Originally Posted by willie
That’s me. I was a scrawny 127 until I was 40, now I’m about 130-135.
I never cared for MMA but I used to do it quite a bit because not many people liked to box and I wanted to spar so sometimes I had to roll around with the MMA guys. I always thought it was a bunch of bullshit.
Reminded me of a brief conversation in one of my favorite movies . . .
Gillom Rogers:
[Books is giving Gillom a shooting lesson] Mr. Books, How is it you've killed so many men? My spread wasn't much bigger than yours.
John Bernard Books:
First of all,friend, there's no one up there shooting back at you. Second, I found most men aren't willing, they bat an eye, or draw a breath before they shoot. I won't.
Duces
A peaceful man is capable of great violence, but he keeps it under control. If a man is not capable of violence, he is not peaceful. He is just harmless. (Jordan Peterson)
Possibly John Wayne's best acting job and still a quote that is relevant to the use of deadly force.
Skills degrade, but some quicker than others. I just know that twice in the last year, I've realized that I can still do a shoulder roll fall and come back on my feet, and it has been 4 decades since I trained in Hapkido. Go figure.
I won't speak to practitioners of Jui-Jitsu, as my martial arts background includes different styles and arts.
That said, like with acquired skills in other things in life, it comes down to how well someone was skilled before they took some time off, and how well their bodies can still perform (meaning considering the inevitable influences of aging, injuries, infirmities, etc).
Something else to consider is the needs of the moment, relative to the skill level, strength and amount of mobility remaining on tap ... and then that of your attacker, or attackers (plural).
You spend enough thousands, and then ten's of thousands, of hours putting down the software and crafting the hardware, and 'enough' may remain accessible to be effectively utilized after a layoff. Someone who is only an intermediate student/practitioner of any art may not have reached the point where they've reached an advanced understanding of their art, nor ingrained their technical skills to the level of 'unconscious competence, nor honed the ability and flexibility to apply their mastery of the foundation to evolving, dynamic and chaotic conditions.
How well might you need to be? Well, how skilled and experienced do you think you may need to be? Is your assessment (hope?) based on an accurate understanding of what might happen, and how well your skillset foundation has been put down?
It also depends on the aggregate skill level when pondering how fast, and what extent, skills might degrade. I was having a similar conversation the pother day, over cigars, with a friend. He was discussing how one of his students thought he was ready to be promoted to 4th dan black, but had some issues that required addressing. By the time someone attains 3rd dan black, they are expected to be aware of many things in their art and have become a serious student.
Taking some some off from frequent practice because of life's myriad events might require less attention for someone of lower/middle black ranking, than for someone of purple or brown ranks. Just depends how many thousands of hours have already been invested to put down and refine skills that can be accessed at the unconscious competence level.
So, yes, such skills are perishable ... but the question will almost always remain of how much of someone's skills may have suffered, and that will depend upon how extensive and well-developed their skills were in the first place. In my opinion, the same may be said of other physical skills, including firearms skills. Someone who has invested a couple or more decades of learning and refining their skills may have an easier time accessing 'enough' of those skills, under stress and duress, than a novice shooter who has only been training for a scant handful of years.
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