Fighting For Fun
by Master Sam Silva
I remember while training at the El Monte studio, every so often, someone would approach Jimmy with the question, “Do we (San Soo practitioners) enter tournaments?”
Jimmy’s reaction was always the same. He would chuckle and smile at the absurdity of the question. If the person asking was one of Jimmy’s students interested in competition, I’d cringe because I knew in Jimmy’s mind, that student had “lost face” and shown a complete failure in comprehending the art of San Soo.
At those times, Jimmy would patiently but sternly explain, “No, we don’t. The art of San Soo is pure fighting technique, designed for street fighting. My life or yours! Fighting isn’t for play, it’s for real.”
Jimmy often told the story of the tournament he was invited to. If you read the article in this web site entitled, “Fight to Live - The Legacy of Jimmy H. Woo” it explains what happened.
When Jimmy would get to the end of the tournament story he would always say something to the effect of “All I wanted to do was explain to the crowd why I fought the way I did. My art, we fight to hurt the opponent. We don’t play. It’s my life or yours. I don’t compete for fun. Fighting isn’t fun, it’s ugly. I fight someone I’m going to do for them the best I can. You can’t tell me to follow rules, because on the street there are no rules. You fight to live; not to play for fun.”
“You want to play, go somewhere else. You want to fight and do the best you can, you do San Soo.” If I go to a tournament, they limit what I can do. They tell me I can’t kick to the groin, I can’t break bones, I can’t take my opponents knee out, I can’t gouge his eye and so on. If I do what they want, then I’m not fighting my fight, I’m fighting their fight. It’s like having a gun and being told not to use bullets. If you can’t use it totally, it’s of no use to you. Fighting is for real and when you’re on the street there are no rules or regulations. I don’t have anything to prove to anybody, what do I care about a tournament? Somebody wants to try me, well that’s something else. I’ll bury them before they blink. I fight for survival, not for play.”
One thing Jimmy always taught was if you are going to do something, do your best. In the Bible, Paul writes in a letter to the church in Corinth, “So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God. (1 Corinthians 10:312). Many people will put off the things that need to be done today, saying they’ll do them tomorrow. Unfortunately, tomorrow never comes. Some people will work work hard and seem to receive no acknowledgement for their efforts. Yet others who work less, are promoted on the “It’s not what you know, but who you know” theory. Why should any of us do our best, if we are not getting anything out of it? The answer is simple. Deep inside, many people possess a level of acceptability. The acceptability rests on their sense of honor and self esteem. Regardless of the circumstances, they do their best for no other reason than self satisfaction.
I knew one woman who was a single mother with four children. Each day she took a two hour bus ride each way to work. At her work she made minimum wage. “Quit and go on welfare,” many people told her. She would simply answer, “I can work, so I work.”
Those who love God push themselves beyond the point of acceptability by remembering, “If Christ did his best for us, can we do any less for him.” With that in mind, recognizing everything he did for those who call him Savior and Lord, we remember to do our best out of our love for him. “We love him, because he first loved us.” 1 John 4:19