Traditional Martial Arts Vs. Mixed Martial Arts
Socrates wrote “Education is the kindling of a flame, not the filling of a vessel.” I’m not writing this—or any—article to simply tell you that I am right and you are wrong. There is always going to be more to the story than just that.
This article is in large part a response to a popular online article attempting to discredit the self defense capabilities of traditional martial arts and their practitioners. Thing is, this argument has been going on much longer than the generation of social media and blog posts. There has long been a dispute between martial artists who train traditional styles and those who question the legitimacy of classical styles and the benefits they provide.
In fact, one of Martial Journal’s contributors, Jonathan Snowiss, tackled the subject of a Mixed Martial Artist going against the traditions of the East in a prior article. For another perspective on what is tackled in this article, you can read his post here.
I hope that out of the fires of this ongoing argument, people can at least gain perspective and understanding for one another. May the negativity be proffered in favor of mutual gain and a broader mentality.
Investigate. Explore. Learn.
Just as well, may the fires of your mind, however they may burn, be used to purify and forge your training. The road to becoming a master is partly paved by trusting what you do and who you learn it from. Regardless of which thought camp you follow, become your own P.I. Investigate. Explore. Learn.
Doing your own research helps open the mind, much more so than simply listening to the masses will ever do. An open mind will greatly aid in improving what you do. Can you imagine if we still clung to the thought of the earth being flat or that all vegetables taste bad? It would severely stunt our growth! What often holds us attached to our ideas isn’t the perceived correctness of them but rather the ego anchoring us to our prior thought.
Have you ever argued with somebody only to realize that the other person was actually…right? It can make you feel like a donkey’s synonym! It is when we accept the possibility of being (GASP!) wrong, or perhaps simply misguided, that we take a giant step towards learning and advancing.
But What About The “Kung Fu Fakes”?
The first assumption that is important to let go is the idea that one teacher or group represents an entire style. At the beginning of this article, I wrote a quote from Greek philosopher Socrates. Just because one Greek dude had wise thoughts doesn’t mean every single guy from Athens had brilliance born into his cranium.
Math equation time! One Guy = One Guy.
Did you notice the “equation” wasn’t One Guy = The Whole Culture? I’m quite sure there was at least one village idiot in Socrates’ hometown. Like it or not, we are all individuals. Sure, there are similarities, often more than many would care to admit, however, at the end of the day, we are each unique in our own ways.
There are good martial art teachers and there are also rotten ones, just as there are amazing practitioners and some not-so-great practitioners. Saying that legit self defense is never taught in traditional martial arts such as Karate or Taijiquan (Tai Chi) is quite a gross generalization.
Does “Kung Fu Fakery” (AKA teachers who neglect aspects of self defense or who teach tactics likely to get you hurt) actually exist?
Yes.
But there are always bad apple in the bunch. Don’t let Snow White’s rotten fruit scare you from ever eating again.
But Not All
Thankfully, not all martial artists fall under the category of “Phony”. I have had Karateka converse with me about finishing a fight as soon as possible so that you can get away and find help. I have been in a Kung Fu class where the sifu discusses de-escalation tactics and the impact that being outside rather than in a pristine training location would have on your tactics (Fun Fact: the sifu also taught Taijiquan—AKA that “old person slow stuff”!).
Personally, if I needed to protect my life, I would much prefer the advice from these gentleman than of a guy teaching me that an eye poke or groin kick is illegal and something to be avoided.
Keep in mind that although MMA looks quite violent, it is also a sport. It is a one versus one conflict barred under rules and a mutual agreement to fight. MMA doesn’t teach you to get away from a knife-wielding criminal and it doesn’t consider an adversary with rape, murder, or kidnapping on his mind.
If a criminal brandishing a weapon makes away with your favorite watch and wallet, your best option isn’t to treat it like a sport and chase him down for a fight. Other, more intelligent, options must be rehearsed. To treat simply punching and kicking as a complete compendium for self defense is dangerous and also tantamount to the act of “peddling snake oil”.
Don’t get me wrong. I am a big fan of Mixed Martial Arts and follow Bellator and UFC like any good fight fan. I have met and trained with MMA guys who, I am quite confident, could handle themselves in a street scuffle – rules be damned. There are many martial art lessons that can only be taught by pressure testing your techniques and MMA gyms do quite well at making sure you get to experience that pressure.
While MMA teaches you important concepts (such as not-hesitating, stringing together combos on an unwilling target, taking hits, and just as important, recovering quickly from the blows that do rock you), other styles offer those lessons as well.
Heck, watch a Kyokushin Karate bout and try telling me they can’t take a hard hit.
What Does All Of This Mean Then?
In most cases, the style is irrelevant. What makes the classes and lessons valuable is the quality of the teacher.
The style might teach you that a Wing Chun Bong Sau is a solid defense for an incoming strike but the teacher tells you that the better defense is to avoid or de-escalate the confrontation before the strike is even thrown.
If we are talking about better protecting your life and the lives of your loved ones, we have to keep in mind two elements that need to be incorporated into our training: the physical and the mental.
On a physical level, it is important to rehearse the skills you would use in a confrontation as you would use them. Constantly practice your tactics and the body language and intention you would present.
On a mental level, train your mind in a way that will help you handle the duress of an assault. Especially for a traumatized individual, meditation very well may be the key to helping them let go of the fear that holds them back, a way of confronting the demons in their head. Martial Journal’s very own Rob Domaschuk wrote a wonderful article giving more insight into the connection between meditation and violence which can be read here.
