AndrewGreen

(Borrowed from my site ) What Is Mixed Martial Arts? Well, it is a name, and nothing more. As soon as you start trying to define it into a "styl" you have missed the point entirely. It is not about following a specific style, or a specific instructor. It is about training the individual to be the best they can be, as an individual. In MMA the objective is not to look a certain way, or rely on certain techniques, it is not about memorizing terms or repeating "forms", no what it is about is improvement and performance in a live environment. There is no list of techniques, no terms to remember, no testing, instead there is just hard work, sweat and experimental learning. We don't wear rank, we don't even have rank, it just isn't necessary, or even compatible with what we do. Rank gives a hierarchy, it tells you who gets to tell who they are right or wrong in what they are doing. This is not the way we feel progress can be made, how can you work as a team when you have such a visible hierarchy? Why can't that white belt (that happens to have several years wrestling) contribute to the black belts understanding of takedowns? When you train with people regularly you learn very quickly who is capable of what, what strengths / weaknesses each person has, and who can help you get better at different things. 2 minutes of sparring can tell you far more about a persons skill then a coloured belt and stack of certificates ever could. So what is it we do? Well, we train, we learn, and we sweat. Instead of asking ourselves what techniques we need to memorize to get the next belt, we ask ourselves what we need to work on to improve ourselves, not in the eyes of a examiner, but on the mats, in practice, not in theory. We do this by constantly reassessing what we are doing, why we are doing it and how we can do it better. There is no 100 year old curriculum handed down from some old master on the other side of the world that has never been critically examined since. We wouldn't accept that in an applied science class, and Martial Arts training is an applied science. We don't progress according to a checklist and when an examiner says we do, we progress based on our own development and our own effort. There is a range of skill levels, you can think of it as a long line if you like. Everyone starts at a different point, and not everyone can reach the same point along that line. What is important is that as we train we move up that line, and keep moving up it. There are no preset roadmarks along the way, there can't be. Not without discouraging some and limiting the rest. We can't put speed limits on progress, and that is exactly what a belt system with time restricted / based testing does. We don't limit ourselves to what has been done, instead we are interested in what could be done. We are constantly looking for better ways, if we find a problem in what we are doing we work to fix it, not ignore as "Not a part of our style". Science was stuck in the dark ages for a long time because of this sort of thinking, and the Martial Arts should not repeat that mistake. Aristotle was brilliant, but his work has been improved on by many generations of scientists. Many of the old masters where undoubtedly brilliant martial artists as well, and their work has been improved on as well. One of the biggest concerns many who do not know much about MMA has is often safety, and how hard it is on the body, that it is only for young athletic people. But this is simply not true. What we do is about moving forward and finding better ways to do things. This is in all aspects of training, including staying healthy and not getting hurt. We do not restrict ourselves to sports training methods from 100 years ago, instead we look to modern sports science for training methods and healthy training practices. MMA training can be perfectly safe, and it can also be taken to a competitive level and into rings. But so can any other sport. Karate has bare knuckle full contact competitions, Tae Kwon Do goes full contact in competitions, Kung fu is the same. You can start with flag football and go all the way to the NFL too. Not everyone is capable of competing at the top level, in fact most people would get hurt if they tried, but this is the same in any sport. But everyone is capable of training, learning, exercising and having fun in a very safe environment. The other objection many have is with the restrictions of competitions. No multiple attackers, no weapons, etc. But that is competition, not training. All of those things can be brought into the gym and experimented on. Playing basketball is not restricted to 5 on 5. Games get played all over the world with different numbers, uneven numbers, only one net, etc. MMA training is no different, just because it isn't a part of competition does not mean we are somehow magically prevented from doing it in training. The last objection I want to look at is the "mental" aspect of training. Which again comes from those that are programmed into a certain way of thinking. If your doctor is not using herbs and leaches is he not practicing medicine? So why is it that if we aren't talking about mystical energies we are not talking about mental training? Sports Psychology is a large field that goes into very great depth on mental training, has been subjected to tests and built upon those "traditional" methods. The mental aspect of what we do is huge, in fact it is as important if not more so then the physical parts. It is the reason a much smaller, weaker person can consistently defeat larger, stronger, more aggressive ones. To say that it isn't there is silly. The other thing is as I have been explaining MMA is about growth and improvement. These things require critical thinking skills, without them they are impossible. What we do is not just mindlessly memorize and repeat patterns like drones, it is about constantly and critically evaluating everything we do. I hope this helps to clear up some of the questions out there on what exactly it is MMA is about, and what we do. We are plagued by more myths and misconceptions then truths it sometimes seems.

Just one, his, but he changed it a lot along the way and learnt from many sources. Which is what he tried to tell everyone else to do too. Do your own thing, don't worry about styles, take what you can from wherever you can, as long as you can make it work.

Looking to MMA the Muay Thai clinch needs modified. Takedowns become a threat and the gloves are smaller. You are also allowed to stay in the clinch for longer. Underhooks / overhooks are a big part of MMA clinch work, but you don't see them in Muay Thai. It might be a good place to start, but it is definately not the same set of skills.

Punching from in tight can have a lot of power, if you have control and good technique. Ever been hit with a shovel punch? Takes the wind out of you quite nicely from real tight. Of course you need to be in a good position to throw anything in the clinch, if the guy has your head down you can go all out and wind yourself before him.

The other time it can cause harm is when it is a choke across the windpipe, you likely won't pass out but can damage it causing swelling. You will talk funny for a few days, in worse cases you will have trouble breathing, and in even worse need a tube stuck in your throat. This is different from a "blood choke" though, which is relatively safe and I think a fairly accurate way of looking at it would be "fainting", on a healthy adult it shouldn't do any damage, but that doesn't mean do it regullarly. If you pass out due to holding out and refusing to tap you're an idiot, make a habit of it and you're instructor will likely show you the door.

I wouldn't say I've mastered it, no where near that... But if you put one in my hands I can fight with it without KOing myself. They are fun, just make a padded one, put on helmets and go at it A lot of the time you'll be using it almost the same as 2 single sticks, just a little more awkward, when you get or create an opening, or when the distancing is right you can take a swing, but don't lead with this because if it is unsucessful while you recover you are getting hit.

No, it's the way it is. Overhead on a commercial school is high, and students tend to be cheap. Around here even some of the more established ones have been dropping.

Those rules have not always been there, In fact, when the straight grapplers really dominated, they weren't.

bop 'em on the head with it sorry, I got nothing... I wouldn't really consider it a practical weapon, more of a cool toy.

Sure it will, where do you think they fought before the Octagon was built? If you look into BJJ's history you'll see a lot of no rules challenge matches and street fighting. There where some pretty high class Fighters there. Royce was a serious underdog in most peoples eyes. He was smaller, not as strong, hadn't had the competition records of the other fighters. There where some relly weak guys that came in, but there was some very good ones too. THey lost not because of their skills, but because of their skillset, it was incomplete without the restrictions they where used too. Paritally, Rorion Gracie and Art Mann owned it. They brought in the best fighters they could get in there, and there was some good ones. I don't buy the "Olden days" argument. Does it really matter what they did 100 years ago? There is not a lot of evidence for what they did, no way to know how could they where, and it is irrelevant as what matters is what is getting down now. Maybe, so get out of it and do something that isn't. Join a boxing gym, only belts are title belts and you don't give those to yourself. The rank system is broken, but that is cosmetics and really has nothing to do with peoples abilities. No it isn't, you have a lot more control on the ground. A moderatly skilled grappler would be able to escape almost any standing lock. Not so easy to do, try it and they'll probably break all of yours. If you are fighting a better grappler, all the grappling dirty tricks you can think of work in their favour, not yours. Standing they can swing, might get lucky. Any one can get knocked out by anyone if the cards are in their favour that night. Odds aren't great if your a lot more skilled, but it's still possible. Take them down, mount them, then punch them in the face and the odss of them effectively returning from that point are a lot smaller.

