Tonight I came across the downside to martial arts.

Picture the scene.

A group of people go to the pictures to see underworld 2. A good time was had by all, then on leaving the cinema the group stand around talking. Once again all is well. Until one person moves around, so they were standing next to me, then stepped right in front of me, closing off the group into a smaller circle leaving me on the outside.

What would you do?

Normally I would just growl to myself, and say something while moving the person away. But Now, after visiting the occasional martial arts lesson, the voices in my head that normally growl at such things were telling me what to do to hurt the person, and just what was needed to forcibly remove him from being directly in my face.

Luckily I am not a thug and I took a step back and started counting to ten, several times…

But It has made me wonder, if you train often, is there a point when your body’s natural reflexes take over and you react before you remember yourself?