What is MMA?

WHAT IS MMA?


I am told it is an abbreviation of Mixed Martial Arts but what is that?

MMA is the biggest Martial Arts phenomenon at present but something I have not particularly followed my own expertise is more Traditional Martial Arts & Grappling, Judo, Jiu Jitsu, CombatSombo, Sombo, Sport CombatSombo, Kurash, Belt Wrestling, Submission Wrestling etc.

I am told that these are now old hat and that I must use my expertise to move into MMA or Cage Fighting the latter I have no interest in what so ever. So I began to enquire what is MMA first I found out it is very difficult to get Insurance cover mainly because MMA has no distinct History or Philosophy. Many years ago when MMA first started I was told it would be the ultimate Fighting System taking the best from every Martial Art and blending it altogether, well I have heard that one before and none have achieved its aim all end up following a route which the founder wants, based on his strengths and weakness but the success of MMA may have proved me wrong.

Now I can understand an Insurance company not insuring an MMA organisation who claims that MMA is a mixture of all Martial Arts this would be near impossible to insure, for one: how would one become expert or even proficient when it takes years of training and dedication to become proficient in one Martial Art/Combat Discipline?

So we have established that MMA is not blender full of Martial Arts made into one Martial Arts Soup, so what are these clubs doing who call themselves MMA. Well my research show that a great deal of clubs are doing different forms of Wrestling without Jackets, some call themselves MMA Submission Wrestling i.e., where the aim is to gain a submission, the rest do points scoring Wrestling like the Japanese Combat Wrestling this where Free Style Wrestlers added submission to there arsenal of techniques or most resemble the old fashioned Catch as Catch Can. The one thing in common there is hardly any throwing.

Now the next group of MMA fighters are the ones who just wear shorts and wear padded gloves and have a mixture of Striking and Grappling to defeat their opponent, this I believe is where the original founders of MMA come from and the name MMA was an ideal Product Name, The Combat Discipline was born round a set of rules rather then the other way round and this made perfect sense, back in the mid 1970’s I tried something similar and called it Shiai Jutsu (Competitive Art) using different styles of rules, all competitors wore a JudoGi, Shin and Instep, Padded Gloves I even developed a grading system, top Martial Arts people like Iron Man Trevor Roberts reached 6th Dan. The style never really took of as it was a mish mash of everything. Yet round about the same time the Gracie’s had developed their own style of Ultimate Fighting the for-runner of Cage Fighting which was a success story and won them World Wide Fame. There’s must be the success story of the Century, some say I should have carried on but I felt it did not achieve what I wanted the Ultimate Martial Art and my heart was still with Jacket Grappling Styles. For the last few years I have ventured into mixing Striking and Grappling with Sport CombatSombo this is a some what watered down version of the Russian Sambo Combat and in March I am having the Pankration European President over for a seminar, this ancient sport looks very interesting





So what is MMA?

I believe it is a precursor for training in becoming a Cage Fighter, which is an extremely hard style of Combat all though I wish they do not use the word Fighting as it gives the wrong impression and could be associated with back street fights. The skill level is more then just Fighting, Cage Combat would be a better name and would give it more Gladiatorial Kudos. MMA as I said is a product name it may have started as Mixed Martial Arts but now just MMA will suffice.

MMA has been good thing for those who do not want to do Traditional Combat Discipline and has given them another outlet, to train and compete. If that is all you want to do is there no need for the rituals of Traditional Martial Arts and that is not decrying Traditional Martial Arts after all I have been doing them for 55 years. MMA has encouraged a lot of people to start up little clubs with small groups of people getting together to have a wrestle which is good. The problem all these little groups do not have any structure or Insurance that is why I am starting GRAPPLINGUK an organisation that still allows them their independence but can give a guiding hand.

Grappling UK will be offering Competitions and Courses home and abroad in many different grappling styles, such as:

With Jackets: Judo, Kurash, Sombo, Jacket Submission, Jacket Wrestling, Mongolian Style, Back to Back, Belt Wrestling, Kosen Judo, CombatSombo Wrestling

Without Jackets: Sombo, Back to Back, Submission Wrestling, Points Wrestling, and Judo Ne Waza

Grappling with Strikes: Sport CombatSombo and Pankration

For more information go to www.grapplinguk.co.uk or email grapplinguk@googlemail.com



Martin Clarke Sittingbourne