In my analysis, there are primarily two types of fights: 1) showmanship and 2) reality.
Let us start with #2 first.
Now fights in reality are fast, hard and end relatively quickly. Energy is used up at a high concentration by either or both parties. Because the situation invokes emotions, especially fear and anger, what is learned is seldom applied practically.
In order to maintain a control over emotions and energy consumption, focus upon relaxation comes into play. This is especially true at higher levels where greater force is only attained by consistent and constant relaxation.
For #1, this is where the UFC and tournament fights occur. There is a restriction on certain attacks and their respective locations. For example the spine, back of the head, eyes, throat, groin areas, etc. Another issue is that the person is “primed” or “ready” to attack. They are committed to the situation of fighting, whereas in #2, situations may escalate quickly or even occur spontaneously. This removes the element of surprise and catching the opponent off guard. This does make a bit of difference.
Another point to this: If you look at the tournament fights two things occur. A) The fights appear as brawls. No matter how organized and systematic the training is, it becomes as though everything but the bare minimum is forgotten and pure exertion is exerted. B) There is no “knock out” punch or action and so the fight goes from striking to grappling or wrestling. Has no one wondered why the one hit KO’s aren’t extremely common and what should be occurring? The person that misses their attack should be getting followed up quickly and decisively immediately! But it prolongs. There is a margin of error at work here. Control is lost to the barest minimum and strikes transform into grapples and locks.
Now what usually happens is that if you are doing a martial arts, you tend to get called out on it. People say does this work in the ring? Does it work in real life? Does it work in the UFC? Etc. Now the thing is that situations that occur spontaneously or escalate quickly are easier to deal with because there is an element of surprise. Expanding what it means to surprise is to catch the opponent unaware. The situation is escalating but the opponent has not committed. You commit before they do. They do not stop – block/ redirect/ control – anything which is coming because they were not prepared. On a side note, if your training is serious, consistent and constant, you would be able to act regardless. This would be a result of the intense training you have gone through.
If one goes on logically, the conclusion should reach here: if you are good at whatever art you practice, then it should work well in the tournament and in the ring. That is also true to an extent. The issue that comes up in my analysis is that the fight is not an all-out fight. It is not a fight to the death. A street fight would be dirty. It would mean being exhausted and possibly having to use a brick or a bottle or a pencil to bludgeon and stab to get away or conclude the situation. When you are playing in a ring, elements of surprise are gone and you are limited in your actions. You play by the rule. Yes, if you are good, you should be able to do well. So the question is how to become good?
The answer is through serious, constant and consistent training. You always one-up the training once you reach a level. We focus on relaxing but that relaxing has to be controlled and always active. There cannot be a moment’s hesitation or tension. We do want to reach the same physical level as what we perceive in the ring. And what is this physical level? Speed, conditioning and force. But we do it slowly and in careful measures. For us the goal is not going into the ring per se but digging deeper and deeper into the internal state.
Ultimately it comes down to increasing the quality of training. In ours, when our relaxation is deep and we have good control, then it pays to train well. Meaning that the relaxation and control furthers our training. Whereas if there is no control and people are thrown into sparring sessions, conditions are not satisfied and all that is looked at is the end result. We want both – the end result but also the proper processes in which to achieve them.
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UPDATE:
The surprise component is of essence.
Also another conclusion I am coming to is that there is no way to “prepare” for a situation. Only training seriously and consistently will give you the reflexes and available actions to respond.