There are a million ways to add stress into training. Some are better than others.
Having intention can help steer the lesson, to assure the stress is meaningful.
The dog pile drill is one I have used many times over the years, and recently have begun using frequently.
There are a secret physical and psychological components that can add meaning: the physicality of getting out from under the weight of several human bodies, compression on the torso that can make breathing more difficult, managing breath and stress while being smooshed into the ground, etc…
When we use this drill in the setting of a knife defense scenario, the main objective is to create a meaningful level of physical and emotional stress BEFORE the knife encounter, so they can work on managing that stress and are heading into a training encounter with that stress already involved.
The beauty of this drill is that it can easily be scaled for the needs of the individual: essentially made easier or more difficult by controlling simple variables.
In any case, stress should be added when and how makes most sense for the individual learning and the intention of the lesson.
Unregulated stress for the sake of stress, is significantly less efficient in building resiliency in our experience.
Happy training y’all! 😎
Aaron Jannetti 