MMA vs. Traditional Martial Arts.?

There is no real difference between sport martial arts and traditional martial arts, why...? Because like you said, sport martial arts are just martial arts designed for competion. Take a sport martial art and get rid of the rules and you have a regular martial art. The true difference is that in a sport art you are using rules to win points, not defend your life.

Too much training in this capacity WILL develop bad technique and set you up to fail in a real confrontation because you will revert to what you know best in a time of crisis like that (the same thing happens with any martial discipline whether it be hand-to-hand or shooting guns or fencing, etc.). Traditional arts are designed for actual combat, and when trained as such they WILL be effective in real life confrontations, but they will fail in sports because they don't follow rules. The plain and simple is this, if someone tries to tell you that traditional arts are useless in real life they have no clue what they are talking about, and generally they are basing their premise on sport arts and not real life.

I can say with all confidence that traditional arts are effective in real life because I and many of my students and collegues have used our traditional arts in real life confrontations and it worked exactly like it was supposed to. I also equally know of several people that have used sport arts in real life situations that were completely defeated. The fact is that the two categories can't be compared, one is meant for one thing and the other is meant for another thing.

I will also say this, I have also seen a traditional artist soundly defeated in a tournament because they weren't fighting with the rules and they were defeated by the sport artist. Lastly, each side of the spectrum can gain from each other. The problem is going into it without a preconcieved notion of one being better then the other.

An open mind in the martial arts is the greatest tool for learning and excelling.

There is a big difference. You will react as you have trained. If you train to score a "point" in a real situation that is what you will do, score a point technique just before you get handed your a$$ on a platter.

I believe in sparing, I believe that you need contact sometimes. If you never take a hard shot in practice you have no idea how to handle the pain and stun factor in a real situation. Now the sparing I am talking about is not 2 people lining up in a squared of ring and throwing techniques till someone yells point.

Sparring may last multiple minutes but is a series of encounters each lasting 5 or 10 seconds. Picking the looser up and doing it again. It does not look like a competition match, it does not look like a fight on TV.

It looks like a real self defense situation with out the blood and broken bones ( hopefully). If you have true Control of your techniques you can go full speed and NOT hurt your partner. You can use techniques to vital areas, you just stop about 1/8 before contact, not by pulling the punch, but rather by placing it where you want it.

I cant really gove you an answer,but what I can give you is a way to a solution, that is you have to find the anglde that you relate to or peaks your interest. A good paper is one that people get drawn into because it reaches them ln some way.As for me WW11 to me, I think of the holocaust and the effect it had on the survivors, their families and those who stood by and did nothing until it was too late.