Staying crap forever?

**Kintanon** · Posted On: 1/29/2007 4:03pm

Originally Posted by AnnaTrocity

When I get in the ring with an opponent that is going to try and hurt me I go into fight or flight mode and it takes care of itself.

So it's pretty much competition only for going full out? I've never really gotten a chance to go full out with anyone. I'm always kind of gearing myself down to whatever level I think my opponent is comfortable with. I've got to get an opportunity to cut loose a bit sometime soon...

Kintanon

**MastaChance** · Posted On: 1/29/2007 4:05pm

Originally Posted by Kintanon

So it's pretty much competition only for going full out? I've never really gotten a chance to go full out with anyone. I'm always kind of gearing myself down to whatever level I think my opponent is comfortable with. I've got to get an opportunity to cut loose a bit sometime soon...

Kintanon

Well I don't mind going kinda hard, with MMA sparring, so if we both make it to the next throwdown, then we can do some good hard MMA spariing, if that's cool?

**Anna Kovacs** · Posted On: 1/29/2007 4:06pm

I can't say I ever go paticularly hard when sparring. I don't feel that I need to treat sparring as a fight substitute.

**MastaChance** · Posted On: 1/29/2007 4:08pm

Well I don't mean beating eachother sensless, or unconscious, or even til we bleed. I was just talking about trading some shots, and actually making them sting, like black eyes are no big deal to me. Being knockedout though is totally different.

**Torakaka** · Posted On: 1/29/2007 4:10pm

Originally Posted by Kintanon

So it's pretty much competition only for going full out? I've never really gotten a chance to go full out with anyone. I'm always kind of gearing myself down to whatever level I think my opponent is comfortable with. I've got to get an opportunity to cut loose a bit sometime soon...

Kintanon

That's what amateur fighting is for. There's no real reason to do "hard sparring" when you could just arrange to fight in a local MMA/kickboxing event. That's what they're there for.

**MastaChance** · Posted On: 1/29/2007 4:15pm

Originally Posted by Kidspatula

That's what amateur fighting is for. There's no real reason to do "hard sparring" when you could just arrange to fight in a local MMA/kickboxing event. That's what they're there for.

True. Also there are light contact MMA events starting to pop up everywhere, there was just one this past saturday in Valdosta, I would have really like to have went to see what it was like, but it was too short notice I found out about it like two days before, and I did'nt have the funds to get down there. One thing that is good about these types of events is that there not ranked, and you also get trophies and rewards for wieght classes, so it is'nt that bad i guess.

**alex** · Posted On: 1/29/2007 4:19pm

i remember one guy who i trained with for a while was so terrible when he started that he would punch the pad, stumble, hit me in the face and almost fall over. he did that more than once. after a few weeks he was only marginally better, then he left. i think some people just arent cut out to hit stuff

**MastaChance** · Posted On: 1/29/2007 4:22pm

Originally Posted by Alex

i remember one guy who i trained with for a while was so terrible when he started that he would punch the pad, stumble, hit me in the face and almost fall over. he did that more than once. after a few weeks he was only marginally better, then he left. i think some people just arent cut out to hit stuff

Your probably right.

**leere_form** · Posted On: 1/29/2007 4:29pm

dude, there's this guy who comes into judo sometimes who simply cannot coordinate his bodily movements.

he was turning around to do osoto-gari, and then pulling forwards while stepping behind..

i mean, it's the kind of thing you would do as a joke, but this guy was honestly that confused.

it's like he would see us do things and somehow his brain reconstructed them into more general and very disassociated movements that made no sense whatsoever.

... and thus kata was born.

but seriously, it was kind of disturbing to think about how he must see the world on a daily basis.. and how he gets to class.. drives.. etc.

**Wounded Ronin** · Posted On: 1/29/2007 5:16pm

I think that in order for a person to improve he has to understand what he needs to work on. I think that for the most part a person cannot get over a "plateau" unless they have something specific to shoot for which will let them get over that "plateau".

So, yes, I could see a situation where a beginner, not knowing anything about the MA in question, goes through a lot of general motions but doesn't improve because he never gains an understanding of what he specifically needs to do to get better.

I think that I probably spent about 2 years utterly sucking at judo. Finally I began to notice things and put things together and I improved. But I think that I had a long plateau at the beginning because I didn't undestand what I needed to do in order to improve.

So, put another way, I think that anyone *CAN* improve, but the prerequisite is that they undestand what they need to work on in order to improve. If they spend all their time doing activities which are irrelevant to what they most need to improve they probably would be incapable of showing an overall improvement.