The bottom line..

[David Jamieson]

If you got the will, the guts and the intention you already have the biggest part of being a fighter.

A good trainer and some exeperience will take you the rest of the way and it doesn't matter about style.

[taai gihk yahn]

This? After two days of vacation, a beer and a haircut, this is what you come up with? :p

[Dragonzbane76]

This? After two days of vacation, a beer and a haircut, this is what you come up with?

must have done some deep soul searching to come up with that. :p

[David Jamieson]

all beer and haircuts aside, i think this is true.

[SPJ]

1. the will is most important for me

that incurs being diligent in your practice or training.

repeat your stepping, your hand moves over and over again if not daily, semiweekly or weekends only (due to day job and family)

2. the gut or the courage

that is to take defeat as lessons and the opponents your teachers. to admit that you may be wrong and there are rooms for betterment or improvement.

3. the intent

is not to bully others, but use your skills attained from practice and sparring for defense purpose only.

4. always be humble.

when you are humble, you start to see when and where to advance and to retreat. you see your own strong and weak points, and you also see the opponent's strong and weak points.

----

we may be learning or good at fighting, but we need to have the mindset of a hermit or monk. be humble. too much pride will blind us, b/c we only see our strong points and nothing else.

[Scott R. Brown]

This? After two days of vacation, a beer and a haircut, this is what you come up with? :p

What else do you expect from a man who lives in the renaissance?

I know......naked paintings on the ceiling....right?

[mooyingmantis]

If you got the will, the guts and the intention you already have the biggest part of being a fighter.

A good trainer and some exeperience will take you the rest of the way and it doesn't matter about style.

David,
I agree with your first statement whole-heartedly. However, your second statement is a modern "truism". And as truisms go, they are rarely true.

I have seen some terrible styles of martial arts. If one stuck to the rules of those particular styles, they would have their heads handed to them by members of better styles (if both are of equal skill in their respective style of course).

Cassius Clay/Muhammed Ali certainly had his own particular style. It worked very well for him in his art of boxing. It was very different from what others of his time had mastered. He probably would not have been successful if he had used George Foreman's style of boxing.

Style shapes and gives a fighter a context to work from. Had the Gracies went into the ring using a throwing based game rather than a grappling based game, which was very uncommon at the time, they would probably not have succeeded like they did.

Due to their particular styles, the above mentioned fighters brought something to the game that few had been exposed to before. Thus, their styles gave them an edge.

Even a good trainer is limited by what he knows based on his experience. These days it is important for someone who wants to compete to have experience with multiple trainers in multiple styles. Few trainers know or can teach it all successfully.

Mastering a style(s) does matter, but one must not be limited by any one style if one wants to compete.

[David Jamieson]

presupposing a good trainer won't give you a crappy style. :)

[randyds5]

Alot of people are making fun of this post, But I agree with him. I know some people who are a BEAST in the gym, but when they are confronted with a real fight, they let fear take over their minds, and they fold up. Having a strong mind is CRUCIAL to any survival situation. I think a mental patient can often times be more deadlier than a trained martial artists, just because his mind is so fierce