WingChunIan
Blue Belt
- Joined
- Jan 4, 2012
- Messages
- 209
- Reaction score
- 4
But MMA isn't a style and anyone who claims to train MMA is fooling themselves. What they train is a bit of MT and a bit of boxing and a bit of BJJ and a bit of wrestling etc etc dependent upon the background of the coaches in the club. Training for the sport of MMA is good old fashioned cross training and the best exponents train with dedicated expert coaches in each field not some self proclaimed GM of the style of MMA. Even when top fighters retire and open schools they invariably bring in style experts to assist. Obviously there are exceptions and some have released DVD's etc of their fighting system but most people who know their stuff can see through the marketing blurb. The choice of whether to cross train or not has been discussed many times before and the argument boils down to personal choice (jack of all trades or master of one) but creating a system is something different altogether. Most created systems are borne from bits of this and bits of that, and the important point is bits not total systems. People often cite JKD as a great example of a created system but actually JKD was borne from a principle that BL took on board from his wing chun seniors. As a principle JKD is great but everyone seems to forget that BL never learnt the whole WC system, who's to say that the bits he couldn't or chose not too incorporate wouldn't have been hugely beneficial to some of his students. I'm not knocking JKD just using it as an example because it is one of the better put together eclectic systems.My main point being that MMA isn't some hodge-podge grab bag of techniques from any and every martial art, but rather the discipline of training in two or more different arts and knowing when to use which.