Review of Master Class with Aidan Carroll & Tony Somers: (Day 4 - January 10th 2009)
I woke up on Saturday morning feeling like I hadn’t even slept. A glance at my clock told me I was slightly behind schedule. A quick call to my Da and I had organised a lift from my home to Drumcondra. It was time for the fourth installment of the Hard Target/BCA Level 1 Master class., under the guidance of Aidan Carroll, founder of the Hard Target combat system and his good friend, Coventry based, Tony Somers of the British Combat Association.
Coming across the city with my dad I started talking about the course and the class of that day. I mentioned the fact that as a part of the course, 6 of the students on this day would each be giving a five minute address to the class…while being filmed! Gulp!
I had some experience of public speaking under my belt but as my Dad relayed, it was a thing of great dread for many people. ‘I remember people cutting short their stays at meetings and events rather than speak to a room full of people ‘he told me. As I entered the hall, I knew exactly what he meant.
After a brief warm up and a stretch it was time for the speakers to take to the floor. I was due to speak and was anxious to go first, but alas that was not to be the case and Jean Ann, one of two females on the course took her place at the head of the room and started her talk…..I, and I am sure those who were due to follow Jean Ann sat around the floor trying to deal with the adrenalin that we were experiencing. This of course was the whole idea of this particular exercise. We were stepping outside of our comfort zone, and as all Hard Target students are now aware, there is no growth without discomfort. And the whole object of this course was not just to improve our fighting skills, but also to help us grow as people.
And as quickly as it had begun, it was all over and the 6 speakers had done their bit. All the speakers did very well; in fact all went on for considerably more than five minutes and spoke of what they felt they themselves had taken from the course to date. None of the speakers displayed any outward signs of tension even though some courageously spoke of experiencing nerves. We were even treated to a wonderful rendition of Carrickfergus on Ken’s tin whistle!
In my experience of public speaking, I feel the greatest fear is in the anticipation and is generally completely unfounded. I believe that is the lesson of this exercise. That which we fear and fret or worry about almost never actually materializes. Do the thing you fear and the death of fear is certain, as some smart man once said. The Hard Target system teaches its students that whilst fear is natural, we can control it. We must strive to do so rather than let the fear have the upper hand. This is one of the many areas that Tony excels in. Embracing your fears is how he refers to it.
Regardless of ones level of experience or ability that feeling of fear, it is often commonly referred to as butterflies, never goes away. Sadly many people go through their entire life allowing their misunderstanding of these feelings to hold them back from doing what they really want to do. Not only that they often mistakenly believe it is only they who experience such feelings. And the more they feed this belief, the stronger it becomes. It is self perpetuating in many ways. Instead of feeding it we must conquer this limiting mindset and the course has shown how easy it is to do so, given the right teacher.
The physical side of the days training was to concentrate on stand up grappling, chokes and strangles. We paired off and after Aidan and Tony went through the techniques slowly we broke each technique down into its constituent parts and slowly put them into practice, before picking it up to close to full speed. We are not training for sport or competition but for the street and as such, both Tony and Aidan constantly reiterate the importance of striking with massive aggression and power. This is the case with all our training so we must endeavor to make it a real as possible. At the same great care has to be taken not to injure ourselves or our training partners. That is of the utmost importance.
If any student struggles a little trying to implement some of the moves, both instructors are always on hand to correct the technique and to explain where the student is going wrong. The chokes and strangles and grappling that we drilled today are, like all the techniques, practical, and with a little practice are easy to implement. There is nothing fancy or complicated about any of the moves.
All of what we have learned to date is as a back up, to be used if our initial self awareness game plan fails to prevent a physical encounter. That self awareness and the fence, keeping control of the immediate distance between ourselves and any potential assailant(s), are the cornerstone of the course and this is visited on again and again at every session. If this works as it should, maybe aided by ‘fighting without fighting’ no student should ever have to use any physical force.
But, hey, there’s no harm in being prepared…
Roll on next month; I can’t wait for those butterflies…..
Albert Mc Cready
Hard Target Assistant Instructor