When the human body is subjected to extreme cold there are predictable physiological conditions which occur: the body pulls blood from the limbs and concentrates it in the inner core to give warmth to vital organs. Digits get numb, reaction time slows, fine motor skills are reduced, and the thinking process is dulled. In actual combat the body can experience similar stresses like that of cold: fine motor skills give way to gross motor skills, breathing becomes rapid and shallow, and reaction time may be slowed. To simulate this stress takes nothing more than cold water making contact with skin.
Tonight, for your training, in the privacy of your own shower, stand underneath the shower head before turning on the water. Brace yourself, and then turn the cold-water faucet to full blast, allowing the cold-water to hit you all at once; not just a part of your body to get used to it, but all of it. Let the cold-water continually run over you. The sudden shock to the body that you'll experience is close to the shock that you'll experience when your life is on the line in combat.
My Italian student is taking a cold shower for Thermal Shock Training. Obviously, he is not in his private shower at his home, but he's in a shower at the training facility I was teaching in Ravenna, Italy. He graciously volunteered to do the training in front of the entire class.Naturally, under such conditions it's hard to function normally, but that's exactly what you have to do in order to train yourself to overcome the shock, hence the name Thermal Shock Training. Yes, it's extremely uncomfortable, but so is combat. When you're running the cold-water over your body, which automatically makes you breath rapidly and shallow, or it can even stop respiration altogether for a few seconds under extreme cold-water temperatures, you must master mind over body control by returning your breathing back to a deep and rhythmic pattern as soon as possible. The better you control your breathing the more relaxed your muscles will be, and the clearer your decision-making abilities will be.
Clear thinking then leads to better performance, and so the next step of your training is to do a few self-defense techniques but start slowly so you don't slip or hurt yourself in the shower, such as a few hand strikes and blocks. Do not attempt any knees strikes or kicks, which you wouldn't attempt anyway if you were in a real fight while it's raining or snowing due to the risk of slipping. Build up your tolerance to the cold-water, and even try to put the shock and discomfort completely out of your mind. Your reward for putting yourself through this torment for a minute or two will be a warm shower afterward. This also happens to be the same mindset for real combat, "I must endure this torment momentarily, but I will be victorious and continue to live." Life is the greatest reward after a battle.
In the U.S. Navy SEALs, Marine Force Recon, and Army Special Forces that train extensively in waterborne operations, and I've had the privilege of teaching and training with each, their personnel are subjected to cold-water exposure (CWE), by standing in the cold surf or other body of water without thermal protection. Prior to reaching hypothermia (a condition where the body heat falls below normal) they are ordered out of the water and are required to perform various tasks (in the form of strenuous physical exercise), and then sent back into the water after their core temperature has returned to normal. Cold is a great demoralizer and dealing with it takes mental fortitude.
This is me coming out of the cold Pacific Ocean water at the Port of Los Angeles when I was going through a U.S. Marine Tactical Swimmer course. It's because of my training and experience that I developed the Thermal Shock Training for my Reality-Based Personal Protection students, which you are also one by reading this blog. In 2000 I was training a Brazilian Military Police S.W.A.T. team called G.A.T.E. (Grupo de Ações Táticas Especiais), and I had them jump into the cold ocean water from a boat dock. The water was approximately 55 degrees Fahrenheit (13 degrees Centigrade). They entered the water with their Battle Dress Uniforms (BDUs), but I had them leave their tactical gear on shore or else they'd sink to the bottom like a rock. When they crawled up on the rocky shore, they immediately put on their gun belts and practiced gun retention techniques (preventing a suspect from taking the officer's own sidearm from the holster and using it against them) using plastic training guns like I had just taught them when they were dry. After the plunge into the cold-water they had to perform the same techniques while dripping wet, cold and shivering. My students found that the stress induced by the cold required more energy and determination then when they were doing the same techniques earlier in the ideal conditions of the warm training room.
A WORD OF WARNING! When professionals train in waterborne operations there is always a qualified Emergency Medical Technician (EMT) or Combat Medic present to monitor swimmers. Prolong exposure to cold can cause injury and/or death. Although Thermal Shock Training is safe in your own shower, I recommend no more than a couple of minutes under the cold water, not freezing water, which is just enough time to master mind over body.
