Why You Need to Be Aggressive in Training

Last week, during a break in training, one of my students asked, “Is it really necessary to be so aggressive?”

He was referring to the controlled aggression I teach in my training sessions.

You see, one of the features of Dave’s SDF training and that of Goshinkwai, is controlled aggression.

The difference between controlled aggression and pure emotional anger is that you could lose control with the latter.

I’m sure some of you may be familiar with this.

I’ve been in fights, long time ago, where I remember the fight beginning… and the ending… but I don’t remember what happened in between.

Basically, that’s a blank.

There was one fight where all I remember is saying the word, “Right!” and lunging forward with my fist cocked to punch the guy.

The next thing I saw was someone else literally lifting him up and pull him away from me.

He had blood all over his face, but I still don’t know what I did.

Everyone who was there told me I hit him once.

However, whether it was once or a hundred times, makes no difference to me as it’s still a blank to me to this day… over 25 years later.

That was emotional anger.

All I wanted to do was break his face – he had been bullying me for four years prior to that day.

Now, when it comes to controlled aggression, the best way I can illustrate it is this…

If you’ve watched The Hulk, the one with Eric Bana, there’s a scene where the Hulk goes to Betty’s place and he’s hiding near the trees.

Betty sees him (difficult not to) and, realising it’s Bruce, goes up to him.

To cut a short story even shorter, a little while later, the two Gamma induced dogs turn up.

As the dogs approach, the Hulk lifts Betty up and puts her into the car.

While he’s doing this, he’s very gentle, even up to the point where he closes the door.

He then turns to face the dogs… and that’s when his face changes and he lets out a roar, as only the Hulk can.

The transformation from one – gentle – to the next – pure fury – was instant.

It wasn’t emotional – it was necessary.

If you watch the Hulk throughout, you’ll notice the angrier he got, the bigger and stronger he got.

And, in the case of the dogs, he knew he had to be angry to be stronger to beat them.

If he retained the gentle calm he had with Betty, the dogs would have ripped him apart.

Except with the Hulk, the need to be angry in that situation was instinctual.

By purposely making himself angry he became stronger and more focused on the job at hand – that of dealing with the dogs.

Now, I explained this to my student, but he still didn’t quite ‘get it’.

So I said to him, “Imagine you’re walking down the street and you see your sister on the opposite side.  As she is about to cross over to meet you, a guy comes up behind her and starts to drag her away.  How do you feel?”

His face changed.

“I’d kill him!”

The I said, “Now imagine your little brother has just been beaten up by a guy far bigger than him and he’s in hospital.  What would you do to the guy?”

His reply, “Man, he’s dead”.

So I asked him, “These things haven’t even happened… you’re just imagining what could happen.  How do you feel?”

I could see he was beginning to understand.

You see, once he realised it was just a suggestion of what could happen and hadn’t actually happened, he was calm.

He controlled his emotions.

“Now”, I said, “Next time you don’t think you could be aggressive like that, just think of those situations and then tell me you can’t do it”.

After training finished that day, as he was walking out the door, he turned and said, “Now I understand what you meant by controlled aggression…I didn’t before”.

You see, in order to be the best fighter we can possibly be, we need to be able to control our emotions.

Not only do we need to check our emotions when necessary, we also need to become aggressive when the situation calls for it.

It’s a simple matter of survival.

And, if you practice it in training, it will be easier to call up on when it’s required for real.

That’s my take on aggression.

Do you think I’m right, or wrong?

What are your thoughts on aggression and its use in training and in the streets?

Let me know in the comments section.

Dave Turton’s Unarmed and Dangerous