The late author Kurt Vonnegut called the surprise of “Boo!” as, "the ancient game," one we played on each other since antiquity. How we react to this sudden “Boo,” has been called by experts, startling. If truly startled, the body will thoughtlessly react in some manner. The Britannica defines the startle pattern as:
"...an extremely rapid psycho-physiological response of an organism to a sudden and unexpected stimulus such as a loud sound or a blinding flash of light. In human beings it is characterized by involuntary bending of the limbs and a spasmodic avoidance movement of the head. Musculature returns to normal in less than one second, although elevations in heart rate, breathing and skin conductance persist slightly longer." Note the mention of light and sound - that is important.
The body has five senses, touch, taste, sight, smell and sound, and each sense may "startle." Everyone startles and flinches, and since childbirth, unless they have maladies in their nervous system or are under the influence of fatigue, drugs or alcohol. In the last 20 years, military, police and citizen self defense trainers have tried to calculate just how this startle concept should fit into combative training programs. I, and others think they have confused and overdone their expectations. With this essay I hope to explain how these instructors have misunderstood and used misguided information to form doctrine and policy. This misinformation affects all aspects of combatives training.
Unfortunately, upon a close inspection we learn that these stale ideas come from an outdated and stale study by C. Landis and W.A. Hunt's conclusions back in 1939, The Startle Pattern. Landis and Hunt used very primitive lab equipment, cameras and only sound , not physical stimuli to shock people. Sound only, (sudden, surprise gunshots). They first reported the very typical, body motions previously listed, but the difference between sound stimuli and visual and physical stimuli is critical and plays the major reason for the confusion, misinterpretation and practical application of the startle work in combatives training. Modern combatives trainers have absorbed these abstract and primitive findings and concluded that body responses to attack are the Landis and Hunt audible test results:
• arms lifted upward,
• clenched hands,
• bent arms, bent knees,
• ducked head,
• squinted eyes
The classic "Landis-Hunt Crouch." Somehow, these reactions from loud sounds have been presumed as central, gross, motor movement responses and they have been used as a core for self-defense training. They believe that your body will always, naturally assume this very couch position when assaulted. As a result of this misconception - dogged preaching and thoughtless acceptance some even think that self-defense fighting systems must therefore be completely based or largely based on this startle-flinch reflex. But is this right? No.
In the subsequent decades, much research, study and advanced lab gear have dissected the startle into a full roll call of responses to various stimuli, which I would like to share here. The research I quote and capsulate is from two renown and respected sources from the 1990s, the 10-year work of Dr. Robert C. Simmons and several decades of what experts call the splendid work of Dr. Michael Davis for his book Neural Mechanisms of Startle Behavior. Keep in mind that these two sources also include all the prior results of all other decades of work since 1939. The following will include Dr. Michael Davis, of the Emory University School of Medicine, was the first to identify the entire brain circuitry for the startle response and its habituation as recent as March, 2006.
Situational and Positional Combatives and the Startle Reflex
Technically, an official startle involves an ambush of sorts. A surprise. The "BOO!" Some of the greatest militaries of the world have been defeated by ambush. All fighting is situational and positional, and in answering the universal who, what, when, where, how and whys of a fight, we must ask, do all fights always involve being startled? The simple answer is no. Crimes, mutual-participant fights and assaults often unfold in such a manner that no party involved is actually ever startled. No "Boo!" And then one must remember, even if once startled? That startle only lasts so long. Maybe a brief second. This is key. But if there is no sudden, surprise boo, there is no startle, just non-startle motions. If you suddenly bolt forward with your forearms into someone in a pre-emptive strike, that is not a startle-flinch reflex move. That is just a trained response. And should a person's arms go up in a startle? They are most often and naturally moving backwards from the scare, not aggressive forwards.
