COMPETITIVE MARTIAL ARTS?
I recently watched a YouTube video where two Jujitsu black belts made fun of an Aikido black belt because he couldn’t counter their moves. They said that this was because Jujitsu is competitive and Aikido isn’t.
Watching as an Aikido teacher, that hurt. But were they right?
No hiding place
Competition has one great advantage. There’s nowhere to hide. Because your partner is as committed to winning the bout as you are, you can be sure they didn’t go easy on you.
Obviously competitive martial arts have sessions where more experienced practitioners go easy on the less experienced to help them learn. But when it comes to competition – whether for belt grading or for medals – we can be pretty sure that the attacks and defences are for real.
With a non-competitive or collaborative art, you can never be totally sure that your partner absolutely had to fall or be immobilised. Did they tap out because you made them, or were they just being nice? Or feeling a bit lazy today?
There’s always the danger that you breakfall because it’s expected of you. You practise so often that it becomes a habit. Or you respect your teacher too much to make her look bad by resisting.
Advocates of competitive arts point out that real life is not so nice. The mugger or rapist is committed to their attack. Better to practise competing against someone equally committed.
Rewarding improvement
There’s also the question of rewards. Nothing motivates people more than the buzz of winning – or at least trying to win.
We all love competitions. A while back, I watched the Leeds Piano Competition. It played over many nights to packed audiences, with large TV audiences viewing at home. A week later, the winner starred in a celebratory concert. And hardly anyone went.
It’s hard not to conclude that it was the competition that turned people on.
Competitive martial artists get that same reward. There’s a buzz in conflict that can’t be duplicated.
In short, say its advocates, competition is a much better way than collaborative to sharpen your skills and prepare for reality on the street. But is it?
Non-competitive martial arts
Let’s look at the other side of the argument. Because competition may not mimic street fighting and self-defence as much as its proponents insist.
Competitive arts have their rules and restrictions just as much as do the collaborative versions.
However, there are no rules on the street. No tapping out. No referee to call your attacker out if he goes too far.
Most of all, in a competition I would be unable to use my three favourite techniques.
My three favourite techniques
1. Run away
My favourite technique of all is simply not to be there. Why should I hang around to have a fight? I might lose. I might win, but get hurt. Even if all goes well, I could find myself spending six hours in a police station, explaining why I threw this poor guy to the ground, with all his mates swearing that I started it.
My aim in self-defence is to get on with my life, with the least bother. Ideally, that means not being around when things kick off in the first place.
But running away rarely goes down well with judges in competitions.
2. Talk them down
If I can’t hit the road, then I’ll try to take the heat out of the situation. Calm things down. Words are generally better than fists – which is why I study Verbal Aikido as well.
But that too is generally against the rules in most competitive martial arts.
Which brings me to my third favourite technique…
3. Do whatever it takes
Read those words carefully. I mean them. If I’m in danger, I will do whatever it takes to survive.
This entails a number of things that would do a lot of harm. Things that would only be appropriate to save a life. Things that would certainly be against the rules of any competitive fight.
But there are no rules in the street.
The core drawback of a competitive martial art
Which leads me to my main issue with competitive martial art. Martial arts are about training instincts. In a real attack, you have no time to think. You have to rely on muscle memory and automatic reactions.
If you train for competition, then you are training your instincts to work within the rules. And that means you’re not training for real life. You’re not training to defend yourself someone who doesn’t care about the rules.
You are also training yourself to expect every confrontation to be a win-lose competition, rather than one in which both sides can leave with their dignity intact.
Don’t get me wrong. There are pros and cons in every martial art. None is perfect and none ever will be. But don’t let the competitive martial artists convince you that their way is the only way.
Tell me what you think?