"Fights without rules" - a deadly fight allowing you to find out what kind of martial arts is the best and is a test of your readiness to fight on the street? What distinguishes "fights without rules" from real combat.
What is it - fighting without rules, let's figure it out! The fact is that the term "Fights without rules" is used only on the territory of the post-Soviet space.
At its core, the use of this term in the practice of sports is, as linguists say, a special name. The term "fighting without rules" is incorrect, which owes its origin to the PR community. It is used, to a greater extent, as a good phrase, to attract spectators to competitions in various types of martial arts, but does not express the essence of what is happening. "Fights without rules" are duels of two fighters who are allowed to use the main groups of techniques from various types of martial arts - punches and kicks, throws, painful holds, strangulation. Thanks to these rules, representatives of any school and style of martial arts can participate in the competition. The fact is that fights without rules are really something else, for example, the impact of an improvised means (ballpoint pen) on the attacker's eyeball, etc.
Some of the most popular Ultimate Fighting Championships include UFC (better known as "octagon"), Vale Tudo, Pride, M-1, pankration other. As a rule, the fight is limited in time, but not divided into rounds. To win, you need to knock out the opponent, or force him to surrender using a painful hold or strangulation. In addition, if one of the fighters clearly loses, but does not want to give up, his trainer can signal surrender by throwing a towel into the ring. The referee stops the bout in this case.
At first, “fights without rules” were conducted without dividing the participants into weight categories, but now in most championships fighters are divided into weight categories, as a rule: “up to 70 kg”, “up to 80 kg”, “up to 90 kg” and “over 90 kg ".
"Fights without rules" gave rise to a lot of myths among fans of combat sports: that they supposedly make it possible to find out what kind of martial arts is the best; that these fights are a fight for life and death; that participation in "fights without rules" allows you to check your readiness for a real fight on the street, and so on
In fact, these competitions are precisely a sport, one of the most spectacular and giving really real fighting skills on the street, but nothing more. You can not equate "fights without rules" and a real fight.
What distinguishes "fights without rules" from a real fight:
1. The rules of “fights without rules” prohibit the most dangerous techniques - poking in the eyes, blows to the throat, fractures of joints and fingers, bites, etc. Each fighter is obliged to put on a “shell” (groin protector) and insert a “mouth guard”.
As a result, representatives of martial arts styles cannot use those techniques of their schools that make them truly effective. For example, a Wing Chun adept has no right to use the famous "punching fingers" (poking fingers in the eyes and throat), a karateka cannot punch in the groin or throat, etc.
Thus, it is impossible to assess the suitability of one or another type of martial arts for a real street fight, depending on its success in “fighting without rules”
2. "Fights without rules" at any moment of the bout can be stopped by the participant of the fight, his second, doctor or referee, if one of them decides that the fighter's affairs are very bad and that he is in danger of serious injury. Because of this, "fighting without rules" is considered a relatively safe sport, which is repeatedly emphasized by the organizers of the competition in response to accusations of excessive brutality of fights and the propaganda of violence. For the entire existence of “fighting without rules”, only one case of death of a fighter from an injury sustained in competitions is known (in boxing, karate and judo, not to mention auto and motor sports, this happens much more often).
Consequently, when a person performs in "fights without rules", he knows that no one is going to kill him, that he can stop the fight at any time and that there are people who make sure that the "fight" does not become truly dangerous for some of the participants. Therefore, the psychological state of an athlete is significantly different from the state of a participant in a street fight (not to mention a battle in a war), where opponents seek to inflict significant physical damage, or even kill each other, and where the clash continues until one of them succeeds do it.
3. Fights in "fights without rules" take place one-on-one, which significantly affects the technique and tactics used. The fighter is not worried that he may be surrounded, go behind his back, he is sure that no one will come to the aid of the enemy. That is why wrestling techniques are widely used. Usually fighters with wrestling training try to move the fight to the ground as soon as possible, which often brings them victory in battles against karatekas, boxers, kickboxers, etc. However, in a street fight with several opponents, moving to the ground is an unprofitable and dangerous tactic; while a fighter is fighting one opponent, the rest can freely strike him with kicks and heavy objects.
4. "Fights without rules" are conducted only "empty-handed", so a fighter is not obliged to master the techniques of working with weapons and protecting against them. He is not afraid that the enemy will unexpectedly use a hidden weapon. Meanwhile, in a real battle, there is always a danger that the enemy has some kind of weapon with him, or will arm himself with something that has come to hand (for example, in a street fight there is always a high probability of running into a knife hidden in his pocket, or getting a stone on his head) … There is also the option to arm yourself.
In addition, participants in "fighting without rules" do not have the right to use other protective equipment, except for the "shell" and "mouth guard", so they can strike with full force, without fear of meeting anything harder than a human body, such as objects hidden under clothing …
5. "Fight without rules" takes place on a level ground, in the ring. This relieves the fighters from the need to monitor the situation so as not to stumble, slip, or hit a sharp stone when falling.
So, "fights without rules", which include a whole group of martial arts, numbering several dozen names, according to the classification of types and exercises of martial arts (Yu. A. Shulika, 2002) are a shock-contact type of exercise, and belongs to the type of activity direct interaction between fighters.
