Comments on: Learning to be Brave https://www.isegoria.net/2015/05/learning-to-be-brave/ From the ancient Greek for equality in freedom of speech; an eclectic mix of thoughts, large and small Mon, 22 Jun 2026 18:06:56 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.6.1 By: Steve Johnson https://www.isegoria.net/2015/05/learning-to-be-brave/comment-page-1/#comment-2275169 Steve Johnson Sat, 09 May 2015 14:53:36 +0000 http://www.isegoria.net/?p=37937#comment-2275169 I think I agree with the author. In a pure grappling gym, you can feel the panic in a new grappler when you roll with him. I think it comes more from being in such an unfamiliar situation — men all have some idea of how to throw a punch and avoid getting punched (even if their execution of those ideas is terrible without practice) but most have zero idea how to grapple.

On the other hand, if you know that the next day you’re going to have to defend from getting punched in the face that might change your perspective — the feedback in grappling is much more psychological than physical in comparison to striking. Tap to an armbar early enough and you’re totally uninjured but you have to mentally deal with the fact that if your opponent was really trying to hurt you you’d have a dislocated elbow (or unconscious and helpless if it was a choke). That takes a mental toll unless you don’t have time to focus on it. Mess up your defense in boxing and you get hit in the face – that feedback is much more weighted towards the physical (of course, there’s a huge psychological element too – realizing that getting hit isn’t the end of the world).

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