In the late 1800’s through the early 1900’s, there was a horse with special abilities. No, not Mr. Ed. This horse couldn’t talk. This horse, named Hans, could do math, read, and even tell time! He was correct approximately ninety percent of the time. He would stomp his hoof on the ground a specific number of times to give math problems. He would pick up tiles that had the correct answer on it, and much much more! He was known as Clever Hans.

Eventually a psychologist, Oskar Pfungst, stepped in to investigate. Hans, with his trainer nearby, did fantastic as always while being tested. But Oskar Pfungst had one more idea to test. Separating Hans from his trainer. That ninety percent accuracy rating? It dropped below ten percent. Clearly the trainer was cheating and trying to put one over on everyone, correct? Actually, no.

Hans’ trainer, Von Osten, wasn’t purposely trying to trick anyone. He too truly believed Hans was brilliantly doing math, reading and more. While it was realized that Hans couldn’t do these incredible things, he did actually read, but it wasn’t letters and words he was reading. He was reading his trainers subtle reactions to the correct answers.

Subtle facial expressions and postures, among other things, done by Von Osten led Clever Hans to the correct answers. Hence why when Von Osten was removed from the area, Hans amazing abilities seemed to vanish. This is what leads me to our topic, training horses to fight. Wait, no. That would be pretty cool though. My point to this story is to discuss how important subtle, subconscious, cues can affect your training. And if you’re wondering if I’m thinking about how I can attach a sword to a horse’s hoof right now, you’d be correct. But let’s move on.

Do you find that all the material you are training works effortlessly well with your favorite training partner, but nothing works on that other jerk in class that you dread being partnered with? Or maybe you nail your throw five times in a row and are feeling great about it. Then as the instructor comes over to watch, you suddenly can’t make it work to save your life. You’re not alone. You’re just a Clever Hans wannabe.

Our subtle, and sometimes not so subtle, gestures, mannerisms, postures, eye contact and muscle tension can not only affect your martial arts training in class but can also cause undesired issues in day-to-day life. As I tell participants in my prevention and awareness courses, these above mentioned can be the reason someone decides to attack you or avoid you.

Have your head down, limited eye contact, shoulders rolled forward, always stepping aside for others to pass by (even when not needed)? This can give a shy or meek presence that a predator or criminal looks for. They know the likelihood of this person fighting back is low, and an ideal target. The opposite is true for those who have their head up, strong eye contact, and chest out, as it presents a confidence that criminals want to avoid.

There are numerous books and videos on how to read and analyze people based on their subtle cues that can give away when someone is lying, or if they are uncomfortable among many other things. But as it relates to your martial arts training, there are a few things to be conscious of. How you react to your training partners, how they react to you, and how the critical eyes of your instructor can influence you.

Some training partners tense up every muscle in their body when you work with them, others drop to the ground as soon as they think the technique is applied. Being a good training partner is crucial, but also quite difficult. It takes both a feel for what is going on, an understanding of how to protect yourself (proper falls), trust, and even some acting skills in some scenarios.

If a training partner is falling quickly or moving in directions you are not expecting or desire, first check to make sure you are doing the technique correctly. Sometimes we don’t realize how much pain we may be inflicting, or too much pressure, at the wrong times. I remind students of what I call the goldilocks principle. Too little pressure won’t work and too much pressure won’t work and lead a partner to moving in unexpected ways.

Sometimes our position is off, and our partner perceives your movement or posture as “go this way” when that’s not what we want. If none of these are the culprit, it may just be your partner making assumptions about what they think they should do, where they think they should fall, or how they should react. This could be that they are subconsciously trying to help you succeed, which is doing the opposite. Or they may not trust you to control your technique and are jumping the gun to get ahead of the pain.

On the other side of the coin are training partners that are overly tense and tough to deal with. While some would say this is a good thing as a real opponent would resist fully, this isn’t really the case. Especially if your partner knows what technique you are attempting to apply. When we know what’s coming, we subconsciously resist in specific ways to counteract the technique in unrealistic ways, especially when pain is involved.

