Martial Art Institute

STAYING IN CONTROL IN LIFE-DEATH CRISES

Is martial art's emotional-control discipline transferrable in life threatening or fatal situations?

This discourse looks at the behaviour of high anxious state during a life threatening situation and a fatal incident. It is a most curious thought- trying to see if martial art discipline of 'emotional-control' has a profound effect when martial artists are under life-threat.

There have been two significant incidents of Master Wai-Po Tang's direct involvement in two rescue attempts. One resulted in 4 deaths, and the other incident resulted in hospital intensive care.

On the 18th April 1992 approximately midnight, a fire was blazing inside a block of flats and a group of partygoers were trapped on the top floor. By coincidence Wai-Po passed by, and heard the screams from a group of people above. Thick smoke was pouring through the windows, and the sounds of screams were so chilling (Wai-Po recalls). It was at this particular moment when natural flight-fight responses take over.

Wai-Po believed that the consistent exposure of emotional control during some high-anxiety martial art training drills allowed him to compose his mental state more readily and willingly. Hence, Wai-Po was able to make decisive actions immediately. He forced a passing-by taxi to stop and requested an emergency radio message to the fire brigade, then kicked open the front communal doorway of the block of burning flats.

A big mistake but a lucky escape. Unknowingly, the fire actually spread from ground floor, this meant a quick duck onto floor from a massive ball of flame. The question is simply, what goes on in a person's mind when he just escape a life threatening situation. This fireball threat was shocking but did not render mental immobilisation. Wai-Po then ran to the side of the building, and climbed onto an adjoining building. During the climb, 3 people jumped and splattered onto the pavement, fence railing and one into the stairway of the basement flat. 'The sound of collision impact was really horrific' Wai-Po deeply recalls. Also, one other victim gave up survival, curled up in the corner of a room and died in the horrific fire.

The consecutive fireball shock and the traumatic moment of people fallen to death must have had a detrimental effect on correct action. At this particular moment in time when people are dying in front of you, maintaining emotional control was paramount. Question to the readers, "What do you do next. Do you attend to the fallen victims below or help the others? Well, Wai-Po believed he acted correctly by attending to the rest of survivors, helping approximately 8 people down to safety, but painfully regretted the deaths of the 3 - a moral dilemma that has haunted him occasionally.

The above true life story tells of several highly anxious moments of a deadly incident, each moment was shocking to Wai-Po, but how was it repeatedly challenged consecutively. The emotional dynamics of multiple cognitive restructuring under high anxiety states was evident. The ability to overcome fear and suppress fear maybe innate but Wai-Po strongly believes that martial art discipline drills may have strongly influenced this behaviour.

Another parallel emotional-control state occurred in 1993, when Wai-Po was attacked approximately 4-5 times by a group of mindless thugs - an evening that almost cost Wai-Po and his friend their lives. The incident arose when Wai-Po saw a friend repeatedly beaten to the ground by a gang of 15-20 thugs in an unprovoked attack. Again, this was an extremely difficult decision to make under this very high threat situation. Question for the reader, "Do you run away to call for the police or do you intervene?" The dilemma was if you go to call the police, the friend might die, and if you intervene, it was quite probable you would sustain serious injuries or death or possibly saving a friend's life.

Not an easy one, this was a not Hollywood movie where the good guy kick butts at a blink of an eye. No matter what level of martial skills - when there are multiple assailants it is a very serious threat to life. That's the reality.

Despite such insecurity of the moment, Wai-Po decided to intervene alone. Having intercepted what he believed was an assailant with a concealed weapon; Wai-Po knocked him out with a single punch to the chin. Thereafter, the whole gang stopped kicking his be-downed friend, and converged around Wai-Po. At this precise moment, what goes through a person's mind under this high threat situation?

Wai-Po recalls he was extremely fearful because he was alone; there were no assistance from anyone because the onlookers were too afraid of this gang. But emotional-control of fight-flight determined what happened next. Wai-Po decided if he was going die, he was going to take some with him. During the violent engagement of which there were approximately 4-5 attacks, one of the assailants struck a 6-inch knife into Wai-Po's lower back regional area during the second/third attack, this fully penetrated into rear body missing all vital organs.

Wai-Po crashed to floor, and he remembered it was like being kicked incredibly hard and it took the breathe out of him. The attack did not stop after the stabbing, and blows continued to rain in. Wai-Po analogises, "I felt like I was in the middle of a deep blue." And continued, "I gritted my teeth, and focussed my strength, and got up to fight the rest of them." According to an eyewitness, Wai-Po knocked out 3 more assailants in the next 3 onslaughts. The gang ran off when police cars were at close proximity.

Wai-Po's friend was admitted to intensive care for two weeks, death was close if it was not for the intervention. Wai-Po was very lucky only to have sustained one stab wound and a couple of minor scratches on the face. Wai-Po said, "There was no doubt that the martial art discipline instilled willpower, and the skills of riding impact force were major factors that minimised injury to myself, and ability to fight against the mindless thugs."

In conclusion to the notion of transferable emotional skills learned in martial art class to that of application in the streets- the testimonial from Master Tang was graphic and insightful. It is difficult to know whether his behaviour was natured or nurtured, and whether the model-theory of emotional control can be replicated among the general mass. There are certainly plenty of evidences that suggest repeated mental visualisation, and repeated physical actions do produce or enhance the desire effective behaviour. Well, maybe it is the combination of natural instincts and nurture behaviour that resulted decisive actions under high-threat situations.