i don't question the conditioning of the body using the right approaches. i question the whole point of breaking your body to prove that you are tough to take on things. Ellis Amdur wrote about someone went to Iwama to practice and got his arm busted that he could no longer use it, ever again. how would losing the usage of the arm helping self-defense? that's my question. take Kevin for example, while healing from his injury got jumped, what would his chance be compare to when he wasn't injured. hard practice and smart practice are two different things. folks like to mention that they trained hard, but have not heard of folks mentioned training smart.
Here's an example of why our web forum helps us.
I've been lucky, so far. All the years of sparring (and competitions)
have spared me a lasting major injury
Such posts reminds me to be more careful which is why I am doing less MT style kickboxing sparring and more aikido. We all find a balance for ourselves. Exposure to regular vigorous training also brings its own luck and the ability to sense who you can trust to spar or randori WITH.
The myth does happen to be that most Aikidoka prefer too gentle or predictable contact, being shy or too "smart" about "eating bitter" to gain real "gung fu" level skills in aikido I appreciate you citing that example of the "loss of arm use" example.