SSOOooo last night I was at the gym, we are in fight camp for 4 fighters fighting in April. We were sparring, 60%-70% effort. Mostly just working on foot work and head movement. So I end up in the cage with a young man that had been around for a while but not one of the fighters on the April card. We finished the first round just fine, then he comes out at the bell for the second round. First thing, tries to kick me in the nuts. I checked it, stopped him and said “Chill Dude!” he steps back, throw a head kick followed by, you guessed it, another low blow. Head kick missed, low blow landed. I stepped back he closed to attack and the coach grabbed him, told him to wait. He steps over to the fence and waits. When we started up again he came in hot. SO I slipped, went body head body. Stepped back kick to the spleen. That bent him over, I clinched up and dropped 2 knees in his mid section. He stands up throws 2 wild punches and I went Jab Cross Right hook. Dropped him. Bloody nose and mouse under the left eye. Coach told him, Mike went as hard as you wanted to go, just cause he’s an old man you ain’t kicking his a$$ for free.
Now, sitting back thinking about it, I feel REALLY BAD, I mean like Embarrassed BAD. The visuals and the emotions of the moment keep running over and over in my head. Should I have stopped, stepped out of the cage? I dunno, We train everyday to do exactly what both of us were doing but seeing it at 100% is, well, just different.
I wouldn’t feel bad, he would have hurt you just as bad if you let him, he thought he had an easy mark but you showed him differently. You wana play you gotta pay. 
I can imagine that being a challenging situation. I have extremely limited sparing experience and all of it with my coach. He is very good at controlling the intensity so I just have to rise to the level he sets which is never beyond my capabilities.
I think it would be very hard not to instinctively keep matching the intensity of your opponent if they keep dialing it up.
Most of our guys, especially the pros are really good at staying slightly above my abilities, kinda bringing me along, teaching. Some of the younger guys are just too much “T” and ego. I’m pretty careful about who I get in the cage with, I can defend myself ok but at my age, one injury and I’m out for months. Plus and more importantly, if I’m injured I can’t defend myself on the street if needed.
Even my coach who is in his prime recently got a knee injury while training for an MMA fight. He has had a bunch of medical complications and is just now getting back on his feet.
There is a very fine line when trying to make training as safe as possible and as real as possible.
Play with the bull and you get the horns!
He felt like he could take on the world, you showed him that his training wheels were still on.
Hopefully he learned not to beat up on a senior.
If someone kicked me in the nads,would not matter if its sparing at 70%. Its game on and no mercy. I do not fight, dont box know some Taekwondo. But for me, I live by a simpe creed, you come at me you best cripple or kill me.
When I worked at NSW the frogs would often spar at full tilt boogey but it was “staged” primarily because nobody wants to “actually” hurt someone else. In other words they placed a brake on their training. I in general adamantly refused to “play” with these folks. I was trained by old school frog’s who advocated “stop them now, stop them cold, RIGHT now”. So for me to get in the game there was a real possibility I was going to go lethal just out of pure reaction. Not a risk I was willing to take.
I remember one evening we were sitting in the team room watching a particularly brutal WMMA cage match for "training"and I was laughing to my self at the antics on the TV. One of the younger frogs noted it and said “Why are you laughing, what would you have done?”
Para phrasing (we had been drinking beer for about 4 hours)
“I’m not big enough to stop you but I would have arm barred your over hand strike, stuck 4 fingers into your eye sockets, punched you in the throat, kneed you in the balls then disconnected your head from your spinal column with an elbow to the back of your skull.”
The room went silent, after a while one of the oldest frogs in the room chimed in. “And that is why you don’t f*^&k with the Doc, they know more ways to kill you than you know ways to subdue them. AND they don’t play.”
I know the things that I know and those things are not for public consumption or training, they are lethal techniques not designed to throw somebody on the ground and wait for them to get up or the ref to stop the match they are designed to “Stop the threat”, permanently.
While I do advocate martial arts as a disciplinary measure and an exercise venue for true force on force aspects there are a few limited "tactics’ or “moves” that take you from play fighting to walking away intact. I concentrate on the latter yet I admit you can’t “practice” them in a spar without seriously screwing someone up.
Cheers,
Craig6
Sounds like practice became a real fight in some ways. I dunno. Low blows which are not accidental, to me is “bad mojo”.
I got a black eye and and bloody nose just from playing basketball. I respect that you feel bad, but I wouldn’t. It comes with the territory of mixed martial arts and boxing. I might not like the idea of people causing brain injuries legally, but it’s part of our society, no different from the old gladiator days, except it ain’t to the death.
