Muscle Memory / Operant Condition
Self Defense Conditioning
Developing combat conditioning through muscle memory, or operant conditioning, forms the foundation of the physical component of the Model Mugging Self Defense System. Model Mugging is the original, most advanced, and safest Adrenal Stress Training course available for women. This full-force self-defense program has been evolving since 1971, helping women shield themselves against rape and other crimes.
Learning Self Defense Fast
Model Mugging, the first Reality-Based Martial Arts (RBMA) program, when taught properly, develops long-term retention of self-defense skills in students.
Muscle memory refers to the ability of our bodies to learn actions and then perform them automatically, without conscious thought; the mind and body are united in a state of “flow state.” Just like learning to swim or ride a bicycle, once we gain experience, we do not completely forget. The fighting techniques will be performed through scientifically proven methods of repetition and then applied in real fights, where the experience of stress and coaching locks the movements into the body’s subconscious, reflexive memory.
Learning Retention
It is estimated the average human retention is just 10% of every course we attend after taking traditional self-defense classes. Many women have complained they could not remember the moves shown to them in those courses. The more physical the repetitions and the more realistic the training using both positive and negative stimuli, the percentage of mind/body retention is dramatically increased.
In traditional martial arts and self-defense classes, students often do not learn how to strike an assailant with full force or deal with the element of actual fear, which is a real and significant factor in a real-life attack. Consequently, the effectiveness of these programs is limited.
Typically, 80% of what students learn will be forgotten within 24 hours after taking such a class. As time passes, they may retain only about 5% of what they originally learned. Something may be better than nothing, but remember that a woman who ineffectively fights back has a greater chance of being injured more severely and may increase the length of the assault.
Strongest Habit Wins
Model Mugging women’s self-defense classes teach women how their bodies and minds respond under stress by reverting to actions with the most conditioned self-defense responses. During the physical portion of the course, students learn what it feels like to deliver a real and decisive knockout blow correctly and then learn how to deliver continuous incapacitating strikes effectively. The mind-body-spirit conditioning performed during the full force self-defense course creates neural pathways and connections in the brain, similar to the grooves on a record. This is why the progression of training in women’s self-defense is so critical; at the same time, it is why these skills are successfully integrated into muscle memory. If a woman learns a movement incorrectly, it is like scratching the record. Consequently, the desired movement will require a larger pathway or connection of neurons in the brain to override the incorrect path.
Model Mugging’s progressive training system develops the most conditioned self-defense response, locking basic skills into full-force muscle memory.
When your body and mind are under stress, subsequent actions will revert to the most conditioned response. If there are not any conditioned responses relevant to the current crisis, panic, immobilization, or improper actions occur, and the body becomes more vulnerable. In moments of stressful conflict, the most vigorous habit will win out, usually overriding all others. In tenths of a second, the mental and physical messages in a person’s mind, body, and spirit follow the nervous system’s pathways that are most developed. In the absence of such learned response pathways, in the face of conflict, the brain will revert to evolutionary and fear-driven reactions that can incapacitate you or lead to counterproductive and even life-threatening outcomes.
The more times you perform a movement, the larger that groove or pathway becomes. Learning skills practiced in a manner of responding to a negative stimulus in a realistic and intense scenario make student responses automatic when fighting; operant conditioning. Model Mugging graduates typically graduate upon being attacked, usually within an average of 2½ years after completing a Model Mugging self-defense course. Of these, 86 (60%) had successfully knocked out the assailants. One woman successfully fought off her attacker eight years after taking the course without any refresher and successfully injured the assailant, causing him to be hospitalized.
In 1973, a woman took one of the first basic courses Matt Thomas taught at Harvard University. In 1993, she returned to take an intermediate class Matt was teaching in Colorado. It had been 20 ½ years after she took the Basic self-defense course without any refresher training. Matt asked to attack her at the beginning of the class before they started reviewing to test her. He “model mugged” her by grabbing her from behind. She immediately responded and delivered accurate strikes with powerful impact. She only missed once, and that was when she turned to elbow strike to the face. The rest of her strikes connected decisively.
These cases are an empowering phenomenon, but it is still recommended that women return for refresher self-defense courses to keep the information and skills freshly implanted in the cell memory within their body while keeping current with new crime trends for rape aggression defense. Not only do graduates learn to become more aware when reviewing the latest in rape prevention education, but they re-experience the impact of full force fighting in the Basic self-defense course will better shield women against street violence, sexual assault, and escape rape aggression. Self-defense review classes allow students to realistically assess their fighting skills and their capabilities as they age. What we can do in our 20s can be quite different from what we can do in our 40s and beyond.
Other links as to what makes the Model Mugging Self Defense program different:
Supportive Designed Self Defense Program
Progressive Training & Controlled Stress