Pain in Combat

I clicked a link over at Kojutsukan to a t.v. interview/panel discussion on pain. 

To summarize, two elite athletes, one in Cricket and the other a boxer, discuss pain, or the lack of pain, that they experience during their chosen sport/profession.

The boxer discusses how she has only been hurt or felt significant pain twice in her fighting career.  She was aware she was being punched in the face but it didn’t really hurt. 

Is she superhuman?  Immune to pain? 

No.  She goes on to say that she feels agony when she stubs her toe at home.

There are panel guest who explore the why’s and how’s of it all.  I watched a good deal of it.  Here’s the link, if you're interested.

Well, it got me thinking...

PAIN:

People experience pain in varying degrees and in varying situations.  This stands to reason. 

If you are training to survive a violent encounter, you must factor in the fact that you and your opponent may experience pain, or my not experience pain, during combat.  

Bottom line, if you are fighting for preservation in a real world attack, the techniques you’ve practiced that hurt like hell during controlled, partial power practice, may have little or no effect on your attacker.  This will be exacerbated by the attacker’s level of commitment, focus, anger and adrenaline. 

Pain is an interesting thing.  As Dalton said in Roadhouse “Pain don’t hurt”.

  

Many people practicing martial arts have never been hit, not really been hit.  Hopefully most people won’t ever be assaulted by someone who is really trying to hurt them.  But if you are, you may feel pain, or you may feel numbness, or confusion, or a combination of these sensations.  

I’ve been on the receiving end of a couple good hits in my lifetime.  While shocking to a degree, I did not feel pain, per say.  I was acutely aware that I had been hit hard, possibly injured, but the actual acute pain didn’t set in until a while later, when the situation was resolved.

The experience is quite off-putting, to say the least, and if you aren’t prepared for the shocking nature, you may naturally sort of ‘shut-down’, covering up (natural to a degree) as opposed to defending yourself.  There are a lot of videos on-line where you observe people just kind of ‘taking it”.  It’s tempting to ask why they just stand there or cower and continue to receive a beating.

Like so many things, you have to prepare yourself mentally.  If you haven’t been hit before, understand that it might hurt or it might not but it will be a jarring experience.  Visualize receiving this shocking blow and use the mental rehearsal to create a trigger or response stimulus.  For those of you who have experience, do the same.  Use it like the gun going off to signal the start of a race.  The race in this case being your survival.

Beyond your own reaction, be aware that your attacker may be less fazed by your defense than you anticipate.  They may not be stopped by a well-placed strike or two. If they are on drugs or alcohol, their pain centers may be further impeded.

This is why, when training for the worst case scenario, the situation you couldn’t extricate yourself from safety, you need to make sure your training is effective, brutally effective. 

Any training for realistic self-perseveration should include techniques that do real damage. 

Consider joint locks and breaks and attacks to vulnerable targets like eyes and throat. 

Even if your attacker doesn’t feel pain, you need to disable their attack ‘delivery system’.  If they can’t stand or their limb or hands are disabled, or they can’t breathe or see, then they are less able to injure you and you are more likely to be able to create an opportunity to get away to safety and get help. 

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again.  Real violence is ugly and nasty.  Make sure that your training and mindset is prepared to match this reality. 

Be safe.

JM.

Further reading:

I posted some time ago about pain compliance techniques and when they can (and can't) be used effectively.  Click here and here.

More reading on pain:

Joint Locks and the Pain Game Part I

Joint Locks and the Pain Game Part II

Enjoy.

Warrior Mindset - Part II

In the last part, Warrior Mindset, I discussed one of two strategies for preparing to hurt someone, or to be hurt in a violent encounter.  The first was training with contact.  The next is:

• Visualization/mental rehearsal and drawing on past tactile experiences

Most importantly, you need to visualize actually committing violence and causing injury to another person.  Most people can do this to some degree, but most do not really think it through.  They envision movie violence as opposed to real violence.  Often this is the only kind of violence people have seen, so it’s not surprising that real violence is often shocking to them.  

