I’ve said basically the same thing in other threads: any martial arts training is much better than nothing. There is no other subject I know of besides martial arts that makes people claim with a straight face that someone who practices a skill for years will be no better at it than your average Joe. If I took dance lessons three days a week for six years, would I be told that I “can’t really dance”? Would anyone seriously say that I’m no better at dancing than Fred, who used to go to school dances and occasionally impress people with his dancefloor moves? No way. So why do people treat martial arts as different from any other athletic skill?
Your instructor will have much more bearing on what kind of fighting you learn than the form of martial arts they teach. McMartial Arts schools are primarily money-makers and the instructors will almost certainly not be able to teach you well because of lack of personal time due to class size, watering things down for the masses, or simple incompetence. Some martial arts are, in my opinion, more well-rounded and have a more realistic approach, but even froufrou high-kicking stuff can be taught well and provide at least some advantage if you have a good teacher who knows the strengths and weaknesses of his art.
I’d been going to my dojo for about six to eight months or so when I had my first fight as a “trained” martial artist. I was sixteen, still a bit undersized, and the guy was in his early 30s. He was also almost certainly off his rocker. He tried to sucker-punch me (my first real introduction to dirty fighting) but my dad saw him in time and blocked it. After some posturing, he left the restaurant. My dad and I got separated while trying to protect my two sisters and the guy came after me. He threw two punches and a kick and the only thing that came close to connecting was the kick, probably because I’d had to step off a curb and it messed up my distance. The kick slid up my front, basically doing nothing more than to mess up my clothes.
This is what sold me on my particular school. This guy had definitely been in a few fights, he’d even had some training some time in the past, judging from how he moved, but with a bare handful of months of practice I was good enough that he couldn’t even touch me. I was very grateful that for the first few months, the main thing we learned was not to kick ass, but how not to get hit. I am much, much better than the 16 year old, barely-trained kid I was then. While I wouldn’t want to get in a fight with Mike Tyson or some of the monsters in MMA, you’d be amazed at how much of a difference training makes against a normal guy you’d meet in a bar fight. Yeah, there’s a small percentage of elite fighters that could probably mess up any lesser mortal, but your chances of getting into a fight with them are pretty darn slim, and with some training you’ll be better off than about 95% of the assholes out there.
“Street fighting,” by the way, is mostly catching people by surprise, along with dirty tricks and a handful of moves that they know work. Their major edge is in knowing how shitty people are and having experience hitting and occasionally being hit. Knowing about the surprise and trickery negates a big part of a street fighter’s advantage. Their technique mostly sucks.
A well-trained martial artist would not have much trouble with most of these guys. There were a few fights reported by guys in my dojo, and we got to swap stories with some guys in New Jersey when we were there for a training seminar. When someone from my dojo asked, half-sarcastically, “When was the last time you got into a knife fight?” two of them replied, “Last week.” Their opinion of street fighters was pretty much what I just wrote. I learned a lot about effective attitude and some about technique from those guys. I also learned a few things to look for when someone is trying to sucker you into a fight he thinks he can win through trickery.
Regarding the “not fighting” thing: I’ve been doing martial arts for half my life now. I’ve been in a few fights. I’ve been in fights that involved someone with a weapon. I’ve been attacked by people who are bigger and probably meaner than I am. It sucks. Anyone with any experience in fighting never, ever, wants to be in that position again if they can avoid it, unless they’re one of those twisted people who likes hurting others or gets off on the possibility of getting hurt by putting themselves in danger. You don’t want to be around people like that. They’re not nice. Trust me, I’ve met a few of them, and most decent schools want nothing to do with them; they’ll throw them out as soon as they’re discovered.
Not fighting and never having to deal with an opponent is the optimum solution to confrontation. Everybody walks away, no one gets hurt. That’s what we call a win/win situation. I don’t start fights. If I must, I finish them, but I never want to be in the situation to begin with, and I’m certainly not going to start trying to kick someone’s ass if I can talk my way out of the situation. I’ll get in the first hit when I realized I’m being maneuvered to make me more vulnerable, but they’ve actually already begun the fight by doing that maneuvering. I’d much rather try to find a way out of it, frankly.
