You don't have to fight (the other side of the coin)

[Ray Pina]

The only two people who win in competitive fighting.... the promoter and the people who like/need to hurt people.

You train with love and passion and develop skills and relationships with partners and a level of conditioning you've never dreamed of..... then you're thrown to the crowd for a couple hundred bucks if you're lucky... and if you should have your jaw smashed... if you should snap a shoulder, knee, etc..... if you're the stat that dies..... well, "sorry." Good thing the promoter had insurance.

Most likely if you're a newb, outside the 'in crowd', you're going to get a hell of a match up. They use these venues for promotion..... their guy beating your a$$ is the hook. Them telling you they got you a good match up is the pitch.

I say this because I've come down on traditionalists and I want it known that I believe you can become competent without competitive fighting. You don't have to expose yourself to the world of competitive fighting (not the prettiest place).... but you do need to drill lively. You do need to train with resistance. And if you really want to learn about yourself and technique you will have to spar/fight with your classmates. And even better if you have a cross-school relationship and can spar/fight with others without pressure.

The No. 1 thing is to be honest about your goals and tune your training to that end honestly. And then tune it 5% harder assuming you were being a pu$$y about it.

[Ray Pina]

I now understand why my master forbid me to fight. I thought of it as a weakness at the time. Now I see it was so compassionate even in the face of my arrogance. When he could have shut me up anytime. Told me I wasn't at that level.

[sanjuro_ronin]

I think that fighting competitively is not and never has been for everyone.
SInce I always competed with the goal to test myself and my MA and to get better, victory or such was never foremost in my mind, BUT IT WAS THERE and is ALWAYS there and for some personalities that is not good.
Those with a core violent perosonality can use it to vent or it can FEED the violence.

Not sure what happened to you Bro, but it is good to see you KNOWING yourself as much as you seem to be.

[YouKnowWho]

The fighting period is so short. After you get yourself a fulltime job, wife and kid, and house payment, your fighting period is over. When you still can afford to test your skill in tournament, you should try as much as you can. The day that you have passed your fighting period, you will have the rest of your life to talk about "You don't have to fight". Until then you should "fight as much as you can". After all, you have only one life to live. You may be young today, but your will get old someday. Don't wait until you are 80 years old and wish that you could test your combat skill when you were still young.

[bawang]

if you dont want to fight then dont fight, or you waste my money as a spectator. i watch fights to see people bleed.

if no one gets hurt , how the hell is it a fight?

[Taixuquan99]

Great post. One friend just told me about his first mma fight, he was eighteen, inexperienced, and offered what was supposed to be a good match for a first fight, but it turned out he was being set up to fight a much more experienced fighter far better prepared. I remember watching one event that was all lopsided fights, waste of my money. I like good matches, pastings are obnoxious.

[ShenZhi]

To Ray Pina:

*puts down his clown face for a moment*

A part of me deeply agrees with your insight. Most likely..the part that "knows" gnostically that all "is vexation and vanity."

I have to look askance at folk who promote violence, even on the controlled level like point sparring. What are we saying? Humans are limited by the size of their martial *****? (Sorry about the Freud bit...not really). I see that most of the money is going towards a promoter....maybe even a kwoon that profits by ego and black tee shirts just for the chicks!!! Some have allowed their kwoons to become a materialist enterprise. Living on the "sweat" of their students day by day, becoming hypnotized by the Nobodaddy of ill-fame!

As our chief clown and guru of Mirth, Bawang, says: "if you dont want to fight then dont fight, or you waste my money as a spectator. i watch fights to see people bleed."

Already he has Freedom.
Maybe we should join him?
Or maybe just living until dying of old age is blood sport enough?

After all....unless you have connections....their ain't no reroll (word to the muthas of Atheism.....straight representing...yo! Or am I?)

----------------------------
*replaces DM face*

Ok..so Ray...you've just been attacked by a random wang. He smells like garlic! However, you should know that he is only chaotic good, but...he comes loaded with the power to summon a chaotic evil demon. Your guard was down, but I had on my Glasses of Shakespearean Clown-Voice Scrying" +5. I can translate: He has just cast a spell of "Loveable Troll Temptation" on you, and you may even hear from his strong mother, the Sea-Witch. Dread that!

