I had the privilege over the weekend of training with several very senior students in both the system I train in, and others whom we have a close relationship with. The instructors's experience dates back as far as the early 50s.
At one point, a discussion about how martial arts (especially, but not limited to) competions and training have changed since then. One of the ideas presented was that the advent of safety gear and "non-contact" sparring competitions has changed martial arts training dramatically. In the "rough old days", sparring competition was basically nearly full contact; one of the comments was that if you didn't basically knock your opponent out of the ring -- you didn't get a point. Accordingly, training in class was just as hard... or harder. They said that fighters back then were much better technicians and showed much cleaner technique. Safety gear and non-contact events led to much less effective techniques being used in fighting. (All this led up to the suggestion that many people's martial arts training today does not prepare students realistically for self defense.)
Now, let me shift to my own experience and observations over 20 years. Tournaments when I first started were much less expensive than today's, and many were at least double elimination in sparring, if not round-robin. In our own system tournament -- well, you could expect to be HIT, swept, and more, even as a white belt. And we fought a true round-robin where everyone fought everyone else in their division when I started. In open tournaments, unrealistic stuff still got through... (I recall one guy getting a point after a series of my bodyshots drove him almost out of the ring... and there was the guy who leapt at me, and I knocked him out of the air, but he got the point...) In class... Well, when we "sparred", we fought. It wasn't uncommon to be bruised and generally knocked around.
So... I suspect that we've got folks here on MT who trained and fought back in the "rough old days", as well as my own "intermediate, not so old or rough days", and, of course, people whose training is only a few years old...
Anybody got opinions?
(And -- to be clear, if I've mispoken someone's opinion above, it's my fault!)
At one point, a discussion about how martial arts (especially, but not limited to) competions and training have changed since then. One of the ideas presented was that the advent of safety gear and "non-contact" sparring competitions has changed martial arts training dramatically. In the "rough old days", sparring competition was basically nearly full contact; one of the comments was that if you didn't basically knock your opponent out of the ring -- you didn't get a point. Accordingly, training in class was just as hard... or harder. They said that fighters back then were much better technicians and showed much cleaner technique. Safety gear and non-contact events led to much less effective techniques being used in fighting. (All this led up to the suggestion that many people's martial arts training today does not prepare students realistically for self defense.)
Now, let me shift to my own experience and observations over 20 years. Tournaments when I first started were much less expensive than today's, and many were at least double elimination in sparring, if not round-robin. In our own system tournament -- well, you could expect to be HIT, swept, and more, even as a white belt. And we fought a true round-robin where everyone fought everyone else in their division when I started. In open tournaments, unrealistic stuff still got through... (I recall one guy getting a point after a series of my bodyshots drove him almost out of the ring... and there was the guy who leapt at me, and I knocked him out of the air, but he got the point...) In class... Well, when we "sparred", we fought. It wasn't uncommon to be bruised and generally knocked around.
So... I suspect that we've got folks here on MT who trained and fought back in the "rough old days", as well as my own "intermediate, not so old or rough days", and, of course, people whose training is only a few years old...
Anybody got opinions?
(And -- to be clear, if I've mispoken someone's opinion above, it's my fault!)