ExJKD,
I'm going to start by putting down a few of the differences between the sports guys and the street (and yes, I've done both - I've boxed professionally, kick boxed (victorian h'weight champ for a short while) and hold dan ranking in Judo - and I've worked doors, bodyguarded and been an MP in the Foreign Legion. Then, I'm going to post an analogy I posted on Geoff Thompson's forum in England that all but satisfied most of the players on both sides.
1. No element of surprise in the ring. You know in advance who you're going to fight and when you're going to fight him
2. There are rules in the ring. Even in the original UFC's there were 3 pages of rules - I know because I worked with Roland Payne on how to use the gi in case he ended up against Gracie...you can see me walk in the ring with him on UFC III. NO RULES in the street.
3. No weapons in the ring. Not a one. They're everywhere in the street.
4. No multiple opponents in the ring. They're everywhere in the street and negate a lot of the techniques that work in a sporting environment.
5. There's a doctor in the ring
6. There's a referee to make sure everyone plays nice in the ring
7. The floor is padded...outside could be rocks, used syringes, broken bottles, gravel etc.
8. There is a time limit.
9. There are weight classes in the ring...none in the street.
10. I can, nay, must wear protective gear in the ring...mouthguards, cups, etc
Ok, here's the analogy..have at it..
Imagine if you will that all the MMA guys are world champion race car drivers along the lines of Stirling Moss, Jack Brabham, Nelson Piquet, Alain Prost and Shcumaker etc.
Now imagine all the RBSD guys (who are strictly RBSD) are defensive tactics driving instructors and or high speed bodyguard evasion type driving instructors along the lines of Tony Scotti and Bob Bondurant etc.
MMA guys are claiming superiority due to the fact that if we enter their realm we'll get cleaned up ergo their art is superior.
Is it superior or is it different?
Now, using the racing analogy yep, I agree. If any one of the police skid pan instructors, bodyguard school instructors or high school defensive driving instructors climbed into a formula one car and raced against those guys they'd probably get whooped well and truly...on the race track.
Does that mean that race car drivers are better drivers than the defensive driving instructor? Of course not. Only that he's a better race car driver.
Let's take our driving instructor...he might be involved at a local high school teaching teenagers to survive skidding on ice, people running stop signs, brakes failing, dealing with road rage, being rear ended and threshold breaking etc.
Our body guard school instructor is teaching things like how to ram a road block in a South American hell-hole, do a 180 degree reverse whip round, a j-turn, and convoy driving.
Our Police driving instructor is teaching how to do a high speed pursuit, a pursuit intervention technique (PIT) control a car on a skid pan and last second decision making by picking lanes at high speed when only feet from two possible lanes.
Now, our MMA guy drives to work on a regular basis and he sees no road blocks in downtown civilization, he sees no vehicular ambushes, he's never had to PIT someone trying to avoid capture, he's had no one drive up beside him and open fire so he says 'you guys are crazy...you're over the top, your practising something that doesn't happen. You're all paranoid."
Of course anyone who's worldly, or thinking outside of the racetrack as it were, know's that stuff goes on every day. 80 per cent of all attempts on clients while working as a body guard are on the vehicle. Every day on TV in America we see live police pursuits in every major city, road rage incidents abound and people get hit by people running lights and stop signs.
The race car driver has no interest in any of that because on the race track it doesn't happen. There are no traffic lights. There are no drunk drivers. There's no risk of someone running a stop sign and t-boning you. You're not going to come out of the chicane and see four car loads of narco-terrorists blocking the road in a bid to kidnap you for ransom and you're not allowed to run the opposition off the track.
Somehow that makes what we teach invalid!! And, because they can spank the pants off us in that race track environment it makes their stuff superior.
I say not.
Take the Schumaker or the Prost and have them drive your client round in Bogota Columbia. While they may do very well in a high speed chase what happens when they drive into the ambush? What happens when there's a bomb under the car they didn't search for? What happens when the locals drop a brick through the windshield from an overpass to force you to stop so their colleagues waiting 400 yards down the road can mug you? What happens during the car-jacking in South Africa?
Very, very few of their skills are transferable or applicable in those environments.
I say give each driver his due. Nothing more impressive than watching the rally drivers throwing their Subaru's round icy mountain passes at high speeds....or watching formula one as they race through downtown Monacco. Impressive stuff indeed.
But, when you're in St Petersburg Russia and the local heavies have set up a blockade to try and take my client out my highly trained driver who foresees the set-up, rams the bad guys and backs out of the kill-zone is equally impressive.
When I watch a State Trooper move up and PIT a drunk driver who is on his way into a built up area where he might kill innocent victims it is also impressive stuff.
When my wife coming home hits a patch of black ice and successfully turns into the direction of the skid and recovers because the BMW high speed survival driving school training kicks in it's also impressive.
MMA guys, would you still say the security driver, the State Trooper and my wife's training are invalid or inferior because they couldn't then come onto the race track and beat you round it? I sincerely hope not.
It's all driving fellas but we have different missions and different clients and different outcomes in mind.
Now Ex...does that mean their training doesn't transfer to the street? Nope...if they take their driving skills and came to the evasive driving course at the bodyguard school they'll probably pick it up faster than the average "normal' driver but they have to do that specific training for that specific event. Without it they're lost in the event of something heavy happening.
N
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Topic: BJJ-NHB-Don't be ridiculous (Read 1195 times)