SELF DEFENSE AND MIXED MARTIAL ARTS:

http://video.google.com/videosearch?q=mma

the criticism of Mixed Martial Arts in the article is way off the mark.

If you truly want to learn self-defense, learn from police officers &
soldiers. Learn the psychology of criminals. Because a skilled
criminal will NOT give you the chance to defend yourself. He 'll walk
up to you in the dark and stab in the back. Self defense is about
knowing how to identify bad situations (drunk gang members, dark
alleys) and avoid them or worse come to worse you talk your way out.

No mixed martial artist would ever claim to be able to fight 10 men,
nor does any sensei who claims to be able to demonstrate so. If
someone has a knife, most genuine self defense experts will recommend
you run or pick up a chair to batter your opponent.

The argument for learning Mixed Martials Arts as an aid to
self-defense is this: If you are confronted and assualted by a clumsy
thug or drunk who is unarmed, then what you learn on the mat & in the
ring is highly applicable because you fight against a parter who is
100% uncooperative and that creates an experience as close as possible
to a real fight in which your assailant will also be 100%
uncooperative. In many streets fights 1 or more parties often fall to
the ground. Much of mixed martial arts involves escaping pins by
opponents WHO CAN STRIKE YOU FROM THE TOP WITH ELBOWS, KNEES AND FISTS!

This is in contrast to many traditional arts where u learn patterns
which have no resemblance to most human reactions in a fight.

Randori is what gives you some real fighting ability. It gives you the
timing you will need in a real fight. Will you ever use it? Prob
never. Will it work? maybe not. which brings us a point of agreement.

~Select a martial art that brings you joy. Mixed martial arts should
not be pursued simply because you view it as the means to being a
great fighter. For many mixed martial artistes, mixed martial arts is
a healthy pursuit for training the mind and body, a challenge. The
same way one challenges oneself by playing chess. I love playing
chess. And who knows one day i may give up mma to play chess? Unlikely
but possible!

Having said that, proof that mixed martial arts is generally healthy
can be found in Pride & UFC. Although there are a few bad apples like
Ricardo Arona and Ken Shamrock and Royce Gracie who are rude towards
opponents, many opponents actually train together at one pt or another
- helping each other improve! And look what happens at the end of many
fights: the fighters embrace without malice and chi chat. And they say
" lets train together sometime"

Can you imagine Rudd Van Nisterooy telling that to Patrick Viera?

--------------------------------------------------------------------

THE TRUE NATURE OF MIXED MARTIAL ARTS:

Donny who? For me the author of this article should make up his mind;
1st he attempts to discredit wrestling (which is a large part of mixed
martial arts) and then proceeds to say the Traditionalists can't
defeat Sakuraba & Ken Shamrock which is true; traditionalists were
annhilated in Mixed martial arts tourneys and indeed have been
consistently defeated by Muay Thai exponents in boxing matches.

A further clarification on the Nature of MMA; an mma fighter is NOT
AIMING TO CREATE & DEVELOPE AN ULTIMATE ART. Rather an mma fighter
simply aims to cross - train and become as good a fighter as he can.
Many of them emphasize their original art; a Muay thai fighter in an
mma tourney is one with superb boxing skills & with only decent
grappling skills (search "cro cop" on google video).

Mixed martial arts is NOT style in any sense of the word. All mixed
martial artiste will normally know some Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu
and one or 2 wrestling moves.

Nxt they 'd be equipped with a type of boxing: Take your pick from
Savate/Western boxing/Muay Thai/Full contact Karate with boxing base.
Many of them have NO KICKING SKILLS.

And then may equipped in Sambo(Russian Judo) to yet more Wrestling or
Judo. Indeed some Brazilian jiu-jitsu exponents are very poor with
Judo throws and wrestling takedowns[i'm a prime example :( ].

What all these arts have in common is that they all base training
against a resisting opponent - in other words Randori.

So as you can see MMA is not an art, merely a term for a sport(which
aids self defemse) in which pple from all arts join and fight.

A FINAL NOTE: Don't think MMA vs Traditional martial arts

Traditional arts & mixed martial are not opposed. At Kreation Jiu
Jitsu (at he budo academy) where i train, many of my fellow students
have extensive tradtional backgrounds. They enjoyed traditional
martial arts. I myself tried "Praying Mantis Kung Fu" whilst training
at Kreation.

I repeat, have fun and also be humble. Don't say my art will beat
yours-my father will beat your father kind of nonsense. You won't be
happy saying these things.

Happy training whatever your art is!










