I am a proponent for being quick and nimble when it comes to my day to day activities and training but I have learned on many occasions that speed does not often equate to skill and even though one may be skilled, by increasing speed one lends a detriment of some sort to the overall course of action… no matter how slight it may be.
I have come to realize that the saying,“slow is smooth and smooth is fast”… is 100% correct…
I have included an essay from an email I received that goes into detail about speed in combatives training…I would like to share it with you all.
Of course this relates to firearms, but I am emphasizing this point of view for hand to hand combatives , wether its the body, an impact device or something sharp.
RAMPING IT UP
You can go full-speed on anyone… as long as you want to hurt them.
Speed in training is a thorny issue. The expectation is that you’ll start training fast, and backfill skill and refinement later. The problem is that it’s difficult, if not impossible, to improve that way. Much like trying to shoot accurately by shooting quickly. You won’t learn good aim if you start by pulling the trigger as quickly as possible, emptying the mag as fast as you can. The only way you’ll build accuracy is by starting slow, squeezing off one shot at a time, checking your target, compensating for errors, and then taking another shot. Slowly but surely you build the skill of putting a single bullet where you want it. Now you can start working on putting multiple bullets in there quickly.
So it is with fists and boots. You need to start slow, build that skill, and then ramp it up.
People go fast in training for various reasons:
Fear
This is the number one reason, because you’re afraid of what the other guy is going to do if you don’t hurry up. The truth is, if you got your injury you needn’t worry. Whether you blinded him, crippled him, or knocked him out, you can take your time and methodically break the next thing. I once read a critique of TFT that stated “it’s nothing but finishing moves.” I’m good with that.
“Because ‘real violence’ is fast”
Once you’re over the fear-thing then it’s into doing it the way violence looks, and the way you think it should feel. At full speed. This is partially true—when called upon to use the skill you will go after the man as hard and fast as you can. You just don’t need to train that way. Firstly, everyone comes to this training with the ability to go hard and fast. So you don’t need to worry about that. Secondly, working at speed makes you incapable of recognizing mistakes—you won’t be aware of when you miss, when your weight’s not involved, balance, structure and on down through a spiraling list of things you’ll get wrong. Screw any one of those up and you probably won’t hurt him. At this point you’re training to not injure him.
Since the hard and fast is already handled by your ancient wetware (motor cortex & cerebellum got it wired) that leaves you free to work on what matters—surgical targeting, organ-rupturing tools, hurling your mass like a flesh-and-bone sledgehammer, bracing for impact, and doing it all with smooth efficiency. You want to go slow to lay this in perfectly, and, just as importantly, so you are aware of every mistake you make.
When you reach the point where you can auto-correct, mat sessions stop being sweaty, fear-fueled grinds and become so filled with learning your mind will tire long before your body does. Going slow makes single mistakes stand out. Too far away? Take that extra step to close distance. Miss a target? You’ll see it, make a note of it, and redouble your efforts to plant the next shot perfectly. Lose your balance? Catch it back and continue. Bad forward stance? Set your feet flat and brace.
If you go slow, these things happen one or two at a time. Go fast and they happen all at once with no chance for correction. All you know is that it didn’t work.
The excitement of the hunt
So you’re way past the fear and working hard to keep it slow, methodical and correct… and then your partner gives you a solid shot to the solar plexus and flat-backs you hard. And now it’s your turn. There’s blood in the water & you’re hungry. You do what comes naturally to the last of a long line of winners. You attack.
The more comfortable and motivated you are, the easier it is to have each turn get a little bit faster and a little bit harder until pretty soon you’re beating on each other at speed and someone’s going to get hurt. Pay attention and pull it back when you realize you’re in that spiral. Sure, it feels good—and it’s fun—but it’s not worth the drive to the ER.
Because their skill and the skill of their reaction partner allows for it.
Working at speed is only appropriate in this last instance, and it takes a good amount of work to get there—probably a year or better working with the same reaction partner. It’s hard, it’s fun, and it’s also dangerous.
