First off, all martial arts have something good to offer, but not all martial arts styles offer real life practical defensive skills.
What we are looking for here is, The Truth In Combat. What I mean by this is what skills are necessary and will enable you to survive and be victorious in a REAL life (possibly deadly) combat situation.
I’m a bottom line, pragmatic kind-of-person. Details are important but the Big picture is more important to learn first. Gross motor skills first, then fine motor skills. Walk first, then run.
Many people believe that MMA or mixed martial arts is real combat. MMA is real SPORT combat not street fighting or home invasion combat. On the street there are no padded floors or referees to stop the attack if someone is getting hurt. Saying you quit (tap out) won’t work on the street when someone is bent on smashing your face in or pulls a knife.
Also in MMA protective gear is worn on the hands and groin. Fighters often break their hands in the cage while wearing hand protection so you can imagine what could happen in a street fight.
Muay Thai, Tae Koon Do, Wu Shu (Kung Fu) Wrestling, Boxing, Kickboxing and Judo are all sports. A sport has rules for safety reasons, and most sports are performed in a controlled environment. This is the opposite of real combat.
Martial sports competition & sparring are necessary disciplines to develop and test our skills. All martial artist’s should have sparring experience and practice. The combat athletes who competes in full contact events are tough, disciplined, highly conditioned athletes who endure extremely painful training session, injuries, dieting & sacrificing their time away from their families and loved ones. I admire and respect these individuals commitment.
I personally enjoy watching the professional MMA fighters who have developed quality skills and top notch conditioning. I do not enjoy watching poorly trained amateurs and pros who’s fundamental skills have not been properly developed. Anyone can throw wild hooking punches and poorly executed kicks and two guys or girls with poor skills is a brawl not a professional fight.
Many of the fighters we see in the UFC and WEC are not very well trained on the basics. They are sloppy, off balance, have poor defensive skills, not conditioned properly, they have no power in their kicks and punches, don’t know how to throw a proper straight punch or jab or an effective kick. Many have poor balance and footwork which is a fundamental skill that all good fighters possess.
Also many of the fighters have not learned how to transition and flow from the different fighting ranges and techniques. Kicks are not being used to set up Punch’s, elbows are used infrequently and most grapplers and many strikers do not know how to strike effectively on the ground.
The reason I went into so much detail about sport martial arts is because for many people this is their understanding of what REAL martial arts are too them.
But the truth is:
Real combat is unpredictable. Sports fighting is predictable and prepared for.
Real combat is brutally violent. Sport fighting has referee’s, doctors, corner men and rounds. Also you can quit (tapout) if you want to.
Real combat is unfair. Sports combat has rules.
Real combat could have multiple attackers or weapons. Sport is one- on-one and has no surprises. (unless you are poorly trained).
Real combat could lead to death. Sport might put you in the hospital or the bar.
Real combat could put you in jail for life or at least get you sued. Sport fighting puts you on the front of a magazine or in a video game.
Just make sure that you don’t get real combat and sport competition confused. This wrong mind set could lead to permanent failure.
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Bruce Pahl is the owner of Immortal Martial Arts & and Delaware Combat University. He is a certified Full instructor in Jeet Kune Do & Filipino martial arts under Paul Vunak of (PFS). Has a second degree black belt in Shorite Ryu Tai Jutsu under Dr. Christian Harfouche. He has a basic instructor cert. in Combat Ju-Jitsu under GM Michael DePasquale Jr. He earned his Black belt in 1997 in Chinese Kenpo Karate and was inducted into the Action Martial Arts Hall of Fame for excellence in teaching in 2007. He is a certified Battling Ropes® coach under founder John Brookfield, was certified in Circular Strength Training (Clubbells®) under Scott Sonnon, and is a certified instructor in FlexBands & Ultimate SandBag L.I.F.T,2010.
{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
Thanks Bruce for laying out the truth. I agree most UFC/MMA fighters have poor kicks and punches and have know understanding of real combat techniques. many of the old Korean Masters I trained with had tremendous kicking strength, speed and could break bones with that power. The MMA/UFC are so locked in their ways they lost sight and have the public believing this is the ultimate combat way.
They should see Dr. Massaki Hatsumi or Master Joo Bang Lee and master Duk Sung Son and learn what real martial skill is…Wrist Locks, Joint Breaking, Vital strikes, Flesh Tearing techniques, chokes and complete joint manipulations, weapons, sword fighting and so forth.
As for the term street fighter in my dictionary is one who is not trained and has poor fighting skills, has never been hit by a trained professional, has poor stamina, probably smokes cigarettes and would last about half a minute in a real fight against a well trained Black Belt from an old school system
whoever,
the correct response to your post is
“you are so far off that you aren’t even wrong”
That saying has a very specific meaning in the physical sciences.
Any movement in a karate or kung fu kata (forms) can be so deadly, that in comparison, MMA is just a joke. Of course in the ring, MMA will win because raw martial arts are not allowed to use groin strikes, knee kicks in the neck, spine lock and so forth which are deadly (hidden behind a gracious kata movement).
Ha ha ha, MMA makes me laugh, not far away from wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwe
Anyway, I wish you try an arm bar when someone will take your balls off just by a nice movement that in the kata looks like making a fist. Or try to catch my leg and throw me, while I am biting your ear, or I simply stick my fingers in your nose or when I crash your wind pipe. Another thing I wouldn’t resist doing if you attack me mma style will be to stick my fist in your mouth down or pulling your tongue out. Have you got enough with your mma or wwe?
Doug,
thanks for your comments and input.
I think the UFC is “as real as it gets” for sport fighting. No other sport comes close to all range fighting as the UFC. This type of fighting started with the Greeks as Pankration (All Powers).
It’s great to watch but does not teach us what real combat is truly about.
So that what they mean when the UFC says “as real as it gets”. Thats a very well written and informative artical. I also believe that martial arts teaches a person how to think and solve problems. Thats a usefull life skill .