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Picking a fight to beat stress

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He said it: “Hit me as hard as you can.” So I did. As often as I could. I hit him until my hands were sore.

I kneed him until my knees were bruised.

Luckily for him, Chris Wood was wearing a huge padded suit.

Luckily for me, Chris Wood was wearing a huge padded suit – because he’s a martial arts master.

If he wanted to, he could beat me up with a flick of his eyelids.

He has 28 years’ experience in screaming haya-tah!, standing and fighting.

I’ve got 28 years’ experience in mumbling “sorry”, turning and running.

I’m the baby from whom the candy was taken so easily, who grew up into the man who got the sand kicked in his face… and here I am belting a martial arts expert around the room.

It all started with a few quiet words of encouragement from Wood.

“Even a martial arts expert can lose a street fight,” he’d said when he invited me to sample his new self-defence classes.

“People train for years and get very proficient in the gym.

“But when some mouthy hardman bumps into you in the pub, or somebody drunk or drugged-up decides to try to pick a fight in the street, it’s different.”

The difference is adrenaline, the hormone which pumps around the body in moments of stress.

“It’s nature preparing you for ‘fight or flight’. The blood that should be feeding your brain rushes to your arms and legs to make them stronger.

“Your heart quickens, your breathing shortens, you can’t think straight. You get time distortion, tunnel vision and hearing block.

“You can choke, or freeze or get too tense to do the moves you’ve learned.

“I’ve seen martial arts experts completely miss their kicks. Their timing and movement goes completely.”

The same applies to anybody who’s had any basic self-defence instruction: even the simplest, most ingrained moves can be forgotten when they are most needed – in the red mist of a true moment of crisis.

There’s more…