The other obvious element of street fighting and self-defense that’s missing in MMA is weapons training. Real fights involve weapons. If push comes to shove and it’s time to defend loved ones, it’s natural that most will pick up some type of weapon. Man has used weapons to defend himself from both man and beast since the beginning of time 油畫老師 . In many third world countries, most everyone carries a weapon all the time. It would be ridiculous to train mostly in grappling and kickboxing where everyone carries a weapon and they’re not afraid to use it. According to police reports nation wide, by far the majority of assaults in america involve a deadly weapon. Furthermore, should you ever end up in the prison system, practically every fight involves a makeshift edged weapon.
Real combat (wars) have always involved weapons and always will. MMA fighters like to compare themselves to modern gladiators. While modern MMA may be one of the closest combat sports to what the gladiators did in ancient Rome, the obvious difference is that gladiators fought with weapons. What most people don’t understand is the big difference between a weapons expert and someone with no training. It’s exactly like Jiu Jitsu or Muay Thai in that a skilled practitioner of knife or stick fighting can dominate a novice. The response to this is often that “I’ll just get a gun. ” The question then becomes, how much training with a gun have you done?
Firearms training is another important element of real self-defense. Many martial artists neglect this important part of martial arts training. The unfortunate truth is that in a street fight setting a gun can often come into play. Even “road rage” sometimes develops into a situation where an infuriated individual wields a gun. It’s important to keep in mind however, that guns can jam or run out of bullets and are not a good choice for close-range combat. A knife is much more effective at close range, and will never jam or run out of bullets. Most everyone in the martial arts community knows that the Filipino Martial arts of Kali and Escrima are the best arts for knife and stick fighting. What they often don’t know is that Kali practitioners learn to fight with anything they pick up. Even firearms training is an important element of Filipino Kali.
In conclusion, MMA is the most complete modern combat sport. Any self-defense or martial arts program that’s missing MMA training is missing a major element of real fighting. Mixed Martial arts has proven that being a well-rounded and complete fighter involves cross-training. All MMA fighters understand this. There is no single martial art that has everything needed to be a successful MMA fighter, even within the limits set by the rules. Once the rules have been removed, as in a street fight, many more elements and skill sets come into play. Preparation for street-fighting and real-world self-defense requires even more cross-training than MMA in order to be truly prepared.
Daniel Sullivan, OC Kickboxing & Mixed Martiai Arts’ Founder and Head Instructor, was born and raised in Southern California and is a graduate of the University of Southern California’s Business School. With 25 years of Mixed Martial arts experience, Daniel is one of the most qualified martial arts and kickboxing instructors [http://www.ocmma.net/mma-class-details/daniel-sullivan-head-coach/] in Orange County. He is a Black Belt Instructor in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu under Cleber Luciano and Gracie Humaita and a Full Instructor in Muay Thai under the Thai Boxing Association U. S. A.
You might also begin to TAP or Hold the gloves to the jaw or forehead when moving or defending. The idea behind this strategy is to learn to move the hands up fast and to remind you that you can react defensively to your opponent’s movements while still being able to strike (remember, we are focused on defensive blocking in this article). If your opponent is throwing a variety of punches, you will want to learn to move the hands up either on the left or the right sides too. This can be practiced using the sword and shield defensive sparring strategy. First, let’s learn how to stand and where your hands should be in relation to your feet.
Consider the sword and shield defensive strategy – if you had a sword in the right hand and a shield in the left you would typically block with the left (shield) and then strike with the right (sword). Only difference is that you can swap (meaning that either hand can be the sword and either hand can be the shield). In sparring, the lead hand can block and incoming attack and the rear hand (the power hand) can blast with a cross, or hook punch (this is the default strategy and seen in many MMA fights that focus on trying to land a one-punch knockout). HOWEVER, the great thing about this tactic is that you can swap your sword and shield (because you have two gloves and no sword) by simply blocking with rear and striking with the lead hand. The lead hand is good for jabs – similar to a sword thrust. It isn’t as powerful as your rear hand (which gets power from the ankle, knee, hip and shoulder movements as well as the powerful arc or swing), but it is still an effective weapon if you learn to use it. Very often a simple jab as a defensive block works great as a JAM. See my article in Black Belt Magazine (August 2010) on page 80 if you want to learn more about Jamming an Attack.