How would it feel to break someone’s limb?  What would it sound like?  What would they do?  Scream, fight back?  How would it make you feel?  What if you had to smash their face into the concrete?

Remember, real violence is disgusting, even for the victor (unless you’ve got problems...).  

So, if we only visualize the upsetting nature of violence, this could potentially work against us.  You need to balance this by finding out why (or if) you are prepared to commit violence in the first place.  To do this, you need to be confident up front that:

• You did not want to be part of this encounter
• You did whatever you could to avoid it

If you know these two things, then you can know you didn’t have a choice.  You have been forced into the situation, against your will.  You will be filled with self-doubt if you could have easily walked away, and you may have to consider legal repercussions of the situation.

You are then left with an unavoidable situation where you didn’t have a choice.  The only thing you control is your decision to fight back or not.

You now need to ask yourself what, or who, is at risk?  

Let me ask you this?  Who would you be prepared to fight for?  Your spouse/partner, parent, child or other loved one?  Would you be prepared to commit violence to protect them?  

Most people have someone they would be willing to do this for.  So let me ask you this.  If you are someone’s spouse/partner, or someone’s parent or even someone’s child, what impact would you not coming home have on them?  If you are faced by unavoidable, unwanted violence, it’s not just you that is at risk.  The attacker is threatening those closest to you as well.  

This is one way to prepare you to commit violence on others.  Understand that your loved ones may as well be standing there, as they are equally at risk, albeit not from the physical act itself.

To sum up, the two things you need to know:

• That you did everything to not be involved in the attack.
• That you are protecting more than just you and your body.

This can go a long way to prepare you to commit violence on another.  Visualizing the actual event then becomes slightly less unsettling and can serve more to anticipate or prepare for what might logically follow.  After all, if someone yells “STOP!”  when you are forced to hurt them, are you going to let them go as a reflex or have you resigned yourself to continuing until you know you can get away safely/get help?  You also need to know that what you are doing is not about punishing your attacker, or trying to hurt them.  It is about doing what you have to in order to survive and get away. 

This is all about mindset and the will to win. 

The military has a relatively short time to train their soldiers and yet they become extremely effective warriors.  Do you think they are taught secret techniques never seen by anyone else?  No.  It’s all about mindset, knowing that they have to win and knowing what, and who, they’re fighting for.  And training to keep fighting, no matter what.  To never give up.  Ever.

Never give up.  Ever.  Even if you’re hurt or injured (see last article).  Keep fighting until you can get away safely and get help.

Developing this mindset outweighs any physical training by a long shot. 

Now, I did mention drawing on past tactile experiences.  This sort of fits into both categories of physical and mental training.

Have you ever been punched in the face?  Not a sparring error, but actually hit hard, punched or kicked in the head or face by someone trying to hurt you?  

Most people haven’t.  Unfortunately, or fortunately, I have.  I know what it feels like.  It sucks.  And it hurts.  And it’s shocking.  I say unfortunately because it happened and I didn’t prevent it.  I say fortunately because I used it as a learning opportunity.  I know how it feels.  I mentioned it hurts.  It does, but for me the worst pain didn’t come until later when it really set in.  What it did do was make me disoriented, it caused a ringing in my ears and distorted sounds and caused a slightly ‘out of it’ sensation.  The world wasn’t quite right for a bit. 

I had the peculiar experience of recognising I’d been hurt and that it wasn’t minor, but I was not quite able to determine to what degree.  It took a while to sort out what had happened, making me slower to react.  We’re only talking seconds, or milliseconds here, but as we all know, that can make all the difference.

So, the first time it happened, I was slow to re-orient myself and respond.  I now use those sensations as a ‘trigger point’ for a ramped-up response.  Those sensations only occur when I’m in considerable danger, so I am now prepared to respond rapidly with a serious response.  

