"Full contact - fact or fiction ?"

[granmasterchen]

the first UFC's were great!

 

you DID have broken bones ( many in the face , but i remember royce gracie breaking a young kung fu guys arm, and just look at Harold Howard, and Tank Abbott splitting heads open)

 

KO's (Do I really need to point this out???)

 

there WERE groin attacks (Keith Hackney vs jo son)

 

so that i would say is a good example of full contact....now, though, it has rules and i find it less interesting as in the past.

[White Warlock]

Yeppers. The first UFCs, back in the early 90's, were a refreshing affirmation for me. I had spent the last decade peaceably arguing with stand-up fighters about the importance of learning ground techniques, and to watch the groundfighters dominate this 'virtually' no-holds barred competition just made me celebrate. It truly did tell me that i was on the right track all those years.

 

Anyway, there are many things in these competitions that are not 'street,' and this is important to recognize. The floor is padded and even, the battlefield is bare (no dirt, pebbles, curbs, or hairy dogs to bite your shins), there are no available weapons, some attack options are simply not allowed (finger-breaking, eye-gouging, mouth-hooking, biting, etc), it is geared as a 'competition' and not a death-match (which does take away some combat options), both fighters are equipped (wearing the right clothes, shoes, mouthpiece, gloves, vaseline and oils), and they're both 'ready' for the conflict. I.e., they know what is about to happen (minimal element of surprise).

 

All in all, the UFCs and similar are excellent competitions and i am truly glad they came out when they did, as there were entirely too many martial artists living 24/7 in pretty little opaque test tubes at the time. But, and it does need to be emphasized, it is a competition... and there are rules.

[SevenStar]

I'm sure this will put a cat amongst the pigeons...

 

But if you have full contact sparring, and people aren't regularly getting badly hurt, are you are doing something wrong ? Perhaps the wrong art ?

 

What i'm asking is, if you can't use the stuff that really works on the best target areas in your sparring (obviously because people get castrated etc), then why waste time practicing stuff that kinda works ? Surely we should train to use our best and nastiest stuff before anthing else on the street ?

 

Especially with habitual repetition of attacks to 'safe' areas, are you gonna think to change it when you have to really fight ?

 

So how relevant is full contact sparring ?

 

Respect to you all,

 

>>>PS<<<

 

I haven't read this whole thread yet, so this may have been said, but, let's change your question a bit... If you are practicing lethal strikes, but can't do them at full speed or power, against resisting opponents, you have no clue whether or not you will be able to do them in a fight. So, is it pointless to practice such techniques?

 

I've been in the ring and knocked people unconscious. I've done the same on the street. And I didn't need a "lethal" technique to do it. Consequently, I KNOW that I can end a fight with my skill. Can you say the same with your untested "lethal" strikes?

[SevenStar]

learn to take a hit in martial sports then learn to fight in addition to martial sports. Judo is full contact, but there is no punching or striking for that matter.

 

there is striking. It's not taught until advanced levels - that's the way kano wanted it. It's not a focus of the style, but it's there.

 

regardless, a trained judoka will still put you on your butt...

[Clfhs4life]

If people were intending for strikes to go to the eye or the throat they would easly and people would have died dont over exagerate. the eye gouge is one of the easyest and simplest to use and can be done at any range. chokes the the throat were allowed i never saw any time of panther strikes to the throat thrown. CMA power lies in warfare combat not sport.

 

-" lethal combat the origonal sport played by everything"

[SevenStar]

Eye gouging is harder from a distance than you think. I have actually told people to punch me in the throat, if they could. They saw how hard it was. As a grappler, it's actually easier to land such techniques, as I have you controlled - you have less room to maneuver. When we are standing, I have free use of my whole body - trying to land an eye gouge or throat shot will be much harder.

 

In the early UFCs, eye gouges were allowed - you would only receive a slight penalty. If I eye gouged you, I would get a penalty. If you could not continue, then I still won the match anyway. If you would continue, and I won, then I won. the eye gouge didn't hurt their chances much. I asked Royce himself this.

[SevenStar]

by the way, have you ever been in a war? If so, have you ever used your CMA? A FIREARM'S strength is warfare, not CMA...not in this day and age. It doesn't matter what chang tung sheng, wah lun sin, harry wu or any other grandmasters may have done in the day, as they are not a direct reflection of you...

[White Warlock]

I've been in the ring and knocked people unconscious. I've done the same on the street. And I didn't need a "lethal" technique to do it. Consequently, I KNOW that I can end a fight with my skill. Can you say the same with your untested "lethal" strikes?

It is a good argument, except for one thing. A lethal strike, in most cases, is obvious. You know it will work, but prefer not to apply it. Granted, i haven't killed anyone (that i'm aware of), but that doesn't mean it's untested, only that i have not applied it.

 

As always, practice is essential. If you practice to apply techniques, lethal or otherwise, they will be in your subconscious repertoire... in the event you need it.

 

On a note: If you hold to the idea that dim mak works, without a clue as to what the hell it is, or how exactly it works... then that's foolish. Unfortunately, there's a lot of people out there that are foolish... so what can i say? The truth that i learned is that, once you've been exposed to a concept, if it doesn't make absolute common sense (like a lightbulb turning on in your head)... then it's crap.

[Clfhs4life]

the full glass makes less noise. btw the wonderful thecniques u can land on the ground doesnt mean anything if there is even 2 people unless u got some wide legs to fit every one in your guard.

[Treebranch]

I think training full contact is good only after you are proficient with the basics of fighting first. Having a strong base first will help reduce the risk of getting severly hurt or vice versa. Sparring is just that it is sparring, so you are limited to what you can do. As for training for reality, that is more mental than anything else. Being attacked and fighting one on one are different animals. In many ways fighting one on one is more of a contest unless the person aims to kill you. I say handle street fights with great caution and assume the worst. In a contest you are fighting someone that probably knows more or less than you do so the dynamic is different.