What is the difference between sport and combative Martial Arts?
Many people start a martial arts school with the insinuation they are learning self defense when they may only be learning sport fighting. Sport martial arts deals with gaining points in ruled fighting. Those rules (depending on the organization hosting the event) may include: no pressure points, no punching to the face, no kicking below the waist, no small joint compression/locking, no eye gouging, and so on. These rules are to protect the contestants as well as to, sometimes, prevent the fight from being over so quickly (no one wants a PaperView fight to be over in 5 seconds). If you focus is sports, your thought process will be the rules you’ve confined yourself to. Thus, in a real fight you will have trouble taking it up to the higher levels b/c you’ve trained with the rules and have had those ingrained in your mind. Combative martial arts addresses that there are NO rules. When someone attacks you, you must put them down as quickly as possible before they harm you or your loved on
