Some martial arts will say they dont compete, because their art is too deadly for competition. Or that their art was proven in the battlefield, and sports competitions mean nothing.
Well show me a martial artist who says this, and I will say 90% chance that this is a guy who couldnt fight his way out of a wet paper bag.
Deadliness, and battlefields are all fine and dandy. Howeverm a few problems with these excuses exist. First, the guy who proved it in the battlefield isnt you. Living through other people's glory, is like saying, cuz the guy who's style I emulate is popular with girls, I dont need to find me a girlfriend. Really? Since when is some other guy, you? In many educational fields, the study is valid because some guy proved it, but let say lets switch it up, and your field is medicine instead of martial arts. Would you trust a doctor who said, well some other doctor did this surgery, and the patient lived, just because I never did it doesnt mean I cant?
Second problem, is that any guy who says his art is to deadly for competition because competition doesnt allow him to do X, again is a guy who likes donuts more than fighting. Real life combat, when your life is on the line, is stressful. If you cant handle the stress of a competition, where there are rules, people who can save you if things get out of hand, then how are you gonna last when these things are gone. Again, would you trust a Doctor, who didnt do his lab work in school, because his medical skills are only for saving real lives, and not for disecting dead animals?
Simply said, you dont learn to fight, if you never fight. If real life or death isnt available (which hopefully for most of us it aint), then we do our best to come close. And well, in most peaceful lives, this is competition. Modern armies play war games, why shouldnt martial artists, try and simulate their real fight?
However, competition has even more value. It provides motivation and validation. In our club, we dont have ranks. If you are looking for validation, go to a competition, and beat someone. In training, we always hit plateaus. Points in our training, where we wonder what the next goal should be, is this the best it gets? Where do I go from here? Competition, gives us a goal, it lets us know where our holes are that our training mates didnt notice. Competition is how you know what you worked on, really works, and not that your sparring mate just subconsciously got used to you.
Anyways, I dont care if your teacher eats steel and pisses lightning bolts, can you? If you are gonna say your style is the best, prove it. Otherwise, I got me a bridge in Brooklyn for sale, that your teacher told me is absolutely necessary to make you level up to ultimate ninja.
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