Boxers get them too. Comes from damaging the ear, they swell up but don't naturally drain so the blood hardens. Most people will never get them, a few get them fairly easily. If you do, get them drained right away and it won't harden. If it hardens it's harder to fix. If you find you are getting them, you can wear headgear like the wrestlers do: http://www.illinoiswrestling.com/2003/conantphotos1.html Anyways, I wouldn't worry about it too much. They are easy enough to deal with unless you leave them, and headgear will protect you. Train smart and look after yourself and you will be fine.

Starting of in a new place by trying to mislead everyone is never a good plan.

A few more ideas.... First, it's a kids class, don't try to structure it too rigidly. Looking at your curriculum everything integrates eventually, why try to seperate it? Clinch and ground are not to seperate subjects, and if you are doing striking with them too that isn't either. If you try to get them to think of it as seperate ranges they will, and they will seperate them, which is not what you want. You want them to be able to put together all of the pieces into one big piece. Striking gets seperated because of the need for gloves and shin pads, I would suggest you seperate into Kickboxing and Submission. In both they can clinch and takedown. The difference is in striking they are wearing the gloves and don't do submissions. And make the distinction based on "No hitting without gloves" Now, the other thing to watch is that kids are not little adults. They think differently and the learn differently. They are at a stage where they are still learning to spell, add, subtract, learn the way around the neighbourhood and countless other things. They do not have time to stop and bother with the little details on any of them. They will be able to pick up general ideas and motions quickly, but if you make things detailed, they will not process them. So if you are teaching an armbar and are telling them to keep there knees together, pull there feet in and a half dozen other details, they won't. At least not until they become neccessary (escapes get taught) to learn, until then they have better things to write into there memory. You're also going to want to teach very few techniques from any given position. So 2 or 3 sweeps tops for the first year or so. maybe 1 for the first few months. For the same reasons as above they won't learn more, and will end up mixing up the details. It should be when you are in guard do this one thing, not one of these 12 things. They are in a completely new environment and learning 20+ other brand new things at the same time. Keep it simple, and keep it general. Once they have been sparring for a while and kno w that one thing well and know to do it when the time the details will work themself in as needed. Why isn't this working? you need to grab his arm first. Still not working, do the same thing going the other way... After they have been doing it for a few months and can do it well, give them a new technique to play with. It might help to draw up a table, list all the basic positions, give a row for top and a row for bottom, then put the technique you want them to start with in the boxes. Once they are doing them all... or at least attempting them all at the appropriate times there is your first belt/level/whatever you are using. This should include one shoot, one or two clinch takedowns (maybe one from front and one from the back) and all the bare basics of whatever standup you are doing. Also make the techniques you choose "force" them to develop key elements that apply to other things. likes scissor sweep - Teaches them hip movement on the bottom, to stay off there back and to open there guard. A Body lock and trip from standing - Gets them pummeling for underhooks and closing in tight before going for the takedown. And here is a rather lengthy article on kids in martial arts: http://innovativema.ca/index.php?section=articles&page=kidsinmma (Ignore anywhere it says "mma" and replace with whatever style you like....)

Here's a few I put into a list a while back, I was intending on adding to it but instead they ended up going into a wiki form (Wiki isn't up right now) MMA Training Games Part 1 Copyright ©2004 Andrew Green http://innovativema.ca Name: Up and Down # of Players: 6 or more Skills: Reflexes, Teamwork, Warm up / cool down game Equipment: Soft balls (3 is usually a good number) Instructions: Divide into 2 teams, each team gets one side of the gym and can't cross to the other. If a player gets hit he sits down. If the player that hit him gets hit then he gets back up. So if a player has hit 3 others on and then gets hit, all 3 get back up. This encourages team work and basic strategy. Name: Crab fights # of Players: 2 or more Skills: Balance, strength, movement Equipment: none Instructions: Players start in a crab position, belly up on hands and feet, and must remain in that position. If they turn over or touch the floor with anything but there hands and feet they are out. They must push and pull other players to off balance them, last one still up wins. Watch for kicking, if it is a problem restrict them to pulling / hooking other players. Name: Freeze tag # of Players: 4 or more (more is better) Skills: Endurance, warm up / cool down game, other depending on variation Equipment: none Instructions: One person is “It”, that person must “Freeze” all of the other players by tagging them. Once frozen they stand arms out until a non-frozen player runs under one of their arms, this unfreezes them back into the game. You can also change the way a player becomes unfrozen to incorporate other skills. For example when frozen they drop to hands and knees and become unfrozen when another player shoulder rolls over them, or sits on their back and does a back break fall over them. Or have them stand arms out and become unfrozen when thrown. Make the skills match what you are trying to teach. Name: Black Knights # of Players: 2 or more Skills: strategy, contact, footwork Equipment: Foam Bats (These can be made with pool noodles, PVC pipe and duct tape.) Masks are a good idea as well. Instructions: From Monty Python and the Holy Grail – Players must attack each others limbs with the bats, a clean hit removes that limb and the player may not use it. Arms go behind back when removed, with one leg the player is hoping, with both removed they are on their knees. This is a great lead in to sparring as it gets them used to making contact and getting hit while keeping it fun and “Not scary” Name: Belt Wrestling # of Players: 2 Skills: Introduction to wrestling, control, strategy Equipment: Belts Instructions: Players start of on knees facing each other, the goal is to remove the other players belt. Once it is off the match is over. Players can not grab their own belt at any time. Variation - “Knock your socks off” - Same idea except players fight to remove each others socks. Name: Cross the Floor # of Players: 3 or more Skills: Teamwork, balance Equipment: Kick Shields, or any other object that can be moved and stood on. Instructions: You need just enough shields that all the players can fit on with one left and no room to move. They must cross the floor without touching the floor. This is done by everyone moving onto all but the last shield and passing it to the front, and repeating. Name: Position Names # of Players: 4 or more Skills: Learning various positions and focusing on the smaller details Equipment: none Instructions: Pair up the players, instructor calls out a position, ex. “Mount!” and each team goes to that position, They also must do it “properly”, so give 2 or 3 details that they are to focus on, so for “Guard” you might want a Underhook, hold the head down and cross the feet. Keep the number of positions low to start and build up as you go. Change the details to match what you where teaching that class. So if you where doing basic attacks from guard you might call “Arm bar”, “Triangle”, “Chicken Wing”, etc. Name: Escape! # of Players: 2 Skills: Strategy, scramble, pins, escapes Equipment: marked off “ring” Instructions: One players goal is to keep the other player in the ring, the other players goal is to escape. Start the player trying to keep the other one in the ring in dominant position and say go. Once the player escapes the match is over and they switch. Name: Sumo # of Players: 2 Skills: Balance, clinch control, strategy Equipment: marked off “ring” Instructions: Both players face off in the ring, the first person to step outside of the ring or have anything but their feet touch the ground loses. Players may not attack the legs, or use their legs to attack. Only upper body control. Name: Shield Fighting # of Players: 2 Skills: Balance, clinch control, strategy Equipment: Soft Kick Shields Instructions: Players face each other holding kick shields, If a player touches the floor with anything but their feet, lets go of the shield, or leaves the ring the match ends. They must push and redirect their opponent into losing balance or leaving the ring. This is a great drill for introducing throws as it gets them to work on redirecting a person who is pushing into them, in addition it is a great tool for balance. Name: Tails # of Players: 2 or more Skills: Footwork Equipment: Short ropes, socks, gloves – Something to stick in the back of their belts Instructions: Players face each other with “tails” stuck in the back of their belts, if they lose their tale they are out. They must steal the tail from other players. Players cannot grab each other, and must remain standing. Restrict playing space and divide them pairs or groups, or one big free for all. As an alternative attach the “tail” to the back of their knee to simulate a shoot. Name: Punching drills # of Players: n/a Skills: combination punching, form Equipment: none Instructions: Spread players out and call out combinations, they react and perform the combination. ex. “Jab-Cross”, “Jab-Round Kick”, “Jab-Jab-Shoot”, etc. Be ready with a foam bat in case their hands start dropping, sweep the feet if the legs go straight, etc. Be loud and keep the energy high. Name: Sword Dodging # of Players: 2 or more Skills: Reflexes Equipment: A sword, or something to represent one. Instructions: Stand in front of the class, swing the sword horizontally high, low of downward vertically. On high swings players must duck, on low swings jump and on downward swings side step. If they make a mistake they sit down (or do some push-ups) Last one standing wins. Name: Ball on the wall # of Players: The more the better Skills: using legs in guard, teamwork Equipment: Swiss Ball Instructions: Lie players down on their backs, butts to the wall. They must pass the ball along the wall from one end to the other without dropping it and back again. Alternatively go heads to the wall, or even stagger them. They can only use their legs, no hands. Name: Overhead Ball Pass # of Players: 3 or more Skills: Leg use in guard, Spinning in guard. Equipment: Swiss Ball Instructions: Players lie down on their backs, legs up as in guard. All of them start head towards the beginning of the line. Hand the ball to the first person, The ball can only be touched with their legs, the objective is to pass the ball down the line without dropping it. Once they have it they must turn so that their head is facing the other way and pass it over their head to the next person. After passing it stand up and run to the end of the line.

