Have you ever felt you needed to have at least one competitive fight?

[Tez3]

We get quite a few people in to our MMA classes who just want to train for their own reasons, maybe to get fit or fitter, maybe for confidence whatever. No one is ever pushed to fight in fact we don't ask, if you want to fight you have to ask and if you aren't ready you'll be told so. However people who start off thinking they don't want to fight often feel they'd like one fight, they don't want to be a fighter but they feel they want to have that one experience.

I think it's for a few reasons and I have seen this in TMA as well. It could be because they want to prove something to themselves, rarely to others though. Those that want to fight to impress others tend not to last the distance in training. Some people want to see if they can pull it out when attacked, to see if their techniques work and when the adrenaline is flowing it flows in the right way.

Some people I think just want to have that experience of a fight, to be able to say they've survived a full contact situation, this reason is probably a male thing lol.

I'm sure there's other reasons both good and bad but I'm interested if anyone has felt they wanted or even needed to have one fight? I know plenty of people who have never felt any inclination to have a competitive fight but have they ever been tempted?

 

[CoryKS]

I've had the desire, especially when I was participating in our school's kickboxing program. But I didn't have the time then to train at the level required for a competitive match. Plus, reluctant though I may be to accept it, I'm prolly too old for that sort of thing. Had I started training at a much younger age, I might have done it.

 

[ATC]

Everytime I take the kids out to a tournament I get that itch.

 

[Bill Mattocks]

I have a big imagination, and in that imagination, I would have a chance in local 'cage match' competitions. In reality, I doubt it. I would not mind testing that theory at some point, but there is one thing that I have to always consider; I have to go to work in the morning. I can't do that if I'm in the hospital. You never know, and I can't say I'm not tempted, but what am I going to prove, that I'm slow, old, fat, and bleed when hit hard enough?

I had a guy tailgating me home from the dojo the other night, and when I turned off for my street, he followed me. I thought for a minute he was going to get out of his car when we both stopped at a traffic signal. I figured OK, well, if he gets out and walks up to my car, it's on. I am so not going to wait for him to throw the first punch, I'm just gonna take him out fast. But he turned the other way and left me be. Oh well. I'm not going to follow the guy, then it's not 'self defense' anymore! But I was kind of looking forward to doing a mae geri and seeing how far up into his throat I could drive his wedding tackle.

 

[Tanaka]

I have a big imagination, and in that imagination, I would have a chance in local 'cage match' competitions. In reality, I doubt it. I would not mind testing that theory at some point, but there is one thing that I have to always consider; I have to go to work in the morning. I can't do that if I'm in the hospital. You never know, and I can't say I'm not tempted, but what am I going to prove, that I'm slow, old, fat, and bleed when hit hard enough?

I had a guy tailgating me home from the dojo the other night, and when I turned off for my street, he followed me. I thought for a minute he was going to get out of his car when we both stopped at a traffic signal. I figured OK, well, if he gets out and walks up to my car, it's on. I am so not going to wait for him to throw the first punch, I'm just gonna take him out fast. But he turned the other way and left me be. Oh well. I'm not going to follow the guy, then it's not 'self defense' anymore! But I was kind of looking forward to doing a mae geri and seeing how far up into his throat I could drive his wedding tackle.

Hehe, you can always tap early.

I desire to do competition for fun. Recently competed in NAGA. Hopefully I can do MMA soon.

 

[Noah_Legel]

I've thought about it, but my fiancee doesn't like cauliflower ears and I don't exactly want my nose broken or cuts on my face from slipped punches. I would definitely like to step up contact, though--when my brothers and I were young, before I had any training, we would fight each other for fun with full contact (only to the chest, arms, legs, and upper back, though) plus wrestling. Good ol' fashioned country bumpkin fun

 

[bluekey88]

It's why I compete at nationals once a year. Im not very good...im past my.competitve prime too. But I find great value in thejourney leading to that fight. There are just some lessons that are best learned in a match.

Peace,
Erik

 

[Cirdan]

No, competition has never been the focus of my training. I`ve been punched before so perhaps I was cured of this need.

 

[dancingalone]

Nope. I started martial arts back when rough sparring was commonplace in dojo, and I got my fill of hard contact then. Too old now to compete and even if I were 10-15 years younger, I doubt I have any inclination for it.

 

[ralphmcpherson]

For me I have no desire to fight competitively, even as a one off. Had I done martial arts in my teens and early 20's it may have been different as I had a very competitive streak when I was younger and played many sports. These days I really enjoying doing something Im passionate about and has many benefits without the need to compete.

 

[Big Don]

No, not my thing. I do like it when Black Belts from other schools come to spar. I know how I do against the people I spar every week. Having new or just different people now and then lets me get a better picture of where I am and want to be.

 

[MA-Caver]

If you count actual (street) fights then no I've never had the need.
If you mean in a ring/sparring... well admittedly I'd be curious. Problem however would be to match someone to me correctly. Too low a rank/belt and it wouldn't be fair... too high a rank/belt and, well... it still wouldn't be fair. Not to mention the style. I've said before that my "style" is JKDI (or as Lee put it "no style" ) I just know this and that technique.

How effective is it in real-life applications? Well... I'm still here.
How effective it would be in the ring/sparring? Well, that's what I'm curious about. But a NEED to... umm... nah.

I have a inkling to try and (lightly) spar with Mark/Sukerkin :uhyeah: might be fun. :asian:

 

[elder999]

I pretty much exhausted that desire from my teens to my 30's. Last full contact "match" was at 34, and it was not fun at all.Sparring's another story, and not competitive......

 

[Tez3]

Good answers

I definitely mean sparring or competitive fighting not altercations on the street though. Some people are more competitive than others obviously but I've seen people who start martial arts with no intentions of fighting decide they need to have just the one fight for what ever reason and it's always left me curious. What would make someone non competitive feel they want to have a competitive fight?

I think hard sparring in training has fallen by the wayside a lot these days, whether that's good or bad probably depends on the intentions of the instructors leading the sparring. It may have been for realistic training or may have been just to boost egos.

 

[Cirdan]

Perhaps you are seeing the effect of TV shows, I think there has been a lot of concepts about training a person to do this or that (including fighting) "just once" to prove something to themselves.

Or perhaps they just want something to brag about. Having done one fight becomes "I`m a full contact cage fighter".

 

[Bruno@MT]

I have a big imagination, and in that imagination, I would have a chance in local 'cage match' competitions. In reality, I doubt it. I would not mind testing that theory at some point, but there is one thing that I have to always consider; I have to go to work in the morning. I can't do that if I'm in the hospital. You never know, and I can't say I'm not tempted, but what am I going to prove, that I'm slow, old, fat, and bleed when hit hard enough?

QFT. I liked sparring when I was in college. I even entered in a tournament when I had 2 years of training (got my *** handed to me ) and while I appreciated the chance of measuring up against someone else and the pursuit of victory, I had a sudden wakeup call.

My friend was fighting in another weight class. He did a number of telephoned mawashi geri, and the other guy caught his leg and swept the supporting leg and my friend dropped on the back of his head. He had a concussion with the hole vomiting / headache / dizziness experience.

And that point I thought: WTF am I doing?
Using my head is what I do for a living. Looking at a computer screen 12 hours a day is major important to me. If I can't do those things, I can't support my family.

 

[Greg Anthony]

I started BJJ three years ago, with no intention of competing. Needless to say by my first year I has about 3 or 4 tournaments under my belt.

I really can't explain why I decided to compete. I think it was to see how I measured up against someone from another school and to really get an idea of how much I learned and everything I need to learn.

 

[WC_lun]

When I was younger I always wanted to see how my skills stacked up against other martial artist. So I tested myself. I have to admitt, my ego drove a bit of that too. Now, I don't really care about how good I am compared to someone else. I know what I can do against both skilled and unskilled opponents and I know the areas where I need the most work. So I work. The competition stuff is for younger guys that still need to prove themselves. Nothing wrong with that, I'm just not a younger guy anymore.

 

[Cronarct]

me personally a good hard contact once in a while does me good, now im not talking hardcore fights im just talking hard contact sparring, wich the advanced students do in my dojo, but we fight fair and take care of each other... alto im not going to deny the fact that when im ticked off beyond belief (happens more then i care to admit) the thought of a good hardcore brawl perks my interest, but it has not happened because i have been taught to control myself so when i get that urge i go in the back yard and train to exhaustion or meditate if i cant train... but i do have times where i just want to go all out and see what happens, its probably just the fact that im young and have to much hot blood pumping still

 

[Gemini]

To me, it was a natural progression. Competetive by nature, I had these new tools and needed to know the extent of my capabilities.
The questions were asked, then answered and now that chapter is closed. I no longer have any any desire what-so-ever to compete, but am ever grateful I did it and enjoy passing along the knowledge to others.