David shows Goliath that size and strength do not always determine a victory'
Not too long ago, I had a chance to watch, a student of former Tokyo pro MMA fighter Ryan Bow make his amateur debut at Muay Thai Fight Night VIII in Portage, MI. In the fight, although he did have a slight height advantage, the fighter (Jack Hart) had a relatively normal build, whereas his opponent had the chiseled, and hyper-muscled build of a professional killer. While any lay person who was betting on the match probably would have put his money on Jack’s opponent. Much to the surprise of many, even though it was close, Jack was the one who walked away with the victory, not his opponent.
This is one of the many things that I truly love about martial arts. While we’ve all heard that size and strength don’t matter in martial arts, (and some may have their doubts about that premise), cases like this (and this brilliant episode of Art of Fighting) continue to prove its validity over and over again.
In a personal example, this past weekend, while studying how to simulate knife fighting at the Winter Wonderland Workshop workshop put on by the Society of American Fight Directors, I had a chance to pit myself against 30 or 40 other people in simulated knife fights. While I didn’t win every game, as one of few participants who came from a serious fighting background, I was able to make it to the final rounds in almost every game- even though the bulk of my previous fighting experience was in Olympic style Taekwondo. One match in particular was especially illustrative, as it came down to myself and one other martial artist (who had been training for about 30 years, compared to my 17). Despite the fact that he was almost a full foot shorter than I was (I’m 6’2” compared to his 5’4”) I still couldn’t beat him. The match ended up in a ‘draw’ where I slit his throat at the same time he managed to stab me in the stomach. (The moral: nobody really wins in a knife fight).
While it is easy to think that this might only be true between men, the match of Regina Halmich vs. Stephan Raab (A World Female Boxing Champion with a 52-1 fight record and 10 years of experience vs a German Radio Shock-Jock who proclaimed ‘Girls can’t fight.’) very much proved that this can even be the case between the sexes.
The funny thing about the world of traditional martial arts is that it has always had a certain air of mysticism, and through that, realists might say that practitioners are seeing the world through a pair of rose-colored glasses. The fact of the matter is however, while martial arts practice will not make you invincible, consistent, thorough, and dedicated practice will help you to develop the spatial sense, reflexes, and trained autonomic responses that will not only give you a serious edge over an opponent you may have to face- but just might save your life as well.