--- In hapkidoflyingeagle@yahoogroups.com, "Dennis Chua" <hbchua@...>
wrote:
>
> Interesting article
> DrChua
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: halcopeland@...
> To: HanMuDo@yahoogroups.com
> Sent: Wednesday, March 22, 2006 2:14 AM
> Subject: [HanMuDo] Ultimate Martial Art?
>
>
> I ran upon this article and thought I would share it with the list.
>
> 
>
> Thoughts?
>
> 
>
> -Hal
>
> 
>
> 
>
> http://www.aikidojournal.com/?author=9
>
> Assumptions by Toby Threadgill Recently I was introduced to a
gentleman interested in martial artstraining. He was not really aware
of what I teach or of what constitutesNihon Koryu Jujutsu. He just
assumed that because I taught it, that I mustbelieve it to be "the
best". When I told him I did not believe the art Itaught to be "the
best", an uncomfortable silence ensued. I finally brokethis taciturn
moment by explaining that there is actually no such thing as a"best"
martial art. Despite a noble effort to grasp what I was talkingabout,
the gentleman in question eventually regressed, unable to shake
theimpression that if I was not convinced that what I taught was
superior toall other forms of martial arts, that I was somehow
unworthy of teachinghim. I politely encouraged him to look around,
consider what I had said and contact me again if he had any further
questions. A few days later Ireceived an e-mail from this gentleman in
which he explained that he had indeed found someone convinced that
they taught the ultimate style ofmartial arts. It was called "mixed
martial arts" because it embodied only the best of all the styles. I
just smiled to myself as I politely responded, congratulating him on
his fortuitous discovery. An ultimate martial art, huh? Now there's an
oxymoron for you. Every Martial art is ultimately based on
assumptions. In fact any training programformulated to address
conflict is based on assumptions. It's kinda like the old joke about
bringing a knife to a gun fight. No matter how good you are, your
assumptions define your training paradigm. Narrow your assumptions and
you specialize, gaining the opportunity to excel at one task. Broaden
your assumptions and you might be able address many different
situations but at what level of expertise? It's an intriguing dilemma
isn't it? Specialize, and be defeated by someone outside your
strengths. Be a generalist and Some specialist will hand you your head
on a platter. What's a martial artist to do? Years ago my teacher
Yukio Takamura taught a seminar which touched upon This topic. The
seminar subject was a comparison between sport budo and Classical
budo. During the lunch break a young karateka & wrestler, I'll call
Donny, loudly dismissed Takamura Sensei's teachings as antiquated
nonsense. Inresponse to this pronouncement Takamura shook his head and
chuckled while fiddling with his shoes. Donny, rather brash and full
of bravado turned to Takamura Sensei and said, "Now don't get me wrong
old man, your stuff is fun to watch and all but your jujutsu is no
match for my karate and wrestling.Takamura flashed a devilish smile at
Donny and said, "Okay, show me". Donny backed off a bit at this
unexpected challenge and said "Well, I'm not Going to fight you,
you're too old. How about him" pointing at Dave Maynard.Takamura
responded "No, you were talking about my jujutsu, not his. I Want you
to show me." Rather pensively Donny strolled out onto the dojo mat
with Takamura Sensei as a hushed silence overtook the room. At first
Donnyappeared reluctant to do anything but when he noticed that all
eyes were on him he revved up his courage and proceeded to execute a
very nice double leg takedown, climbing up on what at first appeared
to be a rather startledTakamura Sensei. As Donny attempted to continue
his seemingly Successful offense we noticed something flick around
Donny's neck. Suddenly, Donnytried to pull away, his head turning as
red as a ripe tomato. In a fewseconds he fell over wheezing. At that
point we realized that a shoelace was resting tightly around Donny's
neck. Where had it come from? Takamura had secreted the shoelace in
his sleeve and then executed a simple choke with it. As he revived
Donny from his impromptu slumber he explained to thestunned witnesses
that Donny had missed the point of the seminar altogether and made a
dangerous assumption. He assumed that this was a contest with rules
and that Takamura sensei was unarmed. The most interesting thing to me
about this whole incident was that Takamura had deliberately pulled
theshoelace from his shoe, placed it in his sleeve in plain sight and
not one of us noticed. What a lesson rich incident this was..... Now
I'm sure that some MMA proponents will roll their eyes at this
Interlude and remark that it proves nothing. They will say venues like
Pride and UFC prove you must do everything in budo well and that
Takamura Sensei with a shoelace couldn't defeat the likes of Matt
Hughes or Sakuraba. That'sprobably true and sounds convincing enough
but such a dismissal misses the point. The truth is that to be
successful in a venue like the UFC your time is best spent training to
confront the challenges you ASSUME you will meet in the ring. Training
outside such an assumption is a waste of time.However, drop a
Portuguese knife fighter into the UFC ring and the Mixed martial arts
guy will realize he's really not a mixed martial artist After all, but
instead a specialist in unarmed sport conflict who hasn't "mixed"
expertise in knife fighting into his supposedly mixed martial art...
Those nasty old assumptions .... Now don't get me wrong, I greatly
admire the technical efficacy and Extreme level of physical training
the serious MMA practitioners like those in Pride or UFC display but
outside the paradigm they train for they can be just As vulnerable as
anyone else. It's not the individual version of MMA Itself that made
guys like Rickson Gracie, Ken Shamrock, Sakuraba or Matt Hughes
champions. It's really their creativity within each venues rules and
The extreme level of training they have devoted to obtaining their
skills. Each of these guys within the paradigm of what they do has
trained himself to an extreme level. That's the real secret to the
best style of budo.....Training intensity! So don't get hung up in
training in the ultimate martial art. You will Be chasing assumptions
forever. Instead pick an art that makes assumptions In line with what
you value or desire and then train with a level of Dedication equal to
what you expect to get from your martial art. If you're a Police
officer this will probably be a very different from a college
professor. In the case of the gentleman who contacted me in search of
the ultimatemartial art, I guess it is human nature to seek out
someone else's version of what's best when one has scant experience to
base an opinion on, but it is amusing to note how many people studying
martial arts beyond a beginners level fail to progress beyond the
myopic view that there could be any such thing as an ultimate martial
art. Remember, the only accurate assumption in budo is that your
assumptions Are never 100% correct. Toby ThreadgillTakamura-ha Shindo
Yoshin-ryu
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