Quote Originally Posted by Emelianenko
in a real life situation its all a load of bollocks.
Interesting. That's part of why I chose boxing to start with. Fights come down to punching. Boxers excel at it and they excel at ducking punches. I've seen footage and live demos of a karate class, and while there's surely more to it than what I'm about to say, repeating a little chop with a "hi'YA!" aint gonna do jack squat in a real situation. It aint about rules and points... it's about what saves your ass. That's why I truly question the practicality of many martial arts. Great in tournaments, but in life.... don't know. Example, my boss is taking soem form of jujitsu... he's showed me a simple maneuver....I tried it on my wife, it didn't work. How many times have you heard a martial artist, while showing you a move say, "you're not supposed to react that way!"

The liveness aspect is a good point. However, in the beginning it's more important to work on simple things like footwork and form, and liveness in the begining would not allow for that. But that's whay great about boxing, IMO, is that sparring is liveness. Liveness is needed eventually, but not right out of the gate, IMO.