Steve, I think Gerry would agree with most of your points, but your response bypassed the point he was trying to make in his comment that I've quoted above.
Namely, if you spar in the dojo (under a certain set of rules) and spar in a competition of some sort (tournament, cage fight, whatever) under those same exact rules, why would the former be considered training and only the latter be considered application?
I have my own answers for why someone might consider that to be the case.
- Many of us primarily spar "to learn" rather than "to win" in the dojo, while most people bring their "A game" to win in a formal competition.
- Adrenaline tends to be higher in an official competition with trophies or prize money on the line then in routine sparring in the dojo
- Tournament competition may provide the opportunity to test yourself against people other than your classmates
- If your goal is a winning athletic career, then official competition may involve "metagaming" factors beyond the official sparring rounds - things like scouting an opponent, knowing what the judges are looking for, cutting weight, etc
However, I'd still say that the distinction is a bit of a fuzzy boundary. Even those of us who spar "to learn" have plenty of experience with sparring partners who go balls-to-the-wall putting maximum effort into winning. And for those of us who train for generalized fighting ability, the metagame of a particular competition ruleset may not be so vital.
To use your own analogy, sparring in the dojo might be like swimming in an indoor pool while competing or fighting in the street might be like swimming in the ocean with the possibility of bad weather or riptides.
I do acknowledge your larger general point. That's why I don't claim that I am any kind of expert master in "street fighting" or "self-defense." On the other hand, I don't necessarily limit myself to saying "I teach the cultural heritage art of BJJ." What I do claim is that I have a reasonable degree of expertise in executing and teaching certain specific skills which may be useful in a variety of contexts. Things like:
- Escaping from the bottom of mount when someone is on top of me trying to choke me
- Getting back to my feet safely if I am on the ground and someone is standing over me trying to hit me
- Taking someone to the ground against their will when they are trying to hit me
- Punching someone with a reasonable degree of force while protecting myself from them doing the same to me
- Hitting someone with a stick while protecting myself from them doing the same to me
- Preventing someone from throwing me to the ground when they are really trying to do so
- Falling safely without being hurt when I fail at stopping someone from throwing me to the ground
- Choking someone unconscious when they are trying to not let me do that
- etc, etc, etc
Could those skills be useful in a self-defense situation? Sometimes, depending on the context.
Could those skills be useful in a fight? Sometimes, depending on the fight.
Could those skills be useful in a sporting competition? Sometimes, depending on the competition.
I don't claim to be any kind of great fighter or great competitor or self-defense guru, but the specific skills I teach I feel pretty confident in.
You make many good points. I think it goes a little off the tracks when you say "spar in a competition." For many of the reasons you outline, they aren't the same. Much more accurate to say you spar in training and you compete in a competition.
And to be completely honest, while I think this is very important, I agree that it's nuanced (i.e., fuzzy). Is it possible for someone to learn to swim without ever touching the water? I honestly don't know the answer to that for a few reasons. First, because the person hasn't done it. Second, because we have a reliable way to teach people to swim, though it relies on being in water.
I think you hit some of the clear differences between training to fight vs fighting. Or training to compete vs competing (or basic training vs combat, etc). But you asked a good question. If I change the language just a little bit, I think it becomes more clear. Still nuanced, but I think a little more concrete:
If you fight in a dojo under a certain set of rules, or fight in a competition under those same exact rules, why would the former be considered training and only the latter be considered application?
The answer is, it depends. But the rules are only part of the context. You touch on other elements in your post above. When you fight in the dojo, is this fight the culmination of training specific for that event? Is there a tangible reward for success and also a tangible consequence for failure? Is one fight part of a larger series of fights (i.e., if you win, do you advance to fight someone else?). So, to answer the question, I can envision a school saying, "Six weeks from now, in lieu of classes, I have invited our satellite schools to join us for the rumblepalooza. We will be using submission only rules. Top three in each division will receive a tangible reward, TBD, and anyone not in the top three will be made to spar consecutive 3 minute rounds with the 20 other people in the school, starting with the blackbelts and going down to white belts.
Simply put, with a lot of thought and effort, you can get close. But this raises two questions. First, is something like the above what people have in mind when they say "sparring is application?" I don't get that impression. And second, even in the above situation, is this analogous to competition or simply a lesser alternative to competition? Maybe a better way to say it is, even if you do participate in the above (which actually could be pretty fun), does it fully replace the value of competing in an event outside the school with other people/schools?
Whew. If you're still with me, my hat is off to you. To sum up, it's common sense that you can't learn to swim without swimming. But that's not exactly the question you're asking. What you seem to be asking is, can you learn to swim without water? And the answer is... maybe? If you're determined enough to learn to swim, and creative enough to replace water with something that can get you close (a 10'x10'x10' vat of canola oil? Vodka?), you might learn something like swimming that, if you find yourself in an actual pool, will keep you from drowning.
What I think is more likely, though is that if you don't train in water to begin with, swimming in a pool or anywhere else isn't your actual goal.
