Overspecialization in Martial Arts

In 2018 I wrote about encapsulation in martial arts. But the other side to that is martial arts overspecializing in one aspect of training until that training loses relevance. When it comes to self defense in general, understand that studying only unarmed martial arts for self defense is already overspecialization. For comprehensive self defense you also need training in situational awareness, what to do in an active shooter situation, and how to use weapons you have available to defend yourself with.

Another common form of overspecialization in self defense is shooting at the gun range. First, the vast majority of people with a need to defend themselves don't have a gun easily available to them most of the time, if they even own a gun in the first place. Second though practicing at a range is certainly an important aspect of gun training, there are at least 4 other aspects that need to be trained in if firearms are your primary martial art for self defense: deployment, retention, strategy and sparring.

The most encapsulated martial art is probably Boxing - punches only. It is highly effective in self defense because of the efficacy of punching (high power, low risk,) the importance of knowing how to defend against a punch and because of Boxing's footwork. Studying boxing will improve almost anyone's punching, punching defense and footwork. 

BUT the downside to this is those are the only martial arts skills you will learn in boxing. Let's say someone said "I want to do MMA, but I want a good foundation first, so I am going to train boxing until I win 10 boxing matches." The problem there is overspecialization: there's a lot of other stuff you need to know for MMA besides boxing!

But MMA itself is limited when it comes to its application to street fighting for self defense. The UFC was originally designed to show the value of grappling to martial arts consumers, and within the first few UFCs fans became convinced that grappling was far more important than striking (until Maurice Smith came along and fixed that for them.) In a one on one confrontation with no weapons, grappling can be more important than striking. The problem is that martial arts consumers don't study martial arts so they can beat up one other person who does not have weapons: martial arts consumer's first and highest concern is being attacked by more than one person or someone with a knife.

Boxing vs. MMA in this context plays out very differently. The issue is that much of the time an MMA fighter is going to want to take the opponent to the ground. The MMA fighter trains to do this until it is a reflex. If you are on the ground with a knife, and you haven't trained to control that knife, you are more vulnerable to getting stabbed than you were on your feet. Strategically being on the ground against multiple attackers is even worse.

Against multiple attackers a Boxer is going to be staying on their feet and dropping people with punches. This is one of the best strategies I know of for both handling someone with a knife and for multiple attackers. Boxing is called "the sweet science of self defense" for very good reasons.

Still MMA is a precious resource for all martial artists, helping them see were their vulnerabilities are as a fighter and making sure they have a well rounded skill set when it comes to unarmed fighting. Where things get complicated is with Jujitsu. Most forms of Jujitsu (Judo, BJJ, Aikido, etc.) have a low emphasis on striking, and most who claim to study some form of Jujitsu don't spar with strikes at all, meaning their maximum skill level for delivering and defending against strikes is minimal. Their plan A most of the time is to go to the ground with the opponent to control them. (Contrast this to say collegiate wrestling, where avoiding the pin and escaping is just as important to winning as pinning - nothing trains you to get on your feet like collegiate wrestling.) Jujitsu gives you all the going-to-the-ground vulnerabilities of MMA, without helping you cover your blind spots the way MMA does.

I found a lot of useful things from Aikido to spar with even though I only trained in it casually for a few years. The problem is that once someone is overly committed to training in Aikido, they invest massive amounts of time into wrist lock technique: for many Aikidoka, wrist locks ARE Aikido. What they don't grasp is 90% of those wrist locks are found in 90% of other traditional martial arts, but only a few of the least-sparring traditional martial arts have deluded themselves into thinking wrist locks are a reliable technique that should be used often.

But there are martial arts that spar with wrist locks. The reason why this is not obvious is because it rapidly turns into technique most often seen in Sumo, Tai Chi sparring, and Muay Thai. This means all that wrist lock training is serious overspecialization, even if the related sparring is very relevant to most martial arts consumers: