Emp.Ice
White Belt
Just now watched this video. I was more curious about his 3 week weight cut for the sake of a Judo tournament. Therefore I skipped the stuff before, for what it's worth.
I'm frustrated with the concept of weight cutting in combat sports, which at least say they hold themselves to the ideal of skill building, and the ability to defeat larger opponents (or at least increase the chance of doing so.) I will attest that Judo, alongside other throwing-focused martial arts, achieves this aim with it's list of techniques and concept of "Kuzushi." Strength, speed, and less so, weight, do play a large factor in one's ability to compete with greater proficency, but excessive min-maxing seems to be more of an obsession than something that aims to improve performance, significantly. I don't think the idea of someone cutting excessive fat from their body is bad, because it's reduces overall bodily strain, and the chance of health implications, alongside improving performance. The issue I have is when it's done in excess, with people at low body fat percentage doing outrageous things to lose a few pounds. All for the sake of competing in a different weight class. This type of min-maxing requires effort, and mental attention. These things can obviously be directed towards training technique, and lifting weights in the gym.
I don't know what it is about combat sports, but in most sports the amount of mental and bodily strain is reduced before competition for the sake of reducing injury risk and stress. Can you imagine the pressure that a competition would have if, in order to prepare, you went against every natural instinct to avoid dehydration and starvation? The disordered thinking that Josh Beam applies in this video is that, "discipline is freedom" which is a mistaken opinion that, by virtue of increasing discipline, an action is greater, or more specifically, will result in more freedom. I realize this appears like a masturabatory amount of focus on this, but the problem with axioms like this is their simple language, and concrete conclusions. These flaws result in these axioms being applied to whatever the believer desires; Anything this concrete results in circular thinking. I don't disagree with discipline as a concept, but it has to be used appropriately. If someone was using a great deal of will to bash their head in with an aluminium baseball bat, it would be wise to question their logic that, this action is reasonable by virtue of it being difficult to do, and therefore requiring discipline. In other words: most important goals require hard work to achieve, but hard work being done does not equal it's result being important.
The importance of my focusing on this one axiom is this: If Josh had focused more on his training, and specifically his technique, he would have scored with his pin in the conclusion of the video, or at least had a better chance. He even admits that his loss was a result of a lack of technique, instead of something physical. Had he joined an appropriate weight class, focused on technique, and rested, before the competition, it's possible that his head would have been clearer, and his technique sharper, therefore securing a win. By making competition the hardest thing you do, you make it so your training can never adequately prepare for it. Immense mental pressure, and physical strain, of this kind, can not be replicated in the average dojo, so there is no need to manufacture it for the sake of gaining a potential competitive advantage.
The unfortunate case for some athletes is that oftentimes, it appears that the ends justify the means, since they win frequently enough to be confident. The issue in this line of thinking is the fact that, just because one reaches the ideal end, does not mean their means were the most effective way of achieving the end, nor the means which guarantee that end the most; They are simply means, which in certain circumstances, are good enough. For a group of obsessive over-achievers, athletes can sometimes find themselves satisfied with mediocrity hiding beneath their nose.
