why does everyone keep saying?

Question

that mma is the best style of martial art. it is a competion and not a style e.g ufc, pride ,k1
and everyone keeps slagging of disciplines that they dont do or have no information about.
i do tkd and i still love to get information about other styles and their traditions, why does everyone keep fighting over this as this is used for self defence
(and bjj isnt the only and best martial art, that goes along with muay thai)

Answer 1

I've answered more questions trying to tell people to stop thinking MMA is a style and they can go out and learn it and go to UFC and fight.
Alot of people with no martial arts training or no understanding of what martial arts are or represent. They are caught up in the hype of UFC ever since it started playing on Spike TV every other day. It's like when X-Games first started everyone went out and got a skate board or BMX bike and that's all they talked about. Or when Miami ink and Inked first came out everyone had to go get a tattoo like it was a new idea.
People are drones they fall for what ever fad is going on at the time. They don't realize these fighters have been training in martial arts since they were kids. Starting in Karate or Judo etc... Or they wrestled in school and got realy good. Most of these fighters have been fighting in tournaments in their respective arts for years and then started trying out MMA competitions, either to test their skills more or to win some money.
If they get beat by a fighter from another style they often will train in that style or a similar one to help them beat that fighter next time. Once that fighter has their black belt in Judo and they are consistantly training in a striking art they can be concidered a mixed martial artist if you want to call them that. But to say someone who has never trained before could go and learn mixed martial arts is rediculous. So what happens is you get some guy who has a black belt in a crapy form of Karate and he got his yellow belt in jujitsu or Judo etc... He goes and opens up a dojo and puts a big sign on the wall that says MMA fighting styles. And when people sign up to train all they learn is Karate and a couple basic throws and maybe some "ground and pound" (for people who have no real skill). And they charge too much money and convince people they will learn how to fight like Matt Hughs in the ring and beat up anyone who picks on them.
Remember bjj is not a classic art Jujitsu is brazilion jujitsu and gracie jujitsu are styles where someone took jujitsu and added components that they thought would make the style better for what they wanted to do with it, such as some simple take downs and strikes. The only reason people really even know what jujitsu is is because of UFC. It is Japanese not Brazilian.
The reason why people say Jujitsu is better for self defence is because one it's all they here about.
No art is better than the other as a whole. It is all up to the individule training in the art and what they hope to get out of it.
Me I like Judo but I have been training in it since I was 4 and I'm 28 now so... It's part of life. Martial arts are not for you to go out and fight on the street it's for health and dicipline. We are not in anchient times nor are we in a war, that is what the arts were created for. So until any of us actually gos to a war where we are in hand to hand combat then it doesn't matter.
This dibate can go on for ever so...

Answer 2

You could look at MMA as a "Martial Science" more than an art, effectively blending arts together by way of rationale for its intended purpose.

but its all in the eye of the beholder. art? style? hybrid?? all could be true to another person.

The best fighting style will amount to defeat if the follower isnt the best student. I know people with little martail art training yet are vicious, calculated, and efficient at beating heads, while I have also met people with years of training who roll over and die.

The people let the art down more than the art letting the people down. the other extension of defeat falls into the propaganda of "this is the ultimate self defense" and ALL martial arts have been guilty of it at some point.

It is rubbish, and is nothing more than marketing. you cannot teach perfection to the imperfect.

It may be a 50/50 blend, of person and art. give or take.

experience is the best training, and limiting your experience to a mimimalist and narrow path of one style may not be the best in the long run.

adaptation and change: these are the arts to be cultured. and try a little of everything until you get the ideas that work for you. MMA can cut the time, as it combines stand up and grappling.

Answer 3

The problem, mostly, is that too many schools is ALL styles, have gotten away from teaching practicality and greared toward wither winnning competitions (which are unrealistic to say the least), or turning out black belts (even when they don't have proper skill to be as such).

I have trained for 33 years, taught for most of that, fought underground professionally, and privately as well as had my share of barroom and street fights and I can say that when properly used and properly trained I haven't encountered a style that was truly useless. I have fought against most styles over the years and while ALL styles have their strengths and weaknesses, only experience can make those exploitable.

