| Muscle memory, or operant
conditioning, is the foundation of the physical portion of the Model
Mugging System.
Muscle memory means that our bodies are able to learn actions and
then perform these same actions without thought; the mind and body
are united in a “flow-state.” Just like learning to swim
or ride a bicycle, once we learn we do not forget. The fighting techniques
will be performed through scientifically proven methods of repetition
and then applied in real fights where the experience of stress and
coaching lock the movements into the body’s muscle memory.
 Learning Retention:
It is estimated the average human retention
is just 10% of every course we attend after taking traditional
self-defense classes. Many women have complained they could not remember
the moves
shown to them. The more physical the repetitions, and the more
realistic the training using both positive and negative stimuli,
the percentage
of mind/body retention is dramatically increased.
In traditional self-defense and martial arts classes students do
not learn how to hit an assailant with full force or deal with the
element of actual fear, which is definitely a real and absolute factor
in a real life attack. Consequently, the effectiveness of these programs
is limited.
Typically 80% of what students learn will be forgotten within 24
hours after taking such a class. As time moves on, they may only
retain about 5% of what they had originally learned. Something may
be better than nothing, but remember that a woman who ineffectively
fights back has a greater chance of being injured more severely and
may increase the length of the assault.
The Strongest Habit Wins:
During the physical portion of the course,
students learn what it feels like to correctly deliver a real and
decisive knockout blow and then learn how to effectively deliver
continuous incapacitating strikes. The mind and body conditioning
that is performed during the course creates neuron pathways/connections
through the brain similar to the grooves on a record. This is why
the progression of training in women’s self-defense is so critical,
but at the same time it, is why the skills are successfully implemented
into muscle memory. If a woman learns a movement incorrectly, it
is like putting a scratch on the record. Consequently the desired
movement will require a larger pathway/connection of neurons in the
brain to override the incorrect pathway.
When your body and mind are under stress, subsequent actions will
revert to the most conditioned response. If there are not any conditioned
responses relevant to the current crisis, panic, immobilization,
or improper actions occur, and the body becomes vulnerable. In moments
of stressful conflict the strongest habit will win out usually overriding
all others. In tenths of a second, the mental and physical messages
in a person’s mind, body, and spirit follow the nervous system’s
pathways that are most developed. In the absence of such learned
response pathways, under conflict the brain will revert to evolutionary
and fear-driven reactions that can incapacitate you or plunge you
into counterproductive and even life-threatening outcomes.
The more times you perform a movement, the larger that groove or
pathway becomes. Learning skills practiced in a manner of responding
to a negative stimulus in a realistic and intense scenario, make
student responses automatic when fighting; operant conditioning.
Those graduates upon being attacked, usually within an average of
2½ years after taking a Model Mugging course, 86 (60%) had
knocked-out the assailants. One woman successfully fought off her
attacker eight years after taking the course without any refresher
and successfully injured the assailant causing him to be hospitalized.
In 1973 a woman took one of the first basic courses Matt Thomas
taught at Harvard University. In 1993 she returned to take an intermediate
class Matt was teaching in Colorado. It had been 20 ½ years
after she took the basic course without any refresher training. Matt
asked to attack her in the beginning of the class before they started
reviewing in order to test her. He “model mugged” her
by grabbing her from behind. She immediately responded and delivered
accurate strikes with powerful impact. She only missed once and that
was when she turned to elbow strike to the face. The rest of her
strikes connected decisively.
These cases are an empowering phenomenon, but it is still recommended
that women return for refresher courses in order to keep the information
and skills freshly implanted in the cell memory within their body
while keeping current with new crime trends.
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