Of course, the question is, do you need to work at speed?
The answer is no. What you really need to succeed in violence is accuracy and the ability to use your body as a battering ram. Everything past that is just refinement—nice, but not necessary.
(Ancedotally, the instructor with the most experience using violence is also the one who works out the slowest. I think that says it all right there.)
If you wish to increase the rate at which you work, you need to do so incrementally, making sure that you never sacrifice correctness for speed. So if increasing the rate means you make more mistakes, you’re training yourself to slap people around and get killed. If you increase the rate consummate with your increasing skill, then it can be a great tool to build that refinement, namely by developing rhythm and timing.
The following is a step-by-step guide to picking up the pace; each one is a limiting factor that you cannot move beyond until you’ve got it mastered, that is, it doesn’t suffer for the sake of speed:
Reaction Partner’s Ability
This is the prime limiter. You cannot work faster than your partner’s ability to safely react. Period. There is no way around this. If a Master Instructor jumps out on the mats with an absolute beginner they will have to work at the beginner’s ability level. Anything else risks true injury.
Of course, this is why you can go full speed on people on the street—you don’t have to take care of the guy, you want to injure him. And so you shall.
Hurting people is easy. Practicing to hurt them without doing so is the more difficult skill.
If your partner isn’t giving you clear, clean and fearless reactions then you’re going too fast.
You cannot increase the tempo of the workout until your partner’s reactions are up to speed.
Targeting
One square inch of you through one square inch of him. The square inch of you must be appropriately set (the fist squeezed tight, the heel extended, etc.) and the square inch of him must be an appropriate target. If you miss, or the tool isn’t up to the job, or you don’t hit something important, it won’t matter.
You can’t increase the tempo until your targeting is spot-on.
Body Weight & Displacement
Every strike must be driven home with your mass and braced with a solid stance. If your fist is the bullet, this is the powder charge. You need to be pushing through the target and ending up standing where he was. In short, you need to move him.
You can’t increase the tempo until you’re using your mass in motion, braced with a suitable leg dynamic, to push through his space.
Rhythm & Timing
This is the ultimate goal of working at speed, but it’s also a limiting factor when it comes to your ability to not hurt your partner. If you have all the other elements wired—a great and skilled reaction partner who moves well, excellent targeting, solid mass and movement—but you routinely “stick” your partner with strikes that get ahead of his or her ability to move out of the way, then you’re not going to have that partner for long. And if they’re smart, they’ll get out before they get hurt.
This is the final hurdle to working at speed—good control, or the development of rhythm and timing such that you sync your strikes with your partner’s reactions. Get too far ahead, and you’ve got a groin shot that takes them out of training. Or they lose an eye. Or get a broken neck.
Training at speed is not necessary to be successful at violence. Training for accuracy and to hit with your mass is. If you’re interested in increasing your training tempo, use the blueprint above and realize this is going to be a gradual process across years.
As your skill and the skill of your reaction partner increases, so you can increase the tempo.
Of course, the number one way to ramp things up is not to go faster, but to move more efficiently—get rid of the hesitations, the waiting, the false starts and do-overs. Use each strike as the wind-up for the next one. You’ll move at the same rate, but take him out in less time. This looks fast, and feels fast to your partner, but that’s only because the time between injuries is shorter. The sequence of injuries is compressed, one right after another.
Sure, you can get the same effect by moving faster, but if you’re sacrificing correctness to do so—sacrificing results—you’re just training to be a brilliant victim. Much better to start slow and build the skill a layer at a time, being patient enough to let each element become a solid part of who you are and how you move in violence before adding the next one. As your skill increases you’ll naturally want to ramp it up; do so only when hewing to the twin ideals of safety in training and effectiveness in combat. You can’t afford to lose either one for the sake of speed.
Speed, after all, is nothing but a feel-good illusion without the skill to back it up.Chris