This serves well professionally for many (law enforcement, security, military etc), but can just as easily be applied to ‘normal’ life as well.

You don’t necessarily need to have been attacked to rely on previous tactile experiences.  As you know, your grey matter is flexible and you can be too.

Many years ago, I was getting out of my car in a parking lot on a windy day.  A strong gust of wind caught my car door as by head was turned away.  I turned my head just in time to be struck by the door full force on the side of the head and face.  After having experienced violence later in life, I am struck (no pun intended) by the similarities of the experiences.  Those same shock, disorientation, ringing and ‘out of it’ sensations were present then.  At the time, I was violence free, so to speak, so I didn’t realize that I could have used that experience to develop a ‘trigger’ to fight back.  The only real difference was the source of the attack, door vs. person.

Many of you will be able to remember, likely in considerable detail, a time in your life where you got hurt.  Maybe you hit a tree tobogganing, maybe you got hit by a car, fell off a bike etc.  These traumatic events tend to remain in memory for most of your life.  

Find one of these experiences, re-live it your mind, including the sensations, and then move it into the self-defense/preservation section of your brain.  Any time you experience similar sensations, you are ready to fight for your life.

This stuff works.  So the next time a car door hits you in the face and your hands come up as you get ready to strike out, be proud of yourself.  Caught unaware, it’s just as likely that the car door is an attacker who blindsided you.  The only difference is you’re ready for it.

I’ve covered off two broad categories and strategies for preparing yourself to be hurt and to hurt others.  I hope you can utilize some of my recommendations to better prepare yourself if you are forced to commit violence for self preservation. 

Train well,
JM.  

Post Violence - Surviving the Aftermath - Part IV

In the last three parts, Post Violence - Surviving the Aftermath - Part I,  Part II and Part III we discussed the aftermath of a violent encounter.  We focused mainly on what happens when you “lose” the encounter, both in your mind and the impact it may have on your training.
So what happens to you if you “win” the encounter?  If you did come out the victor, you probably found yourself in one of these categories:

• Your training worked flawlessly and you easily dispatched your opponent effortlessly.
• Your training kind of worked, or it didn’t, but you won anyway.

If you fit into category #1, keep doing whatever you’re doing.  I don’t think I’ve ever met someone in this category.  Quite frankly, most people will experience varying levels of category #2.  

You should be very happy if some of your physical training kicked in.  This is a good sign that you are training in the right way, with the right mindset.

Most likely, assuming you remember what you did to be successful, you will be questioning your technique and training somewhat.  These are good lessons to learn.  What worked well, what didn’t and where you need to focus your efforts.

So far, all positive stuff, right?  

It’s not really that simple, unfortunately.  A surprise to some is how traumatic winning an encounter can be. 

Many will be shaken by the experience.  Many will believe it was purely luck that allowed them to win.  Many will question whether or not they could ever repeat the techniques (if any) that they used.  Many will beat themselves up for reverting to a more base style of primal combat instead of being a polished martial artist.  Many will question whether or not they should continue to train at all if they revert to a big arm swinging, gross motor style of fighting, similar to children in a school yard scrap.  Some will question their art, some their teacher, some themselves.

Some will be sickened by the fact that they may have injured someone else.  Some will question if they went too far.  Some may be embroiled in the legal system.

Some will constantly re-live the experience when they close their eyes.  Some will become paranoid and hyper-vigilant, sensing danger around every turn.  Some may overreact to perceived threats.  Some will want to stay home and withdraw from their other activities, preferring to remain in a safe zone.  Some will become overprotective of their loved ones.  Some will arm themselves.

The potential impact that a real violent encounter can have on you is essentially the same whether you win or you lose.  A trauma is a trauma.  You may experience any or all of the same symptoms, regardless of who ‘won’.  

Occasionally someone who “loses” will seek out confrontation to try to prove themselves, essentially overcompensating to try to deal with their insecurity and self-doubt.  Having said that, some “winners” will feel the same need to seek out a fight to validate that they could, in fact, win again.

