The Martial Arts, exercise or Self-Defense?

You may like many others have started your study of the martial arts mainly because you were interested in learning self-defense. After you have been training a while you may have realized that much of the time you spend training in class is spent on conditioning. Only part of a typical class is spent learning and practicing realistic self-defense skills. While exercise and conditioning are important for overall health, it has very little to do with your ability to defend yourself. Over and over I have heard many instructors tell their students how important conditioning is. I must disagree with this idea. Real fights very seldom last more than a few seconds. The outcome of the confrontation is decided quickly. Flexibility, endurance, and strength have little if any bearing on the outcome. When attacked it is more important to have mastered a few practical self-defense techniques than it is to be able to go nine rounds with your attacker. When it gets down to it, I'd rather my students be skilled in practical self-defense skills than to be in great shape. If you are in great shape and get hurt or killed you will only leave a good looking corpse. Better to be out of shape and well trained to defend yourself. Please do not misunderstand what I'm saying here. I'm not advocating that you be out of shape. Being healthy and in shape is likely to help you live longer and be happier. All I'm saying is lets not forget what the martial arts were created for. They are primarily designed to be a practical method of self-defense. That should be every martial artists first goal. Then secondly being in good physical shape is a secondary goal. Lets keep it that way.