I believe in learning physical self defense, but I worry about folks getting hurt in practice or sports.
Two of my brother in laws, Veterans, were into Mixed Martial Arts. Just practicing, one kicked the other in the chest - who then died. I think the survivor was depressed the entire rest of his life. My sisters, bless them, still encouraged me to learn it, I never did follow in their footsteps of such training, and regret it. But it did teach me some discipline of taking care of one’s body, and mind.
Did you know that the famous magician, Houdini, died from being punched in the abdomen?
Best to you.
When I work with the Krav guys we practice some of the lethal stuff. Those things are reserved for special cases.
When I was in one of my instructors told us what I am teaching you is how to kill don’t use this on civies. When I got out me and 3 friends were in a bar and got jumped by 6 guys I ended up with the biggest and I quickly had him on the ropes when I set up for the kill shot I stopped just in time. I was not right for a long time. I realized that instead of reacting like I was taught I had to think first. My ex thought I was the slowest person she ever met until one day I had to react. She looked at me and said I have never seen you move so fast. I said that I had learned to think before I react a long time ago but I can still react.
Mike, the young guy needed to be taught a lesson. Never feel bad about that. The kid is trying cheap shots during sparring, he needs his butt kicked out. Before I retired, I was a defensive tactics instructor for my department. During ground fighting training, (training speed) one of our guys that had a history of trying to show off when brass was around, cracked one of my ribs. I halted class immediately and dressed him down academy and military instructor style in front of the entire class. I threatened to decertify him for the training cycle, (which would have caused me more scheduling headaches). After the public dressing down, he apologized to me, the class and the Deputy Chief in attendance. The moral is young guys need to be given an adjustment sometimes, I did it verbally, you did it physically, both were correct. You have nothing to feel bad about.
Wow! I am not a martial arts fighter at all. Did a little boxing in the Air Force but nothing extensive. So this is how I see it as I guess you would say being a layman.
Young guy steps into a ring knowing it is supposed to be a sparring session. He looks across and sees an older fighter. He’s thinking in his mind this guy is expecting 60 to 70% effort since it’s practice. I’m going to take advantage of that and kick his ass.
Doesn’t seem to be a professional attitude to me seems to be a thug’s attitude like you would find on the street looking to Target someone they believe is weaker. Not only did you properly defend yourself this young man either needs some rehabilitation in his head or thrown out as he could have significantly injured someone and showed no respect for his fellow fighters.
Impressive that you had the discipline to not use “eye for an eye” tactics. That’s probably the area of attack HE expected.
@Mike164
You did the right thing. You defended yourself. That young guy didn’t know who he was messing with. You taught him a valuable life lesson and trust me he will never forget it. You represented the gray man in excellent fashion. That young man could’ve been killed if it had been someone else instead of you. Moral of the story, don’t mess with us older guys.
My second to the last high school fight, I punched someone and hit him in the eye.
I saw what I thought was blood squirting out and immediately felt pity on the poor guy. (There was no actual blood, must have hit a nerve or a vein but what do I know? I’m not a biologist).
So, I let him hit me once and called it even.
I’m not such a bad kid after all.
I played football until my late 20s & was an amateur boxer. Both sports have a 100% injury rate so, it just came with the territory. We all got injured at some point & most of us had multiple injuries throughout our sports careers.
We talk about that all of the time.
“We train to be real good at hurting people then when it happens to us we complain…”
I was a completely different person when I was younger. Physical Aggression was my go to move whenever I felt threatened emotionally, physically, or mentally. I also was a danger, so I am going to say that you administrating a lesson was better for his long term safety. It may make you feel bad right now, but in a societally beneficially way it will do good for the long term.
I had a situation much like @Craig6 did. I was a Independent Duty FMF Hospital Corpsman assigned to “Green Side” duty. We were all chewing the fat around the camp and talking about Knife Fighting. One of the Marines was talking about his Bowie knife and how he would mess someone up. Someone asked me what I carried or what would I use. I had a small hook blade folder, blade was 2-3" or so, but it was razor sharp. He started to mess with me about my “pvssy” blade. Outside of the group the Gunny told him " you do know Doc knows exactly where to cut you? He doesn’t need a big, dick swinger, knife". The guy with the Bowie got real quiet. I felt pretty proud of myself that one of the deadliest men I knew, understood why I didn’t use a big, flashy blade.
Clay Allison’s Tombstone: “He never killed a man that didn’t meet killing.”
Good rule to live by and I think the concept applies here.