johnwang wrote:oragami_itto wrote:So if I'm tracking this argument correctly here...
You're saying that a technique isn't effective unless it's lethal?
If you can knock your opponent out in one strike, your opponent will have no chance to hurt you after that. We all try to develop some dependable finish moves through our life time.
When you
- were young, you can still depend on your endurance.
- get older, you have to end your problem quickly.
So this issue is more important for the older people.
Am I the only person in RSF who feels this way?
Well knockout isn't killing.
The goal in an encounter is context specific. You can't just go knocking people out or killing them willy nilly every time you have a conflict.
The goals of my training, in priority order:
1. Avoid conflict
2. Escape conflict
3. End conflict
So number 3, knockout or death may be possible or desirable, but maybe it's someone you care about (or that could sue you) having a psychological problem and you want to restrain them. In most every case I agree that you want to end things as quickly as possible, one way or another. It gets harder to stay safe the longer the conflict lasts.
Let's be perfectly honest. We live in the age of the gun. No matter how much you want to put into honing your human weapon, some shithead with a gun and zero training can take you out without a whole lot of effort. The only sensible reason to train unless you're into the whole fighting game or a security professional is cultivation. Not that there isn't good reason to keep effective techniques in the training, to keep it realistic and in case god forbid you do wind up in a hand to hand combat situation you don't want your training to do more harm than good, but that there is a whole spectrum of results beyond kill or knock out, control holds, submissions/joint destructions, knockdowns, etc.
I'll close with this reminder that the most common reason for street fighting is dominance. Not self defense. Just two guys trying to prove who's got the bigger sack. My self-cultivation helps me avoid the need for that validation and so directly and actively does a lot to accomplish number 1 and 2. I like to think, and experience has shown, that it also gives me an edge over most people when it comes to number 3.
Haven't knocked anybody out or killed anybody yet, though, so I'm probably doing something wrong.