Introduction
In Smart Defences, the term “smart” refers to the practitioner’s ability to flow between defences. A “smart” practitioner can analyze their actions and make decisions in collaboration with others in their environment. You may not realize it, but you are programmed to follow a closed-loop process. In this loop, we imagine performing an action in our minds and then our body does everything possible to complete it. Feedback from our senses lets us know how aligned our action was in reality with what we pictured in our minds. This is exactly why we can say that our imagination fuels our body.
With this closed-loop process in mind, the defences in this system were chosen so that every practitioner can perform unlimited drills. Why? Constant, dedicated repetition allows the practitioner to “embed” these defences into our memory. That way, you can act, make the correct decisions, and stay on the right path regardless of the situation you face.
Therefore, disciplining the mind is crucial to ensuring that the body performs competently even in tense situations. By being fully involved and present in every activity, we can develop a mental state where our imagination works congruently with our body's response. In other words, we create a perfect absolute loop between how we picture our body moving in our imagination and how our body actually moves in reality.
Smart Defenses System uses the same concept in self-defence or any other situation, and another way to explain it is to compare it to a mirror. Your reality is as if you were looking into a mirror and your senses reflect its objects back to you. Some of these objects reflect on your mind, which has a direct impact on how you imagine. Series of emotions are triggered based on your memories of the past, causing you to react for no reason.
The best way is not to try to figure out the triggers, but to react by matching the reflection with one of the 27 movements by overlaying it with your mind, imagination being used to display it. At this point, the body, all other objects, and the mind are unified and can function at their optimum level at the moment. Only then can you merge your imagination with your body's response by imagining your next action and acting on it.
