Quote Originally Posted by Ray Pina View Post
I don't really understand everything you're saying here. But to reiterate: he takes pride in throwing lesser belts but NEVER free plays when striking is involved. Not kill each other striking, just run-of-the-mill training sparring.... knowing this guy, I believe his ego won't allow him to "get beat up" in front of everyone. Though I admit I'm projecting.

This is just one example of a situation I encounter pretty often. Sometimes experts become so expert they loose perspective..... being a taiji push hand champ, a grecco roman champ doesn't necessarily equate skill in full unarmed combat. One may have skill in certain attributes -- leading, guiding, take downs, pins, etc, but its what's lacking that keeps them on the sidelines when men strap up and compare.

I read so many threads hear asking for "video proof." If 5 percent of the board members here trained "live" their would be too much footage to go through on a weekly basis.
My point was that his problem wasn't expertise, but ego and arrogance. If he trained the basics outside his realm, he probably wouldn't hesitate to train with striking, because he could bring HIS game into the overall game, and his game is well developed.