You Suck at Steel Fighting

In todays episode of Ringo attempts to piss off his community, I’m going to universally condemn everyone in the community for being shitty at this sport. Including you reading this. Especially You. I don’t know who you are, but you fucking suck.

How do I know that? Cause I suck. I’m fucking terrible at this. Maybe you don’t know who I am and think that’s irrelevant. Or maybe you are one of the Ten or so people in America, and 100 or so in Europe who are clearly better than me. Doubtful, as I don’t think any of them read this, but even if you are…you still suck.

This isn’t me trying to shit on your effort. You could put the equivalent of a full time job into this. You could be one of the best strikers on the planet, dropping people consistently with your shots. You could be the Dan Gable of Steel Grappling. You could be top performer in 5’s, Medal in singles, and have an unbeaten Pro-Fight Record. You still suck.

See its not possible to be good at our sport yet. Our sport is too fucking new. We’re playing Football before the Forward Pass. This is Boxing before they used Gloves. We have no idea what the sport will look like in the next 5 years, let alone then next couple of decades. Everything we are training for may be obsolete by then.

So what you say? We’re good by the rules now, so just because we aren’t going to be good by the rules which govern the sport in the future, doesn’t matter. We dominate in context of what exists now. And if brought to this theoretical future we’d still do well, provided time to learn and train.

I could spend some time arguing against those idea, how many of the players then would simply be unable to compete now adays. How the skill and athletic level in all sports keeps improving as evidenced but the continual world records being broken. Instead though I want to focus on one very specific recent example, that has alot of similiarities to our sport.

The UFC. When the UFC first started there were few all around fighters. Most people had one or two art forms and it was a true stylistic clash. The initial thesis of the early days of the UFC could be argued as BJJ beats everything as most people had no idea how to deal with those practitioners. Quickly though that became not the case. Some rudimentary takedown defense and submission basics were often enough to keep it on the feet. But the guys keeping it standing were not excellent strikers by the standards of pro boxers. Those early stars, fighting in their prime would never be able to stand toe to toe with the champs now adays. It wasn’t even that long ago where good college wrestlers could win matches by getting a takedown, pushing a guy against the fence, and doing some barely functional ground and pound. Today that shit does not fly.

Fighters of today have grown up learning a mix of styles. Everyone has a little boxing, a little wrestling, and alittle BJJ to go with whatever their primary form or forms are. And plenty of fighters are better at their weak forms than guys like Tank Abbot or Shamrock at their best. The game has evolved. The learning has evolved. And the quality of fighter has evolved.

We have no one close to a pro athlete in this sport. Some may train like that and some may even have the athletic background that they could be. But no one has the team that goes with it. The separate coaches for Nutrition, Fitness, Running, Grappling, Striking, all world class level. Even if someone managed to have the money to put together that whole team, they’d still pale in comparison to what will come a decade from now.

We do not know the best techniques or mechanics for them, let alone how to train for it. In HMB, the types of throws utilizing the rail for mechanical advantage were not seen much outside of the top level 5 years ago, and even then they look sloppy and amateurish. Today that is a technique everyone has and was even seen in an alt form in IMCF where rail hooking is illegal. The basics do not even match what you can get from experts outside of the sport. 90% of grappling sports utilize throws that go to the mat in a dominant position. Throwing a straight punch in armor, particularly with a shield, does not match the mechanics of either a Jab or a Cross.

We’re a bunch of children fumbling around, trying to figure this thing out. We will all look like fools who lack any technique in the years to come. Absolutely no one is actually GOOD at this sport yet.

I bring up that point because alot of people want to sell themselves like experts. Some people like to point to small flaws or changes in methodology as evidence that people are not worth learning from. People like to say negative comments about themselves about not being good. People tell themselves they will never be good because of X, Y, Z.

The Truth is we all suck at this. Those at the top need to remember this from time to time and eat some humble pie. Those at the bottom need to internalize that the sport is so new its really simple to get to that top tier. For most averagely athletic people it just takes more work than everyone else. It’s not easy, but fairly simple. There are dozens of skills to learn in this sport, but none of them are particularly advanced or complex at this point.

My 5ish years of fighting are better than alot of peoples 8-10. Partially cause I put in more time, fought more, trained better, and smarter. But also because I had their base to build on. The new crop of Knights hall fighters are catching up to us within 2-3 years, because they don’t have to waste as much time struggling. They get to learn from the things we had to make up.

And we are still making stuff up, in every gym, at every level of this sport. It continues to expand and grow meaning the new fighters coming in now will be even better in 2 years, possibly better than I am now with all my time and training. The sport will out grow us all at some point and prove the truth of my words, that we all suck. So, humble yourself if you think you’re good and if you don’t, realize that the best really aren’t that far out of reach. The sport has grown enough to keep those levels from beyond your grasp. Get to training.

And I’ll see you in the list.