For us at J's gym realistic or "real" fighting is the next step after self-defense.
Real fighting is how you should fight if your life depended on it, in real life outside the gym, where size and number of opponents, weapons or no weapons, place and time, etc. are all unknown!
This is very different from a lot of the fights you can find on YouTube where young men do the monkey dance, meaning they're exchanging a few punches to settle some minor dispute or provocation. It usually stops after a few exchanges of blows and pushes. They are not fighting for their life! Sports fighting is also very different, more about that later.
What is realistic fighting and how do you train for it?
What realistic fighting often is thought to be:
Real fighting is how you should fight if your life depended on it, in real life outside the gym, where size and number of opponents, weapons or no weapons, place and time, etc. are all unknown!
This is very different from a lot of the fights you can find on YouTube where young men do the monkey dance, meaning they're exchanging a few punches to settle some minor dispute or provocation. It usually stops after a few exchanges of blows and pushes. They are not fighting for their life! Sports fighting is also very different, more about that later.
What is realistic fighting and how do you train for it?
- A system that teaches realistic fighting will teach you both physical techniques and mental strategies that can be applied to any thinkable situation where you might have to fight for your life. It's about getting ready for the unknown. The focus is not on scoring points and just winning but about defending yourself and defeating the assailant.
- Real fighting should not be restricted by any kind of rules, weight classes, experience, etc. When fighting outside there are no rules, weight classes and so on so we need to learn how to deal any situation no matter how difficult it appears to be.
- Since we don't know when or if ever we need our skills, realistic fighting should be trained in a moderate way. Only professional guards, police, etc. should train harder because of their increased risk of having to apply their skills. But since this also increases the risk of injuries a moderate training level is better for most people when you consider advantages and disadvantages of hard training.
What realistic fighting often is thought to be:
- The harder the training the better. "Realistic" full contact punches, kicks and chokes, etc. But since only "safe" areas of the body can be attacked, this way of fighting often doesn't work against a physically bigger and stronger opponent or multiple opponents.
- The harder training also increases the risk of injuries a lot and people train realistic fighting in order to become stronger, not injured!
