I am truly wondering what the effect of LL on street fighting and self-defense is. I agree with athletic ability after LL decreasing to variable degrees. However, most street fights end in seconds and doesn't require much endurance. It's hard to evade/block strikes and they often end with a few well-placed forceful strikes (ie. if it is going down anyway, you should either strike first or run). The endurance part I think only applies to getting away after or running away. You will be slower during recovery, but how about after a few years?
If you look at LL, for tibia lengthening, the part of the nerve stretched are foot sensation nerves as muscles that move the foot are in the calf region. Muscle is stretched and balance is off after LL but I wonder if this can't be overcome with learning fighting skills and training the muscle (bring back strength, lower centre of gravity again with increasing lower body mass). Often, people tear their muscles or tendons and after surgery have pretty good function (ex. many pro lifters tear quad and bicep tendons and still come back after surgery). For femoral lengthening, maybe the argument can be made one is stretching part of the nerves that actually move the muscle, but after years the nerve will probably grow longer (peripheral nerves grow back after being cut to a certain degree).
If one isn't either a pro or amateur fighter, for self-defense purpoess I wonder if LL will signficantly affect this. Any comments are appreciated.
