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Old 07-15-2006, 03:23 PM   #214
DonMagee
Location: Indiana
Join Date: May 2006
Posts: 1,311
United_States
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Re: Brawling with a friend

Quote:
Michael Gallagher wrote:
But then the next question is, "Why would you expect someone to try and do the same moves you used?"
Thats the best part about MMA, I have never fought a guy who used the 'same moves' I used. Everyone trains different with different ideas, different teachers, and different moves. I'm a boxing/bjj/judo guy. I've seen wrestlers, tkd guys, karate guys, sambo/maui thai guys, 'street fighters', etc. Its not two bjj guys going at it, its guys with all sorts of different skill sets and ideas. Some guys want to ground and pound, some guys want to box, some guys want to submit you. Some guys dont have a clue what they are doing and just blind rage rush you. Check out some amature mma events.

Quote:
Michael Gallagher wrote:
Also you have to remember that "on the Street," the other person won't know what you know and you won't know what he knows. So it's unlilely he'll know how to counter you. Furthermore, trained martial artists are rare in our culture.
Maybe your culture doesn't have a big wrestler base, but around here most men where either football players or wrestlers. I work at a college and most kids I talk to and ask about martial arts have some wrestling training or football training, both of these types tend to take it to the ground in a matcho bar brawl (as opposed to a robbery, or some other kind of altercation).

Quote:
Michael Gallagher wrote:
So if you want to ask questions about street fighting, I sugges you ask, "What sort of attacks do I really have to worry about?" Is it really someone who is going to try and box you or grapple you? Or something else? Martial arts and self defense are related, but not always the same thing. Asking yourself what that means in the context of MMA would be a good place to start.
I have to worry about a few things, guns, knifes, strikes, tackles, and ground and pound. I doubt I need to worry about a armbar, or keylock. Either the guy is out to rob me, in which case he has weapons and I will do my best to give him my wallet and be safe, or he is in a bar, we are drunk and he attacks me becuase of some mark on his honor. This usually is punching, kicking, clinch, or takedown and pound type guys. This sound an awful lot like what I train to deal with, unknown guys who are attempting to strike, takedown, clinch, etc agaisnt me.

I have done the Traditional route, I have a black belt in TKD, I've studied other arts for various lenghts of time, I have spent time in RBSD enviorments, I spent a long time in krav maga. However, none of this did me any good against mildy trained sport fighters. I spent a long time just getting taken apart by them, I couldnt deal with their stirkes, I couldn't deal with their clinch, I couldnt deal with the takedowns, I couldn't deal with them on the ground. Hell I wasn't even in a good position to eye gouge. I had never been choked the way they were choking me, I had never been hit hard like they were hitting me. I never experianced trying to block a punch only to have my own hand punch me in the face. I had never been picked up 4 feet off the ground while trying to stop a takedown with elbows and slamed so hard I had to go home and lay down.

Now its different. When a guy comes in, I see the old me. I see a guy who is not prepared for what he is about to get into. I see them go though the same trials I had to deal with, and I see a lot of them make excuses as to why their training wasn't enough. I've had guys tell me they could of broken my fingers to escape, or eye gouged me, or grion striked me, etc. Except for when I tell them to give it a try, it never seems to work. Because I am used to maintaining control over people who are trying their best to hurt me. Their fumbling and spazzing out really doesn't bother me anymore, their pressure point's, knuckles on the ribs, etc dont bother me. Right now I have someone's thumb print bruised into my arm from fridays training. It didn't stop him from getting choked out.

The best part is none of these techniques are new, none of them are missing from traditional arts. In japanese juijitsu, bjj, and judo you will find the same hip toss, the same armbar, the same triangle choke, and the same wrist lock. The difference is the experaince in learning how to use these things against someone who isn't letting you use them. Sure you can learn how to use them without this type of training, but this kind of training is more efficent, and has a higher percentage chance of producing people who can use the techniques. If I go into a traditional martial arts school I would expect to find a few black belts that can give me a run for my money in sparing. If I go into a few mma gyms I expect to find a lot of people (at least more than 3/4ths of the people there) that can give me a run for my money. The reaons are simple. Most of them will be in better physical shape though harder training. Most of them will have learned different ways and methods for using the technqiues taught though resistant sparing, and most of them will be used to the level of resistance I am apply and thus keep their cardio under control and their adrenaline under control.

My thoughs on this are simple. If I can't handle a random amature mma guy in the ring, I can't expect to handle people in the street where there are more dangerous variables.

- Don
"If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough" - Albert Einstein
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