The Stretch Relex is where stretching a muscle causes the excitation of muscle spindles which causes contraction of large skeletal muscles.

A simple example of this is when jumping from a height and landing on the feet, the impulse in the leg muscles will likely cause a corresponding reflex of contracting the gluteal muscles in the hip which helps protect the body from injury.

Stimulus of the skeletal muscle, in turn, causes the antagonist muscle to lengthen and relax.  As the muscle relaxes and lengthens, the joint near the strike will not be as well protected as the body attempts to protect the core.

Naturally, our job is to take advantage of this reflex. How do we do that? Well, it is quite easy.

Let’s say we are striking to Golgi’s Tendon above the elbow (TB-11 for those with knowledge of acupuncture nomenclature). Naturally, the opponent will tense up as he expects the impact to his elbow region. As the muscles are about to be struct, they are contracted to resist the blow. The impact elicits a Stretch Reflex and immediately as the skeletal muscles are triggered, the relex causes the opponent’s muscles to relax and lengthen, leaving the elbow joint exposed to injury. Immediately following up with a second strike to the same target will result in damage to the joint!

It really is that easy. But, please be extremely careful when working with a partner as it is unbelievably easy to dislocate elbows with this strike and do serious harm to your training partner. So, please be gentle!

The crossed extensor reflex is also known as the Cross-body Motor Reflex and is one of the Somatic Reflexes we discussed previously.

Let’s look at a practical example of stepping on a nail with your right foot. Naturally, the right leg will contract, via the flexor muscles, to withdraw the foot from the source of the pain. Ouch! At the same time, the right leg’s extensor muscles will relax to facilitate the process with minimal resistance.

Meanwhile, the left leg will experience the exact opposite function and the leg will lock via the extensor muscle extension while the flexors relax. This is done to allow the left leg to maintain complete body weight. This is known as a contralateral reflex since opposite things happen on the opposite side of the body.

This is possible since branched of the afferent nerve fibers cross from the stimualted side of the body to the other side via the spinal cord. It is there where they synapse with interneurons and excite or inhibit alpha motor neurons on the opposite limb.

Of course, there are other stimuli occuring which cause the center of gravity to shift, but let’s not think we are neurosurgeons here and get too complicated!

Now, let’s apply this to CombatiXâ„¢. When we apply a joint lock to the fingrs of the right hand, have you ever noticed that the other arm will often swing away from you? As the flexor muscles of the right arm are stimulated, the cross extensor reflex causes the extensors of the left arm to engage and it typically swings in the opposite direction.

We use this natural reflex all the time to cause the opponent to rotate his body away from us and take the other arm (and fist) out of the fight to keep us from getting hammered with it!

Hopefully by now, you are starting to see just how much science there is involved with CombatiXâ„¢! For many years we have focused on teaching the Eastern side of the art and thus in these training reports I have decided to spend a fair amount of time revealing the Western side of the art as well.

Hmmm, I wonder if I can stimulate this response enough to make the opponent smack himself in the back of the head? Time to go find a training partner…

Have you ever had a doctor, or a really twisted friend, tap a spot near your knee and it reflexively kicks? If so, you have experienced a somatic reflex.

There are essentially five somatic reflexes. Three are spinal reflexes:

• Stretch
• Crossed Extensor
• Superficial Cord

And two are cranial reflexes:

• Corneal
• Gag

A reflex arc is a neural pathway which controls an action reflex. In humans, most sensory neurons don’t pass directly to the brain, but synapse via the spinal cord. This allows reflex actions to occur very quickly by activating spinal motor neurons without experiencing the delay of routing signals through the brain, although the brain will receive sensory input while the reflex action takes place.

There are two types of reflex arc: autonomic reflex arc, which aaffects the inner organs, and somatic reflex arc, which affects muscles.

In the knee jerk reflex, a strike to the patellar tendon initiates a somatic reflex which causes a contraction of the quadricep muscle of the leg and causes it to kick. Since this bypasses the brain, this type of reflex occurs without conscious thought.

As there are a number of these sorts of reflexes in the body, activating these will cause a reaction regardless of whether or not the individual feels it. These can be of great value to those intoxicated, in altered states of consciousness due to drug activity, or those with impaired thinking.

Too many people try to get these types of individuals to comply based on pain. As you learned in the previous report, this is usually Slow Pain techniques such as strikes to the body and such. Instead, activating Fast Pain receptors, especially those tied to somatic reflexes offers the greatest opportunity to bring involuntary compliance.

