FIGHTING - GOOD?

The topic I've chosen to address in tomorrows workshop is the concept of fighting. I already have my own opinion on fighting and I believe in this subject and want to share 10 points about it but also not just the good, with some bad too. This is an extension of my summer research will I really enjoyed and found eye-opening.




GOOD?

1. Fighting is exercise, can relieve stress, when you're fighting you can't think of anything other than the design brief you're doing as you're going to be focused on fighting back and defending yourself or you're in a whole heap of trouble.

“I see martial arts as moving forms of meditation. When you’re sparring or drilling techniques, you can’t think of anything else. All your bullshit goes to the back of your head. Because if it doesn’t, you’re going to get fucked up.” - Joe Rogan - Martial Artists, stand-up comedia and tv personality

2. It's a natural thing, the human race survived through multiple civilisations by fighting for survival. It's in our DNA to fight, as kids we fought and scratched each other to settle differences before we even knew about manners and social behavioural norms.

“No matter how civilized we are and how much society has curbed violent behavior,” he says, “human beings still have the same genes they had 10,000 years ago. Our bodies are designed to have a certain amount of physical stress and violence in them. We’re designed to run from jaguars and fight to defend our territory. We’re hardwired with all this shit that you really can’t deny if you want to be a balanced human being.”  - Joe Rogan - Martial Artists, stand-up comedia and tv personality

3. Safety. Without fighting, in the form of self-defence programs, boxing, mma or even a bar fight - you won't have any prior experience of a physical altercation so if you're in any form of physical danger you're more likely to be hurt or even...killed.

Check this out from Mixed Martial Artist legend Bas Rutten, teaching you how to defend yourself, from years of experience himself fighting and unfortunately getting into fights. He's able to now share his knowledge

4. Fight club. The movie itself is about disillusioned individuals at odds and decentralised with society and their boring everyday lives, they go and FIGHT to feel alive, full of adrenaline and on edge. It's natural primal instinct. There's definitely truth in this notion. It's kind of like a selection process, only the strongest survives and this gives us, at our core we're animals, purpose and achievement in the purest sense. One theme of the movie, consumerism, self-destruction and self-actualisation and basically breaking away from the norm and living.

"Self improvement is masturbation, Now self-destruction..."

"Advertising has us chasing cars and clothes, working jobs we hate so we can buy shit we don't need. We're the middle children of history, man. No purpose or place. We have no great war. No Great Despression. Our Great War's a spiritual war... our great Depression is our lives. We've all been raised on television to believe that one day we'd all be millionaires, and movie gods, and rock stars. But we won't. And we're slowly learning that fact. And we're very, very pissed off."

5. Martial arts and it's philosophy. Martial Arts is fighting, but at it's core it's probably not at all about fighting, it's about philosophy and rules and morals to live your life. It's similar to Bushido, the samurai's code of life, which surprisingly it's not at all about fighting, it's about a way of life, respecting your peers etc. Fighting in a general sense can help clear your mind, give you positive attitude and work ethic towards achieving goals in other forms of life. The idea of striving and travelling around the world for a challenge, to improve physically and mentally and to always learn. 

"Without Jiu Jitsu, it's like you cut off my legs. It's all my philosophies, all my values, So it's hard to understand myself without Jiu Jitsu" - Rickson Gracie - Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu master.

6. Wrong perceptions. In terms of the concept of fighting, people tend to have the wrong perception, especially with 'cage-fighting' a pretty negative term for Mixed Martial Arts, an emalgamation and application of all forms of combat styles. One MMA legend who is probably the stereotype of a 'cage-fighter' Chuck Liddel is actually a qualified accountant! You could say MMA is like a real life fight-club.

Accountant.

7. Self-improvement, being the best you, that you can be. Being able to fight and be physically fit is another tick om the list, surely a good way of living life is being the best you can be, trying something new and having as many skills and positive attributes as you can have.

8. Dangerous? Let's compare deaths in a sport such as boxing to everyday activities. In recorded history around 43 boxers have died due to a direct injury caused in the boxing ring. More people died crossing the road last year.

9. Gives people direction and purpose in life, boxing is definitely one. There's countless examples of this, for example boxers such as Bernard Hopkins and Lamont Peterson grew up in a life of poverty and crime, fighting, training and routine gave them direction and grounding in life and got them off the streets.

'Sometimes when I go to bed I lie awake thinking about how terrible it was and about the kids going through the same thing today. But I always try to end the night with a smile.' 

Peterson thanks God that he didn't drift into gang life: 'My brother and I always seemed to find the right decision. Thank God the gym became my home. It was also my family life. I went there to train twice a day. I would have lived there if I could." - Lamont Peterson - current IBF Light Welterweight world champion

10. Health, fighting is a broad term but focussing on the life of an athlete partaking on combat sports, fighting with rules and constraints, fighting is a great form of exercise in terms of being physically and mentally fit. Athletes such as boxers and mixed martial arts fighters train usually 2-3 times a day, everyday of the week and are fantastic athletes along with having nutrition on point which is very calculated, your life expectancy would increase and you'd generally be a healthier and more positive person. If you have that kind of work ethic you can apply it to let's say, a graphic design career.

11. Increases intelligence and problem solving under pressure which can be applied to everyday life. Someone once said Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu "is like a game of chess but with your body parts and limbs on the line."

BAD?

1. Dangerous. Fighting in the form of fighting on the street is dangerous and reckless and not something you should go out of your way to force.

2. Unintelligent? You could say it's a form of self improvement and exercise but maybe there's more intelligent and articulate ways of improving yourself in such a 'simple' way maybe, for example, read books?

3. "Human cockfighting" is what Senator John McCain referred to mixed martial arts as. Whether you think this is the case is up to you but there's arguments to both sides.

4. Disease! Quite a common infection which occurs, especially for mat-based fighting styles such as Jiu-Jitsu and Judo is all the sweat accumulates on the fight mats and you're open to Staph Infections, which are HORRIBLE and can be life threatening, as is the case with wrestler Muhammad Lawal who nearly actually died because of the infection.

5. Long-term injuries & Medical Bills. A lot of fighters have to pay for their own surgery and medical care, especially for the smaller fight corporations as a result of injuries sustained in fights, some of these business owners often dodge things like this and are a little corrupt.

6. Some weird connotations and suggestions to some people! I'm not saying I agree with this but a common comment by people not too aware of the inner workings of combat styles such as Wrestling and Jiu-Jitsu is this...

7. Overconfident! Being a top fighter in the gym or sport and whatnot could have a negative effect on you and make you go around picking fights in real life assuming you'll be able to beat the person up, can give you power which some people might not be responsible with. There have been cases of this with fighters such as Ricardo Mayorga, a boxer who attracts controversy outside the ring.

8. Can make you violent? There have been many cases of fighters such as boxers being done for domestic assault, for example one of the best boxers in the world at the moment - Floyd Mayweather serving 90 days in prison for domestic assault. Whether fighting and training professionally is directly related to this is debatable.

9. Prison. Beat people up on the street, or without their consent in a professional environment - you're off to the station and probably prison.

10. Could create a negative image to other people especially impressionable young people such as a fighters kids who might take it the wrong way and apply what they saw their dad do in the playground.