IMHO! I think the term MMA is deceiving and is a misconception and is stereotyped to a certain way. What do you guys think???
To me it refers to a specific sport with specific rules and limitations. Predictable conditions.
When people refer to the idea of mixed martial arts in the broad sense, outside of the realm of a specific sport, maybe what they should say is "mixing martial arts"?
This place is DEAD! OVER!
JKD IS DEAD MAN!
MMA means training 1-2 sport grappling systems (BJJ, Judo, Sambo, Freestyle/Folkstyle/Greco-Roman Wrestling) and 1-2 full contact sport striking systems (Boxing, Muay Thai, San Shou, Kyokushin Karate) with training to combine them and compete in MMA which is any ruleset which allows someone who trains in the sub component styles of MMA to use most or all of what they learned in every style simultaneously in competition.
I guess I don't actually train MMA then, unless asstastic striking counts.
While we're at it, what counts as Vale Tudo? Is it just a (lack of) rules set for competition, or is it a specific type of BJJ training?
thank you folks for stepping up and voicing your opinion. I would say that
"Dog brother fighting" is closer IMO to the meaning of Mixed Martial Arts then what has been portrayed to the masses as UFC type fighting.
Putting a limit on the Mix in mixed martial arts is discriminating against anyone who disagrees with the mix of another's choice. He who disagrees with another mans choice is the assassin to the concepts of JKD.
JKD is very much alive to those who can grasp air.....again IMHO.
That's something that happens with the English language though. Martial Arts itself is a misnomer, as unarmed combat is pretty useless in a military context, and with modern militaries describing anything they do as an art is getting quite macabre. Martial Arts is a term that is used to either describe traditional Asian fighting arts or a system of unarmed fighting. Dog Brothers doesn't fit either of those, as it incorporates principles from Fencing and from Wrestling meaning it's not just from the Asian mix, and it incorporates weapons meaning it's not an unarmed fighting system.
It gets pretty complicated when we already freely use a phrase that doesn't mean what it literally means, and then start throwing adjectives on. Gets more complicated when you start translating to "budo" or "wushu" and begin analyzing the Kanji and Hanzi for all the layers of meaning in Japanese and Chinese.
Something that has worked well for me talking to Japanese people is saying Kakutougi, which I understand means something like "combat sports" and there isn't much ambiguity at least that I've come across. It fits my definition of MMA quite well, and I don't think it means anything that literally translates to MMA.
Something of an issue I have with calling Dog Brothers "MMA" is that they're really the only group that does what they do - freely incorporate anything useful and effective into their context of being armed with a stick, knife or other such easily portable and relatively cheap weapon. Dog Brothers is Dog Brothers, people know what you're talking about and there's no ambiguity, so saying DB is MMA isn't terribly useful, since we already have an unambiguous term in DB and if anything it helps to say DB isn't MMA just to narrow it down. It's already enough of a confusion having people who practice Tai Chi, Hsing I and Pakua together saying they do MMA, or that Judo is an MMA because it has its origins in multiple arts.
A term I'd like to throw out is "Syncretic Martial Arts" - it's a deviation from "Eclectic Martial Arts" which I've seen used to refer to JKD, Kali and DB, but I figured wasn't a great term in principle because it suggested a random assortment of arts. Syncretic suggests a solid integration of various arts to achieve a specific purpose. There's more deliberation suggested in SMA than EMA or MMA.
I'd also throw out that repurposing the "M" from "Martial" to "Melee" would also help. Melee has a meaning of close or hand to hand fighting, along with confusion. Naturally the latter part could be considered pejorative, but it also acknowledges the fact that fights aren't pretty. If it's pretty it's a choreographed encounter or an incredibly rare event. The Art part balances that out pointing to making a Melee into something more than just a pointless brawl.
Just changing it from M to F for Fighting would also do the trick, as the Martial in Martial Arts carries its own baggage and the whole phrase Martial Arts carries baggage as well.
Ideologic - This place is DEAD! OVER!
JKD IS DEAD MAN!
Sometimes I think this is true. With CSW, DelGrotti and Nelson the only non-traditional remnant of JKD are successful MMA schools.
DelGrotti? Do you mean Mark de la Grotte?
"Putting a limit on the Mix in mixed martial arts is discriminating against anyone who disagrees with the mix of another's choice. He who disagrees with another mans choice is the assassin to the concepts of JKD."
JKD isn't MMA. JKD also has its own share of politics showing people aren't even in agreement about what JKD is. At least with MMA there is some semblance of agreement, so equating JKD with MMA to me is just dragging MMA down to the level of confusion of JKD.
Ideologic - To me it refers to a specific sport with specific rules and limitations. Predictable conditions.
When people refer to the idea of mixed martial arts in the broad sense, outside of the realm of a specific sport, maybe what they should say is "mixing martial arts"?
I definitely agree with the first part.
Part 2: what ever happened to the term "crosstraining?"
Good point about the cross-training. I own a pair of shoes called cross-trainers...It's ok for shoes, should be ok for me!
Joe Maffei - thank you folks for stepping up and voicing your opinion. I would say thatWell put.
"Dog brother fighting" is closer IMO to the meaning of Mixed Martial Arts then what has been portrayed to the masses as UFC type fighting.
Putting a limit on the Mix in mixed martial arts is discriminating against anyone who disagrees with the mix of another's choice. He who disagrees with another mans choice is the assassin to the concepts of JKD.
JKD is very much alive to those who can grasp air.....again IMHO.
Hi All,
MMA to, me means both stand up and ground fighting regardless of rules...
M...
MasterofDeath - OneScoup is like the most biased jkd person ever. On my ug jkd school advice thread he said jkd is only good for beating up a wooden dummy. He also on other jkd fdorums claims jkd sucks and mma is good.
Hi Pauper.