MMA in Martial Arts

Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) is "God's gift" to Traditional Martial Arts (TMA.) At least in the USA it has saved the martial arts community from kumite point fighting, and it has has given a training opportunity for all martial artists to make sure they have all their bases covered for real fighting. Some have accused me of trying to save all of martial arts through full contact free sparring...

I started doing martial arts in the late 80's, purely for self defense reasons. I joined a school that was part American full contact karate and part Filipino Martial Arts (the master of that style had some sort of WEKAF background.) Our first few months of practice was getting used to full contact beat-em-up sparring, where we really got our hands dirty learning to throw down.

Then the tournament was announced. A point fighting kumite tournament. We needed to do things a little different, and do a different kind of sparring. I didn't realize it at the time, but our stances became very long, our sparring became no contact, and worst of all we learned to freeze up whenever we thought we scored a point or someone else was scoring a point on us. It was the opposite of self defense training.

Then we actually fought in the 1989 Lakeside Invitational tournament in WA. I remember the master's last words of advice to me: "it isn't very effective for self defense, but if you throw a back fist instead of a straight punch it will be easier for the judges to see." I got 2nd place in my division.

Within an hour that same master packed up his bags and walked out of the tournament, never to return to a kumite tournament again, almost immediately seeking out the kickboxing community and training his students in leg kicks. (The reason he walked out was he was kicking his opponents in the head so quickly the judges weren't calling his kicks as points... until he finally kicked his opponent in the head so hard that he fell down... and then the judges still didn't see it, even though his opponent was complaining about contact.) This was just as kick boxing was starting to pick up in the USA:

What happened in the 80's was that most martial arts schools became kumite point fighting schools. If you were doing Kung Fu, you were just doing Chinese-flavored kumite point fighting, Tae Kwon Do was reduced to Korean flavored kumite point fighting. At that Lakeside Invitational tournament, there was even a "Judo Boxing" club there doing point fighting, pulling other fighters to the ground and then scoring with a light jab towards their opponent's head... even grappling was turning into grappling flavored kumite point fighting.  One guy I know tried to go into a point fighting tournament with his style listed as "Muay Thai."

Movements like the UFC no holds barred and K-1 striking professional tournament pulled Martial Arts in the USA out of its death spiral, and got a real conversation about effective self defense started again. Suddenly few could ignore the importance of ground fighting, and even less could ignore the importance of clinch grappling. And everyone could see one thing brighter above all others: no matter what your martial art was, your most important training activity you did was full contact free sparring. Where before everything was just a different flavor of kumite point fighting, now everything was becoming another flavor of MMA, a very significant improvement, and for most martial arts a badly needed return to ancient tradition!

Don't get me wrong, MMA has its blind spots just like all other martial arts.  But what I want to point out here is how it can help you with your study of martial arts today. MMA covers all the athletic bases of fighting: conditioning, clinching, ground fighting for submission, stand up striking and plenty of sparring. No matter what your martial art is, MMA can help you make sure you have all your bases covered.

In summary, two points here:

1. MMA saved martial arts in the USA from turning most martial arts schools from being different flavors of kumite point fighting to being different flavors of MMA, returning to the ancient ways of full contact free sparring.
2. MMA can save YOUR martial arts skills by making sure you have all the basic conditioning, ground fighting, clinch grappling, stand up striking and sparring you need to realistically prepare for an unarmed combat situation. 

I do mediocre full contact weapon sparring and Tai Chi. Do I also go work out at the MMA gym and try to get beat up a few times a week? Absolutely. Why? Because training the way I do, I want to make sure my critical blind spots are covered: