Does MMA* represent the ultimate evolution of unarmed combat? Do traditional martial arts retain value? What is the most effective method of testing one's art and training? What are the challenges facing traditional martial arts given the ascendancy of MMA?
*MMA refers to the styles most visible in the various combat sports venues (UFC, IFL, WEC, etc.) and includes Brazilian Ju-Jitsu, Shoot fighting, Muay Thai, Boxing, Catch Wrestling, Sambo, etc.
Greetings All!!
With my personal Philosophy of "Evolution through Fusion" I have no choice but to agree.
If you have more techniques, more tactics and more strategies in your arsenal with all physicality being equal, it would logically conclude you have more of an advantage in combat. Mixed Martial Arts gives you more of those techniques and etc I mentioned. In addition, the ability to prove its effectiveness by risking being on the receiving end of unfavorable consequences is the best way to determine the effectiveness.
How does experience play a role in this equation. Or is this implied in "strategies, techniques" and the like.
/me
Experience is key. Training and sparring allows for you to test, apply, and refine your technique. This helps you accumulate experience that is directly conducive to the art of fighting.
SN
QuoteSimba Nerevu wrote: Experience is key. Training and sparring allows for you to test, apply, and refine your technique. This helps you accumulate experience that is directly conducive to the art of fighting.
SN
Aane. And as far as the traditional vs mma...mma is also a tradition...it is just, as it is developing in its current form, a young tradition. It is developing its modalities and conventions for fighting in a specific context, i.e. a cage with a referee. It is developing its stock responses to the exigencies of the unique controlled context in which it as a sport is growing (like a heavy reliance on grappling and submissions that would get your dome split by the guy's buddies if you tried it in a nightclub fight...especially with weapons in the mix). Context and propriety is a pillar of the Kmtyw worldview. This type of understanding helps us to understand that the question is in what context is a specific martial art/technique useful as opposed to trying to find THE supreme martial art in a white unilineal evolution type of model.
/me