Originally Posted by
mkriii
My question is can a tournament fighter (that is a point fighter) be able to fight effectively on the street. Can a point fighter really fight or do they have a false sense of security? Do they still possess the skills neccessary to defeat an attacker (the avaerage Joe) on the street? I'm just interested in what everyone thinks.
Personally I hate point sparring. It's not realistic because of all the 'stops' and 'resets' during a match and because of this, the opponents are more concerned about telegraphing a visually obvious strike as opposed to landing an effective strike. Not to mention there's no real strategy in linking techniques because as soon as you make contact you have to 'stop' and 'reset'. 'Point sparring' is exactly what it sounds like: an inferior point counting system to conform cma into a 'sport'.
Now I'm not so thick to assume there are no benefits in point sparring, of course there are like increase stamina, 'thinking on your feet', and of course learning how you're leaving yourself open...but you learn all these in continual sparring and especially circle sparring as well. So besides getting a plastic trophy, what else is point sparring good for?
We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore, is not an act but a habit.
- Aristotle
The only way of finding the limits of the possible is by going beyond them into the impossible.
- Arthur C. Clarke