(Japanese martial arts weapon) Mma-A Brief History
May 6th, 2007
Mma-A Brief History
It would be impossible to fully track every aspect of the beginnings of mma. The Greeks, Romans, Cavemen? I will try to bring to you a history of mma that impacted the United States as I believe it occurred, and what is now the growing popularity in this reality fighting. When I use the term reality fighting, it refers to actual full contact striking and joint wrenching submissions. It is not meant to disrespect the traditional martial arts. In Brazil there was a competition called vale tudo (Portuguese for anything goes) In the early nineties an elder son of a very respected Brazilian jiu-jitsu (bjj) master came to the United States. This elder son and his younger brother were giving Bjj lessons out of their garage. This elder son partnered with another man and began a very popular competition where fighters of different styles would fight each other abiding by only a few rules. The younger brother of the man you started this competition dominated the fighters that stood before him. Many of the fighters were of a standing style (karate,kung-fu,etc) when this young man would take them down and tie them in a pretzel they were at a loss on how to defend against it. At this time there were no time limits on rounds. This young man would hold on to his competitors like an anaconda; wearing them down and waiting for the right moment to apply a submission hold. It did not take long for future fighters to start training in this young mans style and start gaining there own submissions. One mistake was made though. Now they were getting knocked out. The new rules to this competition incorporated rounds, and if they were on the ground too long with no action the ref would stand them back up. Not exactly a grapplers desire. With these new rules in place a new breed of fighter emerged. Mma fighters had to find a new way to cope with the double threat of stand up and ground fighting. Many of these fighters started to cross train in both ground fighting and stand up. The world of mma in the United States would never be the same. It was no longer a matter of style versus style, but who had the better stand up OR ground game. Its very complex if you think about it. Say fighter A is stronger at stand up than on the ground. His competitor, fighter B is equal at both, maybe a little better at standing and just as good a fighter as A on the ground. This scenario can be a combination of a lot of variables. There is strategy in these fights. They do not just go toe to toe with a fighter. They study their competitor and try to exploit their weakness. Regardless where mma originated from, no one can deny the explosion this sport has seen, or the skill of these athletes. These are not brainless brawlers wanting to duke it out, they are skilled combatants with a strategy wanting to compete with other skilled fighters.
Shawn Sellen is the owner of the mixed martial arts website <A HREF="http://www.mmaarticles.com">mmaarticles.com</A>
Martial Arts Book Review: Fists, Wits, and a Wicked Right by Marc “Animal” MacYoung
Being the author of several books on the martial arts and fighting, I am always looking for books of exceptional quality to add to my library. If I have a book in my library, it’s definitely worth owning. One such book is Marc ?Animal? MacYoung?s, “Fists, Wits, and a Wicked Right.”
One of the great things that I absolutely love about Marc?s books is his no-holds barred direct approach to getting his point across. There is never any sugarcoating or politically correct terminology is his books. He simply tells it like it is, whether you like it or not. Marc?s not-so-politically correct way of explaining things is always refreshing in today?s society where everyone wants to sugarcoat everything so as not to offend anyone. In some ways, I would compare Marc?s method of teaching to the comical rants of George Carlin. You may be offended by what he says, but by golly it?s the truth. And yes, sometimes the truth hurts.
Once again, Marc gives you a no-holds barred look at the reality of fighting and surviving on the street. This book is simply loaded with sound principles and easy to learn techniques for making the most of a bad situation. Marc discusses the various hand positions and striking surfaces that can be used for striking your opponent, as well as, the principles behind them. I find this information on the principles behind the techniques very useful, and it is usually a very good indicator of a high quality self-defense and/or martial arts book.
The other major area covered in this book is the various vulnerable and vital areas throughout the human body that can be exploited during a fight. Marc not only tells you what areas to strike, but also how to strike them and what happens to a person when these areas are struck. Always a very useful piece of information to know before it is needed. It is also something that you will want to store in the old grey matter. Like my father used to say, ?Use your head for more than a hat rack!?
