In a recent interview, Bill "Superfoot" Wallace stated he was a little pleased that some of the well known champion point fighters did poorly in Chuck Norris new full contact event. He said he had nothing against those guys, but he said it illustrated how beautiful flashy offensive training means nothing once you get hit. He spoke about how many martial artist think having nice dynamic offensive tactics makes you a good fighter. Be believes you must be able to take a punch...and then have the desire, internal strength and skill to continue fighting.
We do get the opportunity to see this in MMA fighting. Yes, many strikers with little grappling get submitted or "grounded and pounded", but few(with a few exceptions) get KOed. Many of the grapplers with wrestling, grappling and BJJ titles find the entire landscape of the fight changes when they are being hit solidly.
Well, if you do plan on competiting in any full-contact sports, make sure you train with real strikers, not just guys in the gym or dojo. Guys who specialize in striking like boxers and kickboxers. Train with guys who are better strikers than you, so you know who you are as a fighter...after you get hit. It may surprise you.
Years ago, I had a traditional JJ/Aikido instructor who stressed that all of his students had to put on the boxing gloves once a month for sparring, even though boxing wasn't taught in his school.
If you train, for "reality" if there is such a thing. Know there isn't much a defense for a good unseen sucker punch. Yet, whether you train in a softer style or a style in which closed fist are rarely used, it's still good to put on the boxing gloves and headgear and do some sparring. Not so much for the physical benefits, but for the mental/emotional training. You'll find that fine motor skills decrease rapidly during the "dump", but you can train yourself to be calm under pressure. Your body and mind says, "I've been here before".
You can do this safely, with proper equipment. I just taught a self-defense seminar this weekend. Someone asked me about finding a good school for self-defense. I told the style really didn't matter, but if you don't see any protective gear in the gym or dojo their self-defense instruction should be questioned.
any oppurtunities to travel overseas might be a great chance to compare how 'tough' your training is.
I've noticed the places I've been, or the people I have met from far away places, everydoby else seems to be a little less frills, and a little more down to earth. I met a couple of Danes who were students at a kickboxing school, and I was asking them questions about their conditioning and sparring. I was asking them if they lift weights, or spar regularly. They looked at me puzzled. They were like "it's kickboxing", as in how do you practice a fight sport without fighting all the time, running stairs, lifting weights and conditioning your shins till they are 'unfuckable' as one young man put it.
In China, they didn't understand why you wouldn't spar with an injury, or you threw up, or stopped fighting after you get knocked out. Again, just puzzled, like 'you are a martial artist, aren't you?'
but there is so much more to it then conditioing and sparring, it takes confidence, mental discipline, and inner strength. And things like this you can only acquire by simply living.
"it takes confidence, mental discipline, and inner strength"
i couldn't agree more that those are very empowering attributes to possess, but my suspicion is that those qualities would also make you an excellent lawyer, school teacher or ethicist, or really anything that's important to you. I think it's more constructive to discuss things that are more immediately applicable to performance of martial arts skills, or things that can be more readily taught to a student or client in the typical teaching/training atmosphere that exists in the west.
how is it not?
think about this, what is the connection between an excellent lawyer, a school teacher, and a martial artist?
ill tell you, they all endlessly challenge themselves, they all rise thru adversity, and they all invest in loss and defeat, one way or another. regardless of whether the training methods are effective or not, if one does not approach training with the right attitude, nothing will be truly accomplished.
tell that to your clients.
seems to me that you know enough about weightlifting, why dont you open your mind to other ideas?
"...And things like this you can only acquire by simply living."
I'll go a step further, things you acquire by "hard living".
You can trace the history of poverty in the country by simply looking at boxing history.
Initially, boxing was dominated by the poor Irish immigrants and then the immigrants of Jewish decent and Italian. Later, poor African Americans began to dominate boxing. Most recently, it's been poor people of spanish decent.
You can almost count the boxing champions who grew up "easy" on your hands. Boxing is a hard game, with tough training, lots of risk and a possible big pay off.
It takes people who almost find themselves with no opportunities other than fighting.
Muay Thai is another examples. Thai boxing is extremely tough, but it's the only way some can get out of poverty.
Fedor Emelianenko the Pride Heavyweight champion and possibly the greatest MMA fighter ever said it is his memories of "poverty and hunger" that drives him to compete.
There is an aspect of "toughness" that cannot be taught. It's a "will to survive" that motivate some of the toughest guys out there.
Even the military can be looked at as an example. Most of the infantrymen who died Vietnam and our recent conflicts have been from poor backgrounds. Many feel they have no other options in life than to go into the military. And because of low scores, they can only qualify to be in combat jobs.
So "life" is relevant. Trainable...I don't know.
robert i think that you misunderstand me again. I also think that Backarcher has a very good point (as always).
I'm really pretty open to a lot of ideas. That's how I know the things that I know now. By listening to others.
for instance aerobic respiration: not related to lactic acid (fermentation).
I didn't think that there was anything wrong at all with your first post, it's just How Do You Teach Someone those things, the qualities that you described. And Backarcher is right, it's not "simply living".
The best wine in the world comes from vines that have to struggle to bear fruit.
I'll put that in my gym, right next to the one that says "every minute you are not training, someone else is. To kick your ass."
(paraphrasing an old boxing maxim)