Self-Defense Tip #51
Your temper and your reaction time

by Thomas Kurz, co-author of Basic Instincts of Self-Defense and author of Stretching Scientifically, Secrets of Stretching, and Science of Sports Training.

To read the previous installment click here.

“Keep your temper. Do not quarrel with an angry person. It is foolish and an exercise in futility. Give him a soft answer. It is commanded by holy writ, and furthermore, it will make him a lot madder than anything else you could say.”—Prairie Rambler

“An angry mind is a weak mind. A weak mind soon becomes a sick mind.”—Peter Ragnar

Throwing profanities, especially in a confrontation, betrays weakness--of mental, verbal, and physical skills—yes, the physical skills. Good fighters—strong people—are calm, confident enough not to lose their temper.

Take a police officer using “strong talk” for instance, “Get up against the f***** car or I will blow your f***** head off,” to intimidate an adversary (not necessarily a suspect, just someone the police officer wants to intimidate). Well, in addition to the thing about anger, consider this quote: “It's difficult to shoot at the same time you're talking; usually your mouth has to stop before your trigger finger can start” (Street Survival: Tactics for Armed Encounters by Adams, McTernan, and Remsberg, 1980). What goes for the trigger finger, goes for any one of your limbs.

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