I’m not saying that this is all that someone needs however. It is also important to practice your tactics in a way that puts you under more mental stress than normal (multiple attacker sparring/drills, verbal “assault” mixed in to training, etc.).
Practice Your Way
In a nutshell, you have to practice how you want to perform, whether that be for sport or for the legendary “street”. A good teacher or coach realizes this and trains you accordingly.
As practitioners of traditional martial arts, it is important to remember our training ancestors did make sure that what we are learning actually worked. In most cases, they battled and war tested many of the various tactics we currently train.
With that being said, by doing that, they were also pressure testing everything and learning how to cope with violence on an emotional, mental, and detailed physical way. In a way, that was their training.
As 21st century martial artist training traditional curriculum, we have a responsibility to take our training seriously and safely pressure test our tactics to ensure this quality of our styles never gets lost.
As MMA dudes (and dudettes), it is important to remember the clichés: ground fighting is not the place to be when the attacker may have a possible advantage (friends, weapon, etc.), sport fighting doesn’t factor in a firearm or blade, and that avoidance is always king.
It’s not just about finding the appropriate style for you. It is about finding the right teacher for you.
In Conclusion
I’m quite sure the author of the original article this is in reply to had good intentions. One of his major points was to make sure people weren’t getting misguided and risking life, limb, or school lunch by thinking they were learning something they actually weren’t.
The thing is, the traditional martial arts and the modern styles shouldn’t be in competition with each other. Both contain valuable pieces of the self defense puzzle and can be a complete guide to learning how to protect yourself if taught by the right teacher or coach.
Let that idea burn in the flames of your mind.
- GUEST POST: Getting It Done (by Ori Cohen) - October 18, 2022
- Martial Journal Magazine (Big Ole Reminder!) - July 28, 2021
- Book Review: Shodai-Soke - July 1, 2021
Well said, sir! A style is just a starting point. It offers just one methodology of practice. It’s always up to the students to work it, test it, and see what else is needed to meet their goals. And you never know where you might find the missing pieces, so keeping an open mind is a wise strategy. Keep fighting!
Thanks, Sensei Ando! I appreciate your comment! The role a student actually has in the training process can never be stated enough. You can’t call it your art if it doesn’t have any element of you and your effort in it. Osu! Jiayou! Er, some other masculine Asian word! 🙂
one guy= one guy isn’t one guy= one whole culture. Nice.
Hahaha. I’m glad you enjoyed my quasi-algebra lesson!
I would love to say I agree with you…your ideas are philosophically sound.
However, in practice I think the arguments against TMAs are still valid.
MMA, BJJ, wrestling, boxing, and Judo differ from TMAs in how they are trained rather than the content of that training. You see full or nearly full resistance drills as a common part of their practice.
Most other martial arts have sparring as an occasional component and very rarely do you get to try to apply what you know against someone who is doing their best to resist your efforts.
I’ve met many people with an artificially inflated sense of how well they would perform if they ever had to scale up from their practice combat drills to a real fight. I, as a BJJ player, have rolled with many people with backgrounds in Aikido, Japanese Jiu-Jitsu, and various flavors of Kung Fu. By and large they were just as helpless as someone who had never trained. And that isn’t because their art or style is useless, its because the way that their arts are taught doesn’t ever force you to see if what you know works.
AWESOME! Thanks for the input. If we don’t agree 100%, that is perfectly fine. In fact, the respect you showed with your disagreement makes me really appreciate your argument.
There is a lot of truth in what you just said (er, typed); it IS important to pressure test your tactics if you want to develop self defense skills and many martial artists unfortunately DO rely on overly inflated egos rather than legitimate skills.
It is up to the practitioner to swallow their pride, whether they admit to having it or not, and humble themselves so that their training can overcome the weaknesses they might have ignored. Similarly, it is the responsibility of a good teacher to avoid steering their students away from the pitfalls of their ego as well. This is where resistance and stress during a drill comes into play. I have found legitimate classical schools that definitely don’t shy away from sparring and resistance and I would love for them to become more of the norm within TMA.
This is a silly argument made by someone with zero real experience in modern martial arts. To assume that people who do modern martial arts don’t know how to eye poke it groin kick is laughable and it’s a tired argument made by people who can’t throw real punches. I’ve been in Kung Fu for 20 years, BJJ for 2 and wrestling for 8 on top of being a bouncer the entire time and I’ve found that real traditional people don’t make arguments like this because they think more in line with how modern martial artists train. Basically this is an ego driven approach by people who are stuck proving their arts work on paper since they can’t do it any other way. Any group of “martial artists l” that accept the fakes without question should be laughed at along with the fakes. Go train hard and realistic and you’ll see that your “deadly” groin kicks aren’t going to save you and if you need to resort to blinding someone who’s pushing you around, you’re simply a coward. The real world isn’t as life or death as traditional people try to make it out to be, that’s just another way to avoid having to prove their skills everyday like real martial artists do.
You’re a joke. “It’s okay to have different opinions guys” 🙂 “MMA wouldn’t save you if you got mugged so it’s just as impractical as ninjitsu!”
If you were as good at dancing around the argument with sophistry as fighting, you’d be a solidly mediocre fighter.
Traditional martial arts are fine if you treat it like yoga, but seriously,the argument isn’t, “Just de-escalate the conflict!”, but “if someone is throwing a punch at you which is more useful? Your level 4 mastery of tai-chi Kung Fu? Or all the hits you took sparring and grappling in an MMA gym?”
There is nothing wrong with yoga, but don’t compare it to actually fighting