Michael Hackett

Alberto,

As I understood your first post, it appeared you were talking primarily about technique. With the last, it is clear you are concerned with conditioning. Conditioning is key in either a competitive sport match (boxing, wrestling, MMA or the like) or in a street confrontation. The vast majority of people will simply run out of gas within one minute in either case UNLESS they condition themselves routinely. I suspect the average aikido practitioner will last a little longer than some street thug, but no one will last as long as a serious and trained athlete. Your point about conditioning is well taken and there are many ways to achieve that level of conditioning. My experience is that the average street knucklehead I've encountered is that he was good for about 30 seconds and then started to run down rapidly. Part of that was cardio fitness and another part was the failure to breathe during the event. It seems to me at least that most untrained folks tend to hold their breath during a conflict. Even Floyd Mayweather will run out of gas in less than one round if he doesn't breathe during the round.