Kirk,
O.K. I will bite, so to speak.
I'm not an MMA guy. That's not what I do. However, I do have friends who do MMA so I'm more than a bit familiar. If you want, I'll play Devil's Advocate, but that's all it is.
MMA is great for making a fighter tougher, well rounded in a skill and attribute sense but like any art or methodology it has weaknesses.
Some people can see those weaknesses right off and personally want to address them for their own needs.
1. Most times, if the fight starts where you and the other guy can throw up your hands and go at it face to face, this is not an assult, this is a fight aka duel.
Most of the time someone could have simply walked away from that situation.
Now for an old school, strait on parking lot duel, MMA would be a great choice.
An assult has little to no warning involved. Many times you have no option of walking away.
MMA Response: MOST fights start with plenty of warning. The vast majority of fights have some amount of lead up and posturing. Though ambushes do happen, they're rare. Further, the point of an ambush is to take the person unawares and in a position of inability to offer an effective resistence. The goal is to negate the training of
ANY martial arts, not just MMA. However, because MMA trained guys are used to getting hit, being hurt, and fighting through pain, confusion, and injury, MMA produces a fighter better prepared to regroup and come out of the other end of an ambush than most other Martial systems.
2. Weapons- Now I am sure there are MMA stylist who have anti weapons training, but it's not generaly part of MMA instruction.
Assults will involve weapons more often than not.
MMA Response: FBI statistics show that most altercations do not, in fact, involve weapons, but are, instead, empty handed. Further, most martial artists do not train realistically either with or, more importantly, against weapons. The few that do lack other important attributes which are developed by MMA training. Again, pressure testing, high percentage techniques, and the ability to fight through pain with the mindset of prevailing are all attributes which MMA excels in and produces more readily than most other standard Martial Arts.
3. Numbers- Trouble comes in 2s....and 3s and 4s.ect.
Now we all can go round about the likelyhood of surviving a multiple assult, let alone dominateing in one, but it has and can happen and the odds are better if you train for multiple attacker.
MMA Response: Actually, trouble doesn't seem to really come in twos. Experience seems to indicate that fights tend to be more one on one than multiples against one. Further,
NO Martial Art can train a person for defense against multiples with anything but a slim chance of success. Multiples is simply too much of an advantage. Finally, because of the nature of MMA training, hard, tough, fast, with high percentage techiques executed against fully resisting opponents, MMA training has the best chance, if any does, slim though it may be of producing a fighter which can prevail against multiples.
4. Sportive rules- If all you do is fight by the rules, that is what you will do in a fight or flight mindset.
MMA Response: MMA fighters are not stupid, regardless of the prevalent opinion. They can easily apply a fight-to-survive mindset and, in fact, may be better equipped to deal with the fight-or-flight adrenaline dump than "non sport fighters" because competition in the ring elicits exactly that sort of Sympathetic Nervous response. Thus MMA fighters have more experience in working with the FoF effects.
Now combineing sportive training with training in more injurious and fatl techniques is hedgeing your bets nicely.
MMA Response: The high percentage techniques and high percentage defenses, though often decried as "simplistic" are more likely to work in high stress situations against fully resisting opponents who are equally trying to seriously injure the fighter, in contrast to what much other non-MMA training produces. Further, it is fallacious to think that MMA techniques are non-injurious or any less injurious than what non "sport fighters" train. MMA kicks are designed to injure legs, joints, and soft targets on the body and can target the head. Punches are designed knock out, break ribs, blacken and swell shut eyes, and damage the opponent. Throws and takedowns can be highly injurious without the benefit of a padded ring, in fact, the most common way for people to die from a "street fight" is by hitting their head on something hard when they fall. The grapples are designed to wrench tendons, ligaments, and muscles as well as to dislocate and break joints and bones.
And all of these highly injurious, potentially deadly, techniques are performed against fully resisting opponents, trying their darnedest to prevent you from doing them while equally trying their darnedest to do them to you.
My point was not that MMA is useless, far from it but it has a very narrow focus insofar as it is geared towards winning a contest.
MMA Response: In fact, it is far from useless and, experience tends to show that MMA training actually produces the best results.
Me: I hope that my playing Devil's Advocate has helped you understand the typical responses, many of which have validity to them.
My statemnt was not that MMA is useless, far from it but is based upon the above points.
On your second point, you do point out a pitfall, that is most dangerous when the weaknesses of such combinations are not addressed.
We actually are seeking to build a school where ther are conflicting points of veiw, we are more interwested in finding what works for an individual than for a whole. I like the boxing inut but will not use a closed fist on the head, others will.
Kind of like the Shaolin Temple had multiple styles within it's walls, we seek to do that with the system to a degree, while identifieing the contradictions or weaknesses.
Shugyo!
Dylan
Good luck with your training and lots of success.
. I've literally watched a technique (on Lockflow), then drilled it in training that day, then asked questions and corrected things that night online. The day I caught my coach in a flying triangle sambo-style (from a single-leg shot) that Reilly showed me, was gold heh.
