by Michael Benjamin

Created on: July 13, 2010   Last Updated: July 15, 2010

Self-Defense On the Street Vs. Fighting In the Ring – Distinctions In Training, Ethics, and Mindset

While all martial arts, regardless of origin or emphasis, strive to develop the physical, mental, and spiritual facets of the practitioner, for the purposes of this essay modern martial arts will be divided into two basic categories:

 1). Those whose application is intended for a combative or self-defensive purpose in an uncontrolled environment (i.e. the street) and; 

 2). Those whose application is intended for sport usage in a controlled environment (i.e. the ring). 

This essay’s use of such categorization does not imply that there are not numerous martial arts extant today whose methods can be effectively applied in both areas, such as karate, judo, wrestling, or boxing.  It is to say, however, that each approach, street versus the ring, holds its own characteristics not possessed by the other.  In examining the details inherent to street self-defense in contrast to sport fighting, significant strategic and tactical distinctions will be uncovered.  These distinctions, in turn, necessitate a vastly different mindset for each respective stylist as well as a differing approach to training. 

 Since it would be beyond the scope of an essay to analyze every form of sport fighting extant today, it is my intention to contrast the characteristics of what is, unarguably, the most intense and realistic form of sport fighting (UFC) with the conditions of street self-defense.  This comparison is based upon the study of the UFC events combined with my own personal and professional experience.  Such experience includes over 24 years of training in (and teaching) Chinese and Okinawan martial arts along with several years spent in the bouncing, corrections, and mental health fields.  In addition, my humble experience in both Modern Arnis and Worden Defense System has greatly expanded my martial horizons. Thus, the basis of this essay is not intended to be academic, but is rooted experientially. 

 In realizing that the forthcoming arguments may spark some understandable dissent and controversy, let me initially quell such derision with some important qualifiers.  This paper in no way intends to suggest that UFC competitors are in any way lesser fighters because of my categorization of UFC as “sport.”  UFC competitors, and especially its champions, are undeniably some of

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