As a southern practitioner, here is my problem with sport fighting, not big problem, little problem...

They say you fight like you train. We all agree on that I think.

When I face an opponent, I train a lot on engagement. Bull rush is one strategy, but not the only one. I like the set up. I like frustrating an opponent, playing possum and turning tide. setting traps.

When I look at him, I see red. Red spots in all the places I want to hit him. Like Nintendo, tracking multiple bogies concurrently.

I don't want to get hit at all. I try to create the lowest risk opportunity to attack, and simply fold on any engagement not to my advantage, to put it in the simplest terms.
Very few people you can't avoid for a few steps one way or the the other for a shift in weight or stance. (I'm not talking about taking the bus to Cleveland). When you do it tactually, not intuitively or emotionally, you get even better.

I look at it like a sword fight, domination and crease. Attack the attack and cut hard until there is no sense in cutting any further, or you fall, cut yourself.

Needless to say, this doesn't fit the engage, disengage, engage, disengage, wear down and conquer "give and take" of most sparring experiences, even though you may cycle through a number of attacks in reality.

The training is simply focused on engineering an advantage and attacking through.
The content of the attack is practically irrelevant, as the great skill is in the timing, and the positioning for a strong attack. I mean boxing and grappling distance, not kicking distance. Lots of balance attacking.

There is so much more on this topic, like delivering the techniques once you have the advantage, suffering defeat, how to make stuff that's supposed to work really work, how to engage multiple opponents, how recover from disadvantages in the lowest risk manner, it could go on forever. But single out this one idea.

Just that one single moment is what concerns me most.

So, how to capture that in sport? The Cut?
And don't think I haven't been in there swinging hard, and don't know how it goes.

And sorry, I think this is the ducks guts when it comes to MA. This is the mountaintop, and no, I make no claim to being on said mountain top, only that I can see it from down where I stand, way off in the distance. Miles away, lightyears. A Brazillion Lightyears.

Yes, it is probably a feeling of mastery comparable to the domination you feel grappling up a rookie who you can do with what you please, especially after he's been big-noting his mystical Kung Fu powers....

I'm saying, not the only game in town, just my game.