The martial arts can bring out the best in humans and the worst. Training can improve individual's physical abilities and inturn improve their fitness and state of health. We must remember that many physical pursuits can achieve the same benefits and many sports persons are far more physically capable than martial artists and vice versa.
The fitness strength and toughness required to play eighty minutes of league speaks for itself and I can remember many years ago while we were playing a game of tackle league, members of a local martial arts club asking to join in. Well they did and after several tackles as many of their members were injured and the rest didn't want to play any more.
I have seen many rugby players go to the gym and do boxing training for footy fitness and then were very surprised to try their hand at wrestling training only to find their fitness fell well short of the wrestling requirements.
Training is one thing but the stress and dangers and exertion of actual fighting against a formidable opponent is altogether a different thing.
I recently heard a TV interview with a member of the British team fighting in the fight for life and it went something like this. When asked about his fighting fitness and his previous international rugby career and then league career, he said league has few places to hide on the park, compared to rugby, and boxing has even less.
Different codes and styles are like chalk and cheese even though they may have similar practises. Then there are the individual competitors and this is the important x-factor, as top fighters can be found in any style or code.
We have all heard the promotional hype we are the best etc. If that were the case all, or, a great majority of the practitioners of the hype generating type would be world champions in all-similar codes. While competitors entering new forms of competition or where fighters from countries new to a specific code compete against seasoned host countries that may well initially be at a disadvantage, time will soon change that. Then with all things being equal in training methods and knowledge of the rules as well as judging and refereeing being fair and correct the best competitor or the lucky competitor on the day will reign supreme.
Once again coming back to the individual less than the style they may have initially come from. Some examples would be the domination of mixed martial arts competition by groups who started early competition and today there are many successful groups and fighters.
There have been traditional full contact fighters that have faired well in kickboxing and Thai boxing but only a few that have made it to K1 or World Thai boxing title status. The reality is the majority are not successful in such competition or would even enter such competition.
Then when they do change from traditional to ring fighting they have to change to fight using Thai boxing or kickboxing techniques to be competitive. A hand full of competitors over decades that have stepped up does not make their original traditional code the strongest or best and certainly doesn't mean they dominate the ring code.
How many traditional champions are there in the ring compared to those that train in Thai boxing kickboxing or boxing.
I can remember seeing a heavyweight Judo player do some fight practise with a heavy weight Vale Tudo fighter and as soon as the first strike to the head was thrown the Judo player who was far more experienced than the Vale Tudo fighter and who had been internationally trained was like a fish out of water. It was not part of his Judo game plan to deal with being butted punched or stomped.
I know a grappler who against an untrained fighter on the street was severely bitten and lost some of his features as a result. Although he was well versed in mixed martial arts his plan was to grapple with someone who knew no rules and fought dirty, straight out. Often when some one gets in first and fights dirty from the outset the result can be in his favour.
The sad thing is that many young, and not so young, gullible practitioners believe all the hype and legends that often have no or little fact basis in the beginning and base their opinions upon them. They forget it does not make them or their superiors necessarily world-beaters. Often the best fighters for real come from the worst environments where fighting for real is a fact and way of life.
Many of the martial arts practises are safe, sterilised, and totally dojo orientated with protective gear rules and regulations. They may never have to train or play in the cold and wet like footballers or face the head contact of boxers or the leg kicks without protectors of Thai boxers or wrestle without a submission rule of wrestling.
On the street or in combat there are no mats or mitts and its anything goes. Nothing is certain in traditional or competitive codes and there are codes and styles that have varying degrees of realism in two main categories stand-up or grappling and or stand-up martial arts. Those that practise the Thai boxing type dominate in the masses of those training in stand-up codes and those that practise mixed martial arts type NHB type codes dominate in the ground fighting and or stand up competitions.
In military combat its kill or get killed and the odds are a lot more in the favour of who gets in first with lethal options. It takes a lot of the advantages of higher skill levels or greater physical attributes out when deadly force is the first option.
In the words of Billy Graham, a Kiwi fighter come motivationalist, "God gave you two ears to hear with and one mouth to talk with, so you should listen twice as much as you talk," and this is a good practise to take on board for those that believe the myths and legends and have not yet lived, experienced or realised the reality.
Facts are facts and they need to look at world professional boxing champions and kickboxing champions and see how many of them come from their style. Bruce Lee was a great martial artist and ahead of his times but he would not have beaten Ali in a boxing match or Ernesto Hoost at kickboxing or Hickson Gracie in mixed martial arts.
Size does matter and outside deadly armed combat a good big fighter does have an advantage over a good small fighter, otherwise there would be no weight divisions.
Age is another important consideration that so many loyal disciples do not understand. Their 50-year-old+ instructor may well be a great instructor with years of experience but he is unlikely to be up to defeating younger champion fighters in competition. Then there is the other end of the scale, individuals that barely appear to be old enough to shave claiming to be masters.
In the close combat field I get inquiries regularly from people wanting to know how can this individual with no military close combat qualifications claim publicly to be an expert at CQB. The reality is he can say what ever he wants even if its far from the truth but those that are in the business know its is nothing more than a claim.
Then there are children that take up a style and in no time are the voice of the hype, "we are the greatest, we are the toughest and the others are weak". The myth of the blackbelt has a lot to blame for this, when once it was testament to a lifetime's hard work and putting oneself on the line time and time again, but today children are black belts and the training and gradings are so different from one style to another.
I have many blackbelts fail our close combat basic phase one test when pitted against combatants with less than eighty hours training time.
The one hundred-man fight could hardly be considered one hundred formidable enemy opponents that are fresh and ready to do what ever they want, whenever they want. The event is endurance sparring and for any man to fight one hundred formidable opponents one after the other with full on, full-power fighting well the writing would be on the wall. Imagine them taking one hundred K1 fighters on, one after the other… sure.
Claims and statements of grandeur that are not based on common fact are only taken onboard by the gullible who have not been exposed to all the styles systems and codes out there.
The individual that has not seen all that the martial arts, combat sports, and combative systems the world has to offer is like a fighter with only one eye. Being blind to reality is a weakness that may well lead to their demise. Everyone needs to be smart enough to evaluate things for what they are and research their facts with an open mind and know when they have something worth while to say. Some people are so blind and stupid you would not have enough time to waste to change their mind. For them Col Applegate's advice is good advice, instead of not taking kindly to fools, simply don't give them the time of day. They want an argument not a fight. Give them neither. Nod your head, breath out in amazement at their dribble, and they will soon lose interest and look for another subject to try and convince. The sad thing is they eventually begin to believe their own lies and can't separate reality from their wish list.
