We don't have to survive.

Sometimes we just don’t have to survive. We are born fighters and we have the instinct to try to survive. If a fighter’s number one goal is to survive, he can no longer be free to deliver his best technique. It eats away their goal to succeed and to win the fight. The desire to survive keeps us at a mediocre level. One survival tactic I’ve ever seen is when a martial artist constantly delivers blows without proper coordination and accuracy. He never considers the timing and momentum or the weaknesses of the opponent. He has the “I want to stay alive at any cost” attitude. When he is suddenly pinned down, he struggles to get away from the holds and locks. He throws punches and elbow strikes even if it not needed. The same thing applies to the other fighter whose expertise is on ground pinning. He has the mind-set of: “I have to pin him down right away to avoid the blows.” There are a lot of techniques and the best way is to apply it to the weak spot of the opponent. I am not saying that a jiu-jitsu fighter must face a muay thai fighter in standing, blow by blow combat or a karateka fighting a judoka in a submission-type position, but the point here is that a true fighter is willing to accept the pain and the percentage that one is willing to give up during the fight.