I took a weight lifting class in high school and I never lifted incorrectly again. My point is that people can be better off knowing a thing or two that they didn't know before without a trial by fire. I agree Black Belts are too readily sold, but the practitioners are better off than they were before in most cases.
I'm not sure how I feel about this being the thread that pulls me out of retirement.
However, I think the thing that is missing in this debate is, well no offense, but reality. If we are talking about frat guys trying to impress chicks that is one thing, but if your talking about defending your life, its a completely different discussion. The truth is you are going to get hurt, maybe maimed, maybe dead. You train in order to decrease those odds but you simply can't get rid of them. You are going to get hurt, the question is, how much? The sooner you accept that, the sooner your training become more realistic. I agree that a little training could help, but if done correctly should help the trainee to understand when to run like a baby girl, not engage an attacker if at all possible. I also think it can and does very often, give people a false sense of security, but then I think hard years of training tends to do the same thing, maybe even more so. I also agree that hardcore training for years shifts the risk/benefit ratio in your favor, but the truth is, its still pretty stacked against you the moment you enter a fight for your life.
You had better be willing to snatch the life out of someone in an instant or your odds continue to plummet. That being said you have to understand your also in the position to lose your life in an instant. Thats a mental aspect of realistic training that has baffled coaches and trainers since the beginning of time. How do you train for that? Answer is, you can't. And that needs to be understood by those who are training most of all. Training in and of itself has an inherent flaw, which is confidence. You know why surgeons screw up simple surgeries or leave sponges inside patients? Its not because the surgery was beyond their skill or training, its because it wasn't. The flaw to training is confidence itself, which is also one of the major tools it gives you. But you must be realistic about your training and your confidence.
Most of you dont remember when I was active here and so dont know my background (and I've learned so much even sense then), but I have a decent amount of training under my belt. However, I also have a fair amount of science and medical training and experience seeing those trained fighters dead. It sounds like I'm saying training is useless and I'm certainly not. I train harder than most people I know. I'm simply saying we have to understand the truth, the reality about what we are discussing. Its something so dynamic no discussion can ever really do it justice. The point I'm trying to make (albeit verbosely if anything) is that we should all take a step back and examine our own training reasons and methods. What do you want out of your training and is your training realistically giving you said skills. If so, train hard my friends, but make no mistake, we train in a precarious art, one of fighting odds so massive its nearly depressing. But that is what drives us, that is what pushes us to be realistic, to train hard, to constantly re-examine our goals and our methods. To enter the lab (schools, dojo, etc) and try different things and fail a lot. Then learn from failing in that controlled environment and bettering ourselves.
Understand that fighting for your life is something you can't reproduce in training, ever. Understand that and let it push you to train as realistically and urgently as you can. Certainly training gives you skills to protect yourself in these types of situations, but dont make the mistake of not counting the sponges before sewing up your patient, just because you have trained for it. Constantly re-examine your methods and your skills. Learn from everyone, newbies, oldies, and those in between. Learn from the untrained and try to take something away from every training experience to add to your arsenal. Only then are you really going to have the tools to address a situation so foreign to most of us, so severe and final like defending your life. Only then will you be able to adapt to the situation and give yourself the best possible chance of going home to you family.
Just my $0.01
Hope all has been well with you.
WOW!! A blast from the past! Welcome back man! Good to see ya posting again!
As for your post....well said...very well said. Cant disagree with anything here.
All is well with me, just insane schedules. I'll drop in from time to time if you guys dont mind too much. This statement strikes me as a bit odd. I agree with the part about not handing out rank like candy. We can solve that problem by ditching the silly belts. My wife teaches yoga. There are students and there are instructors. Everyone is at different levels of ability. Instructors are certified and have to log X number of hours to even quality to teach. There is too much ego attached to the color of our belts.
Thanks! Its good to see you still here, and Asst. Admin at that! Congrats!!
I am inclined to agree. Since even though the person is probably untrained and barely able to put up a fight, its not a risk you want to take.
Extremely excellent point. No one is ever going to start something if they think they are going to loose. NORMAL people don't want to fight, partly because they don't have confidence in their abilities, but mostly because they are people that just simply are no inclined to want to resolve conflict in that way. Those that are likely to start trouble are usually confident that they will win the fight. It's been my experience that most of these people are more bluster than any thing else. As my father used to say, "thet just want to raw jaw". If you stand before them in a confident manner, they are very likely to back down.
