I would suspect that sparring in a martial arts context—the product of years of training and practicing specific, restrained moves, in which the objective is not to harm the opponent but to demonstrate superior technique—is rather different, emotionally, from a life-or-death struggle or even a fight between two combatants working off instinct and experience, neither of whom have been conditioned to associate that particular kind of fighting with a safe, controlled environment.
That said, I agree with you that there’s a matter of individual variation. The people who receive the strongest adrenaline high from fighting, however, are probably not the ones asked to return to the martial arts academy.
I would suspect that sparring in a martial arts context—the product of years of training and practicing specific, restrained moves, in which the objective is not to harm the opponent but to demonstrate superior technique—is rather different, emotionally, from a life-or-death struggle or even a fight between two combatants working off instinct and experience, neither of whom have been conditioned to associate that particular kind of fighting with a safe, controlled environment.
That said, I agree with you that there’s a matter of individual variation. The people who receive the strongest adrenaline high from fighting, however, are probably not the ones asked to return to the martial arts academy.