Flowing from move to move

I recently read the book Flow by Mihali Csikszentmihalyi (good luck figuring that name out.) I couldn't help but notice the applications that the principles in this book have in everyday life as well as training. In his book Mihali's talks about this flow state that we can acquire when we become engulfed in what it is that we are doing.

For example a chess player who is so in the moment while playing that everything around him seems to disappear and he can maintain complete focus on the task at hand.

This can happen for us when we do an activity with the right blend of challenge and skill. For example let's look at our training.

In martial arts there is a term to describe a concept similar to flow called "Mushin" which means no-mindedness.
It's a state that masters supposedly enter when using a technique. These cases are actually common. They have no recollection of what happened after they where attacked. They pretty much, as one martial artist I know put it "wake up with some other guys blood on their shoes."

They say that it takes thousands of repetitions before we reach this flow or "Mushin" state. This is why martial artists train the same drills over and over.

"Why would you want to have "no mind" during a life or death struggle?"

Because when you enter a life or death struggle, you're pretty much going to have "no mind" anyway when your fight or flight responses take over. All you'll have left is your natural instincts. Anything that isn't a conditioned response or a reflex will be too slow to be effective.

"How do we apply this to combat training?"

1. Drills

This is why martial artists and boxers do so many drills. They are training to condition their responses to be good ones through repetition. This is why in EFN rather than moves and technique, we like to focus on drills. Drills make the movements automatic and put us into the state of flow during training. If you want a great book on developing this flow through drills look at the book Attackproof

2. Practice moves in combination

Chaining together techniques conditions your body to keep moving and to as we say in EFN help you to "drive through."

3. Train simple techniques

For everything an attacker throws at you, there are nine million ways you can defend yourself. Why train all nine million when you can train one or two variations that work in many situations and drill on them hard. This will allow you to achieve a state of no mind much faster with a certain technique.

4. Get hit

Put on the pads with someone who knows what they're doing. This will teach you flow. After the 5th or 6th boot to the head you'll realize that the moves are coming at you too fast to think. You'll only have conditioned responses to depend on. Granted this doesn't compare to the "adrenaline dump" you get with a life or death confrontation, it helps force your brain to work on a faster level than conscious thought.