Martial Art vs Sport
“Any time you turn a martial art into a sport, you weaken it.” My sensei said that often, and after forty-five years, those words still shape the way I think about training. What was his point?
Pretty simple really. In the real world, rulesets don’t apply. There’s no referee there to stop the fight. People will grab you, tackle you, throw you, and try to take you to the ground — all things that aren’t allowed in knockdown competition. They’ll also punch, elbow, and headbutt you in the face — also not allowed in knockdown competition.
Competition Has Its Place
Did this mean that my sensei was against competition? Definitely not. He was only thirty-four in 1980 (crazy how young that sounds now) and was still fighting in tournaments when I started training with him.
“You have to compete before you can grade for green belt”, my sensei would also say to those who were approaching eligibility to grade. He didn’t allow anyone to grade for green belt (4th kyu) until they had competed in at least one tournament. It didn’t matter what kind of tournament, but you had to demonstrate that you could face your fear.
Competition places you in a stressful situation that’s difficult to replicate outside of a real fight. What you learn in competition is how to face your fear, how to keep moving under stress, and what your body and mind will do when you’re tired or hurt.
Getting Used to Pain
“Pain can be a great teacher,” my sensei used to tell us. Knockdown, like any contact sport, has its share of injuries. Although it’s rare that someone ends up in the hospital, missing a block or lacking conditioning has consequences. Those consequences have a way of teaching us a thing or two. We learn how to move, and yes, we learn how to handle pain.
In Kyokushin, learning to handle pain is simply part of the training.
He also used to tell us, “The first rule of karate is: don’t get hit.” There are a couple of ways to interpret that. The simplest is to avoid getting into a fight to begin with. Avoiding the fight altogether is certainly one way to avoid getting hit.
But sometimes we find ourselves in situations where violence can’t be avoided. During training he would remind us, “The idea is to inflict damage while stopping your opponent from doing the same to you”. We won’t reach a point where we can’t be hit, but we can certainly reach a point where we’re very hard to hit. And if, despite our best efforts, we get hit anyway — well, that’s what conditioning is for.
Understand the Difference
Competition and self-defense are not the same thing. I happen to believe that the average knockdown fighter, boxer, judoka, or BJJ blue belt can handle themselves if they need to. They all have skills. Realistically, in most situations where one might have to defend themselves, it won’t be against a trained fighter.
That said, even if someone isn’t trained, they might still be experienced, and not shy about really hurting you or someone else. Even with training, you have to be able to shift your mindset in a self-defense situation.
Not to be too dramatic, but in the real world, people can die or be seriously hurt. That may be one of the most important lessons we needed to understand. My sensei would always remind us that, “In the real world, there is no second place.”
Osu!
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