The Specialization Conundrum

[Drew]

I think controlling range and transitioning between them is a specialization of it's own. And I do think the concept often does not get enough attention.

You seem to be the only person who really caught on to what I meant, not to say It's anyone's fault but my own, I didn't really know how to put it.

I used several poor analogies, hand fighting really had nothing to do with what I was trying to describe.

Specialization has been going on in the Martial Arts for many years. I do see the value of what you are seeing, though. If I am reading you right, you are talking about grappling from stand-up, and working in the takedown, and not circumventing it for the sake of rolling, correct? However, I think it would depend on what the focus of the session is. If you are wanting to work a session on collar chokes, spending 10 to 15 minutes trying to work a takedown is going to kill your training time.

No, I am talking about rolling, but starting in a position (guard, mount, side control, scarf, whatever) that is likely to occur in mma, not a contrived (i.e. from the knees) position that will not occur. I would argue that starting from the knees and all that crazy knee takedown-battle jits that goes on at jits schools wastes plenty of valuable rolling time by itself.

The other thing is that much of what we have today is thanks to specialists. Specialists push the envelope in their field, and then go back and teach the generalists eye opening and nifty new things.

I agree.

I think I follow what you're saying, Drew! In my area there is a highly successful fighter that competed at some very high levels. His base and preferred art is muay thai. Now that he has opened his own school, he runs it as a muay thai gym. That's fine for Muay Thai competition, but his guys don't do well in pro mma competition because they only have 1 hour per week of grappling training.

Am I following your question correctly?

If so...I agree.

There's nothing wrong with preferring one phase of combat over another. But if you only teach that to your athletes, they aren't likely to do well.

Not quite. While that can also be an issue, I was referring more to the quality of training in a given range suffering, rather than the fighter suffering due to not getting enough training in a particular range.

Ug, this is a mess. For the record, I am very specialized myself. Though I'm working on it, my striking game on the whole is dreadful, it's entirely centered around tying people up and chucking them, so that I can employ my submissions (though better grapplers have recently shown me the error in this as well). I have nothing against specialization, I think treating mma like it is a collection of sports rather than one of its own is unwise.

[bushido_man96]

I see what you are saying now. Sometimes its tough to get across what we mean. The difference between the written and spoken word.....

So if I follow you now, you would rather start rolling either mounted or in guard, and then work from there, with a purpose, correct? To either improve a weak area or work on a certain set of skills for the day?

[Drew]

I see what you are saying now. Sometimes its tough to get across what we mean. The difference between the written and spoken word.....

So if I follow you now, you would rather start rolling either mounted or in guard, and then work from there, with a purpose, correct? To either improve a weak area or work on a certain set of skills for the day?

Precisely.