Competiton

I have done a lot of thinking about sparring and competition recently. Many people who train in budo or traditional martial arts are 100% against competition. The comments of there are no rules on a real fight are valid in a sense but are people who train in traditional martial arts really training for a real fight? I don't know maybe they are, but without going around seeking street based altercations I think it is difficult. Then there is the other end of the spectrum people who only train for competition and dismiss the traditional martial arts as archaic and useless.

I was originally from a aikido background many years ago and did not believe in competition in MA. However when I can to Aunkai Akuzawa Sensei soon pushed me to compete in a number of full contact kickboxing and sanda competitions. We did lots of sparring and the pressure and doubts start to build up and I started to find our who I really was. The sparring and competition showed me how I personally dealt with fear, ego doubt and pressure. It was not easy and I was not who I thought I was. I found though that the more I competed the slightly better I got at dealing with everything. So incrementally you get better and improve with experience. I now compete in Bjj tournaments and the pressure is the same even though there is no striking, I realised competition is as close to real fighting a human can get without getting in a real street fight and everybody feels nerves and some fear and how we cope with them and what we learn from having these feelings is most important.

I also believe that if we never learn about how we move , think and feel in a chaotic environment like a competition replicates, then we will never learn about bujutsu and it's principles. However if we believe competition is everything and that's all we need we are solely deluded. If we are only focused on winning and being the strongest then that is going to lead me nowhere. I want to win in competition of course but what am I willing to do to win.... In competition and sparring it's important to want to apply the correct body and mind principles and to move in the right way and fight in the right way and with the right spirit because in the end competition is just a testing ground for my Bujutsu.

Akuzawa sensei teaches the importance of flexibility and ambiguity in the mind which is of the upmost importance for bujutsu and AUNKAI training. I must be flexible and open to try many different things and training techniques to improve my Bujutsu including but not limited to competition.

In the end though it's not not about winning or losing or about fighting other people, that proves nothing to me or anybody else. It's all about what spirit. I can develop, how can I develop myself so I am a better person, the battle with in is what is important, nothing else matters....