5 Hard Truths for Fighters and Martial Artists

Our job as Martial Arts Coaches is to inspire and motivate our students and fighters. However, sometimes, tough love is required. So here are a few hard truths that I feel every Martial Artist needs to hear at some point in their journey. Note, this is not meant to attack anyone, or to put them down. Simply to provide some much needed perspective. 

You are not as good as you think you are 

So you are the best in your class? The best in your club? Maybe even in your Federation? Well sorry to break it to you, but there is always someone better right around the corner. This is not intended to come across as dismissive of anyones achievements or abilities. But rather a humbling truth that should be used to fuel you to always improve yourself and not rest on your laurels. 

If your intention is to be the best, then thats a full time job like any other. It won’t be achieved by training a few days a week. Or even every day of the week for an hour. The best fighters in the world, the true professional athletes are often training 3+ hours per day in 2 separate sessions.

Now, for the vast majority of people I don’t recommend this level of training, it will make you very good for a short period of your life, and leave you wrecked for the rest. But understand, that people who are training like this, at that moment in time, are simply better than you. 

Size Does Matter 

“Use you opponents strength against him” and “the bigger they are, the harder they fall” both of these make my eyes roll so hard I feel like they might detach from the socket sometimes. Size does matter. Sure there is a tipping off point where getting too big will result in lack of endurance and mobility. But to pretend that being stronger and more athletic doesn’t assist you in combat is simply ridiculous.

Can a smaller fighter beat a larger one? Sure. Can technique beat power, sure. But there are weight divisions for a reason. Unfortunately no amount of technique can defy the laws of physics. This again, is not to dismiss skill. But given 2 fighters are equal in this regard, I’ll put my money on the bigger guy/gal in most instances. 

You don’t stretch enough

I am saying this one with blind confidence. In the 20+ years I’ve been doing this, the number one reason people are not as good as they would like to be, is they lack proper mobility. They are unable to move their body freely in the way they would like. Now, many like to pin this down to age, or genetics. But 9 times out of 10. They are not putting enough focus into their mobility training. Daily stretching, regular massage or foam rolling. Workouts focused on getting higher kicks or opening your hips more for grappling. 

I think most of it just comes down to laziness. Or simply not seeing the value in putting in the time to develop a solid base of flexibility. Do you need to be able to do the Van Dame Splits? No. But you should be able to freely move through all necessary ranges of motion, so that your technique is not limited by your physicality. 

Conditioning is king 

You could have the best technique in the world, be the most powerful fighter we have ever seen. But the greatest enemy to any of these is fatigue. Theres a reason the pros run, skip and do hill sprints. Being in shape, cardiovascular wise, is essential. 

Just training your technique is not going to prepare you for being tired. Which believe me is the scariest thing that can happen to you in a fight. The feeling of being physically incapable of moving because you are simply not in shape to do so is horrific. 

So please, don’t make excuses about your knees (go swimming) don’t tell me that you do bag work instead (it’s not the same) Accept, that if you want to be a fighter, your lungs and heart are 2 of your greatest weapons and sharpen them accordingly.

You have to spar

This last one was actually the inspiration for this list. It’s probably the one I feel strongest about, if you want to argue the others i’ll hear your out, you’ll be wrong, but I’ll hear you out. But this, this is simply the truth. If you attend a Martial Arts School that doesn’t include contact sparring in their training, leave.

You have to spar. There is simply no substitute, no other way to understand essential principles like distancing and timing without it. More importantly, no other way to truly test how you would react in a fight (which by the way will be terribly and can only improve by sparring more often).

Now, understand what I am saying here. You do not have to fight, you don’t even need to spar hard. But to make believe that you can learn how to fight without actually engaging in combat is ridiculous. It’s like that episode of Friends when Pheobe tries to teach Joey the guitar without a guitar. It’s funny because it’s ridiculous. Well, thats what your non sparring Martial Arts school is. Sorry. But it’s true.