Admittedly, some of the newer styles are little more than a rehashing of older techniques, but the techniques are still valid. Even after 33 years I hvae no problem adding new techniques to my aresnal, (although finding techniques after that many years that I haven't encountered before is unusual.) My whole point is that it isn't the art its the artist...if the person usein the style soen's know HOW to use it then the style looks useless and that is the fault of the teacher for not making certain that the student had the necessary Knowledge. I have always made certain that no matter how much, or how little a student of mine has learned that they learned well. Whether they trained for 6 months or 6 years they are fully cpable of using every technique I taught them with every bit of effectiveness that the techniques can have. That is the responsibility of the teacher to see that students have that knowledge. It is a matter of respect for ones own teacher and the history of the style to see that the knowledge has been passed down properly.

Of course finding a school that teaches their art as 'thoroughly' as it deserves is another matter. Too many are more willing to rush students through, as though the quantity of black belts is more importants that the quality. I have only had a few students that reached that level, but they are more than worthy of the name, and they can back up their ranking with skill.

I have looked into several of the schools here in the area where I live, Fresno, Ca. and have yet to find students from those schools that have the level of undersatnding that is necessary to use their skills effectively. And my contact with studens form other schools from other areas has been equally disappointing.

Answer 4

BJJ schools around the world are represented by a bunch of newbie snot nose punks. Two type of guys come out of these gyms. The guys that learn decent technique because they put their ego aside establish a good level of respect for one another and learn and the bastards who develop a bully mentality and never get past their own ego. There's nothing wrong with pride until the pride gets in the way of true learning. I saw over a dozen BJJ fighters go into matches against 'inferior' styles because they saw Royce Gracie do it in the UFC. Unfortunately most of those guys forgot they were doing a sport and the Gracies had been accepting challenges for decades before the UFC came around, their style was designed in neutralizing the mono stylistic stand up fighter who believed they couldn't be taken down. The guys that get mired into the BJJ is all you need to know get caught up into the same downfalls as all the other systems that eventually failed due to their inability to change. The minute you don't fear and give respect to another style is the day you're going to leave yourself open to defeat.

Muay Thai is not kickboxing, it's what they do but it's not kickboxing. Muay Thai teaches more than sparring in the ring. Great form of fighting, terrible for self-defense. if you want to learn self-defense take some Japanese Jujitsu/Combat SAMBO stuff, at least if the theoretical stuff doesn't work you can beat the crap out of them afterwords.

Answer 5

I totally disagree with afficianado.... Who is to say what is an art and what is not? Sure, alot of fighters may have originally trained in one art, but that is because there were not schools teaching MMA. MMA is constantly evolving to be a more seamless blend of "Traditional" martial arts. Maybe judo or karate wasnt considered "true" when people first began practicing it, but it gained respect bcuz it worked at the time. MMA may not be considered a style by some, but dont have a closed mind to what a style is. As for ground and pound, u may consider it not to have skill, but there is no denying its efficiency in some instances. Dont be close minded fools

Hey snodpsosser- How many schools have there been?? Alot?? Not by me, maybe in ur world. Its "relatively" new to the rest of the population, tho..

Answer 6

Because of the popularity of Pride and UFC and their promotion of MMA, it's the latest fad when in reality all anyone has to do is train or be trained in one or more disciplines of Martial Arts.

All MMA is about is taking two strong disciplines one that's an extreme side of the standing game (usually Muay Thai, because it does'mt employ more than mostly baseline types of kicks like roundhouse, sidekick, front kick and maybe hook kicks, and knee strikes in the kicking department) and the equally strong ground game (Brazilian Jujitsu is usually the prime choice here because of it's use of close quarter ground strikes like punching and elbowing on the ground, or even some Greco Roman wrestling)

and then the individual get's cocky, and that's where their ego's get the better of them because they've gone up against someone that's only learned one side of this type of fighting or didn't have a good strategy coming into the match and they beat them.

Basically these guys like to think every other discipline is inferior or useless or impractical, all because they've never studied anything else but that type of sparring (MMA) so make themselves feel better by trashing every other discipline and walkin around with their chests all pumped up.

