fearing violence…

[bushido_man96]

On 7/29/2025 at 11:59 AM, Spartacus Maximus said:

Young men and teenagers (especially)who train would do well to listen and hear this warning. One bad judgment and a stupid fight(they are all stupid unless defending yours or another’s life/limb) can and will ruin your life, your future and perhaps your sanity. 

Am I prepared to deal with the authorities and the legal system?

Do I really want to go through the mental consequences of having permanently crippled another human or caused their death?

These are the questions to ponder. As a personal cautionary true story, I keep a newspaper article about a former classmate who has been disowned by his parents and serving 25 years. He had no training whatsoever but killed another fellow with one punch causing the other 18year old kid to fall and fracture his skull open on the pavement.

These are great thoughts to keep in mind for everyone, not just MAists.  Most people don't realize how complicated things can become once they enter the legal system, let alone do they consider the mental health considerations after the fact if seriously injuring or taking someone's life.

[Furinkazan]

On 8/5/2025 at 6:33 PM, KarateKen said:

What is worse is that some students, typically young adults who train at MMA gyms, are hoping and looking for violence when they go out.  They are all excited to use their MA training on someone in the bar.  

I don't think this means that they're inherently violent people.

When I was in the Navy, we used to do fire drills alot.  Main space (engine room) fire drills, where they call general quarters and everyone suits up and gets to work.  In these MSFD scenarios, general quarters is called when there's a "major fuel-oil" leak - though, in real life, a major fuel oil-leak is unlikely to result in a fire at normal temperatures.

Everybody hated these fire drills.  We'd be in those hot one-piece firefighter suits for over an hour, complete with SCBA tank and mask, and firefighter helmet.  We'd also simulate firefighting in them (a rigorous working in itself), while getting yelled at by the damage control training team.

The day eventually comes where there's a real fuel-oil leak announced over the 1MC, and general quarters is called.  Everyone - and I mean EVERYONE - is excited.  They're moving with that sense of urgency that you'd never see during the drills.  After we completely dressed out and set zebra (i.e., closing all of the hatches to contain fires), we sat and waiting until it was time to enter the main space.

Eventually, the fuel oil leak was stopped.  A fire never broke out.  An old Chief who was nearing retirement gave us a spiel about what he saw.  He himself had actually fought three main space fires throughout his career on older classes of ships where they were more likely to occur.  In other words, he "knew violence" as it pertained to shipboard firefighting, and was reminding us that we didn't know the dire situation that we could have found ourselves in had a fire actually occured.

No one wanted there to be a real fire.  We just wanted to feel that all of the training and drills we did actually paid off.

And I think that might be what's happening in the case you're talking about.

I'm going to give a hot take: I think "self defense" is possibly the worst reason to train in martial arts.  I think those who train for "self defense" want to "see if it works" more than they care to admit.

If self defense is what you care about, then why not buy a $10 can of pepper spray and call it day?  It's far more effective at neutralizing an attacker than using martial arts, and no one gets injured.  It's also cheaper in terms of time and money.  Those hours at the dojo could be spent at home watching Netflix.