Not just that, a boxer a muay thai fighter and a TKD fighter all hold thier hands differently too.

Basically you need to know how to jab, and a little about footwork. A person can start some form of sparring within about 10 mins of training. In combative sports, sparring is how you learn the basics. When teaching grappling I've had kids spar as the first thing the do. "Start on your knees, no hitting, grabbing clothes or hair or hands in the face, first person who's back touches the floor looses, Go!"

http://www.karateforums.com/viewtopic.php?t=22890&highlight=footwork

Varies depending on what you are trying to do, and what the other guy is trying to do to you.

blisters will be the least of your concerns Buy some good hand wraps, the 15' ones, not the everlast 8' ones that most sporting goods carry.

He means do you pull your hand back before punching, does your elbow flare out? How easily can you opponent read what you are doing? Stamina - start running or skipping. The rest, pick one thing and work it. Fight with only a jab and a cross for a while, focusing on your footwork, ignore everything else and get beaten. Just worry about making your footwork better. Trying to win when you are new is a mistake in terms of progress, you should be trying to improve, not win. And that means losing for a while.

Contact sparring I have found to be safer then non-contact. People learn to protect themselves better, no one throws big hail mary attacks cause they open themselves up too much. The accidental spin kick to the head isn't going to happen. Things change when thier isn't a ref to stop everything after your attack. If you do it right, it is really quite safe, and you can still go to work the next day. But if you take a group of point fighters with no contact training and have them go at it hard someone will probably get hurt. They are two different skill sets and most point fighters don't know how to protect themselves well enough in a continuous contact match.

And wear Handwraps and gloves, if it's hurting your hands when you hit wrong, it's hurting when you hit right. It's just gonna take longer for you to notice. Protect your hands or eventually you won't be able to hit anything.

I got about a dozen or so techniques up on my site, will be adding more over the next while. Almost 100 photos worth. A couple, like the double leg takedwons one, shows a few finishes and counters as well. http://innovativema.ca/index.php?section=techniques There is also a couple articles that discuss training drills and methods.

Well, if I was working in an environment where steel toed boots where neccessary I'd get them, but if I was anywhere else I'd be wearing shoes. Are you planning on getting in a fight? or do you work somewhere that it is likely? Cause truthfully, most people will never have to defend themselves and choosing your footware based on that is a little silly IMO.

Isolate something and develop it in sparring. Beginers - Only allow a jab and focus on footwork, later add a cross, build other things in as they go. Coincedentally that is also how I would reccomend training skilled fighters, isolate what you want to work on, spar with it, then toss in everything else...