MMA ( Mixed martial arts )

Did you join just to reply to this thread slideyfoot?

Your site is awesomely detailed but makes my firefox crash (fine on safari though)

Thanks ;)

Did you join just to reply to this thread slideyfoot?

Thanks ;)

Yep: if I see a link I don't recognise pop up in my blog stats, I'll always follow it to the source. :)

Hopefully one of those places will prove useful to you. I'd guess the Capojitsu club is probably going to be the most affordable, as IIRC, that's run by a purple belt.

Your site is awesomely detailed but makes my firefox crash (fine on safari though)

Ah, didn't notice the edit.

That's a concern: there is a lot of stuff in there, with pictures and huge reams of text, but worrying if its crashing on a regular basis. I use Firefox myself, and (so far at least) haven't had it crash when trying to load up the blog.

Did that happen every time, and was it on a particular page?

Quick question to those who train no-gi/mma etc..

I'm going to start training no-gi very soon and looking at shorts, has anybody had any experience of either;

Manto shorts
http://www.mmauniverse.com/products/SS761

or,

Sprawl V-Flex XT
http://www.mmauniverse.com/products/SS535

I've narrowed my searches down to these two, I prefer the look of the Manto but if it's not going to hold up to the same degree as the Sprawl then I'll have to go with that instead.

I haven't had experience of either of those brands but I've heard good things about them.

I tend to stick to vale tudo style shorts (not much to them, but I use the BTT ones and a set of Wand) and have a couple of pairs of the Koral VT Pro's which I would highly recommend; amazing rip-stop construction, extremely durable, Koral are an awesome brand.

Indeed, I'm currently rolling in a Koral Classic (Blue) that is serving me well and going to get a Koral Light (Black) soon. I had a look at the VT shorts, nice, not sure about the camo colour but I found these that I like:

http://www.mmafightwear.net/fight-shorts/koral/short-vt-pro-light-koral-black/48/

No mediums anywhere though :(

possible matchup of BJ vs Nightmare at UFC107

A very Diego style "YES!" from me.

Episode one of TUF Series 10 is on www.myvideofight.com

gif of Wagners cut... "I can see skull" ergghhhhh

Mixed Martial Arts fighters out on the tiles in Swansea.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/6268426/Cross-dressing-cage-fighters-turn-tables-on-yobs.html
Served them yobs right.

I'm a bit late in this, but hey!

DFP, to be honest Wing Chun gets a lot of flak for not being effective because it usually doesn't contain any sparring. Now I am doing Wing Chun, and I didn't get completely murdered in my first sparring sessions just a couple of weeks ago, but there is definitely a lack of ground fighting and pressure testing in the curriculum.

Don't get me wrong, I love Wing Chun, and pretty much aim to complete the system. But there is no use in self delusion. Ring savy arts like Muay Thai and Boxing are much more used to pressure, therefore bound to succeed more.

But there are Kung Fu people in NHB / cage fighting. Sami Berik for example is a pretty successful Thai Chi fighter from London. Alan Orr is sporting his own brand of Wing Chun for NHB fights. It's just much more the exception, since Wing Chun usually attracts pasty white nerd guys like me :)

So don't believe the 'ultimate weapon' thing. If you can box properly, you'll probably take out most chunners out there, including me.

Edit: Also the above is not to say that there aren't any tough people in Wing Chun. I've met some great ones. If anyone wants some details about where I train etc, please PM.

really? for self defense its best to avoid disciplines that teach you to fight fare in a ring type setting. Boxing is for sport, Karve Manga is for fighting every thing else falls between the two

Well, I wouldn't be so sure about that. Self defense is not losing it under with pressure. Sure, point fighting like TKD is probably useless, but if you're a cage fighter or a Muay Thai trained person, I make a bet you are better under pressure than when you do some kung fu style without sparring.
The self defense angle "if he does this, I do that" typo thing might all fall apart once you deal with an aggressive opponent.

Karve Manga is not a martial art its a series aggressive strikes meant to effectively disable a target, and defensive moves to guard yourself. Training is heavily sparing centric, classes will have people play different rolls (attacker v defender, armed v un armed, many v one, one v one protecting another, ect).

I understand what your saying about experience being important to stay cool under pressure, but as some one who has done both (just for fun/ exercise) i know which I would turn to if, tynan forbid, I ever needed to defend myself.

I understand what you mean. I didn't even mean Krav Maga specifically.
As far as I am concerned everything self defense labelled is a bit ... intangible.
How many success stories do we have proven? How many people that do [insert martial art here] have you seen defending themselves in a real situation? Everything else might be urban legend.

Apart from sporting context fights only some lame pub brawls. Defending yourself against a drunken sucker isn't really a quality label, if you ask me. Beating a skilled opponent in a full contact ring fight is. MMA is probably closest to "everything goes" that we get. Muay Thai, Savate, Boxing, BJJ, submission wrestling, Judo, Greco Roman all have that record of success in MMA. Haven't seen one Krav Maga guy winning any MMA match so far. Same goes for Wing Chun (my chosen style, for some weird reason).

Not saying anything about anyone here, just keeping my mind open to logical critique.
In the end it's whatever works for an individual, on whatever level.
Personally I don't believe in self defense, really. Run fu style ... 400m sprint is where it's at ;)

I don't follow any fighting sports so can't comment, but I see what your getting at. I agree its always best to walk away, as i said I spar for fun, and hope to never use anything anywhere but class. I would probably get my ass kicked.

