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Thread: Respect for Rules/Others in MMA?

  1. #1

    Question Respect for Rules/Others in MMA?

    So I just had an experience that ****ed me off quite a bit on the 8th of November. I'm a Songshan Shaolin practitioner, and wanted to dip my foot into Sanshou and see how I liked it. Well I signed up for a light sparring match in an upcoming competition that my school was hosting. On the day of the competition, we were told the rules for light sparring would be light contact to the head and face, all other striking fair game per Sanda rules (no knees/elbows) and no throws (workaround being you could trap someone's leg and knock them down in other ways to get points). Anyways I had 2 1/2 months of training in Sanda/sanshou at this point, and was eager to have a good match with someone around my level (beginner/novice). Long story short I got paired up with some guy from an MMA gym who wanted to compete in the main event but was forced into light sparring because he didn't have an official fight record. Him and his team were acting very ****y and rude from the beginning. When my match started the rules of light contact to the head were reiterated. He nodded understanding and we got the match underway. I lasted 25 seconds before they broke it up, with the last 10 seconds being him punching me in the face as hard as he could as quickly as he could. He obviously trained for a long time, and completely disregarded the rules of the match he agreed to, to the point where I would have been knocked out if he had gotten one more punch in before they stopped the match and disqualified him.

    Is this the usual attitude in the MMA community? It seemed like he was trying to vent his anger for having to compete in a lower division by just beating up a beginner.

    If anyone has any thoughts on this or about attitude and respect in general in the MMA community I'd love to hear them, thanks.
    Shàolín shì Chán, bùshì Quán 少林是禅不是拳 (Shaolin is Chan, not Quan) ~ Venerable Shi Su Xi

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Apr 2003
    Location
    Columbia, MO
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    I'm sorry to hear that. Most of my experiences with MMA people have been positive, but just as in more traditional arts, there are people with bad attitudes and don't really belong there.

    That being said, there are multiple things I see wrong in this situation.

    1) "Light contact" sparring matches. I don't really like the idea of these because there is no objective for what's considered "light" and people will take advantage of that. I see far too many injuries/accidents at those karate/taekwondo tournaments where they put foam dipped gloves on ill-trained people and let them have a "light contact" match.

    2) 2 1/2 months is not enough training time to consider competing in Sanda, in my opinion, unless you are already athletic and have previous fighting sport experience. Is this typical at your gym?

    3) There was no reason for the tournament organizers to put an obviously experienced guy in a beginners' division. Given what occurred, they open themselves up to significant liability if you were to be injured.

    Which event was this?
    "I'm a highly ranked officer of his tong. HE is the Dragon Head. our BOSS. our LEADER. the Mountain Lord." - hskwarrior

  3. #3
    Quote Originally Posted by pazman View Post
    I'm sorry to hear that. Most of my experiences with MMA people have been positive, but just as in more traditional arts, there are people with bad attitudes and don't really belong there.

    That being said, there are multiple things I see wrong in this situation.

    1) "Light contact" sparring matches. I don't really like the idea of these because there is no objective for what's considered "light" and people will take advantage of that. I see far too many injuries/accidents at those karate/taekwondo tournaments where they put foam dipped gloves on ill-trained people and let them have a "light contact" match.

    2) 2 1/2 months is not enough training time to consider competing in Sanda, in my opinion, unless you are already athletic and have previous fighting sport experience. Is this typical at your gym?

    3) There was no reason for the tournament organizers to put an obviously experienced guy in a beginners' division. Given what occurred, they open themselves up to significant liability if you were to be injured.

    Which event was this?
    1.) Until I actually arrived at the event I was told that the match would be full contact but with people of similar skill level and weight. When I arrived they said no face shots (perhaps because they knew there were bad matchups?) I laughed at that rule, because it sounded so ridiculous, as we were already wearing full protective gear for Sanda. When the first fight started, they changed the ruling to "light contact" to the face for some reason. This was a terribly disorganized tournament, and although it's put on by my school, I will most likely not be participating again. None of the sparring seemed to be evenly matched, I guess I was just the worst off.

    2.) No fighting sport history. I did 3 1/2 years of tkd prior, currently 1 year of shaolin kung fu, and 2 1/2 months of Sanda in preparation for the sparring. I have always been heavy in sparring, though only with other traditionalists (besides the 2 1/2 months of sanda). I am 21 years old and my body is solid with no excess weight, so I guess decently athletic. I don't believe it is typical at my school, though I'll post again once I'm able to ask some people at my school why exactly all this happened like it did. The light sparring should have only been with other people doing Sanda that have had minor formal training, and was supposed to be. I have no idea how or why they allowed an experienced person from an MMA gym into that category.

    3.) Yeah I'm going to post again once I get some more information at my school. I don't think they have any liability with the number of forms I signed.. including a medical release shortly before the actual match.

    (The match was also delayed 5 hours just to show how disorganized this thing actually was)

    Anyway I appreciate the reply Pazman and I'll post again once I find out some more about what my school's perspective on this whole thing was.
    Shàolín shì Chán, bùshì Quán 少林是禅不是拳 (Shaolin is Chan, not Quan) ~ Venerable Shi Su Xi

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Jan 1970
    Location
    Canada!
    Posts
    23,110
    community?

    There are a bunch of clubs.
    These clubs are made up of people.

    Some people are *******s.

    That's how it goes, especially in fighting.

    Fighting isn't safe quite frankly.
    Kung Fu is good for you.

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