gets really injured, or killed, then the ‘no holds barred’ training is not actually realistic. I am not advocating that martial arts training ever should be deadly, but some honesty goes a long way.
The time honoured method of getting experience of real violence was to work as a doorman or ‘bouncer’ at rough venues. I strongly recommend Geoff Thompson’s seminal work ‘Watch My Back: The Geoff Thompson Story’ if this route interests you (please see link below). There is no substitute for antagonistic confrontations, but there are risks, as soldiers serving in combat zones, and Mr Thompson, discovered.
The Thor rune is the symbol of protection. The Thor rune means, and even looks like, the thorn, and the pricking of the thorn reminds us of the vulnerability of frail flesh and blood. The first stage of self-defence should be an awareness of our vulnerability, and thus the potential cost of getting involved in violence. If we train gently, slowly, carefully, and with full awareness of the vulnerability of the human body, we can practice ways of moving and making contact which would be dangerous if practised with speed and power. We can learn how to break balance and work with the web within the body while managing and centring ourselves. You can also learn how to protect yourself, not by meeting force with force, but by yielding and redirecting your opponent’s force. Then what happens if someone seriously tried to attack you? Firstly, you should be able to move in such a way that you can minimise danger to yourself and manage the
situation according to the principle which is most appropriate at the time. Secondly, if you can regulate your energetic state under pressure you will de-escalate the situation rather than feeding the conflict. Thirdly, if you do need some speed and power to deal with a determined assailant your body will deliver when necessary and the power released will be combined with your ability to cover your vulnerabilities while exploiting the the inherent weaknesses in your opponent. The strange part is that you can only release your true power from a place of relaxation and calmness of mind. I will explore this paradox in my next post.
regards
Graham
PS I will be exploring these ideas at Stavcamp 2025 in September https://www.stavcamp.org/
PPS Geoff Thompson’s account of his life as a ‘bouncer’ https://www.amazon.co.uk/Watch-My-Back-Geoff-Thompson/dp/1840241896
Graham Butcher
21 Beaver Road
Beverley East Yorkshire HU17 0QN
UNITED KINGDOM
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