As the right hook came at me nice and controlled, I swung my arms up defensively to protect my head and block the attacking limb. I then shot my left hand past my attackers head like a badly aimed punch for a sharp pull back, as my arm returned toward me I grabbed the back of his neck pulling him inward and toward my fist to increase the speed of impact. I made sure my knuckles connected with him but was a bit too eager and tapped him harder than I intended. I apologised with a grin , the instructor caught me saying this and made sure the class was educated on reasons why this was wrong.
At my chosen kung-fu club we practise self-defence moves and the Chinese boxing style Wing Chun. The difference? , from my brief experience I would say its a matter of time. Self-defence techniques are easy to learn and simple to execute under stressful conditions. Martial arts can take years to master to create skilled highly efficient fighters . There can be philosophy in martial arts and competitive fights ,while self-defence classes can include psychological conditioning. Basically the required factors to make either work is your commitment , your instructor ( their skill and ability to teach) and the practicality of the style/class selected. There are overlaps but consider self-defence the way forward for fast benefits.
Coming back to my apology.
We were performing self-defence moves which do not have any other purpose. In the real world if I get attacked and smack my attacker I don't want to stop and check he is OK and apologise , F**K em! I want my brain/body to react fast then get me out of there.
What we are trying to do is minimise the difference between training and a real life confrontation, its really that simple. The more realistic the training the more likely we will respond in the same way in a real life scenario.
One of the instructors had a nice relevant little story to highlight why realistic training is important. Story goes a friend of his was squaring up to a WC practitioner when his legs were swept from under him at lightning speed by our kung-fu practitioner, just as he had trained. Only downside was his training hadn't included the appropriate follow-up and our unfortunate wing chun bod helped up his opponent as he would a training partner. Needless to say this charitable manoeuvre got him knocked out before he'd even got the chap fully to his feet.
In training we are not doing each other any favours if we don't treat it as seriously as a real fight , otherwise we'll be helping our attackers off the ground instead of keeping them there or stopping short of actually hitting them to avoid doing them damage.
My bad habit is still to apologise to my opponent as I dig my knuckles into their face. I am connecting atleast but the apology means I am not quite 'there' yet. My instructor pointed this out to the class , not a personal attack but a valid point to make, lesson learned he then went on to demonstrate another move to add to the sequence. While demonstrating on one of the female students,he landed a weighty palm strike into her face and immediately went 'oops sorry'.
He grinned as the room erupted.