/var/log/orava

I read rpg.net (Tabletop Roleplaying Open) quite a lot; it’s one of the best web forums I know, partly because of the semi-demented regulars, partly because a lot of RPG writers and industry people also take part, and partly because it has pretty much the best forum moderation I know – the mods are strict about personal and group attacks, but otherwise allow (civilized) flamewars and you can say “fuck” whenever you want, if you want.

Anyway, recently rpg.net had a thread that was among the more interesting ones in recent memory, titled ”I have never been in a fight. What’s it like?”. So far (page 12) is has stayed on topic and provided a lot of input on what real fights are like. What I’ve read matches my experiences, for what little that is worth.

I’ve never been in a real fight, not even as a kid (I don’t count the occasional playgroup flailing and shoving as a “fight”). There have been a couple of situations that might have escalated, but didn’t. If I never get into an actual fight during my whole life, I’ll be perfectly happy.

On the other hand, I’m interested in (and train / have trained) various martial arts, from unarmed to swords to knives to whatever. Maybe that’s a paradox, but I don’t think it is – I’m not really a very pacifist person; I don’t go around looking for fights and I consider violence a pretty much last resort, but I also think there are times when it is justified. And besides, humanity has never been so inventive as when it tries to figure out ways to kill other people.

Based on my sparring experiences (which I fully know is nothing like a real fight), I agree with many of the people on that thread. Most people simply don’t know how to cope with violence, they freeze up or panic. What training gives you is potentially some little control, some little ability to analyze what’s going on instead of going deer-in-the-headlights, and some muscle memory that might help you react at the critical point without actually thinking about it much – because in a real fight, or even in a freeform sparring match, you don’t have that much time to think. Time behaves in a strange fashion, and adrenaline does even stranger things to you. In addition, most of your automatic reactions are just wrong, especially with swords or knives.

I still remember the first time I did any sort of martial arts training. It was at Niiniketo’s Jiu-Jitsu school in Helsinki, which was a pretty brutal introduction. Niiniketo is an ex-(kick?)boxer and it shows, he’s a big powerful man and and has a boxer mentality about things. “Pain is good”, etc. Not a place I’d recommend for anyone to train at, but I didn’t know better at the time and that school did teach me some straightforward fight stuff that are probably still somewhere in my muscle memory. It taught me how to hit people so I’d actually generate some power, and how to cushion blows – kickboxer stuff, basically. Luckily I’m so crap at kicks that I stopped that school after a bit over a year and moved on to saner teachers and martial art styles.

Anyway, the first time I did any sparring (not quite full-contact, but not lightweight either) I almost froze up. I was just so totally unused to someone attacking me, trying to actually kick and hit me. It went away quite fast and it was excellent learning material – but I still remember that feeling of utter confusion about being confronted with violence, even in a fairly safe environment like that.

I suspect that mental “getting used to it” is the main advantage people would get from formal martial arts classes with regards to a real fight. 99% of the fancy techniques will probably vanish from your paniced brain, but if you manage to not freeze and potentially get away as a result, it’s a win.

Not that I do or ever have done any sort of martial arts training from a “this will help me in fights” motive, I think that would be stupid. I do it from the need for excercise, and general interest in the subject. Most competent martial arts people I know are actually people who would generally avoid fights, maybe because they know full well how easy it is to seriously injure or even kill someone in a fight. The occasional “budo idiot” is the exception that proves that rule.

Violence is a weird (but understandable) taboo in our culture. Maybe that’s one of the many reasons I found Fight Club to be such a brilliant film.