Quote Originally Posted by r.(shaolin) View Post
I would agree that an expert would be much more capable, but what we are taking about, at least that's what I am talking about, is ‘getting there’ and developing skills and the role of ‘story’ in training, specifically training for deadly encounters.

You might want to check out, Sources of Power: How People Make Decisions, published by The MIT Press written by Gary Klein, a research psychologist who has done pioneering work in the field of ‘naturalistic decision making’ (NDM). Basically NDM is a study into how people make decisions in high-pressure, high-stakes environments. Klein says that, in the environments he studies, stories are told and retold because they contain wisdom. Stories are effective teaching tools. Note that some of the first funding into NDM research came from the U.S. Army and Navy. As I said earlier, its good stories, a bad story can get you killed, a good story can save your life or someone else's life.

Do people losing physical skill when under extreme stress? Yes they do, even experts do. That is well documented. (see article by Lt. Col. Dave Grossman and Bruce Siddle and in the Encyclopedia of Violence, Peace and Conflict published by Academic Press; October 10, 2008).

r.
I do not know where this idea of training that Chinese martial artists are training for deadly encounters comes from or about how you think stories and likely false or greatly embellished stories at that help you deal with them.

I have been making high pressure high stakes decisions my whole life since my only two occupations was military and law enforcement. Experience is shared and is useful but that doesn't give you skills. Skills come through practice.

Yes fine motor skills go under stress and even gross motor skills can can not will but can be effected by extreme stress but so what? I don't have any idea what your point is. If you have to fight you need skills. If you lose them then you lose. Some story isn't going to save your a$$.