Add new comment

1

On whether a dominant cage fighter might not be the best martial arts technician,
I think that most martial arts place too high an emphasis on quantity of effective moves, rather than perfecting one unstoppable hold or blow.  What your left with is many blackbelts who have twenty effective and beautiful ways to dispatch scrubs, but who wilt under top flight competition. 
For example, to be a blackbelt in Judo, you have to competently finish (if memory serves)15 standing techniques, 10 ground techniques, four or five different strangles, the japanese names for all of the above, and so on.  The U.S. Judo world team guys usually only practice one unstoppable throw, and base the rest of their game on it or the threat of it.  They live, and die on the strength of their best move.  Who plays better Judo? The technician with 15  throws, or Koga, who beat the whole world, for years, with one throw reminiscent of Taz from Looney Tunes?
Same goes for wrestling.  John Smith only had one move, a low snatching single where he didn't tie up with the other guys.  Jordan Borroughs recently won a freestyle world championship with a powerful driving double leg tackle.
The point is, like baseball, grappling success is determined by the quality of a person's best move, rather than being generally well rounded.  
I think that other martial arts work the same way.  I think that if martial artists want to be more effective fighters, they should stop spending time practicing moves they are unsuited for, and master moves that play to their strengths until a signature weapon or two emerges.
I'd rather take Felix throwing his two seamer exclusively, than Ryan Franklin throwing all five of his pitches.  I'd rather take Edgar Martinez who does nothing but hit, than I would take Willie Bloomquist who can hit passably, and play every position in the game.
Just one fight and baseball fan's perspective.

Filtered HTML

  • Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.
  • Allowed HTML tags: <a> <em> <strong> <cite> <blockquote> <code> <ul> <ol> <li> <dl> <dt> <dd><p><br>
  • Lines and paragraphs break automatically.

Plain text

  • No HTML tags allowed.
  • Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.
  • Lines and paragraphs break automatically.

shout_filter

  • Allowed HTML tags: <a> <em> <strong> <cite> <blockquote> <code> <ul> <ol> <li> <dl> <dt> <dd>
  • Lines and paragraphs break automatically.
  • Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.