Went to watch amateur mma last Saturday

[KC Elbows]

It was pretty fun. Some good fights, one good muay thai dude, some interesting ground fighting. Random thoughts:

-People who talk about how they train for the "real thing" or the street annoy me. I mean, if you can ground and pound a guy, there's really not much further lessons in meanness that need be bothered with, and most people making this claim aren't pressure testing their supposed badass techs.

-The event wasn't too bad planning wise, no big drama, a good number of reasonable fighters(reasonable as far as sportsmanlike).

-Had read through Noguiero's Guard book the night before, so it was fun looking for stuff related to what I'd read.

-Drunk friends can be annoying.

-Fighters ranged from newbie to some decent experience. Only two fights were badly mismatched.

-The only real complaint was, aside from the muay thai guy, no one did one teep the whole night. Well, one guy did a token leg motion that looked teepish without the teep, but it was mostly missing from most of the other fights, and so it seemed like striking was going right to punches with no need for caution in the entry as far as legs went.

-One friend lost by decision, but he improved a lot since his last fight, and it was a close decision. He poured his heart into that fight, too, and really did better on the ground than standup: he was having trouble hitting with power, I don't know how much he hits the heavy bag, but he had a good attitude, a good opponent, and came away with a positive experience.

-Another friend lost by tko, his opponent was a heavy hitter and he got faked out and then rocked with a lot of hits in succession. He's fought a few times, his last fight was his first win, but this fight was hard to watch: he's got a number of teachers, but recently I started teaching him as well, and I hated not being able to help him. It bothered me that he didn't use his kicks, as he comes from kicking arts first, and I'd just the week before realized that striking outside was not something he had worked on heavily, and he's long limbed. His opponent was very strong but did not have the reach he did, but without long range skills being honed more, I think it was just a tough matchup for my friend, as he may not have been able to hold this guy off because of this, though it was a short fight, and so it's hard to tell for sure. He took the fight at the last minute when another guy he knew had to drop out because of an injury.

Overall glad I went, but hated watching friends fight to some extent.

[Iron_Eagle_76]

In my experience it always sucks watching friends be on the losing end, as much at it sucks when you yourself or on the losing end. But you can learn a lot from a fight and a loss and that is really what they need to take away from that.

Anyone who has compteted knows that it is easy to say one should do something but when you are in there things are totally different. I know I am my own biggest critic and usually wind up ******ed off after watching the video of what I could have or should have done.

One of my coaches told me one time that only about 5 percent of people who train actually ever have a full contact fight and that alone is something to be proud of. IMO there is no other better test than to get in the ring or cage and see what you have. It sucks that your friends lost but I guarantee they will come out as better fighters from the experience.

[KC Elbows]

In my experience it always sucks watching friends be on the losing end, as much at it sucks when you yourself or on the losing end. But you can learn a lot from a fight and a loss and that is really what they need to take away from that.

Anyone who has compteted knows that it is easy to say one should do something but when you are in there things are totally different. I know I am my own biggest critic and usually wind up ******ed off after watching the video of what I could have or should have done.

One of my coaches told me one time that only about 5 percent of people who train actually ever have a full contact fight and that alone is something to be proud of. IMO there is no other better test than to get in the ring or cage and see what you have. It sucks that your friends lost but I guarantee they will come out as better fighters from the experience.

Yeah, my point in analyses wasn't to criticize, but more to be helpful and know what he can drill to help in the future.

[Frost]

sounds like your friends did well, some you win some you lose

Its hard to throw teeps when you are worried abut the take down, they can get trapped or swept aside, infact you are lucky if you see any kicks above the waist for that reason, especially in amateur comps

Oh and you are right a tough fighter with ground and pound makes a mean street fighter

[Dragonzbane76]

almost 20 years of MA's experience and I learned more from one fight in the ring than I took from those whole 20 years.

[donjitsu2]

-People who talk about how they train for the "real thing" or the street annoy me. I mean, if you can ground and pound a guy, there's really not much further lessons in meanness that need be bothered with, and most people making this claim aren't pressure testing their supposed badass techs.

You make a great point.

While there are some things about MMA that you can't get away with on the street if you aren't engaging in realistic competition against someone who is really trying to kick your ass (as opposed to a training partner who is only pretending) your skills haven't been stress tested.