Gonna give my opinion on some subjects discussed here. It's completely personal, and it's not about trying to change someone mind.
Before going into MT, I played football (soccer) in a pretty descent level. I then went into MT, had a half-long career.
I've done some ITF and fought for the nationals among other smaller tournaments. And I've had some boxing and MMA smokers mostly for the fun of it.
For a long time I was into skate and BMX. Never was near the level of the pros, but have some friends who made it.
I'm also into MX and SuperMoto stunts.
Now, am saying all of this to look cool and get me lots of syber chicks, but also to try to compare the feelings of each sport.
Again, this is just for me:
There was no scarier feeling than my first times in the ring. And still, many years later, the fear is still there. I just learned how to deal with it a bit better.
Football was about fun. You can be dead tired, you can be disappointed from a lost that you caused. (and that is not a good feeling, when your teammates depend on you). And you can get hurt.
But, I never had any sensation of danger. I never experienced fear.
For extreme sports, I had some, but it was up to me to stop or do more. You don't have an opponent to dictate what to do. It's just about challenging yourself to do more, try something exciting and scary. There was a sense of danger, but nothing near what I fell the days before a MT bout. And it just last for a few seconds.
The only thing that was scarier was the couple of times a crashed hard with my motorbike on the streets (and not during stunts on the parking lot). And it's a completely different type of "scary" moment. It's for the couple of seconds during the crash, and then for a period of time afterwards.
But that's not really a sport, it's just stupidity...
But the anxiety before the fight, is nothing I've experienced in the other sports. Even for my TKD tournaments, even if I was already experienced in MT, and their rules are semi-contact, I was anxious before the matches.
So for me there is no comparisons between sports, combat sports and x-treme sports.
As for grappling vs standup, sorry but there is no comparisons.You cannot compare the: I got to submit this guy vs I got to KO this guy. Every move your opponent makes is to hurt you. He wants to hurt your body so much, than you cannot stand up... And on your side, you have to get pass through that pain and fear, and continue to fight. And the only way to stop you is to make your brain hit your skull and see black (thats racist)
For the trainers: I believe in the necessity of him having experience in the ring. And not just some smokers. Was going to type another long ass part, but I dont feel like it anymore...