Disciplines which place an emphasis on live sparring make an enormous difference. See boxing, Muay-Thai, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and the emerging amalgamation of various sparring disciplines, Mixed Martial Arts.
Absolutely agree. I would also add wrestling. Any kid who did wrestling easily had me on the ground screaming before I could get any fancy blocks, punches, or kicks out (it is always a bad idea to try to kick a good wrestler). Basically, any discipline which involves you having to physically overpower another human being will make a difference if you stick with it.
You're right, I should have included wrestling. Some of the habits wrestling instills don't work in a fight (like going to your stomach instead of your back), but overall it's an enormous advantage. The speed at which a good wrestler learns BJJ or MMA is startling.
Hint: if you're doing BJJ and you go against a wrestler (a number of guys here are former wrestlers) start on the ground. You basically will not get the take down. On the other hand, once both of you are on the ground, its a fair fight ;)
I've rolled with many wrestlers - including Division I wrestlers and those who were competitive at the state level. In my experience, their advantages are mental toughness, grappling strength and a relentless top game.
I had a friend who was in to that sort of thing. It seemed pretty dangerous. I was interested, but was concerned that being repeatedly hit in the head or put in a chokehold might cause brain damage.
I recall this one incident where my friend had a guy in a headlock and the guy lost consciousness so he couldn't tap out. When he finally let him go the other dude had a seizure there on the spot.
The same friend ended up permanently injuring his back by being slammed into the ground while attempting to perform a flying armbar on his opponent.
Being repeatedly hit in the head at full force is not good. Most sparring is done at considerably less than full strength for that very reason. I think MMA fighters take less of a beating to the head than boxers because the fight is more varied, and seemingly paradoxically, since the gloves are smaller, if a solid punch gets through, you're more likely to get knocked out. Boxers, with the bigger gloves, take more a continual beating to the head.
If you go out from a chokehold, it's either because your training partner is an asshole and didn't let go (unlikely in my experience), or you were stubborn and refused to tap (more likely). The seizing is typical when coming back from a blood choke - not good, of course, but it's what happens.
Going out in a chokehold isn't really that bad. I definitely agree that you refusing to tap happens a lot more than anything else. Note that all BJJ chokes are blood chokes, not air chokes, so they work by cutting off blood to your brain. Since this only happens for about 15 seconds or so, its pretty safe. Also note that the "seizure" is nerve stimulus response after the brain stops control -- its not a grand mal seizure in the medical sense. For the most part, BJJ is pretty safe. The thing that you have to be most careful about is tapping out when someone has the hold. As someone with an abnormally high pain tolerance, I'm always careful about tapping out a little bit quicker, because if you don't a number of the advanced techniques can quickly cause permanent damage. However, this is one of the things that you are trained in for BJJ rolling, just like Judo teaches break falling.
The striking sports are definitely more of a risk than grappling (also less useful in my opinion). Boxing is probably the most likely to cause long term trauma like hematomas.
I remember hearing that the widespread use of boxing gloves actually increased injuries and fatalities as you could punch somebody in the head without having to worry about breaking bones in your hands.