Experience tells us that a startle does not have to originate from a blind corner in a dark alley. We might be startled by a person standing calmly before us, who suddenly jumps into our way. We can be sucker-punched. We can suddenly be pinched into Wolf Pack Attack positions by a clever group of multiple opponents. A good surprise attack will startle you, but, how will you then react? In the 70-plus years since the Landis and Hunt study, clinical experts have collected some 30 or more common, startle responses and categories. What does their actual research show? It is hardly what modern, reality-based, self defense instructors pontificate or want their paying students to know about!
Dr. Simmons nicknamed such a list of startle responses as “The Startle Museum” and the following are a collection of observed reactions from all prior research. Since the 1930s the stimuli for research has almost exclusively been sudden, audible bursts and some lesser experiments with blinding flashes, often called "acoustic startle-inducing stimulus" or " acoustic 'go' stimulus."
We would be safe to say that some of these in-the-field, "Boo experiments" did accompany various aspects of physical motion stimuli, such as sudden hand waves, surprise touches or pinches from the sides or rear (based on photographs I have seen in these research books). There is some visual stimulus used in the "Boo Experiments," along with the sheer sound. The below museum list also includes the obvious, incoming physical stimuli such as objects being thrown at the subjects and hand, arm strikes and lunges (probably no kicks) at the subject. I have tried to note where possible, what the audible, visual and physical stimuli were used when I could find it in these studies.
The Startle Museum
In the last two decades we have been observing startle/flinch responses like no other lab studies can produce. We have been watching "America"s Funniest Videos" on television and we have seen the whole spectrum of startles and flinches, from fainting to striking out. It is no surprise the medical research “museum” also includes these TV funnies: (and these ar in no specific order).
1) One arm up and one arm down
2) Two arms up in some manner, at times clsoe to the chest, head or neck
3) One arm up and one arm down including a knee raise
4) Knee raise alone (if the subject detects the possibility of a physical attack incoming very low, such as snakes, animals, insects - often the prized test tools and subject matter of the clinical psychologist. The arms may hardly move ).
5) Arm or arms may bend. They may not bend. May be shaking.
6) Dropping items
7) Untargeted throwing as hand-held objects randomly leave the opening hand
8) Targeted throwing at the subject that first caused the initial startle (at source of stimuli).
9) Striking out intentionally at source of audible or physical stimuli.
10) Flailing the arms wildly (usually from audible or visual stimuli).
11) The wave - where the body and arms rock up and down as if a vertical wave passed through them (usually from audible or visual stimuli).
12) Jumping up from seated, back or to the sides (from both audible and physical stimuli) The arms may or may not respond in the jump. Jumping back is a very high percentage move.
13) Knee bends and knee buckling (from both audible and physical stimuli).
14) Falling down.
15) Ducking and/or cowering (from audible and physical stimuli).
16) Fainting.
17) A kind of sudden, temporary heart attack.
18) Clutching of one's own throat (explained as a highly instinctive protective reflex).
19) Clutching of one's own face, palms on the sides of head (like the painting above)
20) Clutching of one's own chest about the heart.
21) Freezing into the pre-startle position (usually from audible stimuli. The body usually, reflexively blocks an incoming physical stimuli).
22) Blurting out and talking nonsense, or cursing.
23) Matching or mirroring – the startled person instantly matches the arm pose and body position of the person startling them.
24) Over 40 different, recorded facial expressions
25) If physical attacked, the subject may forego a stance and instantly respond/block the physical stimuli).
26) Obedience – in some cases, people are subject to instantly following the orders of the ambusher.
27) Cultural – experts have recorded responses that are uniquely culturally, as in family, tribe, region and/or nationality.
28) Idiosyncratic, individual specific responses (sometimes unexplainable. One main conclusion drawn from this list is that many startles are highly idiosyncratic to an individual).
29) Customized responses. Clutching a rail or furniture when falling. Puling away from "hot stove." The body quickly adapts with motions to save itself that do not resemble other motions in other specific situations.
30) Some combinations of the above.
