What are the key differences between a sport / MA fight and self defense?

What are the key differences between a sport / MA fight and self defense? Why are these differences important?

Very interested to hear your thoughts.

 

Sporting competitions typically have a referee, rules, various H&S regulations.

"Self defence" covers a board category, everything from awareness to de-escalation, to physical protection.
In terms of 'fighting', it will not have the safety nets that sport does.

 

Self defense deals with fighting, but also the issues beyond fighting e.g. legal issues, avoidance, de-escalation.

Sport-fighting is a way of simulating a fight while minimising risk. Different sports have differing levels of applicability outside of a sporting environment, and different levels of risk.

Theoretically a self defense class would be the best place to learn how to avoid or defend yourself from attackers. In reality, finding good self defense instruction is very difficult because it does not have the built-in quality control mechanism that the sporting arts have.

My opinion is that taking common-sense precautions and being willing to walk away from provocation accounts for 99% of the non-fighting aspects of common sense, rendering self defense training unnecessary (unless you are in a specialised job such as police or corrections).

 

Self-defense is the sum of countermeasures one can take to defend themselves, another, or their property from harm. Those countermeasures involves in-fight physical and mental aspects but also start with meta-fight concepts of awareness, avoidance, deterrence and de-escalation. One must also know the legal ramifications that whatever course of action entails. Combat sports are competitive adaptations of various fighting disciplines. They are governed by a sets of rules and have varying degrees of street/self defense applicability - from very low to very high - that hinge on several factors. Combat sports deal with the in-fight physical and mental dimensions but none of the first-line-of-defense aspects of self-defense mentioned above.

 

"If we fight for money I will stop when the referee tells me; if we fight for honor I stop when I feel like it" - Rickson Gracie

 

in a sport fight, you aim to win as determined by the rules, whereas in a physical SD scenario, you aim to not be in danger anymore. depending on the ruleset for the sport fight, there can be more or less overlap in the methods used.

 

The ability to actually fight

 

Lava.

 

Self defense has to include all of the options, especially those at the lower level of force. Awareness, avoidance, de-escalation, and walking away have to be considered. The upper ends of the level of force spectrum have to be considered as well... along with the potential for multiple attackers, weapons, etc. This is what makes it so tough... the unknown quantities.

The nice thing about a Sport MA match is that you already know the level of force allowed and exactly what the motives of your opponent are. In this way, it is a very 'safe way' to try out your tools for that range/situation at full power. At some point, 'self defense' training needs to involve this concept as much as allowable (sparring, scenarios, etc).

 

Pre-arrangement
Lead time / Warning
Choice of all parties
Initiation Protocols
Participant Numbers
Environment
Duration
Aims
Potential Outcomes

I don't have the spare time to explain all of these in the detail I'd like, but I'm sure there are others here knowledgeable enough to do so.

 

Sport, as has been mentioned, has rules, weight divisions, protective gear, sanctioning bodies, etc. Each person knows why they are there, how they got there, and to some extent, what to expect. The goal is to win. By points, submission, knock out, or TKO.

Fights are generally organic. They develop randomly. As people have stated above, self defence should teach awarenes, avoidance, de-escalation, legal issues, etc. The person should be able to spot the warning signs BEFORE things explode. Sometimes you turn a corner and your in a fight. No bell. No whistle. No command to begin. The goal in a fight is to survive. Using whatever means to achive that goal.

In sport there are winners and losers and ties. In a fight there is a suvivor. He/she is the one that hurts less then the other guy. :hat:

 

I think I there are two elements of self defence or self protection...one is the psychological side and external side which includes all the things like awareness and other soft skills, and the other side is the physical side.
I sometimes think the physical side is brushed under the carpet a bit in favour of soft skills, which are definitely important. The thing is all these soft skills can fail and your still in a physicAl situation, no matter what. Also some seem to put situations like being down the pub and things kicking of as SD. I don't know if that's right or if SD is just a totally random attack out of no where....in which case not many soft skills could of helped and its straight up gone physical.

For the physical side, the way we move as humans within the time frames of an emergency or chaotic situation should be based on fundamental athletic and sporting movement and these can be trained and improved at high intensities through sporting and athletic activities.
The other major factor is violent intent and the realisation that there are no rules and you can apply any tactic that's available.
Because it's random too it means you have to ad lib and make it all up on the spot what your going to do. The closest thing to doing this safer, is found in sporting and athletic situations.

All the things connected to sports fights like a ring, or referee or both knowing the rules etc is irrelevant. It's the movement that can be done within realistic time frames that's important.

 

Sport Martial Art- you compete to win, and both people go home at end.

Self-Defense- you train to survive, and usually someone goes to jail or escorted by 12.

Martial Art (Self-Defense) is what I would say is any Martial Art that focuses on Self-Defense training and not traditional stuff like forms, uniforms, tradition, etc.

 

Err no, usually everyone goes home with nothing more than cuts and bruises. Jail and death are incredibly uncommon results in the typical bust up.

 

Well that's a wee bit on the dramatic side...

 

Hence my statement that the "winner" in a true self defence scenario is the one that hurts the least. Though tongue-in-cheek, I was totally being honest and believe what I wrote.

 

Erm yep.