Time to hit the anatomy books…

How fast do you make your techniques hurt? Seems like an odd question, right?!?!? Well, it is actually quite a good one! Not all pain is created equal. It turns out some pain is faster than others! Time to talk some science…

By studying a scientific process known as nociception, we learn that pain comes in at least two basic forms: fast and slow. Nociception is a process of encoding and processing noxious stimuli. So, what is that?

Basically, these are pain stimulations where there is potential for bodily harm. These impulses are initiated by nociceptors, otherwise known as pain receptors. Once range of motion or impact reaches an internal threshold, these pain receptors fire signals along the spinal cord to the brain.

Where do these pain receptors live? They are located along joints and in the skin. Their distribution varies within the body, but are in greater densities along the extremeties. For thsoe who love joint locking, especially fingers, you now have a good idea why fingers make such good targets!

Fast pain travels along type Aä fibers and terminates on the dorsal horn of the spinal cord where these synapse with the dendrites of the neospinothalamic tract. Fast pain can be felt in as fast as one tenth of a second! This pain is usually felt as a sharp acute pain. These are often stimulated along with tactile receptors which keeps the pain being felt as localized but intense pain.

In contrast, slow pain is transmitted by type C fibers, which are slower, to laminae II and III of the dorsal horns, which are known as the substantia gelatinosa. One tenth of these signals eventually terminate in the thallus and the other nine tenths terminate in the medulla. Pain is typically felt as more of an aching, burning, or throbbing pain.

How does this apply to CombatiXâ„¢? Well, it is simple. We try to stimulate Fast Pain Receptors as often as possible. This fast signals travel at lightening speeds through the brain stem and cause immediate reaction. When dealing with someone who is pain resistant, this is one of the most effective ways to get them off their feet. Often, the legs have buckled before they feel any pain; in some cases they never do feel it! Either way, these type of techniques are not really pain compliance techniques, since feeling it is not necessary to get them to work. Instead, they cause neurological reflexes to take place that are operating at a subsconscious level.

Now go grab a partner and make it hurt fast and good…

“We train hard so the fight is easy” – unknown.

During the past several years much time has been spent analyzing and rechecking martial art theories and applications in a hope that we can provide our group with a better plan for self defense and training applications.  One of the biggest obstacles that I have experienced is the wide range of talents and use of terminology.  What one group of martial artists considers “intense” another group would break a rib laughing at.  Think for a moment of the diversity of martial artists out there.  We have everything from blue-collar, heavy duty construction workers and submission fighters to white collar, office personnel whose biggest threat of the day is a paper cut.

Each has their own predetermined idea of what an intense workout is, and what a threat is.  I guarantee you that the two ideas are far removed from each other.

I run into schools and associations whose idea of an intense workout is cardio karate class with a gi on, and the next week I see a school where if there isn’t heavy bruising and blood loss it doesn’t count as a workout.

Reality checks are still one of the most humbling experiences out there and we all need them.   Most people get only one point of reference during their training.  Their only reality check is within the dojo and what ‘sensei’ tells them.

Both points are severely flawed.

‘Sensei’ can only teach you what he/she knows and has experienced and dojo is full of ‘dojo compliance’ and ‘politeness’.  These three things greatly inhibit growth and safety while filling the martial artist with a severe case of false security.  Run this simple test in your mind or dojo.  Try your techniques with a bigger, faster, opponent that is really trying to get you.  If you feel that it did not work or that you could only get it to work 50% of the time, you have a real problem on your hands.  Reality bites and is very unforgiving.  You have to decide whether you are willing to bet your life on ‘Sensei’s’ life experiences and dojo compliance when someone really latches on with intent.  Theories and mind games are okay, but when the attacker has you by the throat, and your lights are starting to go out, you may wish that you had spent a little more time in the real world of training.

Now, that does not mean that you go out and join a submission school or train with Army Rangers.  It just means that you push your envelope, question everything, and be honest with yourself.  Ask yourself, “Will this work for me when my life is on the line?” The fact that ‘Sensei’ says, and can do it will have no importance to you when you are about to get stomped.  If it doesn’t work for you on at least 90% of the people, 90% of the time, then it is a real bad bet on your part.  The undisputed truth of the matter remains as it always will, if you wish to learn to fight or defend yourself, you must engage in training as close to real fighting as your body can tolerate.  The harder you train, the more punishment you can withstand, the greater your chance of victory or survival.