BE A HARD TARGET
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In S2, the first fight that reveals a sparkling moment, perhaps a portent of what's to come, was the short Miguel (Xolo Maridueña) vs. Hawk (Jacob Bertrand) duel during the Coyote Creek sequences in Episode 7 (E7). Prior to that, fights lacked intent (no one looked like they were trying to hit anyone), stalwart hand postures were still absent, too many frail jumping front and outside crescent kicks were thrown (unless shot correctly, they're weak looking on-camera skills), fights mostly had 1-2 telegraphed techniques per shot using low-lit, medium and close-up angles, and the choreography was repetitive.
E7's Miguel/Hawk fight was the first fight featuring unique choreography that used doubles for fanciful moves and catchy stunts during the combat. This was made possible because there was a sense that the actors had finally reached the we finally got it level. Each move looked and felt powerful with a measurable change in the UMPH! Factor. This snake oil to well-oiled barrier was finally breaking. I knew E10 would be magical.
One of the coolest fight choreography gags in film is the oner. When I worked on a 1981 Taiwan TV show, doing 1+ minute single shots during fights were normal, where a hero could be replaced by two differing skilled stuntmen during the shot. It's called a Texas Switch, originating from early American westerns where a double would be punched over a saloon bar and the star hiding behind the bar would stand up as if he got hit.
The first choreography method I learned in Taiwan was that each skill (block, punch, kick, etc.) was delivered with a yell. We'd slowly practice fights with slow yells, then as the yells sped up, so did each fight movement. The same is true for weapons.
The best pure (no cheats or switches) martial oners are: Tony Jaa's Tom Yum Goong (2005), Alain Moussi's Jiu Jitsu (2020) and Tak Sakaguchi's Crazy Samurai: 400 vs 1 (2020). For serials, Daredevil is noted for doing increasingly better oners in each of its three seasons. S3 is known for a 10-minute single shot that had four oner fights of 100, 22, 20 and 10 seconds within the scene. Look for the well hidden second Texas Switch.
Other cheats can include a camera pan or tilt to an innocuous area on set, and within a single frame from that area, an edit point can be inserted, now it's two shots. Another cheat is if after hitting someone out of the frame, the camera zooms in on the striker, while off screen, they switch the person who just got hit. Injured heroes who are bashed into walls can lengthen the oner by slowly recovering from pain, which gives the actor time to prepare for the next steps. If a hero's long hair covers the face, a pan away and return sees the hair pulled back like with Charlize Theron in Atomic Blonde (2017).
The 77-second oner within the final fight in S2, E10 is audaciously astonishing and focuses on three main bouts: Sam vs. Tory (Peyton List); Miguel vs. Robby (Tanner Buchanan); Hawk vs. whoever; and a wacky appearance by Stingray. Bodies and strikes smashing against the school's metal lockers add new dimensions to the duels' tension and emotion. By using the yelling technique, exaggerated telegraphed skills are delivered quicker as this timing mechanism creates a sharp sense of power in each strike and block, which makes the battle boil with chaos and danger. The camera fascinatingly and smoothly rolls and weaves around the stars.
As the brawl continues, it's stoutly obvious that every actors' martial skills have graduated to a new level: they snap their front kicks; the fights are more creative because they can insert doubles to do flashier moves knowing the actors' martial levels sells the believability of the advanced skills; and each actor looks more comfortable doing fights.
S2 put down a fight gauntlet for S3. Since fans are more privy on the inner workings of fight and camera choreography, we've become exacting, demanding and expecting. As a choreographer, these challenges are exciting and fulfilling. Complacency is the weakness. Hollywood says don't fix it if it ain't broke, I've learned fix it before it breaks.
The weapon sequences in Cobra Kai, need some fixing. Weapon fights are tough to do, including for legit martial artists, so for Ralph Macchio and the lasses using weapons, the difficulties are evident, thus learning poses and spinning into frame and freezing in them, is essential. Nix the nunchakus, creating novel fights that look good beyond fancy twirling, which gets old fast, is hard. I have nightmares they'll try double weapon in S4. Yet with the Covid break, I'm hopeful everyone has improved their martial trades.
The E10 party crashing, 122-second oner, on a technical level was more difficult than S2's by the sheer increased number of actors doing multilevel fights in multiple rooms. The camera circles around so we can see action in the foreground and in the background in up to four different room within the same shot. Beautiful transitions occur as stuntmen fly into a Christmas tree, smash into a wall or slide a long distance across the floor on their back, all creating cues for the next stage of action. Even the bumbling Demetri (Gianni Decenzio) pulls his awkward weight. Yet of note, for the first time, Sam's beginning fight pose is so good that it fervently sets up the mood of the oner.