Obviously, the true way to be a winner is to avoid a confrontation altogether, but that is not what this discussion is all about.  In truth, occasionally violence is unavoidable. 

There are no true winners in a violent encounter.  Everyone will lose something in the process.  This is exactly why our training should have the multi-faceted approach of: 

• Awareness/avoidance
• Mental Preparation
• Physical Skills development.

We train to prepare to respond to violence in a (generally) peaceful society.  We should spend some time preparing ourselves for what might realistically transpire if violence does find us, and the fallout of same.  We should know that a martial art is not a panacea, a magical entity on its own that will swoop in and save us.  We need to prepare ourselves mentally just as much as physically.

I hope you’ve been able to take something of value from this series.  Your feedback, as always, is appreciated.

Be Safe,

JM.

Post Violence - Surviving the Aftermath - Part III

In Post Violence - Surviving the Aftermath - Part I  and Part II, we talked about surviving the after effects of violence and some of the mental trauma you may experience as a result.

We discussed ‘losing’ an encounter and the toll it might take on your training, current or future.  Part II ended discussing how people may question or quit their style and/or teacher and how many may think that martial arts don’t work.

I also mentioned the DFL factor.  DFL – ‘dumb F’n luck’ can occur at any time during a violent encounter, do your detriment or to your advantage.  A good fighter can lose to a novice if DFL kicks in.  Know that anyone might get the better of you depending on this factor.  Training is about minimizing the chances of this from occurring.

I told the story of a young man who was mugged on the street after years and years of training in Karate.  He was unable to mount an effective response to it and ultimately quit training, under the belief that Karate (in his case) didn’t work.

I said that it could have been the young man’s training, or it could have been his Sensei or it could have been him.

Any longer term readers of this blog will know that I believe a serious mindset is required for meaningful and effective training.  You can, and should, have fun, of course.  But if your head’s not in the game and you’re just going through the motions in training without connecting the skills to the real world, you’re unlikely to ever learn anything ‘useable’.  

If you’ve never prepared yourself mentally to deal with real violence, no amount of training in the world will help you against a motivated violent attacker.  

You must train your mind to be prepared to respond to violence, and to cause damage to others if necessary, to protect yourself or those you care about.  You must be prepared to do this without hesitation if the encounter can’t be avoided.  

Martial arts are only tools to make this easier to accomplish.  Without the will to win, they are essentially useless for self-preservation.  You must know, and truly believe, that you will prevail.  That you will triumph no matter what and that you will do whatever it takes to survive.

This is the skill that can’t be taught.  It must come from within.  

There are a few methods you can use to help prepare yourself.  Awareness training is one.  Mental role-play/rehearsal is another.  Utilizing the ‘if’ ‘then’ model of thinking.  If this happens, then I’ll do this.

Not only will this decrease your reaction time (make you faster) in the event of an attack, but your mind will have somewhat prepared your body to deal with the whole the host of physiological effects brought about by a traumatic event.  You will also greatly reduce the chances of hesitating, which can lead to disaster.  

You can do this any time, by the way.  For example, if you’re on the subway or public transit, imagine what you would do if the guy/girl across from you suddenly pulled out a knife, or a gun, or even an explosive device.  While the other riders would be confused and disoriented, you could react decisively and quickly, before those around you even knew what was going on.  Practice this mental rehearsal as much as possible.  It can be done anywhere at any time.

Another often overlooked area, is steeling yourself mentally, to really hurting someone else, if needed.  We are surrounded by sexy images of movie violence.  It’s not.  It’s ugly and upsetting, even for those on the winning side (assuming you’re not a predator).  It won’t look good, it won’t feel good and it may hurt you as well, physically.  Many a hand has been broken hitting others.  Often the winner is the one that is less hurt in an encounter.  Expect to fight with pain.  For some, it will hurt then, for others, the pain won’t set in until after.  Whatever the case, prepare your mind to fight though anything, including the sight of your own blood, or broken limb etc.  It’s about survival at this point.