I think we can safely deduce at this point there is quite a variety of recorded startle/flinch responses and not just the so-called fighting "fighting stance," first as listed by Landis and Hunt. Even Dr. Landis reported as early as 1937 that “the pattern varies in degree of manifestation among individuals and in any one individual from time to time.” Responses may vary depending upon the condition of the person. People may be tired, sick, under the influence of fatigue, alcohol or drugs. Given the museum variables, one asks the following three combatives-related questions:
Question 1) How can training programs massage startle reflexes into fighting responses, least of all make them the source, gross, motor movements of a combatives program, given the wild continuum of responses?
Question 2) Do these current program authors even know that so many startle responses exist? (My guess is not). Or, do they pick and choose from the responses to fit their specific marketing program?
Question 3) Third, do current program authors even know the source material they like to use is really from non-visual, non-physical stimuli, but audible shocks like sudden blasts of sound? Or looking at shocking pictures? The reactions to sound and photos do not directly relate to reactions of physical attacks.
Answers and a Tactical Review
From a tactical standpoint, some startle/flinch issues must be highlighted.
Review Issue 1: Apples and Oranges
Probably the most significant point is that many modern instructors have taken the audible/sound responses and turned them into solutions to physical attacks. You can't make orange juice from apple juice. Normal, healthy individuals may reflexively block or duck in the direction of incoming attacks, no matter the direction, or they may not. They may also respond in a sliding scale from the Startle Museum list. In 2004, the aforementioned Dr. Wood really separated the stimuli response from sound to physical movement. Dr. Wood reports, “The (official) "Startle Pattern" may be briefly described as follows:
In reaction to a sudden loud noise. Much has been done with acoustic responses. Since the 1930s, when reviewing the test data, one begins to take note that startle testing is almost always about audible shocks. There is little testing needed on incoming, physical stimuli as those physical responses may be naturally blocked and/or dodged by most people, right at the perceived height and direction of the attack. This is called directional-specific reaction or response to incoming stimuli. Natural blocks or customized ducks and dodges in response to incoming threats. Or, they may respond in other recognized startle reactions. People and their reflexes are very unpredictable.
Creating a "one-stop-shop" startle reflex move for combat, because “it is based on the Landis-Hunt startle reflex” from sudden sound and sudden light is a scientific mistake.
Review Issue 2: Fighting Stances
In the 1980s the US Army conducted some experiments and learned that people can be startled into their favored, trained fighting stances, no matter what those stances were. I have really tried to gather exact information on this Army study but, thus far, I cannot locate the specifics, such as - how many people were tested? Under what conditions? However, almost all martial practitioners can relate to this response as they have experienced this shock/sound event. In Dr. Simmon's book, he does have extensive interviews of people who have studied Judo and karate and reported these “jumps into fighting stances.” The clinicians used a term to explain this as "over-learning," to describe why this happens. The stances were deemed "over-learned" by the subjects from repetition training. Remember that, when a visual threat is coming in, many people just reflexively block in that very direction, forgoing any fighting stances.
In a major university in 1990s, a psychology department took in a group of students volunteering to be tested. The group filled out a deceptive questionnaire. Inside the packet and through a wide variety of questions, they established many points and one was if the person had played basketball and for how long. Then the tests began. The testers made each person stand in a room and face a wall, expecting to view something. Then a tester sneaked up to their side and suddenly yelled "HEY" and threw a basketball at their side, about biceps high.
All the non-basketball people turned and did a variety of things as they tried to duck or dodge. Or, they slapped at the ball, or block it. Or, they got hit with the ball. All the people who played basketball however, tried to catch the ball at their side. Some did catch it. Some didn't, but they all tried.
People did not drop into this classic "1939 Landis-Hunt Crouch," first, and then turn to their side to deal with the incoming ball. The ball would have hit them if they did. None in fact did this crouch. Trained people responded with their experienced moves as they "over-rode" a crude startle-flinch and tried to execute what they had "over-practiced" - catch a basketball suddenly shoved to their side.
