Here at the frontier, the leaves fall like rain. Although my neighbors are all barbarians, and you, you are a thousand miles away, there are still two cups at my table.


Ten thousand flowers in spring, the moon in autumn, a cool breeze in summer, snow in winter. If your mind isn't clouded by unnecessary things, this is the best season of your life.

~ Wu-men ~


Friday, July 17, 2009

Traditional Martial Arts vs Mixed Martial Arts


Rob Redmond over at 24 Fighting Chickens always has something interesting to say about karate. This time is topic is the utility of a traditional martial art, such as Shotokan Karate, vs Mixed Martial Arts, with regards to normal people like you and I. The full article can be read here. Below is an excerpt.

The Most Effective Martial Art on Earth
by Rob Redmond - June 16, 2009

Every martial arts magazine must apparently run an article on a regular basis that asks which martial art is more effective. Two martial arts are compared, and the various pros and cons are assessed. Then the author ducks the whole issue and writes a cop out about how neither is really more effective – it just depends on what your goals are.

I’m here to tell you that there is one most effective martial art on earth for hand to hand combat without weapons. Are you ready to find out what it is?

The most effective, dangerous, viciously cruel martial art is everything that is banned in an MMA fight.

I am frequently asked what I think of MMA compared to Shotokan. I don’t really think you can compare them. Professional MMA seems to be populated mostly by people who have lived tough lives and have nothing to lose.

Amateur karate competitions seem to mostly be populated by middle class suburbanites with everything to lose. If they lose a tooth, they can’t close the big business deal the next day. Please don’t hurt me!

Because of the demographic differences between the amateur karate point circles and the professional MMA ring set up for television – there is no way to draw any comparison. I’m sure if MMA were undertaken by suburbanites and there were more heavily muscled tough guys doing Shotokan that the reputations of the these two arts would be reversed. Certainly I would never succeed in MMA. I might break a nail.

I can see it now. “Dang! You broke my nail! What do you call that move? Throw a shoe at Rob and he breaks a nail blocking it? Cruel! So cruel! You owe me an apology.”

I am also frequently asked about the recent success of a competitor in MMA circles who supposedly has a Shotokan background. Look, I’ve never seen anyone in an MMA fight doing anything that I learned in a Shotokan dojo. I’ve seen the new, powerful competitor Ryoto Machida, and nothing he does resembles anything you’d see in a Shotokan ring to me. He’s a kick boxing wrestler just like the rest of them.

What I am interested in are the things that the MMA associations ban. That’s where the gold is.

6 comments:

Rick said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Rick said...

This is Rick from:
http:wujifaliangong.blogspot.com

I've had a few MMA's come on through here from time to time. Some were really good folk too! Some others seem they were only looking for helpful tricks they could use and to add to the 10 or more Arts they said they were into...

Saying that, the best fighters I have known have a core of only a few moves which they were always refining. Which for some reason reminds me of the old story of "Thunder Crushing Fist" of Xingyi fame... now the Bagua story that goes with that... well...

Thanks Rick

Rick Matz said...

Systems having loads and loads of sets are a modern invention. Even Xing Yi Quan started out with only 3 short forms!

C360CHIEFARCHITECT said...

There has been rumors that Cheng Tinghua's haguazhang supposed to have started out with only 3 palms.

"... Originally there were only three techniques to be found in all Cheng Tinghua's Baguazhang branches - Single Change Palm (Danhuan Zhang), Double Change Palm (Shuanghuan Zhang) and Smooth Posture Palm (Shunshi Zhang). They were called Three Old Palms (Lao San Zhang), and this is what Cheng passed to all his disciples before his tragic death in 1900. ... Only Cheng Tinghua's Bagua has all these three Palms and if they can be found within other branches, this means these branches exchanged techniques with Cheng's branch exponents. Neither Yin Fu's nor Shi Jidong's branches have Lao San Zhang. ... Prior to 1949 (when People's Republic of China was proclaimed) Cheng style exponents used to practice mainly these three techniques, but after liberation many started to add other movements and create new techniques so that now every branch coming from Cheng Tinghua's tradition not only has complete set of eight basic Palms, but also many other routines. I also compiled some routines (Linked Palms, Lianhuan Zhang, is the example) for demonstration and competition purposes. Originally there was nothing like Eight Animals Palms (Ba Xing Zhang) and this is one of typical examples of later inventions not only within Cheng Tinghua's branch, but also others, including Yin Fu's. ..."

http://www.chinafrominside.com/ma/bagua/liujingru.html

Martial Arts Supplies said...

Your blog is a very good source for martial arts and other type of arts and am agree with your thoughts that's Martial art is one of the best ways for self defense and can be learnt very easily. Once you know the Techniques involved in Martial Art you will be able to protect yourself from any danger.

Rick Matz said...

Thanks for visiting. Please come again.