Basic Combat Philosophy--The Combative Mindset

Hello and welcome to my blog. In combat, it is implied that there are two or more people present, which means human psychology can be very powerful. I will start off my teachings with a very important topic--combat philosopy.

When approaching combat of any kind, be it with your enemy on a battlefield or with a mugger in a back alley, you need to use a combative mindset. Systema calls this the role of the spirit and SCARS calls it the "Offensive Mindset", but no matter what term you use, it will always be the same. With a non-combative or "defensive" mindset, you will ask yourself questions. Will this person hurt me? Is he willing to kill me? Can I really neutralize him? Am I willing to kill to neutralize him as a threat? Answering any of these questions pessimistically will greatly reduce the effect of your actions. Asking these questions at all will slow your reaction time.

There is a reason for this. You cannot consciously think about two things at once. When you think of the consequences of your actions, your mind is clouded by all the calculations it needs to give you negative thoughts and cannot put any resources towards your purpose and your actions. You overwhelm and intimidate yourself without even realizing it. If you focus yourself towards a goal (neutralizing the threat in this case) and don't think of the consequences, your reaction time will be much faster and the action will be much more effective.

Think of it this way. Go play a game of Halo Combat Evolved or Halo 2, or any first person shooter made in the era on hard difficulty or harder. First, play the game and try to keep yourself and your allies from harm. Proceed through the game and take cover whenever necessary. Try this several times. Now, use a shotgun or an automatic weapon of some sort whenever possible (or in the case of Halo CE, the pistol). Destroy as much of the enemy as you can in as little time as possible. Whenever your shield or health or whatever the game uses needs recharging, assault and take the next position of cover. Compare your performances. Did you do better with the first set of instructions, or the second?

If you analyze them logically, you will realize that these are the same exact instructions; only the wording is different. The reason your performance was likely better with the second set is because it was phrased offensively and prompted you to use a combative mindset. You pressed the enemy hard and used your melee often. Progress was very fast and you were not killed very often. Checkpoints came and went often and setbacks from death came almost without notice. 

The other set was phrased defensively and prompted you to think about the various courses of action you could take and their consequences. Your accuracy was probably slightly higher, but you were much slower which caused you to tolerate the enemy longer and therefore take more damage in the long run. Your progress was much slower and your death count was much higher. Checkpoints were always painfully far away and every death seemingly sets you back from the exit of the valley of death all the way back to the beginning.