Yes, in every sense of the word.
[quote]Robert A wrote:
[quote]Jarvan wrote:
hapkido, has nothing to do with brute strength.
strength has very little to do with any martial arts, really.[/quote]
I disagree with this strongly.
Was this baiting, incomplete, or your honest opinion? I am having a bit of trouble reconciling this statement with someone who trains in a martial art or combat sport. Or perhaps we have different definitions of strength.
Regards,
Robert A[/quote]
All of the above, but of course… semantics.
I would like to replace my previous statement that “strength has very little to do with any martial arts” with ‘strength is not the first attribute a martial artist should pay attention to’. Strength is relative, obviously, but even with this ubiquitous notion I don’t think enough people truly have a grasp of how this applies to our chosen crafts.
In BJJ, for example, it’s not about how hard you can perform a collar choke, but how efficiently you do it. It’s more about understanding your positioning relative to your opponent and his carotid artery. Any brute can be taught how to grab the collars, and even shown a thousand times how to ‘pull’ it. But the desired result of the a collar choke is not how hard you can pull on it, but can you choke your opponent. And strength absolutely is a factor in the efficacy of the choke, but it is only a benefactor if the practitioner understands the movement, first.
If you took someone with a NCAA wrestler’s strength (very important to note because it applies to 'grappler strength ) and you position his hands on my collar, and show him all of the intricate steps to finish the collar choke, he would most definitely make me tap. However, if we were to spar live, would he be able to even get me in the choke? Unlikely. Granted it’s his first day at BJJ. And even if he did establish the choke, it does not mean that he will be able to finish it! If anyone else out there rolls jitz you can back me up. Just because you crank a collar choke, it does not guarantee a tap! But for some reason, when your professor applies just a fraction of the pressure, you see stars… With that said, you would be hard pressed to find too many black belt martial artist devote as much time to the iron as some of us regulars.
My intention to OP, if anything, was to save his energy and devote his energy to martial arts training. And as someone already mentioned, pick your craft, and devote most of your time to that. If your martial arts training is your priority and is making you too fatigued to lift, screw the lifting. If your one day of hapkido is making you too fatigued to practice again the next day, check yourself. Maybe your diet sucks. There’s something you must address. Therefore, the essence of martial arts is beholden unto you. Not gratification or ambivalence, but constant awareness and adaption. My intention was to prevent OP from being sucked in to multiple moot paths.