What do you do?
Do you have your percentile dice?
Any mage spells of dispel?

[Eric Olson]

if you dont want to fight then dont fight, or you waste my money as a spectator. i watch fights to see people bleed.

if no one gets hurt , how the hell is it a fight?

Dude, would you mind taking the GAY PORN out of your signature?

[IronFist]

but you do need to drill lively. You do need to train with resistance.

This.

Dealing with an opponent who is resisting and who is trying to hit you is key.

The people who have done this and know their 10 hit counter won't work when their opponent doesn't leave his arm extended after a punch are already way ahead of the game.

The people who have experienced an adrenaline dump and loss of fine motor control that comes from an opponent who is trying to hit you are also way ahead of the game.

You don't have to compete in MMA to become a competent fighter. Sure, it will help you get a more rounded experience. But for those people who want to compete rather as a sport or a profession, there's nothing wrong with it.



I don't know much about the business behind it. Is it really common to have noobs paired up with more experienced guys? That seems like a bit of a d.ick move. Especially if the noob is a dude who is trying to learn and the guy he's paired up with is some big ego dbag who actually wants to hurt the other person.

[Taixuquan99]

This actually relates to my belief that much of the martial arts is charging the practitioners to be the entertainment and the instructors. Not all, but unfortunately, a lot.

[GeneChing]

The only two people who win in competitive fighting.... the promoter and the people who like/need to hurt people. I find a lot of fighters just want to test themselves. They aren't necessarily into hurting people. And I feel I've always won in competitive fighting as a spectator. I love watching fights. It's very entertaining and educational. Watching a good fight is simply exhilarating.

That being said, I agree with the rest of your post Ray, more or less.

[IronWeasel]

Dude, would you mind taking the GAY PORN out of your signature?


Why?

It makes us Fear him!

[ShenZhi]

Ahhh yeah!

I'm hearing you two: Iron Fist and Taixuquan99!

Keep playing those philosophical beats, cause deyz allzzz boutzzz da "Truth" (in that, at a point in a chain of events, there can be, and will be, a certain amount of dialogue, dialogue ripe with the possibility of change!).

Taixuquan99, you just hit me with me with five dollars worth of 1970's capital "R" revelation. Indeed, martial arts currently suffers from the need of the old curse of entertainment. You go to an event, materialistic sifus start talking that trash about "it's good for you...good for me....," and bam! We are the fool who has paid the price of not only fees to the "sifu," but big time fees to tourney promoters.

It has become a sin to sit on "the old dharma pillow" and slay the demon of "truthiness." It's the big time "biz" that now rules the "dialogue" of exchange.

Whatever happened to one school visiting another to learn and bruise? Oh...lemme guess....no trophies??? No "cha-ching!" ?

[ShenZhi]

@Gene

And I give a bit of ground to you as well, milord! We can't all be right, even when we ride the old invisible-not-invisible soapbox stump of wisdom. *bows*


But it's in me to ask: "Peace sells....but who's buying????":p

[David Jamieson]

wtf? Are you in Megadeath (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PjVEONdeZjc) or something? lol
Great album!

Anyway, Ray you draw your insight from direct experience and I can respect that.
Few people seek that opportunity as you have. So, I agree with a goodly chunk of that, but I would more closely align my own opinion with Gene's which is the testing/knowing/checking angle of why fight.

[ShenZhi]

Egads!
The paladin has arrived!

Ok, DJ, you get new experience points for figuring that out....go level up and stuff.

But....yeah, you gotta admit that sometimes, uhhhhhhh, a little Megadeth can lighten up personal exchanges and such, especially when "you take a mortal man, and put him in control...." and uhhhh, you don't have to do a body count.
:o

[SPJ]

some are born fighters no matter what.

some are just not cut out for it.

it is a gift.

sort of.

---

[lkfmdc]

Dude, would you mind taking the GAY PORN out of your signature?
if you fear gay porn, you are not a true warrior

[bawang]

i dont know what you guys are talking about. thats baoding shuai chiao.