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Old 11-22-2011, 09:15 AM   #51
Janet Rosen
 
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Location: Left Coast
Join Date: May 2002
Posts: 4,339
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Re: intimidation

Quote:
Larry Robinson wrote: View Post
I don't know if you can "keep from being intimidated". I mean, you're either intimidated or you're not, right?

So am I to be considered a psychopath, because I have no adrenaline rush and actually get calmer as things get chaotic? The last Yard riot I was involved in, many said they thought we were conducting a drill because my voice was so calm. When incidences occur I usually take control, because I seem to be able to think more clear and slow everybody down.
re 1.: You can experience feelings that tell you that are experiencing being intimidated. You can also override the feelings (not struggle against them, just accept them and not be ruled by them) and show no outward reflection of the feeling you have and act based on not allowing them to rule you.

re 2. Not psychopathic. Besides training to deal with stuff, not all people are wired the same. Some don't have typical adrenaline rush in situations the majority would, and some have parasympathetic response instead of sympathetic (slow pulse, dropped BP, etc).

Janet Rosen
http://www.zanshinart.com
"peace will enter when hate is gone"--percy mayfield
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Old 11-22-2011, 12:23 PM   #52
Michael Neal
Join Date: Dec 2002
Posts: 601
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Re: intimidation

I know a lot of people don't like competition but I have found Judo competition to be very helpful dealing with the adrenaline dump. When I was younger I would get an uncontrollable rush of adrenaline but now I remain relatively calm.

After a several years of Judo I had someone try for 10 minutes straight to intimidate me by posturing, circling around me, staring, talking smack etc. I remained calm and I had a very slight adrenaline dump but it was just enough to quicken my reflexes a little, it didn't take control over me. It was similar to having a couple cups of coffee. The key thing I think is actually being ready to fight if you have to, I was comfortable with that prospect.

I was calm with him and was even slightly arrogant towards him at a certain point. At the end I invited him to come to my wrestling class and we could spar, he promptly left. I think wrestling works better than saying Judo, more people know what wrestling is and Judo is a type of wrestling anyway.

In order to remain I calm you have to be able to resign yourself to fighting if necessary. At least that is what works for me.
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Old 11-22-2011, 09:36 PM   #53
Aikironin21
Dojo: Aikido of Solano
Location: Vacaville California
Join Date: Aug 2011
Posts: 25
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Re: intimidation

I agree with the your view on competition, or at least some active resistance in sparring. You don't have to go all out to test your techniques. You definitely need some active resistance and attempts to counter or stifle your techniques. This is where Aikido draws a lot of flack from outsiders. The compliant partner practice comes under attack because those who never progress beyond it, assume what will work and wont under resistance.

How does this relate to intimidation? Well, if you tussle around with actively resisting or attacking uke, or competitors in say Judo or other systems, you have the confidence to know, what your high percentage techniques are, and which ones you will stay away from. In short, you have a solid game plan complete with audibles for the what ifs. You are sure in your techniques and have tested them. When you have someone bringing the potential for physical confrontation to you, you are less likely to be uncertain of yourself and therefore be less likely to be intimidated.
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Old 11-22-2011, 10:51 PM   #54
gates
Join Date: Feb 2008
Posts: 193
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Re: intimidation

If you are ignorant that your techniques won't work, but full of confidence that they will, surely you will still give off the same level of confident body language, whether it will actually work or not. And therefore for intimidation it will work the same way, and you will only become unstuck when it develops beyond mere intimidation. Obviously false confidence is a dangerous thing, and could lead you into all sorts of trouble, but acting confidently, even if you know you cant back it up has got to be better than not.

Also having tested your skills are you then more or less likely to try and use them? Maybe this is why takeda said of aiki 'the secret of Aiki is to overpower your opponent at a glance and to win without fighting' mind you, doesnt work on taxi drivers

Enjoy the journey
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Old 04-15-2012, 05:13 AM   #55
Alberto_Italiano
Join Date: Dec 2009
Posts: 296
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Re: intimidation

Quote:
George S. Ledyard wrote: View Post

Much violent behavior comes under the heading of "affective" violent behavior. It is the typical aggression between members of the same species. It is characterized by high emotional content and a lot of "dsiplay". This type of encounter can be handled by the strategies being mentioned above.

But another type of agressive behavior is the "predatory" type of aggression. All this "conflict resolution" stuff doesn't work on this type of agressive individual. (...)

True predators are quite interesting. Unlike regular people who get fairly agitated when they decide to attack, thereby giving off quite few pre-attack indicators, the predator actually gets calmer when he decides to attack .(...)
I love this guy's posts
Indded, this is exactly what happens.
A competent attacker will give you no sign of his incoming attack. That's why, under a psychologial point of view, he's called competent.

There are two more techniques that are even worst, and you should be aware of them:
1) the predator has a verbal brawl with you. Then he feigns he wants to get over with it. He produces all the signs of sincere hearthfelt will to fix the situation and possibily label it as a misunderstanding.
At that point, to seal the reached "peace" he may offer a drink to you. They can be pretty clever and coldheaded and seem utterly sincere.
As soon as you sip it, or after the first few sips, he will hit you with a punch directed to the bottom of the glass and devastate your face.
I have seen this happening (twice, and do you know who was the second attacker? a lady...).
2) you have a very minor verbal exchange. You keep having fun with your friends, and that person you had that minor exchange with is nowehere to be seen or seems intent to his own business, maybe even having a good time with his friends somewhere else in the bar.
Yet, he has kept an eye on you all the time. Indeed, he is waiting for you to be intoxicated and alone. He did not deem it "minor"...
You will be followed, and attacked, in the parking lot... or in the restrooms...

