Glossary of Street Fighting - Sports Competition Martial Arts - What Is It?

Glossary of Street Fighting – Sports Competition Martial Arts – What Is It?

by admin on Jul.14, 2009, under Street Fighting Glossary

sportsmartialarts

The second category of martial arts is Sports Competition Martial Arts.

Let us first take a look at classical Karate tournament fighting.

Martial Arts Tournaments

When you go to a martial arts tournament, you sit in the audience and witness the beauty and grace of a fluid kata or form being executed with the timed and skilled movements of a ballet dancer in the finale of a dramatic opera.

In another ring of the same martial arts tournament, you can see opponents in a contest of “point sparring” where they don’t even have to make contact, they just have to be judged as having theoretically made contact through the defenses of their sparring opponents. A punch is thrust toward the face of an opponent, and the referees throw a small flag in the air to show that a “point” was won. How cute. This is tantamount to “playing tag” but only with Oriental uniforms and bare feet.

Also, we must not forget the full-contact contests where face guards, helmets, chest and knee pads are donned to go “full contact” – but in a protected sense, with referees there to make sure that no one really gets hurt.

mmafighting

Mixed Martial Arts (MMA)

Let’s up the anty a bit and go across the street where a knock down drag out “no holds barred” MMA match is taking place right now. (Hmm, they still wear gloves.)

The simple thread that runs through both of the above in the Sports Competition Martial Arts category is that there are a set of clearly defined R-U-L-E-S. And certain moves are illegal: eye gouging, finger breaking, biting, etc.

Listen, and listen well, by the fact that there are rules does not make the Sports Competition Martial Arts category, be it karate tournament fighting or MMA caged matches, a viable choice for learning real world self protection. In the street – there ARE no rules!

The Secret To Learning Real-World Self Defense And Self Protection

The secret to learning real world defense is to leave Sports Competition Martial Arts in the tournament ring, and to leave MMA fighting in the octagon, for in the streets you MUST have access and be able to use every illegal move that tournament fighting and MMA fighting prohibit. For real-world self defense, you need Reality-Based Self Defense. Period. And you must become a “dirty” fighter to survive.

In the streets, if and whenever necessary, you must also be able to eye gouge, bite whatever is available and break however many fingers you can get a hold of. To survive, you must be able to do whatever it takes – and use every last one of those illegal moves that Traditional Martial Arts sports tournaments and Mixed Martial Arts sports competition prohibit.

What’s your take? Do you feel that Sports Martial Arts is equivalent to real street fighting readiness?

Charles Prosper aka “The Street Fighting Sifu”

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:karate, martial arts, mixed martial arts, MMA, self defense, self protection, street fighting

2 comments for this entry:

Nicholas K.
December 2nd, 2009 on 7:14 am
“When you go to a martial arts tournament, you sit in the audience and witness the beauty and grace of a fluid kata or form being executed with the timed and skilled movements of a ballet dancer in the finale of a dramatic opera.”

I hardly view kata as a “dramatic opera”. I’ll admit that Japanese karate has exagerated a lot of the stances and blocks in order to make them harder to develope character; however, original okinawan karate is actually view simplistic and effective.

“In another ring of the same martial arts tournament, you can see opponents in a contest of “point sparring” where they don’t even have to make contact, they just have to be judged as having theoretically made contact through the defenses of their sparring opponents”

This also teaches control because if you always train to go 100 percent in class and training then what happens if you find yourself in a situation where you have to defend yourself from a loved one? Such as a drunk uncle. Are you going to gouge out his eyes and make sure he never has any babies again? They teach to go full out but they also teach control.

“Also, we must not forget the full-contact contests where face guards, helmets, chest and knee pads are donned to go “full contact” – but in a protected sense, with referees there to make sure that no one really gets hurt.”

What’s so bad about protecting your athletes? Tis paramount to saying in RBSD the bullet man has to not wear any pads because it more closely resembles real fighting. Also the bullet man should attack with real weapons. Safety always comes first.

“For real-world self defense, you need Reality-Based Self Defense. Period. And you must become a “dirty” fighter to survive.”

False. Traditional martial arts (not the watered-down sports version found more prominently today) teach dirty tactics. Traditional karate teaches “illegal” techniques and isn’t just a sport like you make it out to be. In fact, I’ve personally used karate to defend myself successfully on multiple occassions. You don’t just need RBSD.
Rosabella@martial art supply
July 2nd, 2010 on 2:00 am
Excellent article on martial arts and martial art supply