| So why are defense techniques involving only GROSS motor skills so important, you ask? |
Quick Answer: STRESS.
Longer Answer:
 | In close-quarter confrontations and attacks, the human body | |
| naturally and almost instantaneously undergoes several physiological changes that can NOT be prevented. |
| These changes are a result of a massive adrenaline "dump" | |
| triggered by the "Fight, Flight, or Freeze" reaction that we inherited from our long-ago ancestors when they were out picking berries and a saber-tooth tiger hopped in front of them looking for lunch. |
| The surge of adrenaline has a major effect on three broad | |
| categories of bodily functions, namely: |
 | The Five Senses: most importantly vision and pain sensitivity (all | |
| you'll see is that saber-tooth tiger and not the field of berries you're standing in; and you won't feel the sharp thorn that just got stuck in your thumb.) |
| Cognitive Ability: emotions take over while creativity and logic go | |
| out the window (you'll be thinking "He's gonna eat me!" and NOT "Now what was that trick that Unga Bunga showed me last year for how to escape from a hungry tiger?") |
| Motor Skills: some are impaired, others are enhanced. There are | |
| three categories of motor skill: |
 | Fine Motor Skills: GONE! These involve using small muscles | |
| like your fingers along with hand-eye coordination, and they deteriorate at even low to moderate stress levels. (You won't be able to unlock your "Flintstone-mobile" while your hands and fingers are trembling.) |
| Complex Motor Skills: GONE! These involve linking a | |
| sequence of steps through timing and coordination, and they deteriorate at moderate to high stress levels. (Quickly grabbing his swiping paw and bending it clockwise at an 87 degree angle to his radius bone while stepping back on the opposite side from which he swiped his paw will probably not work as planned.) |
| Gross Motor Skills: These involve large muscle groups like | |
| legs and arms, and they actually IMPROVE under moments of high fear and stress! (That's right...kick him or punch him in the jaw or snout as he attacks. That's actually how some people have escaped with their lives from shark attacks, albeit perhaps with a limb or two missing.) |
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| CT's Top Team Biking to Beat Multiple Sclerosis |