I really don't know where everybody gets the idea that MMA is this sort of end all martial art. MMA teaches you a little bit of a few martial arts. Bruce Lee once said "I fear the man who practices one kick 10,000 times more than a man who practices 10,000 kicks once." MMA fighters routinely come to my dojo for sparring and except for a few for the most part they all walk away defeated by the least experienced of our acolytes.
If you want to do MMA to do MMA then have fun. IF you want to do it for self defense then get a membership at a real dojo and learn a proper martial art.
MMA is good for self defense, the techniques are definitely practical. However, I think it's not safe or ideal to grapple in a street fight because if there's more than one person that you're fighting, the other(s) could definitely get you while you're grappling with someone on the ground. And also for the sake of staying alive and being unharmed, its much easier to run away while you're standing than laying on the ground. MMA is a sport and despite the fact that the fighters are trying to win against their opponent they have to put on a good show, especially in the UFC for the ppl watching. So it's better to not prolong the fight when it's on the streets, unless your purpose isn't getting out of the fight as quickly as possible for survival and is actually because you're planning to beat someone up. So yes MMA striking is good for street fighting, grappling not so much, unless you're pinned to the ground and have to hold your own from there. If you're more serious about protecting yourself, a lethal martial art like Krav Maga or any style that's practiced in the military is best.
It's good most certainly.
The only problem is, MMA is sport orientated and lacks the finer fundamentals of a true martial art.
Someone comes at you with a knife like this:
You will find martial applications in all systems whether they are sport oriented (as most are) or combat oriented.
That being said, applying those applications is another story. You have to train properly for them to be a reaction as you do not have time to think in a fight.
A good teacher of a good combat system will mold their students into being non aggressive but having the skills to be if needed. As strange as it may sound the more aggressive combat systems often turn out students who are more centered and far less aggressive. Actual research has shown (what very little there is) that students of combat systems have reduced aggression while students of sports systems have increased aggression. Of course everyone is different so how you absorb the teachings is up to you.
Sure knowing to gouge eyes and kick in the groin is one thing. But being able to actually do it is another. Landing those strikes takes training. Understanding distance line, center line. open gates, etc. These are very advanced concepts which the beginner just doesn't realize exists.
So talk to your parents seriously about a properly taught form of martial arts. If they say yes then just keep an open mind when finding a teacher. Try not to buy into the hype but use logic to evaluate.
You can find online classes to start with at http://www.shoushuonline.com but ask your parents first.
MMA training can be quite effective for self-defense, especially when the practitioner (you) understands what the difference between a competition and a real fight is. It would seem you have that perception, so MMA training, which by itself would provide training enough to deal with most fights, will give you the foundation you need to expand upon.
Remember one thing, any actions you choose to take can have consequences even if you do them in what you see as self-defense.
No. Some of the skills you will learn for MMA will be transferable to self defence (a good punch is always a good punch) but there are many many important things you need to learn for self defence that MMA doe snot teach you.
MMA will not teach you:-
Threat & Awareness Evaluation, Target Hardening, The Fence, verbal & physical de-escalation, weapons defence, dealing with multiple opponents or pre-emptive striking.
Also the groundwork you will learn in MMA is totally unsuitable for self defence. For self defence you need to learn how to get up off the ground as quickly as possible, in MMA once you are on the floor you will learn to start looking for locks and finishes. That's great in the cage, triangle choke someone in the cage and you win, triangle choke someone outside the chip shop on a Saturday night and his mates will use your head as a football.
If you want to learn realistic self defence I recommend you check out Dead or Alive, the ultimate self protection handbook, by Geoff Thompson.
Any martial art is good for street self defense as long as your shoes grip the ground and you know how to get back off the ground before millions of other things happen.
Quick answer: No.
Ellaborated answer: Like you said MMA is a SPORT, yes I said MMA NOT UFC, MMA were invented with sports in mind and MMA came before UFC.
Please don't be so pretentious, saying that you can simply invent techniques on the fly on a street fight...no, thats why people train martial arts for years before trying to use them in a real fight.
Dude seriously, if you are jumped on by 2 crooks and they take you to the ground and start choking you, you're not going to invent an effective technique to get out of harm's way in the half second it takes for someone to tackle you to the ground, releasing yourself from a choke hold, especially if you're grounded, takes a lot of practice, you can't simply "bite his fingers off" because you will most likely be in a position where you absolutely have no way of biting him or doing anything.
Seriously, I'm sorry to say this but you sound extremely pretentious to me, you're pretty much saying "Lol all of these several decades of developing this martial art are useless, I can invent my own self defense system in 1 minute and I would be better than all of those idiots training for years!".
I'm really sure you'd be the kind of guy who would dare to pick a fight against a KM instructor just because you 2 are physically comparable, needless to say you would just be buying a ticket to the ER and several months of recovery teraphy.
As for what you said about "not being able to defend agaisnt weapons": BULLSH*T, go take a look at history, see how many cultures managed to develop several styles to defend themselves from armed attackers with blades much longer than your standard combat knife.
"No attacker with a pistol is going to come that close to you!", Now I see you've never been mugged, please explain to me how exactly do you get mugged with the guy 50 yards away from you? when you get mugged the guy will get in your face 99% of the time, why? because he feels safe, he has the power (the gun), you don't, he feels reassured and feels he can do anything so he isn't worried about getting close to you, and that's when self defense training comes in.
"actions are faster than reactions!" yes because actions occur first, that doesn't mean that an action will always reach an end before the reaction, and thats where reactions are useful. Krav maga is a MILITARY system, it's literally teached to special forces who have to go inside of buildings that may be full of terrorists and clear them without making a sound and you even dare say it's fake and useless?.
Really just attend a KM class and ask the instructor to let you attack him with a knife and see if you can touch him.
I'd seriously love to spar with you, to see if you can come up with a way to release or counter from a choke hold, joint lock or just plain strikes before I manage to cause a severe injury in your body.
If you want to learn real self defense, go learn krav maga, silat, eskrima, sambo, etc...
hopefully you will get rid of that "that's all useless and im the reincarnation of bruce lee and imi lichtenfiel" mindset you currently have.
I plan on taking it during the summer. Im 16 and i wanted to do a combat type of style or system but my parents won't let me do that.So now it's just MMA left. People say MMa i s not practical because they say it's a sport but thats because of UFC they think that it's what it is called and that is Mixed martial arts.I know they have rules and in a streetfight there are no rules.So you have to fight dirty.But can i do MMA and apply dirty tactics because in my opinion you don't need to learn krav Maga or other types of self defense systems to learn to fight dirty. Cause i came up with this mindset in order to defeat any threat the best way is destroy their tools and vulnerable points of the body.So i can gouge eyes, hit the groin, elbow to throat,biting.If someone was choking me on the floor i would think what can i do that will make not want to hurt me anymore i would take his foot try to crack it or fingers break or bite it off.So why would i need those systems.I know MMA lacks multiple attackers and weapon defense but no art can teach you weapon defense because its stupid to try to fight someone with a weapon.If i had gun i would not stand so close to you i would keep a good distance.And knifes its impossible because isn't action faster than reaction.So i was thinking do MMA and just researching dirty tactics to add for fighting.I really like sambo is it common for MMA gyms or schools to teach that.Also i am sorry if i made a mistake im newbie to martial arts.
