Habit can get you killed?

Question

well can it?right or wrong?

Answer 1

If you have a habit of walking into oncoming traffic....

Answer 2

Right !!!

Bad habits creeping into any training resume can get you killed or maimed,I was always taught " How you train is how you fight" which again is down to solid correct basics and bad habits being corrected at source by an interested instructor/coach as sadly not all coaches are so precise with every student hence unnoticed bad habits from both student and coach.

I'll stop there as you know what I mean, Best wishes :)***

Answer 3

I believe that habit does both. To me it all depends on the habit and the situation. For instance I've spent many a year changing the "fright" reaction of cowering to one of advancing. Since then I have been saved and maintained my awareness through this habit. That said it is quite a laughable one as well... IE whenever I am surprised by something or someone I'm thoughtless in a "ready" posture and fist flying out to the vulnerable space of the "thing". Luckily, I still have decent synaptic response that I can stop the loose flying limb in the same instance when I see there's no threat. One night I was walking to a billiard hall and as I passed by a house the flood-lights came on around the corner, startling me. I jumped back completely ready for "the thing" and landed on some dried palm fronds. That made such a raucous that I jumped off that as though it were to eat me. I laughed at myself for a good fifteen minutes calling a friend to tell them about it.

On this same note I once had an attacker jump me from behind at a bar for no reason whatsoever. I reacted instantly using fa jing body shaking, which sent them breathless to the floor. I walked away a split second after attacked and continued with my evening unharmed.

I can see that some of the physical habits can be very bad too, such as bad posture, uncoordinated movement, etc. Indeed, as it was previously mentioned, we will fight how we train.

Answer 4

Yes in the martial arts it can definitely get you into trouble really quick.  From my observations over the years I see good martial artists doing the same things over and over. While we learn by repetition, we need to get beyond it.  Repetition becomes a habit not only in the learning of individual techniques. It often works its way into our mindset in how we think and use our skills. It is easy to unconsciously put attack and defense into pigeon  holes. In other words we tend to react a set way when a certain thing happens. We build a habit that for each attack we should respond a certain way. It is like the pigeon holes used to sort mail. Each slot represent a certain technique.  Many martial artists after 20 years or more still have their actions and reactions as rigid responses. Their practice is ridged and unchanging.  Unfortunately Life and Self-defense situations are not static. They do not happen in ways we can accurately predict. Therefore, if our mind and training, and technique is not adaptable to the situation, instantly, we are likely to do the wrong thing.

We as martial artists should realize that things never happen the way you have trained for them. We must strive to adapt our training so as to minimize the set patterns of our actions. Before we can do this we must form a new habit. That new habit is one of constantly examining each training situation and looking into what can go wrong. Then we can practice variations of our techniques.  

Best to learn by repetition, habit, then grow beyond it. Many years of martial arts training should result in the martial artists realizing that it is Ok and necessary to adapt to a changing situation. At a point we will realize that techniques are much more closely related than first appears.  When it gets down to it, there are only 12 principles or action/movement.  These 12 principles can describe any action attack or defense.  This is fully understood be the martial artists.  In doing so we can quickly analyze any moment in an attack or defense with one or more of the 12 principles.  Our response can be instantly determined by the knowing which principle to use to defeat the opponent.

The bottom line is that you learn to respond with any technique (lock, block, throw, kick, punch, .....) that uses the principle necessary to counter the threat.  By doing that we no longer need to have 10,000 responses memorized to counter 10,000 actions of an opponent. We only need to apply any of 12 principles by using any technique that adheres to the 12 principles.

If you made it this far, hopefully you understand what I am saying here.  In my experiences I have not found any system of combat that uses the 12 principles we use. The exception being only a few of my teachers, and my own students.

Answer 5

smoking is a habit and it definitely kills

Answer 6

In the old days, if they find a nun in your bed and her habit on the floor, they could lynch you.  

So yeah, a habit can get you killed.

Answer 7

Depends what the habit is..

If you have a habit of speeding, doing drugs, jay walking, smoking..  then yes.

If it's more along the lines of nail biting, being unorganised, showing up late.. then no.

Answer 8

yea definitly...You form a bad habbit in any sport and it can mess up your game. Being in a fight is not diiferent. Like if you have a bad habbit of dropping you hands when you throw a big round hous kick and the other guy picks up on that. he waits for it and boom your on the ground to dazed to fight back. He jumps on you. Hes pissed off or crasy and your dead. He throws in a choke and you drift off to blackness forever