Originally Posted by
dlcox
I agree. It's just unfortunate that most commercial MA schools focus on the defenesive part. I understand why they do, children, monetary gain and liabilty issues. When they do finally develop into "sparring" it is over regulated, limited in technique and unrealistic in approach. Again because of above stated reasons. Also, the vast majority of competitions promote this "tag" type of scenerio. IMO boxing and wrestling break down this barrier and allow the students, somewhat safely, to practice their technique and application realistically and at full power, with boxing they can wear head gear, gloves and body armour. Without throws and kicks it's much safer, yet allows one go hard. With wrestling you can go hard without damaging someone. Don't get me wrong without supervision all kinds of havoc can break out. With classical MA training, going hard, even with padding, there is too much risk of injury because of the vast array of techniques, usually underdeveloped. These are usually being applied and defended sloppily as there are too many for the student to adequately learn. IMO to train realistically at full bore you need to isolate to develop the technique. Boxing only, wrestling only, throwing only. Then when your offensive and defensive skill have been sharpend you can start adding them together. Kinda of like a deconstructed MMA format, but applied to TCMA. Training to understand and being able to use a technique doesn't have to equate to training and competing in MMA. But a similar format can be used and IMO should be. No one trained in TCMA for several years should have their arse handed to them by some snot nosed punk with 6 mos. of MMA training. Unfortunately, this has become a trend, simply from a lack of hard and realistic training, like boxing.