Ooooh! Good one! Very difficult to answer. On a personal note I will always take skill because that has got me through every fight and arrest I have been involved in. However, I have seen very good fighters lose because they were "psyched" by aggression. Look at a Jack Russell terrier - they just snap, bark and snarl but the aggression in them makes people think twice. This topic could actually be linked to adrenal dump and the effects in fights. The "x" factor that makes "heroes" become "cowards". I think that "positive mindset" is actually a better term than aggression. Certainly if someone is drunk/high/mentally unstable then they are very hard to restrain. Point of example I arrested a guy two days ago who was 5'9" and built like a rake, but he was unstable and drunk and took a hell of a lot of restraining. Self-belief and skill got me through (and a bit of good fortune) but if I had "bottled" a bit I would have been deep in the cack- especially as he was HIV and theatened to bite anyone who went near. The best solution to my mind is to merge skill with aggression. At lower levels though, aggression will win. If you refuse to lose, you probably won't.
One time when I was 15 a ropey little 135 pound wrestler I grappled and fought with two cops for a few minutes before they restrained me and put me in the car because I was so aggressive. I got jacked up from the billy clubs and what not. But the aggression and adrenaline really ups you beyond what you normally think. At the same time it was skill that helped me survive a 15 man attack so my vote is for skill.
- This is in the women's self-defense section, but I think it applies to all MA's - maybe a mod can move it to the general section. Short answer from my point of view: Aggression (mindset) wins over skill. You can have all the skill you want, but without the will to do something with it, it is useless. It's like the difference between energy and power. Energy is worthless if you don't do something with it, and will power / positive mindset / aggression / assertiveness / stubbornness - whatever it is, and whatever you need is what will put the skill to use. However, having skill can help with using the will-power / aggression, and aggression can sometimes compromise what skill you do have. So yes, there does need to be a balance. Train for both! Techniques & Tactics / Body & Mind / Skill & Spirit.
Skill. Overall skill is the more important of the two. Becuase skill, and a cool head, should position overcome aggression 9 out of 10 times. Aggression is simply an attitude.* *But there is a caveat to this. The caveat is that in the end neither of these is more important than "conviction/commitment". And in the end the one with the most conviction is most likely going to be on top. For example, if the aggressive person backs that attitude/attack with conviction, that's going to be very difficult to deal with. At the same time, a skilled defender who has the conviction to follow through should be able to decimate an attacker who lacks conviction. - Matt
No reason to move it, it plays a big part in women defending themselves. Many women who have never taken a MA/SD class have fended off attackers, and it was through their will to survive. You don't have to be highly skilled, and being a black belt doesn't mean squat if you don't have the drive to fight, but to defend yourself you do have to have aggression.
I recall a K1 Kickboxing fight, I believe the winner was Neil Woods (???). His opponent was a slightly more experienced fighter who, according to the commentators, had the same if not better skill level. Woods (???) was far more aggressive than his opponent and dominated the fight quickly and decively. You could argue that both had the determination and conviction to win, I believe that this is different to aggression. I believe that if you took equally skilled fighters, the one with more aggresion would win. Transfering this to a SD situation I believe someone with bags more aggression would win with minimal skill, afterall this is what most attackers will try to do to you. Budo.
All things being equal, use typically the more agressive fighter will win. And with a combination of agressiveness and determination, they're a very dangerous opponent to handle. - Matt