EVERY Martial Art teaches self defense in one form or another whether it's Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Brazilian, Filipino, Russian, Israeli, Taiwanese, French (I'm referring to the french "kickboxing" known as Savate), etc.

These guys will never understand what Martial Arts is truly about, and this problem about who's discipline is better than who's has been around for years, and it'll ALWAYS be around Ash; with guys like them who think they gotta put the other disciplines down and challenge everyone else in the process. and they don't realize that even their OWN beloved disciplines they study have their weaknesses as well as their strong points.

But the fact of the matter is, you NEED both catagories of these types of Martial Arts (standing game AND ground game fighting) to be a well rounded fighter.

So dude, don't worry 'bout it, All it comes down to is who has the best strategy to win, the most experience, and who trained to perfect what they learned. If they don't get it now; they NEVER will.

Answer 7

Oh everyone thinks their Martial Art is the best. The best one for you would be one that you are learning and having fun. Martial Arts is not all about fighting or competitions. It is suppose to be about self awareness, getting into shape, building your confidence, feeling like you could protect yourself if need be, and having fun!! A lot of these places have taken the fun out of it all. It is sad. Ignore the comments and go with what you like and what makes you feel good.

Answer 8

Apparently there are people here that don't understand the concept of MMA. It is NOT a martial art it is "MIXED" Martial arts, meaning a combination of styles. It could technically be tiger kung fu and mantis kung fu. You may not know the holds or take downs someone else would but you would technically be a MIXED martial artist knowing more than one art. And "sportsfan"...MMA has been taught for years, there are plenty of schools that teach or have taught more than one art for hundreds of years.

Answer 9

You are correct, and you will find a lot of the people who give little credit to other martial arts, such as karate, kung fu, Aikido etc... are younger guys who are knucklehead, tough guy wanna be's. They have very little, if any respect for the history, the wisdom, or the power of traditional arts. They are immature, and have never seen a true master in action. All they know, or want to hear about is ground and pound. They would in fact be humiliated and humbled if they were to spar with a true master.

Answer 10

First of all, K-1 isn't a MMA! It's kickboxing/Muay Thai hybird!

Second, Hood is a idiot! Muay Thai is a extremely effective style. Here's proof:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JcHKIUuDbCI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sk7O8ELJDvU
(both above are under Tae Kwon Do rule!)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zWhSh_huZGs

Also Muay Thai rule allows you to do a lot more things. How could other style be so damn effective if their competition don't even allows punch to head, elbows, knees, and clinch? Only Kyokushin, Seido, Eshin karates and San Da/San Shou are on same level as Muay Thai when it come to competition.

Yes people say "competition don't prove a thing" but look at those video clips, what do it tell you? Also competition mean you have more experience and know what to expetc, know what to watch out for, and don't froze like a deer in head light. So video clip should tell you something. People here WON'T even post any videos because they know there are no proof or their styles simply are not effective. So may you should start to look at hard evidence instead of listen to bunches of people make things up.

Lastly of all I have done many different styles and I have done tons of research. While most people have never set foot in other gym and perfer to close their eyes and plug their ears and run thier mouth whenever they hear something that doesn't go their way.

So... basically styles that competition usually mean the person really know what they're doing and have experience. They have got hit hard, they have got taken down, they have got thrown and the list goes on. So they know what it feel like and what to expect, they know which of their strikes are most effective and they have test themselve against others. So they know what they're talking about. They don't role play and fantasy about what will work and learn from some Hollywood movies. They know what they're doing. So that's why they are consider to be very effective fighter.

Give me a couple of hours and I'll gathers article up and post them.

Here's some:

This is probably what you're looking for:
http://www.bullshido.net/modules.php?name=Reviews&file=viewarticle&id=39
http://www.bullshido.net/modules.php?name=Reviews&file=viewarticle&id=22
http://www.bullshido.net/modules.php?name=Reviews&file=viewarticle&id=18

Anti Spar: http://www.bullshido.net/modules.php?name=Reviews&file=viewarticle&id=181