Luigi Mattera wrote:

On Fri, 9 May 1997, Matt Posner wrote:

anything goes/indiscriminate grappling has not previously
been noted as a good art for personal peace and self-control. After all,
all its practitioners are violently emotional and fly off the handle at
the slightest provocation.

  That is usually what starts a fight.  If they truely kept their cool,
then the fights would never start to begin with.

(In my story, Ukyo and Ryoga also discuss the fact that none of the
martial artists they know can hold their tempers.)

  This is probably more of a character related issue than having anything
to do with martial arts.

I'm sorry if I wasn't clear here. I didn't mean that all martial arts
cause people to be violent. I meant that the Saotome/Tendo/Happosai
anything goes/indiscriminate grappling variety of martial arts does,
that that this is unusual for a martial art, since most martial arts are
usually about self-control and poise.
 

The author of "Kasumi's Little Secret" has spotted an interesting flaw
in Ranma's training, and is trying to fill in the gap in a sensible way.
The ramifications of Ranma calming down could actually be more complex
than it initially seems:  how much trouble could Ranma avoid if he
thought through his problems instead of reaction on instinct? But would
he lose his fighting edge if he settled down?

  Well, Akane's emotions are very predictable.  If Ranma actually knew
what to say, the number of times he got hit by her would drop insanely.
Ranma's ego is his one real weakness.  Aside from that he usually doees
not lose his cool.. he certainly has a higher temper threshold than   anyone
else, assuming that you do not insult him the easy way.

I agree with all of this. Ranma really only fights when his manhood is
challenged or Akane is threatened, but then he can get very angry (viz.,
after Mikado kissed him in girl form).

  Ranma _has_ to be able to hold his temper, or the Hiryuu Shouten Ha
would be impossible to use, since he has to stay calm while angering    his
opponent.

I haven't read/viewed the stories in which he learns this technique.
I'll take your word for it.

  I don't think his fighting skills would drop. As a matter of fact,    he
would win more easily because his opponents would try and exploit a
weakness which no longer exists.

This may be true. It may also be true that a fighter needs to react more
quickly than he can think, and that a certain level of violent instinct
may be required. I'm not a martial artist, but I used to be a wrestler
in high school, and I believe I wasn't very good among other reasons
because I didn't have a killer instinct, but was trying to solve
physical combative problems with dispassionate intellect while my
opponent was trying to choke me unconscious.

Interesting discussion. I wish to be clear that all my comments prior to
the last paragraph have been about martial arts as practiced by Ranma
1/2 characters only, not about martial arts in general; and even the
last paragraph is only broad speculation, not an attempt to speak
definitively. I yield to a person with greater experience in martial
arts training; frankly, as a wrestler, I sucked.

DRM