[QUOTE=Lee Chiang Po;950083]Sihing 73, I made my living as a printer for over 35 years, but for at least 30 of those years I always had a second job as a bouncer or some such related jobs. I would imagine that I had a real fight at least once every week or so, sometimes more. With some of my jobs I have had to scuffle with people all night long. I have probably been hit more than anyone on this forum in that time, and I can honestly say I know how an elbow feels in the face. The elbow can be used very well, but as a face on weapon it is almost useless. Well, it is against me anyway. It is only about a foot long, and when thrown it has to come from your side, which means that you can not possibly apply your full weight to the thrust. It is an emergency weapon at best, and should be considered as such.[/QUOTE]
Hello,
Your experience is your own and I will not dispute that.
However, you can use an elbow from the front and you can apply your body weight to the strike, ime 
You can also use the elbow to compliment a take down in several different ways.
Of course an elbow is a short range weapon and if you try to apply it from outside you will encounter many problems.
Again, elbows are not the magic bullet for ending fights, but they can be used effectively. They do allow one to strike very hard while feeling little pain from the user, kind of like a palm strike is usually able to strike harder as well.
You know a lot of argument goes over what system or technique is better and to me most of that is nonsense. The mental conditioning is, imho, most important and often overlooked.
For eample, a gun is usually agreed upon as an effective weapon and most perceptions is that the larger the caliber the more deadly. Yet in the hands of the right person a .22 can be far more deadly than a .44. It is how one applies those tools that is important. As well as the mental toughness of the person doing the shooting. There are cases where very good “target” shooters choked when faced with shooting a real live breathing assailant. (Perhaps like ring champions who were unwilling or unable to seriously hurt their opponent-not a slam on ring fighters just an observation).
If you are unwilling to inflict serious harm then you should stay at home. Likewise if you are unprepared to accept serious harm you should stay at home as well. Despite what some seem to think it is highly unlikely that you will not be hit or even injured during a real fight. If you cannot accept that and are unprepared to fight through the hurt then you are not ready for the street. Now in some ways this is exactly where fighting in the ring can be an advantage. The more experience you have in being hit and continuing to fight on the more prepared you will be not only physically but mentally as well. However, to qualify this statement I am not saying one needs to fight in the ring or gym in order to be able to defend themselves on the street, as I have said before if you have the time, money and inclination to gym fight then so much the better.
Just like being shot, it is not often the weapon applied but how the body reacts to the weapon. For example there are cases where a person was shot multiple times and still killed their attacker, sometimes with a knife not a gun. One of the things stressed to us at the Police Academy was the need to fight on even when it seemed hopeless. If you accepted that you were done then you were.
IMHO a lot of MA is a self fulfilling prophecy; if you believe something will not work then doubtless it won’t but if you train hard and believe you can make something work it just may for you of course you need to be realistic as well. Just because I think I can knock you over with a feather doesn’t mean I can…unless the feather is tied to the end of my sledgehammer 