Review Issue 3: Fist Clenching
Another subject martial practitioners concern themselves with is fist clenching as a result of a startle. How many times have you heard a self-defense instructor order you to fight with your fists clenched because hand-clenching is the natural reaction under startle, flinch and stress. Yet, studies show that clenching the hands is hardly a universal given. Research shows many startled persons actually open their hands, drop objects and even throw objects accidentally or on purpose, and all in milliseconds.
Some respondents have open-hand-slapped or pushed their ambushers. Indeed some have also punched them. I have taken particular interest in watching the candid camera style, funniest video programs on television for decades now, and pay close attention to the segments when the subject of the tape is surprised, shocked and ambushed by a gag. There you see the true startle reflex in action as men and women shock into a full plethora of responses, some not even listed in our clinical museum. The gags are sound, visual or physical and/or all or some. Some of these hapless TV victims run the gamut from dropping to the floor, some strike and attack of the ambusher with slaps and some closed-fist, punches and hammer fists. We simply cannot declare with any clinical confidence and certainty that all startled people naturally clench their hands into fists when startled.
Review Tactical Issue 4: Arms Rising
A fly dashes at your eye and your hand and arm zip up to protect it. Your head dodges sideways (not down). Your hand and arm vertically flee the hot stove. You swat at a ball headed to your face. You raise your leg against a low-line threat and your arms do not lift at all. All these startle response motions from physical threats are not really the classic Landis/Hunt reactions because they are threat/pain-protection-specific and not from acoustic stimuli. If a person perceives a physical medium to low attack, the arms may cover low. A head attack? The arms may wrap the head. The arms may flail up and down in a wave-like motion or flail wildly. They may match and mirror the arm positions of the ambusher. They may instantly strike or shove. They may not move at all. Training people to raise their arms in a protective fighting stance is one thing, selling us that the move is an absolute mandatory startle reflex is incorrect.
Arms up! Arms up is but one common reaction, among many, to a sudden stimulus, especially when standing and shocked by sound. There is no visual incoming threat, just sound. This has been wrongly taught as a universal response startle to most if not all problems. When a visual threat is coming in, many people may just reflexively dodge, or may block in that very direction, forgoing any classic poses or stances.
Tactical Issue 5: Startles and Gun Fighting
Since close quarters gun fighting involves audible explosions, the startle reactions to intense, sudden sounds may well play a part in a gunfight reaction. Gun fighters may frequently copy the classic, Landis and Hunt, loud sound responses first listed above. The original Hunt-Landis study was done with surprise gunshots! How perfect is that? The same may be said for artillery, mortar fire or explosions on any battlefield. The original 1930s tests were about sudden sound not sight, and the "Landis-Hunt Crouch" reactions really apply to firefights.
What then to do for training?
"People have this idea that everything in the brain is hardwired. The truth is that our brains change every time we learn. Much of what drives these responses is familiarity. Simply showing subjects something they should be afraid of also triggers an amygdala response, so the fear doesn't have to be experienced; it can be imagined." - states Elizabeth Phelps, Ph.D., director of the Phelps Lab at New York University's psychology department, discusses her research on the cognitive neuroscience of learning and memory in the amygdala and how it is changed by emotion. The natural ability to change and adapt at the core of responses.
To learn. Who? What? Where? When? How? And why? The big questions police officers must ask at every crime investigation. These are the same questions military experts ponder when reviewing the battlefield. As well as citizens should worry about when they go about their daily lives. Who is the enemy? Then, what do they want? Followed by, where are we when attacked, when is this attack, how will you attacked? Why are they attacking you? When you calculate these points, you can best prepare for encounters and limit the shocking aspects you might encounter. The answers to these questions differ for the soldier, the cop, the guard or the citizen. Prepare for the hot zones you pass through in your life. Predict and prepare for the likely ambushes you will face in your profession or in your lifestyle. Fortune favors the prepared. But know this - prepare way less with acoustical and audible-based solutions to solve physical attacks. Do however, keep audible, startle reflex studies in mind when instructing close quarter, firearm combatives, where they may play a unique part.