Last edited by Alberto_Italiano : 04-15-2012 at 05:21 AM.
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Old 04-15-2012, 05:17 PM   #56
gregstec
Dojo: Aiki Kurabu
Location: Elizabethtown, PA
Join Date: Jun 2004
Posts: 1,110
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Re: intimidation

Quote:
Alberto Italiano wrote: View Post
I love this guy's posts
Indded, this is exactly what happens.
A competent attacker will give you no sign of his incoming attack. That's why, under a psychologial point of view, he's called competent.

There are two more techniques that are even worst, and you should be aware of them:
1) the predator has a verbal brawl with you. Then he feigns he wants to get over with it. He produces all the signs of sincere hearthfelt will to fix the situation and possibily label it as a misunderstanding.
At that point, to seal the reached "peace" he may offer a drink to you. They can be pretty clever and coldheaded and seem utterly sincere.
As soon as you sip it, or after the first few sips, he will hit you with a punch directed to the bottom of the glass and devastate your face.
I have seen this happening (twice, and do you know who was the second attacker? a lady...).
2) you have a very minor verbal exchange. You keep having fun with your friends, and that person you had that minor exchange with is nowehere to be seen or seems intent to his own business, maybe even having a good time with his friends somewhere else in the bar.
Yet, he has kept an eye on you all the time. Indeed, he is waiting for you to be intoxicated and alone. He did not deem it "minor"...
You will be followed, and attacked, in the parking lot... or in the restrooms...
Very true - when you insult and piss someone off, not too many people can roll over and let it go; most people will want some form of retaliation. Those that wear their emotions on their sleeve, will immediately engage - however, those that are calculating and sneaky, like most predators, will set you up in some way that they think is clever as well as put them in a less risky position to increase their odds of success in the retaliation - I have seen it often throughout my Naval career when spending time in the rougher establishments of the ports we visited

Greg
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Old 04-25-2012, 09:15 AM   #57
genin
Location: southwest
Join Date: Jul 2011
Posts: 103
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Re: intimidation

I'm not sure what this qualifies as, but I'll post it here. I was walking to the store this weekend and I came across a teenager up ahead. For some reason the kid started attacking the road signs on the side of this bridge. I couldn't tell if he was doing this for my benefit since he saw me approaching, or if he was going to do it anyway for whatever reason. It came to the point where I was going to have to literally walk right past him while he was doing spin kicks and punches on these signs, very spastically I might add. I'm not sure if he was trying to intimidate me, but it became clear that he wanted to involve me in whatever he was doing. I mean, typically if you were vandalizing public property and a stranger walked up, you'd stop.

In true form, my strategy is not to win a potential conflict, but to circumvent it. So I continued on toward this kid and then at the last moment I veered to the left and past under the bridge, avoiding him altogether. He obviously could tell that this was a deliberate move, and I anticipated that he wouldn't be able to let that go without acknowledging my actions. I kept walking as though I never even factored him in, then I hear "Oh, it's okay, I'm straight bro..." And no sooner did he say that then he moved on about his business down the road. Clearly, he was looking to elicit a reaction from me, and when that was not forthcoming, he had to settle for another attempt to get my attention.

It was one of those weird deals where I couldn't tell if this was just a goofy teenager "look at me" type thing, or if this was some sort of strange aggressive intimidation tactic. Just thought I'd share that experience for what it's worth.
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Old 04-27-2012, 05:58 AM   #58
Abasan
Dojo: Aiki Shoshinkan, Aiki Kenkyukai
Join Date: Oct 2001
Posts: 813
Malaysia
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Re: intimidation

Wow. That's a pretty universal event I guess. The first is known to me and I can only hope extending ki the way koichi tohei advocates in his book actually prevents the glass making a larger hole in your mouth. Whenever in doubt I remind myself of the story of that aikidoka who drove his car down a cliff but kept his extension of ki and relaxed elbows eventually finding himself holding on to a crumpled steering but with nary an injury.

The 2nd, well the smart thing to do was to leave and find another place. Or even smarter, don't get drunk. Osensei admonishes drinking too much. And we can clearly see the result of drunkenness even in high level aikidoka such as Tohei who could have very well ended up paralyzed were it not for luck and Kiatsu.

Quote:
Alberto Italiano wrote: View Post
I love this guy's posts
Indded, this is exactly what happens.
A competent attacker will give you no sign of his incoming attack. That's why, under a psychologial point of view, he's called competent.

There are two more techniques that are even worst, and you should be aware of them:
1) the predator has a verbal brawl with you. Then he feigns he wants to get over with it. He produces all the signs of sincere hearthfelt will to fix the situation and possibily label it as a misunderstanding.
At that point, to seal the reached "peace" he may offer a drink to you. They can be pretty clever and coldheaded and seem utterly sincere.
As soon as you sip it, or after the first few sips, he will hit you with a punch directed to the bottom of the glass and devastate your face.
I have seen this happening (twice, and do you know who was the second attacker? a lady...).
2) you have a very minor verbal exchange. You keep having fun with your friends, and that person you had that minor exchange with is nowehere to be seen or seems intent to his own business, maybe even having a good time with his friends somewhere else in the bar.
Yet, he has kept an eye on you all the time. Indeed, he is waiting for you to be intoxicated and alone. He did not deem it "minor"...
You will be followed, and attacked, in the parking lot... or in the restrooms...

Draw strength from stillness. Learn to act without acting. And never underestimate a samurai cat.
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