Don’t expect your martial arts to ‘rescue you’ or just kick in when you need them.  This is not to say that you can’t drill a skill until it becomes an instinctive response.  You may actually react instinctually to an initial grab or strike, but if you’re not mentally prepared to follow up, that may be as far as you get.

Personally, I don’t expect my martial arts to work perfectly, if at all, during a real violent encounter.  I expect that I will survive no matter what and if my martial arts training help, that’s a bonus.  If it allows me to cause less damage to myself or my attacker, or to end the encounter more quickly, then it’s been a success.  If I’ve worked on my awareness and mental rehearsal skills enough, I may be able to more closely resemble the cinematic martial arts response.  If I’ve reacted quickly enough due to my mental preparation, it may look like I saw it coming.  Interjecting early enough into an encounter may allow a successful joint lock, takedown, wrist lock, weapon disarm, or even certain strikes to be delivered, shutting your attacker down at the onset, minimizing damage to both you and your attacker.  Or just as importantly, it may prevent a situation from escalating past its initial stages altogether.

I do a great deal of this mental rehearsal due to my professional role.  It has prevented situations from escalated more times than I can count.  I’ve used Jiu Jitsu successfully on several occasions, and I’ve also had it not work.  It didn’t really matter though, as losing was not an option for me.  Nor should it be for you.

Training to survive a violent encounter is really a 3 step process.

• Awareness
• Mental Preparation
• Training

The actual practicing of the physical skills is the smallest part of preparing for violence.  It’s a very important part, mind you, but it should be what you spend the least amount of time on, even if you train every day.

If I could give you the mental fortitude and the will to win, I’d be a rich guy.  But I can’t.  No one but you can do this.

Now that we’ve discussed what you need to bring to the table, you can hopefully more accurately assess what, if anything is lacking in your martial art or your teacher, or in you.  You can decide if you’re getting ‘translatable’ skills.  By this I mean skills or techniques that make sense to you, ones that you think you could actually apply, taking into account the most likely kind of attacks you might face, as well as the most likely kinds of attackers.  This will be influenced by where you live, what kind of work you do, what you do is your spare time and the hours you keep, to name just a few.

Now that you’ve made an assessment of what your training does or doesn’t need,  we can move on to touch on winning, long term effects, and the healing process.  

Turning Weakness Into Strength - Flexibility

Hello All,

I’m back on-line.  Thanks for your patience.  It's good to be back.

I’ve mentioned in the past the importance of studying and practicing how to attack properly (as uki), or realistically, in order to give the (tori) defender, or receiver of the technique, an ‘as close to a real’ experience as possible.

If we don’t attack in a way that mirrors how real violence may very well occur, we are doing each other a disservice.

A single straight punch where you leave the arm extended as the uki does nothing to help the tori.  Nor does a lapel grab that has no follow up.  No one just grabs your lapel and stands there.

I recently started to apply a choke to my training partner.  Training dynamically, I didn’t ‘sink it in’ before he squirmed to the side.  I managed to transition into a side-headlock.  I wasn’t crazy about the position I ended up in.  I’m not a big fan of a headlock, unless you intend to really crank the head and neck, which can cause significant damage.  There’s not a lot of ‘in-between’ stuff.  Plus I know a variety of counters.  So I chose to disengage, feigning a back kick as I released my partner.

My point is not about the effectiveness of the headlock, though.  

One of the harder things to do in dynamic training (as uki) is to ‘let go’ or ‘give up’ your desired technique if it isn’t working as planned.  There’s a natural tendency to fight to hold on to whatever technique you initially selected/reacted with.  This ends in a strange sort of standing grappling match where the two partners are locked onto each other, not doing much more than pulling and pushing and spinning around.  A lot of real altercations end up in this back and forth ‘tug-of-war’.  The problem is that this ‘standing wrestling thing’ is extremely taxing.  The party that gets tired out first is normally the one that loses.

