Quote:
Originally Posted by Ferox13
Steyr,
How do youy feel about Mixed Martial Arts as some one who has a huge knowledge of Traditional martial arts?
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As with most things it has good an bad.
It is good because most practitioners train for a more realistic contact based environment. They tend to be in good shape and have a practical knowledge base.
The bad is it is still a sport with the confines of rules and regulations which don't translate directly to real fighting. Otherwise everytime somebody had a match somebody would go to the ER with life threatening injuries.
Basically it is the same difference between karate and boxing. The karate guy has a far more lethal arsenal of techniques but usually can't come close to the physical conditioning of a boxer. The boxer is in superior condition and can take and deliver very real hits, but has a very limited arsenal of weapons and no real finishing techniques.
The concept is also hardly new. In the days when martial artists fought for their lives the idea that a person would know only one system would be foolish. The Chinese boxing experts, the Japanese swordsmen and the Okinawans all sought to know (or have knowledge of) a wide variety of systems.
It was the Japanese in the early 20th century who came up with the notion of "pick one" and dedicate your entire life to it. Americans rediscovered "mixing systems" by the late 1960s when they began to create modern eclectics such as Kajukenbo, American Kenpo and concept arts like Jeet Kune Do. Kajukenbo is actually a combination of the words Karate, Judo, Kenpo and Boxing.
The only real difference is now it is a sport and guys are wearing speedos.