With these partners, it’s best not to let them know what technique you are about to apply. This can be difficult though, as we rarely practice by doing one technique at a time and moving on. But that one time can give you information to work with. Learn where the technique failed and make an adjustment.

I had a student years ago working an armbar takedown on a new student that was twice his size. He couldn’t make it work and called me over. I gave it an attempt and realized that simply applying a clean joint lock wasn’t going to suffice as the new student knew what was coming and tensed up for that armbar. And being considerably stronger, it wasn’t hard to stop the armbar.

I tried a second time with a simple adjustment. I kicked him in the shin before attempting the armbar. He dropped quickly. And was not happy. He said I cheated. I reminded him we weren’t training for a game or a sport with rules. He learned to adjust his resistance level after that so we didn’t need to keep kicking him in the shins to prove something can work.

With that said, there’s nothing wrong with adding in a “softening” technique to distract these types of training partners. Just do so with respect in mind. A hard poke to the eye or back hand to the groin isn’t cool. But a fake to those sensitive targets can be just as useful and a great reminder to your training partner to resist properly.

When it comes to striking combos, sometimes a little acting needs to be implemented so that we don’t need to constantly strike and kick your partner with heavy force every time to react the way you want. I see this a lot in my Taekwondo class. We try and protect our partner by not striking them hard, but then the partner just stands there like a statue as you readjust your footwork and technique to accomplish the desired outcome.

This isn’t a good option. Having a training partner that reacts realistically to these controlled strikes is important. So is throwing on gear and following through realistically to see how one would really react to the impact. This is an important aspect of training. If you do nothing but stop short of landing those strikes, you’ll train yourself to stop short in real situations as well.

And how about the sudden failing of your techniques when the instructor is looking? There’s a good amount of psychology going on here in some scenarios. First and foremost, your instructor will always find something to critique, no matter how amazing you think your technique is. No one is perfect and there’s always something to improve. But let’s put that aside. Why do we suddenly do worse when being watched by our instructor?

It’s quite common. In some cases, we do the technique exactly the same and just think we were doing it better when the instructor wasn’t watching. In other cases, we really do mess up more. Partially because our focus is split. We are thinking about being watched and critiqued. Other times we try too hard and make a mistake. We rarely do the technique the exact same way when we know you’re being judged.

I see this at tournaments constantly. I can watch a student perform their material fantastically in class. Then at a tournament they fail miserably. The added thought of, “oh no, strangers are watching and judging my every move” seeps in and we lose focus. Other times we get that little adrenaline dump and go faster and harder than we usually do, and that affects our usual flow of movements.

Sometimes, we do worse as it’s a precedent that has been set of failing around certain people. This was me around my father. He was always right. At least it seemed that way. I constantly looked like an idiot around him. He was pretty harsh and quick with his critiques. I was essentially placed in a box of “I’m always wrong” around him. That was the groove I fell into until adulthood.

I’ve heard my students state this in the past. “I always do better when you’re not watching me”. Sometimes people are more relaxed when no one is watching. Other times it’s just all in their head. I’ve gone back and watched my security cams in the past to see if they actually did do better when I wasn’t watching. They rarely do. I just wasn’t there to point out mistakes!

Lastly, reading people in sparring and “allowing” others to read you. At the higher levels of sparring, it’s not a match of who reacts faster or hits harder. It’s usually a chess match of reading the opponent and trying to fake what you portray to them. I get asked often where to look when sparring. I’ve heard a few different answers from people, but to me the best place to look is the center of the torso. The eyes can lie. The hands can distract, and the feet can mislead. But the hips and shoulders tell all.

To throw power into a kick or strike, there is always a tell in an opponent’s movement in the hips or shoulders. Even in grappling situations, seeing the hips and shoulder movements can give away everything. But one needs to train for quite awhile in order to read and predict body movements. Which is why most work off of reactions early on.

As you can see, the mental and subconscious side of things are crucial in martial arts, self-protection, and awareness. Be very aware of what kind of training partner you are as well as understanding how to adjust for training partners that don’t react the way you expect. And above all else, stop thinking about how to attach swords and nunchaku’s to a horse. I don’t want anyone else to steal my invention.