We must train to overcome our desire to hold on to something that’s not working.  I believe that very often the first thing you do won’t go as planned.  One translation of Jiu Jitsu is the ‘flexible art’.  Another is the ‘gentle art’ which gives me a chuckle.  It really means there’s less ‘force-on-force’ encounters.  You often accept the attacker's energy and momentum and use it against them.  So we must be flexible and adapt to changing circumstances.

If you successfully apply most Jiu Jitsu techniques (and many other styles), your attacker won’t be able to ‘fight’ it and resist.  If you haven’t locked it in though, your attacker may still have strength and leverage on their side.  If they pull a limb away, it’s better to go with it and apply a technique which capitalizes on their pulling motion.  You’ll often surprise them by going with it.

Simply put, if something you try doesn’t work, don’t be afraid to switch it up and transition to another variation or technique.  Never assume a technique will work flawlessly and always have other options available.  If your mind dead-ends with a single technique, and if it doesn’t work, you’re in trouble.

My Sensei says he’s always thinking 3 or 4 moves ahead.  The “if, then” model.  If this happens, then I’ll do this.

This type of training and mentally preparing yourself to be flexible, or even disengage if necessary, is very important.  I’ve seen footage of people so intent on trying to apply, say and arm-bar, that their attacker is raining down blows upon them until they lose consciousness.  

It takes some work to recognize this tendency and develop the mental flexibility to deal with it, but it can be done, especially through the use of more dynamic and realistic training.  As soon as you add movement and stop with the face to face, “ok, now you attack me” style of training, you’ll find you’ll have to adjust rapidly to defend effectively.  This is a great thing to incorporate into training.  You can also add in what I call ‘continuous Jiu Jitsu, where you and your training partner go back and forth with different techniques and figure out how to get out of each technique and apply your counter.  Randori is also invaluable.  When you’re surrounded by a group and they throw unspecified attacks at you, you can really get a sense of what a real encounter brings to the table.  You’re forced to react and adjust.

There’s an up-side to all this too.  Just as you have the natural tendency to try to hold on to something even if it isn’t working, so does your attacker.  If someone grabs you, by the hand, wrist, arm, head, leg etc, the will likely try to hold on for dear life to make good their attack.  This provides us with the advantage of time and we know where our attacker’s focus is.  They are far less likely to let go while you apply a technique to counter it.  You also know where their ‘weapons’ are.  If their hands are occupied grabbing a hold on you, you don’t need to worry about them doing other bad things to you.

Use this to your advantage.  Select a vulnerable area that’s available since his/her hands are tied up.  Understand that if you pull away, they will pull back towards them even harder.  You can easily use this to your advantage and ‘set’ them up.  Much of your training needs to be reactionary and instant, but in some situations, you may have just enough time to play some mental chess.

Turning potential weakness into strength.
Food for thought.

From en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tori_(martial_arts:

“In judo and some other martial arts, tori is the person who completes the technique against the training partner, called uke. Regardless of the situation, the principle is that "tori" is always the one who successfully completes a technique. The terms "tori" and "uke" are not synonymous with attacker and defender, because the role is determined by who completes a successful technique, not who initiates one.^[1]

In aikido and related martial arts, tori executes a defensive technique against a designated attack initiated by uke. Aikido has alternate terms describing the role of tori, depending on the particular style or situation, including "thrower" (投げ, nage^?) and "performing hand" (仕手, shite^?).^[2]”

Tough Questions About Training

You've just had a great session training in your martial art.  You worked up a good sweat, you worked the heavy bag, you drilled your blocks, strikes and stances. Maybe you sparred or did kata, or both. You nailed all of it.  You're on a post workout high, all those feel good endorphins running through your veins.  It was a good night.  Not a night to question what you're doing.  Or is it?

From time to time you've got to ask yourself some tough questions about your training.  Did that fantastic workout get you any closer to your goals?  Assuming your goals are self defense and preservation, that is.  

