sport makes you better at combat?

[shinobi22]

http://www.circularstrengthmag.com/22/sonnon7.html

"If one cannot face a single unarmed opponent when attack is known, when weapon wielding, multiple opponents when surprised is impossible."

This is the worst argument I've read so far. If you waisted youre time reading the article, youl see he believe that in order to defend yourself you need to face an opponent in a sport. How in the HELL is that supposed to teach us to face knife weilding multiple opponents??????

I dont understand how a world grpapling champ has ANY place teaching the American military how to fight on the battlefield. WTF???

[Ryu (JKD?)]

Sport teaches your body how to give punishment, take punishment, work under extremely stressful situations, and tactically keep your "wits" when someone is trying to beat you up. No more no less.
They are very important aspects of real combat.
You have less of a chance of facing multiple armed assailants if you're not in good shape, don't know your pain threshhold, can't control your adrenaline, etc.

Sport does NOT teach you how to look for escape routes, surprise attack your opponent, defend tactically against knives, multiples, etc.
Scenario training/police academy schooling is best for that.

[Ryu (JKD?)]

incidently I thought the philosophy behind that article was very healthy and well worth the read.

[Tom Yum]

http://www.circularstrengthmag.com/22/sonnon7.html

"If one cannot face a single unarmed opponent when attack is known, when weapon wielding, multiple opponents when surprised is impossible."

This is the worst argument I've read so far. If you waisted youre time reading the article, youl see he believe that in order to defend yourself you need to face an opponent in a sport. How in the HELL is that supposed to teach us to face knife weilding multiple opponents??????

I dont understand how a world grpapling champ has ANY place teaching the American military how to fight on the battlefield. WTF???

I suppose you would prefer to get into a horse stance and rub your belly while you simultaneously pat your head? or execute an inside crescent kick to knock the knife out of the attackers hand and follow up with a spinning wheel kick?

Grapplers know how to gouge eyes too...oh yeah, they also know how to grapple...hmmmm...some schools of thought suggest that you get control of the knife hand......get control.....grappling........get control..........grappling....



I've got it! Learn wingchun for your knife defenses!!!

[CKD]

That article was a good read. You think that if you can't beat one person, you can beat several armed people? O.k. The article didn't say you shouldn't practice knife defense and multiple opponent defense. It was just about how some sport qualitites carry on to combat. But you did not seem to understand that. Probaly because you are very intent on bashing Sonnon that you will read everything and say something negatively about it. Or transform it into something else. He did not say combat arts are useless and that you should only use sports to prepare for combat he said "Both these positions are wrong because they are distinguished against one another, rahter than integrated with one another, both camps can and should be integrated." He also says "The argument that sport fighting techniques are more effective combat techniques because they are tested in sport is like saying high-performance NASCAR machines are more effective in demolition derbies because they are tested in races. You may know what it’s like to maneuver with the engine screaming, but only within the confines of specific rules. And more importantly, although you may have witnessed a collision few times in your career, they were “accidents” whereas in a demolition… they’re the goal.

The argument that the lethality and specificity of reality combat techniques more effectively prepare you for a suddenly violent street attack is like saying you can shoot a cannon out of a canoe. Unless deliberately engaged in some form of “competition,” your physical platform for launching such methods sinks under the intensely blinding emotional inertia of a fully resistant opponent."
Read that first paragraph did that seem like he was saying sport techniques are more effective? You will probaly run off after this.