Dog Brothers Public Forum

Sorry to be a little slow to throw my 2 cents in, but this weekend really clarified a few things on how I view this. I was unable to fight do to smashing my hand at work (but will be training for this June and the fall Gathering) but I got to watch Eric fight for the first time in years. Eric is in his mid fifties and has been fighting since college, and I have to tell you, he has lost nothing that I can see in his fighting! Smooth, powerful, fluid. it was all still there. This is someone who has fought hundreds and hundreds of fights over decades! Which brings me to my thoughts on how much to fight. I think the first question to ask yourself is what am I fighting for; because I love fighting? to be the best fighter I can be? To prove something to myself? To prove something to others? Recognition?  Probably, for most of us , some combination of all of these comes into play. I think, in the end, it's about how good you really want to be. I don't think anybody would argue that someone who fights once a year will be as good as someone who fights 10 times a year or 20 times a year. and it's the time you put in fighting that will make you a better fighter. There was a period of several years that Eric and I (and others) got together every 6 to 8 weeks and fought, usually over several days. It wasn't uncommon to have 7 to 10 fights in a weekend.  We fought the night before every gathering as a warm up. There was one week early on we had to have had 10 or 12 HOURS of fighting. This was what took me, an uncoordinated, un-athletic wallflower (maybe a little exaggeration, but not much) to a place I would not of thought I was capable of going. Of course there is the risk of injury, but we are participating in a violent sport and that is a risk you take fighting once or dozens of times. And as I got more fights under my belt, it seemed injuries were less often a certainly less serious. Again, I think it all comes down to what you want out of this and what you want to put into it to achieve it, nobody said it would be easy!