MMA vs Muay Thai and BJJ

There is no more practical self defense instruction I have ever received than learning MMA directly from an MMA fighter. However, even a the gym I did this at, MMA fighters weren't often available for this direct instruction. Instead, typically the MMA grappling is taught by people with BJJ credentials and the MMA striking is taught by people with Muay Thai credentials. MMA coach Ramsey Dewey has mentioned numerous times that MMA is a sport in and of itself that you should train for specifically if you are going to compete in it: MMA gyms training submission grappling and Muay Thai separately with no MMA specific class are not adequately preparing their students for MMA.

And that is both fair and true. I believe this is more common than not at most schools in the USA that teach anything MMA related. But from a consumer advocacy position, most martial arts students are not aspiring MMA athletes. For the average martial arts lessons consumer, this separation of Muay Thai and BJJ has some VERY IMPORTANT advantages.

The most important advantage is that MMA fighters do not score by throwing others on the ground while remaining standing themselves. This is an important self-defense trick most martial arts students would like to know. The most common martial art that teaches this effectively is Muay Thai. Training in straight Muay Thai without MMA rules is the easiest way to learn to throw while staying standing yourself.

Then, if the student takes the BJJ class as well, they are prepared for fighting on the ground. Sure there could be a few bad habits for striking on the ground that they could have, but it being a Muay Thai school they will be sure to have some awareness of striking. In many cases the BJJ program is actually a Gi program, which gives the added advantage of teaching how to utilize heavy clothing in a fight.

Also, this arrangement avoids "fightercitis" (a tendency for martial arts schools to focus on fighters sparring and forgetting to have "people just taking classes" spar frequently.) In the case of Muay Thai, this is the style that actually introduced causal light sparring to the MMA community in the United States... by design, anyone doing a real Muay Thai workout is going to do some consumer friendly light sparring. In the case of BJJ, the next tournament is always on the calendar, and everyone is contemplating weather or not they will participate, and classes without "rolling" (BJJ sparring) are rare.

Finally, by encapsulating their martial arts, if they want to add a 3rd martial art in the mix, the students already get that there are separate martial arts to consider, it isn't all about winning in the cage. Many of the schools teaching BJJ and Muay Thai separately are also teaching FMA... which is the most common traditional martial art that 1) has many instructors incorporating sparring, 2) gives active consideration to weapons and weapon fighting, 3) covers all those banned moves not allowed in Muay Thai and BJJ competition, and 4) considers self-defense situations outside of the ring such as being attacked by by multiple opponents.

This arrangement, though less than ideal for MMA fans, is indeed ideal for most of today's aspiring martial artists: