play vs. training

As I reflect on this year's CM trainer's clinic this past May, it has helped me crystallize some thoughts that have been drifting around in my head for a while now.

After years of training in environments and with people that, to put it nicely, were less than ethically optimal, and now train almost exclusively in a fun and playful environment and with people who are decent human beings, I have come to the realization that all improvements in my personal game are directly proportional to how much fun I am having when I train.

Looking back at the days when I was so desperate to become a bad ass, and worked so hard at it that I was generally miserable, I wonder why I kept plugging along (probably has to do with the fact I am not particularly intelligent). I was always down on myself, and I always compared myself to others who I deemed "better". It was an experience that was the exact opposite of fun.

And now when I train, I don't really care what others think of me - do they think I am a walking mountain of bad ass-ness? - now, I only care what my wife and kids think of me. Now when I train, I don't really think of it as "training" - it is, to steal Rodney King's idea, just PLAY. I go out and play with my friends, the same way I did as a kid. It just so happens that instead of playing cowboys and indians, we are punching each other or slapping on a choke. BUT, the underlying spirit of those games of cowboys and indians is there on the mat with me.

So, to everyone who I have played with the past couple of years, THANK YOU. And I look forward to more play as we go along.

a new name

Bear with me here, because I am having a stream of consciousness moment.

I have been thinking lately that MMA as a descriptive term has become fairly specific. I feel that it does, and perhaps should only, refer to the actual SPORT and those who are training for it.

It seems to me that when you use the term to describe a more general application such as self-defense or as an art done by someone who has no desire to step into the cage or ring, you run the risk of defusing the usefulness of said term. Maybe, for those people, another way of describing the art should be found.

What should it be? I don't know. Maybe NHB (no holds barred)? After all, the was the original acronym, and it is pretty descriptive, and still has the connection to MMA. Of course, that connection might be too strong and it defeats the purpose.

I like Vale Tudo, but again, it still generally refers to the original semi-sport application.

Maybe MFA (mixed fighting arts) or MCA (mixed combat arts). Again, a connection with MMA that suggests the same training methodologies and principles, but with a slightly different emphasis.

Who knows. I have a 30-40 minute commute to work both ways, 5 days a week, so I have sometimes have too much time to contemplate odd thoughts like this.

Yes, I am a total geek. I have come to terms with that.