So here's the tough question.  Do any of your training methods answer to the type of risk or attack you might face in the street?  

All of the aforementioned training methods have some value, but they must be applied properly, or realistically.

Take the heavy bag.  Sure it's got lots of benefits, but are multiple combinations of punches and kicks really responding the the realities of an attack?  How many punches and kicks can you actually expect to land in a real encounter?  How likely is it that you'll land more than one, and if you do, once you add in the dynamic of movement, where are your strikes going to land?  You could easily injure your hands, feet and shins, even breaking them if you catch your opponent's hard parts.

Sparring?  Well, sparring is great too, but it's not real fighting.  No one bounces back and forth for extended periods of time playing tag and stopping once they land a technique.

Kata?  The core of many martial arts.  Misunderstood, there's not much value to them, from a self defense standpoint.  Understood, yes there are self defense benefits, but many just go through the motions.  Sadly, most kata is so exacting and inflexible in it's execution, it can be challenging to learn how to respond to anything other than a 'perfect' attack.  And some of those scripted attacks on which kata is developed are unrealistic in the first place.  It's easy to get lost in the minutia and miss out on the concepts contained therein.  

Stances?  You need some form of stance for all you do, but to root into one for long periods of time will do little to assist you in a constantly changing assault.  

Blocks, strikes and kicking drills.  All good too, however in a real encounter, after the first block or strike or combo, you'd best be moving to a position of advantage, to get away or as a set up for the next technique.  

So, throw away all your training methods?  

Of course not.  Just adapt or adjust them to match the real world.  There is now nearly unlimited access to actual assaults that have been recorded on the internet.  Watch how they happen.  Put yourself in the shoes of the person that was attacked.  What would you/could you do to respond to the attack?

Study how you could have avoided it altogether. Then study the pre-attack cues, the hints that troubles on it's way. Then study the attack itself. How you would respond, first to the initial attack, and then what would you do as a follow up? You'll likely discover patterns in attackers attacks that you can then develop drills for.

Figure out what you'd do and where you'd move.  Then make sure your training syncs up to that reality.  

The next time you're using the heavy bag, think knees and elbows (harder to injure yourself, easier to injure your attacker, even if they're covering up).  Do your strike, or knee or knee elbow combo and then move.  Come around behind your imaginary opponent or practice getting out of there altogether.  

Sparring has some good movement, or it can, but most sparring prohibits any striking to the back of your opponent, so not many people practice getting behind their opponent.  So make sure you do.  Also, from time to time, keep going after a successful hit (if you do point sparring).  Don't drill yourself to stop fighting as soon as you make contact.  If you're an in close type of fighter, after you've tagged your opponent, move in and tie them up/set them up for a finish.

Kata?  That's a bit harder.  Take a kata technique and practice it against different types of attacks.  You may have to do it a certain way in a grading, but that shouldn't prevent you from experimenting with a concept and adjusting as necessary.  

Stances, go into them, but practice popping out of them and moving.  You don't want to be fighting in a straight line, so get off the tracks, you can always drop into another stance once you've angled off to the side or back of your opponent.

Nicely put, Nike

Blocks, strikes and kicking drills?  Same thing, strike and move.  Move in, move out, move to the side, move behind.  Every technique you do should improve your position, make your opponent's position worse and protect yourself from injury.

One of the best things you can do for self defense is to study actual attacks and then tailor your training to respond to those realities.  Training to respond to the most likely type of attacks from the most likely type of attackers will put you miles ahead of most in the self defense world.

"You will fight as you train" 

This is very true in martial arts.  Under stress, your training will kick in.  So make sure your training is addressing the type of violence you're most likely to face.  If all your training is static straight line training,  you'll never move to a position of advantage under high stress.

We are lucky in many ways to have access to such a large database of actual attacks.  It is now possible to tailor training to more accurately respond to what's happening in the real world.

Food for thought.