People study martial arts for many worthwhile reasons, which is entirely separate from the desire to acquire self-defense skills. There’s a big difference between martial arts study and self-defense training. That difference is based on an individual’s motivation to pursue either of these goals. There is some overlap, but they are most certainly not the same training regimen. A person can earn a Black Belt in almost any given art and still have little or no actual self-defense abilities.
I do, however, acknowledge that some instructors would not allow a student to earn the rank of Black Belt if he or she could not truly defend himself or herself reasonably well in a real-world fight. Yet, the truth is that such schools and instructors are very few in number today. Indeed, few martial arts instructors have ever even been in real fights themselves.
When you “spar” or attend “contact” tournaments, you’re engaged in a very worthwhile sporting activity, but you are not truly prepared for an actual fight. The person sparring with you is most often of the same style, so he spars like you do. During that “contact” tournament, it’s very often the same basic deal, maybe just “amped up” a bit.
I guarantee that a street assailant will not “spar” with you. Furthermore, realize that if you go into “sparring mode” with that assailant, either mentally or applying techniques for even an instant, then that is likely to be just before your skull hits the hard pavement.
Let me cite an example from the “dojo environment” that may, in small part, help to illustrate the reality to which I’m referring. Approximately 14 years ago, we were doing some hard-contact sparring in the Karate school at which I occasionally trained. This special weekly class was Black Belts only and no padding was used, except for boxing-type headgear. Needless to say, it was for the guys who wanted to taste some “sudden impact,” and didn’t mind a bruise or a little pain. For the most part, these were people who wanted to test their martial skills more authentically.
A person can earn a Black Belt in almost any given art and still have little or no actual self-defense abilities.
There was one participant who I knew to be an experienced street fighter. I’ll call him Frank. I don’t approve of this “lifestyle,” but I knew that Frank fought on the street and in bars quite frequently. He almost always won, though he occasionally received some bruises and black eyes and injured his hands. The guy was just a bit too “tightly wrapped,” but to be fair he wasn’t really a bully either.
Frank had been sparring every week with the fastest and most polished and talented person in the dojo. Frank’s sparring partner was very quick with his kicks and hand combinations, and obviously had some boxing training. He was punishing Frank, the “street fighter,” because the contest, even with the level of contact allowed, was conducted in the element of his rather talented martial artist sparring partner.
I perceived that Frank was being pushed past his emotional limit of tolerance, and he might just “cut loose” and beat the other guy senseless by ignoring all the rules. To prevent such a disgraceful display, and having the opportunity to do so because of my rank and position in that school, I clapped my hands and ended the match immediately.
When Frank came closer to me, the look on his face and the sound of his breathing told me I had been right. I pointedly asked, “Pal, you were about to cut loose and beat the **** out of him, weren’t you?”
His face flushed with astonishment, but he eagerly replied, “Yeah, I sure was!”
I said, “Frank, is there any doubt whatever in your mind that if you wanted to beat that guy to death, then he could not have prevented it?”
“No, there isn’t,” Frank replied; his face now with a perverse smile.
“Then, you don’t have to prove that to anyone here. We can’t allow that behavior,” I responded.
I decided the following week that it would be very instructional, perhaps even potentially life saving, to teach that most “talented martial arts sparring person” a lesson in reality. I felt this could be achieved with another acceptable and reasonably safe match with Frank, but with certain rules changes. These were “reasonable, safe rule changes.” Somewhat to my surprise, the martial artist declined to “spar” with Frank, according to such rules. He was a bit smarter than I credited him.
During my days as a bouncer, I would occasionally be challenged or attacked by someone with obvious martial arts training. Only rarely was I hit first. Most of the times, I’d just slip in a shot, and then see my attacker in a martial arts stance, dancing, throwing kicks to my head, etc. When I saw that type of show, I relaxed even more, since I knew I was in no real danger. I was just dealing with a guy who was “sparring at me” and not fighting. Essentially, he was rather harmless-especially because he did not know the difference.
Peyton Quinn is an author, a multi-art Black Belt and the founder of Rocky Mountain Combat Applications Training (RMCAT). He has become internationally renowned as a teacher of teachers for his unique self-defense program, which is based on adrenal stress conditioning and scenario-based training.
