I'm merely being honest. It's not my intention to make people upset.
Well to be fair many in this thread used the silly argument that Bjj is a sport, and then proceeded to use the sport vs. non-sport line. You know, "my art isn't a sport so I can grab your junk, or bite your eyes out" kind of deal.
When did I say anything about Krav Maga?
I thought I recalled your mention of Krav Maga; I may well be wrong. Things do blend in my head sometime...
I'm going to ask a blunt question: do you have any real world experience with violence? As in cop, bouncer, or the like? BJJ has some good things for self defense -- and there's an entire self defense curriculum within the art apart from the sport side. BUT when the Gracies tried to introduce a BJJ based LE Defensive Tactics program, they discovered they had to rethink a lot of it.
And it's not a silly argument that there's a difference between sportive training and training for violence. Read some of Marc MacYoung's stuff, or Rory Miller, or Geoff Thompson, or Peyton Quinn... There's lots more I could list. I like how Rory's summed up the four truths of violence: it's closer, faster, harder, and more unexpected than commonly believed. But let me revisit a few of the key differences[TABLE="width: 500"]
[TR]
[TD]Sport
[/TD]
[TD]Violence
[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Equivalence in opponents
[/TD]
[TD]Victim often weaker, smaller than assailant
[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Time to anticipate & prepare
[/TD]
[TD]No warning, often from behind
[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Engage, score, separate, re-engange
[/TD]
[TD]Once on, doesn't stop until it's OVER
[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Safe environment (mats, refs, rules)
[/TD]
[TD]Chaotic environment with unique dangers (concrete, broken glass, curbs...)
[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Fun
[/TD]
[TD]Piss your pants scary
[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Time for strategy and ploys like feints
[/TD]
[TD]If you have enough time for a feint or anything else -- you're in deep trouble!
[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
This isn't meant to be exhaustive or exclusive. Now, sparring and competition does have some pros for preparing for real violence. It's unscripted. If you go with heavy contact, you have to learn to keep going. You have to learn to work a plan, and adapt to what happens. Those are some good things -- but there are also some bad habits. Beat the guy, stop -- and reengage? In a real attack, you've now become an attacker, not a defender, and may well find yourself on the wrong side of the jail bars.
You've found traditional kata training flawed. Let's talk a bit about that. There are two types of things that fall under the kata or form definition. One is a solo exercise, often designed to include/incorporate and engrain principles and tactics for responding to attacks. (Some other types are memorials, some are pure artistic expression, some purely for health/conditioning.) These kata are often codebooks or catalogs of tactics, strategies, and techniques. Another type is a two-person exercise... In these, the beginner does a rote exercise, fed an ideal attack to respond to. But, as the student develops skill, competence, and confidence in the technique, their partner (usually a more senior student in a very traditional setting, but not exclusively) begins to vary the attack. They take advantage of mistakes or errors in the performance of the technique, or lapses in the student's focus. They become less or even almost unscripted. Does this sound a lot like something you're familiar with?
Then there are exercises like randori, which are more free form.