I saw the other day this very inspirational video from Benny “the jet” Urquidez and after some initial hesitation I literally had to write something more than a little compliment note. I always considered myself a martial artist more than a fighter; for me learning and being good at techniques was and is more important than simple beating up people. However, martial arts are about fighting and being at ease with it is essential, in order to put in practice what we learn from a technical point of view.
Some school push the fighting concept to the extreme and just spar all the time; these school often produce aggressive fighters that might have an easy early career but then face the reality of other aggressive fighter which are also technically very good. Other schools simply use excuses like “what we do is too dangerous and we cannot practice it” and just don’t spar at all. I mentioned in previous posts the importance of realistic training as well my view about fighting and winning.
In this short video Benny “the jet” highlights fears and worries that many people have when they start sparring and just by keep training, perhaps by asking to some people to go easy of you until you get better, will help you learn and improve your sparring technique and, eventually, become a champion if that’s what you aspire to. By sparring your friends you will learn to fight and win against your inner demons that ultimately are the ones who are slowing you down and hindering your fighting skills.