And that, in a nutshell, is the difference between a trained fighter (of any art) and an experienced one. The reality is that no matter how well trained you are, in a real fight there is a good chance you are going to be struck and take damage. Indeed, the major focus of pugilism isn’t just throwing punches but being able to take a blow and transfer the impulse away from you (shedding or grounding). There is simply no substitute for having been subject to enough punches that you know that a bloody nose or a kick to the nuts won’t kill you, and to respond in an immediate, effective, and decisive manner. And there really isn’t any way to teach this within a conventional “respectful” martial arts dojo. It isn’t that the technique isn’t useful–although you have to realize that fine motor skills go to crap when the adrenaline starts flowing, and anything that isn’t ingrained to the point of instinctual response is going to fail, and usually fail badly–but technique is only useful if you can remain in the position to execute it, which for most striking arts is on two feet. This is why streetfighters–many of whom have the technique of an orangutan, and usually smell as bad–frequently overwhelm trained but inexperienced fighters. (The other is that most martial artists have been trained to pull their blows in practice, and thus, instinctively pull them in fights).
The most effective fight I’ve ever been in was before I ever studied any martial art, when I was nine or ten. At the community pool in the shower room I was surrounded by a bunch of larger kids and confronted by a boy a grade senior to me who imagined some slight I’d done to him. He punched me in the shoulder and, without thinking, I drove an uppercut right into his throat and upper jaw. He literally came off the ground (more, I would guess, from surprise than the strength of the blow) and was laid out stunned on the ground, and the crowded parted before me like the Red Sea for Moses. I’ve been in a handful of real fights since–largely because I wasn’t cognizant enough to get the hell out of the way of trouble that was coming toward me like a freight train–but despite several years of intensive training I don’t think I’ve ever had quite such a stunning reversal of fortunes, even over the tweaker who thought poking a pistol in my ribs made him some kind of superstar.
The honest answer to the question posed by the o.p. is that (good) training gives you the instincts and technique, but not necessarily the motivation, to respond to violence effectively. That comes only from experience, and you will not get this in a school (or at least, not one I would care to attend).
Stranger
