Thread: Using Lucidity to Practice Fighting

Just by visualizing the movements it takes to complete an action is practice without physical movement.

They discovered that imagining a
body movement involved the same areas of the brain as doing the actual movement --
with the exception of the motor cortex, which actually directs the muscles that
produce the movement. In other words, mentally visualizing an action ahead of time
gives your brain almost the same neural workout as doing the real thing.

Of course this still means you have to have knowledge on the subject you are practicing. No one can 'know' something without learning it, or coming up with a new idea. So no doubt, lucid dreaming can accomplish this goal, I personally would stick to visualizing, so that I could save my dream time for fun!

Originally Posted by Barefooted Student

I personally would stick to visualizing, so that I could save my dream time for fun!

Actually I usually list learning as one of my hobbies so I 'would' in fact consider this a fun thing to do even though it is to aid a serious goal

One thing I have to say here: nothing can prepare you for the fear that comes from a stranger pulling a weapon on you. If you've been in a fight with a stranger, you might understand this.
I agree completely with those people who say take up a martial arts, and also that mental preparation is a good idea. However, you must remember that your opponent will already have the intent to harm you and will have a weapon ready to use before you even know what's going on.
My advice is to be prepared to end the situation peacefully (if possible) or try to distract them so you can get the first hit in. Without that hit, you will most likely be left critically injured.

One thing I have to say here: nothing can prepare you for the fear that comes from a stranger pulling a weapon on you. If you've been in a fight with a stranger, you might understand this.
I agree completely with those people who say take up a martial arts, and also that mental preparation is a good idea. However, you must remember that your opponent will already have the intent to harm you and will have a weapon ready to use before you even know what's going on.
My advice is to be prepared to end the situation peacefully (if possible) or try to distract them so you can get the first hit in. Without that hit, you will most likely be left critically injured.

To say nothing can prepare you for the fear is not true; many martial arts do, with Krav Maga (which I saw a link to earlier) being one of them. Indeed, one of the cornerstones of KM is to control your reactions in a fight and channel your reactions into a positive manner. For instance you control the adrenalin rush and still act in a controlled manner, whilst using the enhanced power you have from the adrenalin.

Preparation comes from training and from confidence. Evidently soldiers manage to deal with the fear that comes from being fired at by an enemy, otherwise most militaries would be useless!

Dreaming can be a valuable asset in preparing people for all kinds of situations, in the same way that other training is used in the real world. Fire and Earthquake drills are used around the world and definitely allow people to take the right course of action in these dangerous circumstances, even though the danger during the drills is non-existent. Fear comes from the unknown.

I practiced a couple of techniques in my dream just two nights ago. I've actually had some good success with practicing in dreams and I think that they have benefitted me in waking life as well.

Just learn to fight in real life. Half of learning to fight is experiencing how much it hurts to get hit. You have to get used to the real physical contact, pain, and exhaustion of a fight. Can't really mimic those in a dream.

Originally Posted by Robot_Butler

Just learn to fight in real life. Half of learning to fight is experiencing how much it hurts to get hit. You have to get used to the real physical contact, pain, and exhaustion of a fight. Can't really mimic those in a dream.

Agreed, however any practice you can get is good.

I haven't had many LDs and the ones I had weren't as full as I'd have liked them to be, so I'm not speaking from experience. There is scientific evidence to suggest that this is entirely possible. Visualization has been used by many athletes (including myself) to improve muscle memory when one is not able to practice physically.

My friend tried this and said that 90% of the time the practice didn't carry of into real-life. For this to be effective you should have excellent dream recall to where the only distinction between real life memories and ld memories is the knowledge that you are dreaming.

You would also need to be able to "render" an extremely realistic (as in real world physics, appearance, and body strength, size, and other various factors) environment. I'm not sure of the difficulty of this, but I would expect that if the skills of God are readily available in the dream world it could be quite difficult.

If and when I ever get full lucidity (and once I'm done having a crap-load of fun) I am going to try this out. Can't wait!

Someone said that you could use lucid dreams to hone your technique. I disagree with that. Maybe for a beginner that's the case, but anything above 5th kup should not be mental anymore, it's about muscle memory. Muscles don't get activated in your dreams.

That being said, I encourage all of my students to practice fighting in lucid dreams. Combinations for real self defense situations can't be done at full force in class.

Someone said that you could use lucid dreams to hone your technique. I disagree with that. Maybe for a beginner that's the case, but anything above 5th kup should not be mental anymore, it's about muscle memory. Muscles don't get activated in your dreams.

When you practice any technique, a pathway is created and reinforced, and if you practice it enough it becomes so reinforced that it becomes second nature. LDing can create and reinforce pathways as commands are sent to the muscles like when you are awake. Muscles don't 'remember' anything, it's pathways being built up.

Lucid dreams can't make muscles or other parts of you physically stronger unlike actual physical training, but it can certainly be used to practice techniques, and there are plenty of stories in La Berge's book on the subject. You're going against a lot of evidence, anecdotal or otherwise with your claim you know.

Photolysis is exactly right. Muscle memory is all in the brain. It's not as if muscles have little brains in them that remember stuff. It's all about establishing a pathway so your brain becomes more used to doing a certain thing. This allows you to do this particular "move" quicker and more efficiently, and it allows your mind to be able to integrate the move in the right situations better. Still, you have to be able to create that perfectly real world dream environment, which couldn't be that hard.

Has anyone tried to create a nearly perfect real world dream environment?

one day i realized i could learn a little more about self-defense, and i picked up a book - a very good book. i didn't feel like i needed to practice any of these techniques that i studied, but i certainly wouldn't rely on practicing in my dreams if i did - after all, it will be your safety in jeopardy. a little bit risky if you ask me... best of luck to you, but i would seriously consider taking classes.

It isn't the same because I can down backflips in my dreams because I am not afraid of getting hurt. IRL I can do a backflip or kick like I do in my dreams.