You would be so much better received in the community if you tried this:

"Some people I know have argued that sports make you better at fighting. I disagree with them. What do you guys think?"

instead of this:

"Some people I know have argued that sports make you better at fighting. Please read my response to them below."

The first one gets people interested in having a discussion (assuming they find the topic interesting). The second one gets people thinking "cool story bro."

Wish this guy got forum banned already.

Recently, I've been getting a lot of comments that martial arts is not effective in real fight scenarios. There's also this misconception that athletes are tougher and better fighters than ordinary joes or nerds. This is only true for boxers, wrestlers, and to some extent football and hockey players. Here is a list of reasons why non-combat sports such as lacrosse or basketball are useless at preparing you at self-defense.

1) The opponents they face - A good martial artist is capable of taking on people much larger and physically imposing than they are. Athletes typically limit themselves to people their size or smaller, their strength or weaker, etc. Athletes fight by physical superiority alone.

2) Aggression- You may think that sports would make people more aggressive and ferocious, giving them the mindset they need to take on their opponent. Turns out that's not the case. In just about every non-combat sport, hitting someone equates to an immediate foul, and in basketball and lacrosse, tacking someone also results in a foul. Full contact sports such as football allow one to tackle, but only when the ball has been passed. Soccer is a full contact sport, but these players are typically small, weak, and flop to the ground all the time, so their fighting capabilities are even less. These rules discourage aggression, not encourage it.

3) Technique- Swinging a lacrosse stick, dribbling a basketball, or kicking a soccer ball aren't anything like delivering blows and are therefore useless in a fight.

Conclusion: If people are going to say that martial arts is not helpful in a real fight, then a non-combat sport is even less helpful. Sure, rules and restrictions make martial arts matches less representative of realistic fights, but sports has rules too. The purpose of playing football is to get better at football, not better at fighting. Same holds true for the rest.

Recently, I've been getting a lot of comments that martial arts is not effective in real fight scenarios. There's also this misconception that athletes are tougher and better fighters than ordinary joes or nerds. This is only true for boxers, wrestlers, and to some extent football and hockey players. Here is a list of reasons why non-combat sports such as lacrosse or basketball are useless at preparing you at self-defense.

1) The opponents they face - A good martial artist is capable of taking on people much larger and physically imposing than they are. Athletes typically limit themselves to people their size or smaller, their strength or weaker, etc. Athletes fight by physical superiority alone.

2) Aggression- You may think that sports would make people more aggressive and ferocious, giving them the mindset they need to take on their opponent. Turns out that's not the case. In just about every non-combat sport, hitting someone equates to an immediate foul, and in basketball and lacrosse, tacking someone also results in a foul. Full contact sports such as football allow one to tackle, but only when the ball has been passed. Soccer is a full contact sport, but these players are typically small, weak, and flop to the ground all the time, so their fighting capabilities are even less. These rules discourage aggression, not encourage it.

3) Technique- Swinging a lacrosse stick, dribbling a basketball, or kicking a soccer ball aren't anything like delivering blows and are therefore useless in a fight.

Conclusion: If people are going to say that martial arts is not helpful in a real fight, then a non-combat sport is even less helpful. Sure, rules and restrictions make martial arts matches less representative of realistic fights, but sports has rules too. The purpose of playing football is to get better at football, not better at fighting. Same holds true for the rest.