Bill Danosky

Now we are getting somewhere. It's a shock to your system to inflict or receive damage; hardened criminals and MMA competitors are both desensitized to the negative effects that unconditioned people suffer. I'm not going to tell any glory stories, but OTOH, I have been hit pretty hard a few times, so I can almost always say I've had worse. That can make the difference between something making you submit, and it pi$$ing you off.

There are certainly emotional and psychological effects that go along with violent encounters. Fear/aggression, dominance/submission, fight/flight, etc, etc. The kind of thing Kevin was mentioning awhile back. Somewhere in there is the tolerance you have to sustain damage and still fight back, and that is not something that we are getting from our Aikido training. O Sensei wanted no competition in his training, but it's not right to send people out into the world untested, with the impression that they are prepared.

I like what I'm learning, and I can do it for another 25 years, which I couldn't do with MMA or really even Judo successfully. Maybe I just don't want to work out that hard any more. So I will keep plotting to strip Yoshinkan Aikido down into hack Ju Jitsu through the week, but I think my workshop money is going to tactical CQC training from here out. I am not going to have a physical advantage over many people at 48, so I need to know what I'm doing, now more than ever.