One major solution is to practice defending yourself against high percentage attacks in as real a setting as possible. Exercise these with an escalation, a continuum of increasing force. When the force becomes too dangerous to practice, then the instructor must introduce a level of realistic acting, to reward the practitioner for proper responses, even though a padded, protected attacker can't really feel the pain through his protection. An element of acting and simulation is absolutely essential in reality training, else everything degrades into a wrestling match. In the military, much time is dedicated to the ambush, by the preparation of crisis rehearsals called “immediate action drills.” There, they expect you shoot your gun instantly.
The startle stance/the fighting stance? Will your arms fly up? Sure, its possible. But, always? Not according to these scientists and decades of research. I once had a combatives instructor who warned me, “There is no such thing as football scoring stance.” So, too when fighting. I am a military and police veteran and a martial arts black belt in several systems. I have come to believe that a formal fighting stance is more like a "loose position" than a rigid stance and is more about balance and power in motion - a moving film if you will - rather than a still photograph of exacting position where everyone's knuckle, chin and foot heel are in the same statuesque pose. When the fight starts, it is all balance and power in motion. Keep your actual fighting stance/position, loose, "uncommitted" and very flexible like a football or basketball player in action. When the real fight starts, the statue stance idea is gone. Even shooter must move, not stay "range-still" to survive.
"When a fly zooms toward your eye, you don't first jump into a fighting
stance and then swat at the fly, you simply swat the fly.
Or you may just duck your head. Or, something else.
Take solace that your healthy body might well snap into blocking and ducking motions that protect you EXACTLY in the very direction you need it too, and in milliseconds. Especially if trained. Proper training and physical fitness helps this nerve and muscle “firing.” The nerves that fire together, wire together," as 21st century neurologists say. Contact fitness experts for available programs. It is important that you are free to respond directly to the threat from any angle, not snap into a rehearsed pose, then respond to the threat. When a fly zooms toward your eye, you don't first jump into a fighting stance and then swat at the fly, you simply swat the fly. Or you may just duck your head. Or something else. Pre-planned, pre-packaged fighting stances and positions should NEVER interfere with this emergency reflex.
And take solace that numerous clinical studies since the 1980s show that experienced or prepared people exhibit "inhibited startles." This proves that training and awareness and training can have an effect on your ambush. Being prepared helps.
Also take solace in the fact that "immediate action drills" training, such as concepts used in the military, has been proven to help people overcome ambush attacks and inhibit startles. Muscle memory repetition has been proven capable of over riding some flinch, startles. And even then, the startle flinch is over in just a second anyway and proper responses can begin. In an ironic note, many martial systems that are based on the startle/flinch ignorantly correct themselves through time! In their programs they do a multitude of exercises that also teach this override they don't believe in. They accidentally build some proper responses and correct their flawed thinking and backwards doctrine.
In Summary
Who? What? Where? When? How and why will you most likely be startled and ambushed? Answer those questions to first prepare and help counter the surprise and startle of an ambush. Clinical studies show that experienced or prepared people exhibit "inhibited startles."
It would be smarter to use studies on visual/physical stimuli, not audible stimuli for a training base. Research abounds on this subject in the 21st century, and experts agree that many people may simply block/protect right in the very direction of a sudden, incoming attack, or dodge and duck....or not, than drop into the Landi/Hunt Crouch. Plus, not all fights start with a startle. And even if startled, that startle only lasts so long - a second - and regular motions could kick into play.
Confidence. "Muscle memory"/repetition training. Confidence from muscle memory training. Education. Prepare. Fortune favors the prepared. Rather than bank on nature always providing you with a first defensive "Landis-Hunt Crouch" block, you can work to mold your muscle memory to react to sudden, real and varied incoming motions. Fights are highly, highly situational. Nothing works all the time, everything works sometimes.
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