Have you ever trained bare-knuckle?

Hey folks,
I am back here to speak to all of the intermediate to advanced students for a moment. I want to ask you, how much of your time is spent training in actual sparring? Not 2 set drills, but actual sparring. And out of that time, how many times have you actually considered sparring without the pads? I know that for a lot of you that sounds crazy. But it really is not. Sparring without pads is not about trying to pound your partners to death. It is about a combative mindset that martial artists should have at all times. Not to say you have to walk around with your chest puffed out, and making mean faces at people. It just means that whether or not you have your gi, or your pads, you are ready to rumble at that moment. Like my pop used to tell me, you may be in danger the second that you leave your front door in the morning.

Now I am sure that some of you will chalk this up to paranoia and dismiss this blog entirely. And that is certainly your perogative. But think of it this way, in a real scuffle, you are NOT going to have time to get appropriately dressed and warmed up. You will have to suck it up, right then, and see what it is that you have to do.

I dont think that anything personifies that combative attitude better than those who train without gloves or pads. I mean, most people are not even willing to consider bare-knuckle training. I can hear the excuses as they are coming in telepathically: "But it is dangerous, it hurts, people can get injured". I say for sure that none of those reasons have ever kept us from driving our cars in the morning. Car crashes create far more casualties, and fatalities than martial arts training ever will. So be a martial artist, and a warrior, train without your pads. It will hurt at first. But like the saying goes" That which does not kill you...........