What If

By Louis Tandoh

What If

Every martial arts instructor will be asked when they demonstrate a technique,

“What if they do this instead?”.

As a beginner instructor I used to HATE the ‘what if’ question. Not because I didn’t have an answer for it, but because I was having to teach some of my peers. It felt like they were challenging me, to see if I was worthy to teach them in a lesson. With hindsight I doubt this was the case, but at that time I was in the peak of my impostor syndrome and I felt very insecure instructing the classes (although I tried not to show it).

After 5 years on the mats I still hated the ‘what if’ question. At that time I was more confident in the roll, having been established and feeling like I had earned my stripes. But when that question came up it still ground my gears for a different reason. Whenever it usually came up, it was from glass half full students. Students that had trained in other martial arts. They would say “If you did that then I would do this” 9 times out of 10 they would have missed something in the technique, something that would have made their response impractical or unusable. Or they asked it before I had finished working through it, most of the time that was due to my teaching style.

I would start small and build up the complexity or refine it. For most students if you show something complex, especially to a beginner it can knock their confidence, frustrate them and make them feel inadequate. So I broke it down and build it up, by the time they would have learnt it, I hoped they would have a sense of accomplishment and new confidence in themselves.

At 10 years I didn’t really get asked the what if question. My teaching style had changed, with experience and a better understanding. I now tried to avoid the complex techniques or combinations. I had boiled down my understanding into concepts, that were easy to understand, that didn’t require much thought under stress. Making it easier for the student digest and apply.

That didn’t mean I no longer got asked the ‘what if’ question, but when I was asked, it no longer irritated me. I was much better at reading people, and those that asked the question were genuinely worried or curious about a technique. Some had been in a similar situation, or they had seen an attack similar to, or counter to the technique I was teaching. After I had addressed their query I could see their posture and facial expressions relax. Like they now no longer had to worry about being attacked like that. I think some of the anxiety could have been from asking the question, possibly worried that I would be irritated by it. It takes courage to put your hand up and ask for help in all aspects of life. It was around this time I encouraged students to ask as many questions as possible no matter how silly they thought they were. I have always tried to be approachable, but then I wanted no fears or insecurities on the mats from anyone.

At 15 years the ‘what if’ question excited me, because it gave me the opportunity to experiment in class. I could now do this because I had conceptualised my understanding of movement and martial arts. I would change the lesson plan and explore all the what if’s that would arise by subtle changes of the technique or situation. Pressure testing it, always looking for refinements or weaknesses. It was often this experimentation I would discover new opportunities and understanding of the situation. This allowed and encouraged constant development for the students and myself.

Now at 20 + years I think I get it. All martial arts training is a what if. An instructor could rack their brains and train for an entire lifetime and still never cover 10% of the what if’s that could happen in a fight. The average student trains once a week that’s about 50 lessons a year, most people can’t remember what they ate yesterday let alone what they did in the previous martial arts lesson (hopefully they do, because you try to make the lessons enjoyable, always changing them to create new ways to make the lesson memorable).Expecting someone to memorise 50 different lessons a year or 100 if they train twice a week is unrealistic.

The average martial arts student statistically only trains for 1 to 2 years (Although our student retention is awesome, far surpassing the average), so if they trained twice a week for 2 years that’s 200 lessons, that if you are lucky they will remember 25% of. All good martial arts instructors want their students to be safe, they want what they teach to make a difference, whether it be making the student more confident, or giving them the ability to defend themselves or the people they care about.

An instructor can look at the most common attacks, and go through the best ways to avoid or counter them. They can add more difficulty by adding obstacles, or unexpected problems. They can teach lessons in different environments, and add different weapons. But you can’t guarantee the student will be attacked in a way you covered in 1 of 200 lessons, and that the student could actually remember in a time of stress “What was that one thing my instructor said about this attack?”.

My goal isn’t to teach all the what if’s anymore, because it’s impossible. But that doesn’t mean it’s impossible to teach someone how to defend themselves. Instead of trying to work through every possible scenario, and expect the student to remember them all. I teach the student how to figure it out by themselves, by teaching them universal concepts and how to apply them.

• Get them to do drills to learn a skill that they can then apply without serious thought.
• Train balance and footwork, so they have the best chance of staying on their feet.
• You train breakfalls, so if they fall they don’t injure themselves.
• Teach them how to fight on the ground and how to get back up.
• Do strength training, and endurance for bigger stronger or multiple opponents.
• Get them to spar, to apply what they learnt against an uncooperative opponent and give them a true understanding of distance and timing.
• Get them to understand leverage, economy of motion, path of least resistance, single entry.
• Train weapons, traditional and improvised.
• All throughout train parry’s, and deflections to make safer reactions second nature.
• This almost goes without saying, but teach them how to punch, elbow, kick, knee, grab, and headbutt in extreme circumstances. Done as individual attacks and in combinations.

Real martial arts is confidence, confidence in yourself and your abilities that you can back up. With that kind of confidence ‘what if’ is no longer an issue, you accept whatever cards you are delt and make the most of them, because you know that you are enough and that you will never give up.

What if,

I had not thought about writing this article

What if,

I had not listened, and understood. It wouldn’t have shaped the way, why and how that I have developed over the years to share knowledge.

What if

It was that simple.