Train For the Cage, Think for the Street

Really?

MMA is a sport; that's an indisputable fact. A sport is a scenario in which two equally capable parties mutually agree to adhere to certain rules and restrictions during a contest. A cage fight has rules and, no matter how few or limited they may be, they do make it different from a street fight. A contest has a winner and a loser. A fight has those who leave uninjured, those who get hurt, and those who die. So, obviously, an MMA fight is a not a street fight and MMA training does not, with complete accuracy, represent the circumstances under which self defense situations occur.

But it's still the best way to train for one.

The primary purpose of the martial arts is learning how to protect yourself from an aggressive attacker in a situation where you don't have a police officer to yell at, a gun to shoot them with, or the ability to run away. Don't get me wrong; getting in shape, learning self-discipline, and making new friends are great and all, but they're little more than icing on the cake if you get beaten, raped, robbed, and stabbed in the alley behind whatever club or bar you got a little too drunk at.

The goal is to be better prepared than the average joe to handle that scenario. I've never been in a street fight, a fact I attribute mostly to having the intelligence to avoid dangerous places and stupid people, but I do realize that there are rampant misconceptions about them.

First off, serious fights don't happen the way they do in films or on TV. The bad guys don't circle around you, declare their intent to engage you in hand to hand combat, and proceed to fight you one at a time while you decimate them with a series of spinning back kicks and knife hand strikes. They run up behind you while you're alone at the ATM and they stab you or hit you over the head with something heavy before you know they're there.

I don't understand why people are under the impression that criminals don't think. If a person who doesn't ever expect to get in a fight deems it sensible to train for one on the off chance that they might someday wonder into the wrong place at the wrong time; why wouldn't a mugger, who knows full well that he's going to instigate a confrontation, take a few minutes to think about the best way to attack someone?

Answer: He would.

The reality is that if you're ever going to have to fight for your life, chances are you won't see your opponent until they've broken something heavy over you or pulled out their knife. And if you're going to fight under those circumstances you damn well better have confidence in what you've trained. Practicing the death touch in a strip mall dojo and hoping that it works isn't going to cut it. You have to know that what you know is going to be effective, which is why MMA is the best self defense "style." If my sparring partner taps out due to an armbar, it's because if he didn't, his arm was going to break. If he taps to a choke, it's because he'd go to sleep if he didn't. The value of a knock-out seems pretty self-evident. I have complete confidence in my ability to break joints and cause brain damage, and I know I can block a punch because people frequently punch me.

I can figure out eye gouges without paying a hundred bucks a month.

The benefit of full contact training and competition is that it gives you proof. If you box long enough, you'll know you can slip punches and knock a person out. If you train Jiu-jitsu regularly, you'll know you can take a person down and make them take a nap. If you fight in a cage or in a ring or on a mat, you'll have an incredible advantage in understanding what it takes physically to engage another person. Dancing around or training wrist locks for an hour without ever breaking a sweat will not prepare you for a fight. Fights are hard, and it's best that your body be acclimated to that intensity.

Besides, I'm not convinced training is the deciding factor anyway. If I walk up behind Anderson Silva while he's waiting in line at a gas station and whack him in the head with a tire iron, I win that fight. Is it an accurate representation of our repective fighting skill? No. But I still won. Being aware that there's always a possibility you could end up in a bad situation is the best way to prepare for one. That way you skip the part where you lose your mind and suffer a breakdown at the one time in your life when you'll need to keep your cool. Don't be paranoid, just know that you might have to use what you've learned, and watch your surroundings. It doesn't matter if you're a BJJ black belt world champion if the guy your fighting's girlfriend stomps your head with a six inch stilletto heel while you're executinga perfect helicopter armbar.

Use your head. Train for the cage, but think for the street.