Pride and Glory, Life and Limb Part I: Differences Between Competition and Combat

If that picture seems ugly, we can take some comfort in the fact that most of us fall somewhere in the middle: competitors wondering how well their skills will translate to conflict outside the ring, and unarmed self-defense specialists wondering if their methods can stand up to a trained fighter. In order to bridge this gap and develop well-rounded warriors, we first need to understand the differences in the two arenas and the ways they have been approached.

Since there are several types of competition, I’ll primarily focus on differences between methods used in Mixed Martial Arts and reality-based training. While there is wide variance in how both are addressed by different coaches and trainers, I think the biggest differences can be summed up in the following three areas: odds, setting, and emotions. Bear these differences in mind and you’ll learn how to get the most from your training.

While competition takes place on a level and well-lighted platform, real-world conflict often occurs in low-light settings with uneven terrain. Photo: Author

Since a fighter knows all else is designed to be equal, he builds the advantages that he can. Physical fitness becomes a way of life, almost an arms race between the combatants to be fitter and stronger than the other. Additionally, a fighter will train his technique every day, often year round. He knows what he can make work, and what to do next if it doesn’t work.

In real-world conflict, the odds are almost never even. If you find yourself on the receiving end of an unprovoked attack, it is often because your attacker perceives that you are at a disadvantage. They will be larger, stronger, better armed or greater in number as a rule, and sometimes a combination thereof.

Persons training for realistic unarmed self-defense will work on techniques that can address multiple opponents and also incorporate armed attackers. The scope of the potential threats is so broad that not all can be addressed, and techniques are often not practiced at full speed or full force due to increased risk of injury. It is also much easier to fall into the “what if” trap than in training for competition.

If faced with a single attacker, a competitive MMA fighter has a very high chance of surviving the encounter. He will often be physically more fit and mentally more prepared than his counterpart. But when a weapon is introduced or the number of attackers increases, the fighter’s chances of survival drop sharply, due to a tendency to engage when running is a better option. It’s not that an MMA fighter is miraculously fearless, but retreat is not an option in his training, so it may not occur to him when faced with a lethal threat. Also, ground-fighting techniques that work extremely well against a single attacker carry more risk against multiple threats.

In real-world attacks, your opponents will often be larger, stronger, better armed or greater in number. No matter how confident you are, a clean escape is often the best option.

As currently taught by most, unarmed self-defense often produces a fighter less physically prepared for the conflict (unless s/he has taken physical fitness as a personal goal) and using techniques that have often not been practiced to the dogged extent of a competition fighter. However, because retreat is programmed into their training as a go-to option, and because their training includes the notion of an armed attacker, a fighter from a good reality-based training school may stand a much higher chance of surviving multiple attacker scenarios than an MMA fighter. It is not as much about proper technique as proper tactics.

The world is full of vertical surfaces. Walls can be your best friend or worst enemy, so account for them in your training.

It may seem odd, then, that I find more fault with much of the reality-based community than I do MMA trainers on the issue of vertical surfaces. In an MMA gym, the first thing you notice is that almost every wall is either padded or shrouded in chain-link. MMA fighters constantly work off the wall: back against the wall, attacker against the wall, on the ground at the base of a wall. You are taught that the wall is your worst enemy and your best friend. And the world is full of walls: hallways, store fronts, vehicles, trees, and furniture all present vertical surfaces that are very likely to come into play in a violent attack. Yet I currently only see this addressed regularly in high-level military and law enforcement training outside of MMA. I hope to see that change.

One way in which reality-based training does have the upper hand with regard to setting is in the use of improvised weapons. While an MMA fighter sees a stool as an obstacle to avoid, the reality-based fighter sees a shield or cudgel. More is on the table (including the table itself) for the reality-based combatant because his training allows for it. Training to use improvised weapons when available prevents over-reliance on the empty hands.

The support of a team, combined with the fear of disappointing them, is one of the reasons the psychological and emotional responses a fighter feels toward violence can differ greatly from those felt in actual combat. Photo: author

I vomited a few minutes before my first bout, and I know more experienced fighters who always have. Having other fighters around you to tell you this kind of thing is normal goes a long way in establishing a better understanding of the body’s reaction to stress, not as an abstract concept but as personal experience. Even if a fighter doesn’t win, he gains valuable insight into his own body and mind. This is an area in which competition excels.

Real-world violence doesn’t creep along, shouting warnings ahead of it. It happens extremely fast, causing the sort of emotional spike that can result in panic. The adrenaline, accompanied by fear, causes focused vision and a dampening of the sense of hearing known as auditory exclusion. Fine motor skill is lost and, in extreme cases, the body may drop any unnecessary cargo, which is a polite way of saying you lose control of your bowels. All of this is normal, but that doesn’t make it less terrifying at the time. If not properly understood, the memory of these actions can be a source of unwarranted shame.

Even staple moves from MMA, like the standing Guillotine Choke, can prove unsound if your opponent turns out to be armed.

Fighters in the combat sports have always known and experienced these issues. Mental preparation and mindset are huge parts of competition fighting. The fact that fighters do not experience the extreme manifestations of stress experienced by victims of criminal violence may account for some of the misconceptions and guilt those victims later feel. It is important to remember that admonitions to “be a man” do nothing to override biology.

The industry of reality-based training, however, is making increasing headway in the areas of mindset, mental preparation, and understanding the body’s reaction to stress. Largely due to the publication of well-researched scholarly works such as On Combat by David Grossman, added to a foundation of earlier works like Jeff Cooper’s Principles of Personal Defense, the reality-based training community is addressing psychological and physiological factors of violence better than at any previous time in history.