The Most Painful Experience of My Life

 For those who read and looked at the latest monthly mini challenge, you would know that on Saturday, I underwent OCS exposure and contamination testing (or in short, I got pepper sprayed). While the experience itself is something I would want to share, I happened to get two big Kung Fu insights from it. Two birds, one stone. Before I get into it, however, I think I will repeat the title of this blog. I can confidently say I have not undergone anything more painful or brutal in my lifetime than those 30 minutes. You know that stinging in your eyes when you get soap in them? I was rubbing soap into my eyes to make them feel better. Not a pleasant time. 

Unfortunately, all videos taken were deleted after viewing and not retained, so I have no fun stuff to share. I did get to watch it myself, however, and I noticed something. One of the drills we had to do was various strikes on an individual, including palm heels and thrust punches. I was really impressed with my techniques for those strikes. Everything from my rotation, my power, my six harmonies, my vectors, my stance, it all looked good. I could not see, I could hardly breath, I was in a lot of pain, and yet my muscle memory was still in tact. I talked about how my muscle memory has given me some grief during this week in my last blog, yet this was a positive light I very much needed to see. A quote our instructors have said numerous times this week is "under stress, no one rises to the level of their expectations, rather falling to the level of their training". My level of training got me to the point I was at. It was a pretty good feeling (although to be fair, after I got my vision back, all feelings felt pretty good).

The other insight I gained was just how vital my training in breath control has been. A side effect of pepper spray that I saw a lot of in my classmates was anxiety and fear. Although I experienced some minor moments of this, I definitely excelled in avoiding it. I believe it is because I very rarely lost control of my breathing. When decontaminating and soaking my eyes in copious amounts of water and soap, I remained in constant pace of breathing in for three seconds and out for three seconds. I was able to crack jokes and make conversation in a fraction of the time as others, and I genuinely believe it is because I was the one who could slow down and take a breath.

Overall, while I have never experienced more pain, it is surprisingly short-lived. Within 25 minutes I was able to see unaided, within an hour I could fully function with no drawbacks, and within 24 hours it was like it never happened. It also cleared the sinuses remarkably well, so it may be worth doing again if I have a cold.