Fear & Shaking

The problem I had occured yesterday after work this guy was looking for trouble and started yelling and moving at me and my hands started shaking all I had was a mean look on my face evidently that shut him down because he walked off but my hands kept shaking my question is can my aikido training help me overcome this or is there something deeper going on.

I am very glad that the situation worked out and that you were OK. It's good to hear you handled the situation without having to fight.

Shaking is a common response to an adrenaline rush, that is, the "fight or flight" response that you get in an intense situation just like the one you were in. It's completely natural, and happens to lots of people, all the time, in many different situations.

Here, let me give you an example from something similar but that's not aggressive.

I take the bus to work almost every day. At the end of the route, it gets pretty rural, and the driver one night hit a deer.

The deer came out of nowhwere and he couldn't not hit it. There was no lights on the street so he couldn't really see it.

After the deer was hit, the driver did everything right. The driver stopped the bus right away, checked on the passengers (we were all fine), put a call into the police and the station, and set out "warning" cones. Also checked on the deer (it was toast).

As soon as he got back on the bus from putting the cones out, he started shaking pretty bad. The adrenaline from hitting the deer was doing that to him. Once he was done with everything he needed to do, it took over. The next day, though, the driver was back on the route, and doing just fine.

So, it's very common response, and completely natural. Aikido won't necessarily make it so you don't have that response, but it can help you deal with it when you come across stressful situations.

I would have to agree that it is pretty common. It can happen when your nervous, angry, anxious, or even excited. I wouldn't think it is too much to worry about. The times I have found myself to be shaky are the times that I have been the most sensitive to my surroundings and would have been more apt to act if needed.

It ain't something deeper it's physiology.....Carolyn is bang on....I get the shaky shakes when I'm going into a presentation or when surprised by aggressive behaviour (very rare for me to encounter aggressive behaviour). It'll happen whether you train or not...unless you train specifically to deal with the adrenal response but I will leave that to better qualified folks to talk about...

Cheers,

Russ

Anonymous User wrote: can my aikido training help me overcome this

Frequent randori / jiyuwaza may help if your partners really put on the pressure and know what they are doing.

Otherwise some alternate sources might be of some help ....

http://shinyokai.com/Essays_PCSConditioning.htm

http://www.selfgrowth.com/experts/peyton_quinn.html

http://www.modelmugging.org/courses.htm

There are many more ... the adrenaline won't go away but you will become better able at how you respond to its undesired effects.

Anonymous User wrote: The problem I had occured yesterday after work this guy was looking for trouble and started yelling and moving at me and my hands started shaking all I had was a mean look on my face evidently that shut him down because he walked off but my hands kept shaking my question is can my aikido training help me overcome this or is there something deeper going on.

No, aikido training is not designed to develop right response to hate and aggressive attacker. .The reason is simple. Facing the aggressiveness and hate is not a part of aikido daily training. You may try Mixed Martial Art training.

Even police officers forced to draw live weapons on human beings the first time get the shakes. Worst when you've shot someone. As everybody said, its a normal adrenaline side effect as it dumps you. But as you do it more and more often, you will condition your body that this is normal.

That's why in Wanted, they used real bodies for target practice I believe...

Anyway, you don't want to Combat train your body if you're a normal person. So there is a ki visualisation exercise that can help. Relax and keep center, now create an awareness sphere that expands from your center to touch the inner part of you skin and now expand it so that its outside your skin. Feel it become almost tangible, like a tingling aura that covers your whole body. Now have some friends help by verbally threatening you with promises of bodily harm, hurt and insults. Imagine those verbal attacks as visible strikes that hits your shield. Imagine it bounce off harmlessly. At all times remain relaxed and centered. Eyes looking shoulder level with a wide peripheral vision. Also ask the attacker to attack randomly in each encounter. (sometimes visualisation of the invisible attacks bouncing away makes us too comfortable with the situation that a sudden attack might catch us off guard).

Rinse and repeat. Build it up so that the attacks can come suddenly anytime before you prepare. When it does, immediately switch your shield up and visualise again.

Also if you do get the shakes. Listen to your heart and blood flow. Breath slowly and gently into your center and expel the tension away as you breath out. You'll still feel shaken, but you will shorten the period and you won't freeze. Drinking water will also help.

When you are shaken you will feel slightly 'tired'. So its a dangerous situation to be in. That's why its also good to train through tiredness in normal class.

There's also another visualisation method. This is for the more aggressive.

Szczepan Janczuk wrote: No, aikido training is not designed to develop right response to hate and aggressive attacker. .The reason is simple. Facing the aggressiveness and hate is not a part of aikido daily training. You may try Mixed Martial Art training.

Carolyn Parkinson wrote: Shaking is a common response to an adrenaline rush, that is, the "fight or flight" response that you get in an intense situation just like the one you were in. It's completely natural, and happens to lots of people, all the time, in many different situations.

If you train to face aggression then you can train yourself how to react mentally to aggression. The physical reaction ( shaking) can be handled physically by doing some hard physical activity to burn off or use up the adrenaline, like running or lifting weights.

David

hey anon,
Look; i don't know; and there's not a whole lot of info you gave; but think about this:
1-that shaking and mean face just kinda happened, right? spontaneously?
2-you were in a pretty extreme situation; with some guy tryin to pick a fight with you. that is a rare occurrence, right?
3-the guy saw what you had going on and backed down. that was good, right?

i don't know; it seems like everything worked perfectly.
what do you want to overcome?
the involuntary response seemed to indicate to the provoker that you were full-on ready to rock and roll; and he thought the better of it; as he was about to get the WHOLE and ENTIRETY of *you* all over *him*.

your body and mind were engaged, 'ON' and ready to bang.

Q: What is there to overcome?
Q: Why overcome it?
Q: Didn't things take care of themselves?
Q: It was all natural and spontaneous. And brought about a peaceful ending.

now; if you're planning on getting into a lot of fights then yeah; you may want to hone these responses; and try to master handling adrenaline dumps...but in general, for like...99.3% of all the situations this was absolutely freaking perfect.... wasn't it?

just a point of view for you

Good luck.
Love not Fear

The shaking is your body burning of the exes adrenaline,
I don't think it is avoidable,
unless you're a complete master and is calm no matter what

Anonymous User wrote: The problem I had occured yesterday after work this guy was looking for trouble and started yelling and moving at me and my hands started shaking all I had was a mean look on my face evidently that shut him down because he walked off but my hands kept shaking my question is can my aikido training help me overcome this or is there something deeper going on.

Sounds normal to me. Not knowing you or your training it's hard to say much, but people can learn to control their physiological responses to things.

The problem I had occured yesterday after work this guy was looking for trouble and started yelling and moving at me and my hands started shaking all I had was a mean look on my face evidently that shut him down because he walked off but my hands kept shaking my question is can my aikido training help me overcome this or is there something deeper going on.

Hi I just like to contribute,

Mokuso; (Meditation), after Knee walking ("samurai walking"). Shikko is very important for developing a strong awareness of one's center of mass (HARA). we do this every practice the key lays here.

stay cool man.