If you are a strict traditional martial artist with a closed mind then (although this book would definitely be good for you), don?t waste your time or money buying it. However, regardless of your training background, if you have an open mind and are willing to look at something from a slightly different viewpoint, then I would highly recommend that you add this book (and others like it) to your personal library.
I am a traditionally trained martial artist in both Karate and Tae Kwon Do, as well as being ranked in several other disciplines. However, unlike a lot of schools that have degenerated down to teaching a diluted ?sport? version of these arts, I was fortunate enough to be taught the practical version of each technique alongside the traditional version.
By reading Marc?s books, I feel that he had the great misfortune to be exposed to way too many of the former and not enough of the latter. Having said that, I can totally understand where Marc?s bias towards the ?McDojo? type martial arts comes from, and one that I myself tend to agree with.
Although a lot of what Marc teaches in this book I already knew, there were just as many things that I didn?t know, or was shown from a different view point. I am never too old to learn and I definitely learned a lot by reading this book. You will too!
Remember, if you think you know everything, you actually know nothing!
Self Defense And Street Fight Psychology
Let?s speak about the psychological aspect of a street collision. You should differentiate two items. You must realize, whether your fight is a result of a usual domestic conflict, or you are attacked by a robber, killer or bandit. Your actions will flow depending on these circumstances.
If it is an everyday domestic conflict that happens in the street (someone pushed you or your leg, disturbed the queue order etc.), you should not use your fighting knowledge and skills to put your opponent out of action.
As a rule, all these conflicts occur because of trifles, and you need to behave normally in this case, let?s say naturally. When this conflict happens, no one wants to fight actually, but just gets rid of the negative energy that was accumulated.
Those who express harshly their negative reaction are not dangerous at all in most cases. He will threaten you, make expressive gestures, grab you with iron fingers but nothing more will happen. This is nothing but the pose which does not contain real threat at all. However, there are exceptions in this case too. You must define at once who is dangerous and who is not.
I would like to precise one thing. Though laws and principles of a hand-to-hand fighting are the same, a sports battle in a gym differs greatly from that one happened in the street. If you are calm when fight in a sports gym and don?t worry about fatal injury, you will be extremely nervous when come across your real enemy in the street. You won?t fight according to rule (as you do in the sports gym), you need to act most quickly and cruelly sometimes for your effective self defense.
The psychological aspect plays a very important role in the street scuffle. You must prevent your enemy?s attack or take the lead over him. Therefore, I advise you on no account not to start fighting if you see you can avoid it.
If you cannot do that and you know you will be attacked inevitably, you should act quickly, harshly and be the first with attack actions. Lots of things depend on who starts the battle first. This is the main distinction of a street fight. When you train in the sports gym, it is not important at all who will attack first. Both fighters are ready to attack and defense.
It is not the same thing in the street fight. Opponents rarely stand at the certain stances (as in the sport gym) and are situated in close distance quite often. In other words, they are in the hitting zone of each other. Hence, a person who starts his attack first has a huge advantage. Attack here means just the most harsh and strong action and not the expressive gestures at usual domestic conflict.
I always feel awkward when I am forced to come into such conflict. When I see a person standing in front of myself and offending me, I feel ashamed for this conflict that occurred. This person cannot be dangerous for me, he is completely defenseless.
I know that I can put him out of action in a moment, but my consciousness does not let me do that. As we see, such clashes that happen in shops, public transport, streets etc are not the fight itself, but just an everyday conflict.
Real fight happens when your enemy or enemies are certain in their superiority over you. For example, it may be numerical advantage, force advantage or armament advantage.
So, I strongly recommend to you: try to avoid street fight at any cost. If you see you are about to be attacked, you need to act most quickly and harshly. You must always remember that if your enemy is eager to fight with you, he is sure in his superiority. If he is alone and is not too strong or high, but still wants to fight, it means most likely that he is either armed with the weapon or instructed of some martial art.
Alexander Popov is the leading expert in knife and hand-to-hand combat in the version of Spetsnaz GRU. Spetsnaz martial arts videos and ebooks: <a href="http://www.spetsnaz-gru-smersh.com" title="http://www.spetsnaz-gru-smersh.com" target="_blank">http://www.spetsnaz-gru-smersh.com</a>
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