|
a close encounter
Last night on my way home from training I stopped off at a local supermarket to pick up a few things. It was about 10:40pm and the supermarket was fairly empty. I parked my car and began walking into the store, outside were four guys all smoking. I walked passed them and picked up a handbasket and entered the store. They immediately followed me in, which I thought suspicious but carried on looking for my items. I could hear them joking about what I was wearing (just a regular winter jumper as it was quite cold), which again unnerved me triggering a myriad of thoughts about what I would do if they became confrontational or tried to intimidate me. As I had just finished training, various techniques ran through my head but then conflicting thoughts also ran across my mind clouding my judgement; I began to worry about being outnumbered (we don't learn multiple attacker techniques until high dan grade); whether acting pre-emptively was going against the principles of AJJ, whether any of my Jujutsu techniques would work under stress, whether I was being paranoid or whether dismissing these thoughts as mere paranoia would be a fateful mistake should they attack me! I turned into another isle but the four guys didn't follow me to my relief and I managed to finish my shopping undisturbed.
I guess the most obvious conclusion to draw from this experience is don't shop late at night alone, but there may come a time when we will need to use our training; when that time comes how do we control our emotions and clear our thoughts? Were my thoughts normal? I don't mind admitting I felt quite insecure momentarily as I seriously considered using my training in self-defence. Has anyone else experienced similar situations or had similar thoughts or insecurities? Had I not been a martial artist would any of those thoughts even occurred to me? Are these types of thoughts a positive or negative effect of being a martial artist?
|