In this blog I would like to answer the question “How do I overcome the effects of the Adrenaline Dump”. This I shall answer in three sections namely

  1.   why do we get the adrenal (adrenaline) dump
  2.   the effects of this “dump”
  3.   how to overcome these effects

Why do we get the adrenal dump?

  Adrenaline is a neurotransmitter and hormone. It prepares us for fight or flight. Thousands of years ago man needed the benefits of the adrenal dump when he needed to fight for his life or make a run for it. Therefore the adrenal dump has evolved with us and is a perfectly natural reaction; it is in our genes and serves a useful purpose. This is why no one can completely overcome the effects of stress related adrenaline.

The effects of this “dump”

  When we are mentally stressed maybe from someone being aggressive or even being physically attacked the adrenal glands secrete adrenaline into our bloodstream. Immediately our heartbeat starts to increase and our strength increases as blood is diverted from our extremities and brain to the larger muscle groups. You may find one or some of the following happen, feeling of weakness, body shaking, dry throat, voice become strained, you may even feel sick.

  You will probably lose most of your fine motor control. (Have you noticed how your hands shake after an argument).

  Your peripheral vision narrows and soon develops into tunnel vision until all you see is like looking through a tube. As your heart rate climbs you may well lose functional cognitive thinking, your ability to remember things may well become hampered. If your heart rate goes too high you may freeze like a rabbit in headlights.

    When the adrenal dump occurs the untrained and the traditionalist will not understand what is happening to them as they have no experience of the threat at hand also the effects of adrenaline will be unfamiliar to them and they will most likely not be able to deal with them effectively.

How to overcome these effects

  If you practice a system that is primarily a traditional martial arts you will probably only need a fraction of the techniques you are taught. If you want to stay in your preferred system then try to select those techniques that are simple, effective and easy to practice for self defence, all the others are just the fun part of what you are doing, once selected try to practice these under conditions of stress.  Once you have mastered these then it may indeed be possible to add some or all of those techniques/concepts that you considered too complicated to be effective, but always ensure they are tested under conditions of stress.

  Stress testing your concepts/techniques includes but are not limited to practicing on pad, kick shield, punch bags and training partners, adrenal stress response training using a padded aggressor who elicits an adrenal dump in you under controlled conditions. This is achieved by name calling, insulting you, pushing you around, making you get dizzy on the spot (by spinning around) then having to defend yourself. Being blind folded or eyes shut and attacked, pushed to exhaustion then having to defend yourself, being in the centre of a circle surrounded by potential  attackers and having a time limit to defend yourself against them coming at you 1 or 2 at a time maybe with some of them armed so you have to disarm them as well. All these and others will get your adrenaline flowing. If these sort of drills are not done at your class then then why not invite some of your co students to train on a weekend and practice some stress related scenarios. There should be some sort of progression in your training at a rate where you can memorise combinations/concepts so that you will not need to think them through under the threat of adrenal dump.

  To start with practice at what I call learning speed, at a slow pace with exaggerated motions. This will help your neurons fire accurately through your muscles, deepening the pathways between thought and action and will in fact speed up your learning process as you have time during the progression of a technique to correct yourself if you detect any errors. This will help wire in the correct form for full speed application under adrenal stress. Once this is grasped then add speed to your training.

I hope my blogs get your attention and raise questions please send them to my email at shurashikata1@btinternet.com and I shall attempt to answer them either as an email or I shall post a demo by way of explanation on you tube.