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/2672670/Hero-who-beat-up-yob-on-video-is-revealed-as-Gulf-War-veteran-with-two-black-belts.html

... Haven't seen one Krav Maga guy winning any MMA match so far. ...

I doubt Krav Maga has ever been used in MMA. Just not a competitive thing with all the poking out eyes and kneeing the nuts. Anyone knows?

The "no eyegouges" argument doesn't float in my books. Who says a trained competition martial artist wouldn't be able to poke someone or kick em in the nuts or poke them in the eyes ever?

huh? poking the eyes to win an MMA fight? that's a foul.

really? for self defense its best to avoid disciplines that teach you to fight fare in a ring type setting. Boxing is for sport, Karve Manga is for fighting every thing else falls between the two

As far as I am concerned everything self defense labelled is a bit ... intangible.
How many success stories do we have proven? How many people that do [insert martial art here] have you seen defending themselves in a real situation? Everything else might be urban legend. [...]

The "no eyegouges" argument doesn't float in my books. Who says a trained competition martial artist wouldn't be able to poke someone or kick em in the nuts or poke them in the eyes ever?

Yeah: I have always found the 'self defence' versus 'sport' something of a false dichotomy when it comes to 'sports' like BJJ, muay thai and boxing. Like I say in my FAQ, taking part in competition (a defining characteristic of a sport) does not automatically mean a style is no good for self-defence. It merely means that its possible to use the techniques of that style in a regulated environment, which conversely can result in people who are capable of defending themselves using those same techniques, presuming its trained with 'aliveness' (in short, progressive resistance: if you're not familiar with the term, read this).

If any martial art claims to be applicable to self defence but does not include heavy contact sparring, then there is no way of knowing the validity of that claim. All that normally happens is that anecdotal evidence will be offered up, like "my mate is a bouncer and he uses aikido all the time" or "I used wing chun to defend myself in a street fight and it worked fine."

Styles like BJJ, muay thai etc can instead point to the numerous taped competitions to demonstrate that what they're teaching can be applied against a fully resisting opponent. Naturally this isn't the same as a street fight, as all sorts of other factors come into play (not just physical, but mental, verbal, chemical, environmental etc), but it is a high-pressure setting in which the technique can be tested.

This is not the case for styles which refuse to compete or spar, often using excuses like "our techniques are too deadly", which therefore effectively translates as "our techniques have never been tested. Also, as pascalo said, a 'sport' stylist can use an eye gouge just as easily as a 'self-defence' practitioner. Indeed, they can use it MORE effectively, because their training is likely to put them in a far more dominant position (e.g., a judo or BJJ guy will know how to obtain the mount and control you from there, meaning that they are much better placed to eye gouge etc).

This ability to prove the efficacy of a technique is especially true of MMA. Neither BJJ or muay thai cover the whole picture, as they focus on grappling and striking respectively: in a mixed martial arts fight, both can be used. MMA forms the closest thing currently available to a street fight, while still enabling both fighters to stay safe and keep on training.

The alternative is to go and start fights in bars, which would certainly prove whether or not your style was effective, but it would also likely lead either to serious injury or prison. On top of that, street fighting is a poor methodology for improving your efficacy, because it is too dangerous to do on a regular basis.

A BJJ or muay thai class, on the other hand, can be done regularly and safely. Because you're able to practice for long periods consistently, you'll get better, and you'll become more effective. The training methodology makes it effective, and it is this methodology that is missing from so many other martial arts, which in turns means they are far less useful.

All the above in consideration, if you can delete self defense from your mind, then why not just train to have a steffi graf in whatever style appeals to you? I love Wing Chun, and I couldn't care less what the world thinks about it.

Where I train the people are cool, the whole money and franchise idea is not dominating, and people don't get brainwashed into believing they're deadly. Instead everyone knows that you need to train hard to get good, and that if you wanna be a force to be reckoned with, you'll have to condition properly, punch a lot, spar etc.
So there is good attitude, and I've seen people coming in timid and after 10 months grow into stronger people with a bit of an edge to them, having their lip split but just saying "nah, it's OK dude", whereas before they'd run to the bathroom to check the mirror ...

All the above in consideration, if you can delete self defense from your mind, then why not just train to have a steffi graf in whatever style appeals to you?

Oh, absolutely: personally I train for fun, I don't care about the self defence applications. The problem is when a style advertises itself as 'self-defence' and can't back it up, or worse, criticises other demonstrably effective styles for being 'sports'.

Happens a lot, which is why I automatically splurge something like the above in response.

So where are U training? I was interested in doing some form of grappling at some point, especially after watching some great vids about Eddie Bravo and his Rubber Guard.

So where are U training? I was interested in doing some form of grappling at some point

Right now, I train at RGA High Wycombe with Kev Capel, a BJJ school (I go into detail about exactly what the classes are like here).

especially after watching some great vids about Eddie Bravo and his Rubber Guard.
Eddie Bravo is a good teacher with interesting ideas, but unless you're actually training with him, I tend to be of the opinion that its better to get some fundamentals down before attempting rubber guard (as per FAQ).

If you're looking for some general advice about getting into BJJ, I babble about it at length here. Naturally BJJ isn't the only option: wrestling, judo and SAMBO are also all great grappling styles, with plenty of aliveness and competitive opportunities.

I have been training in krav maga and kickboxing for the last 3 years. I have tried to avoid posting in this thread as im a scrawny little 62 kilo stick of a lad and talking about fighting always seems to give me a total complex about being a shorty...but....
the difference between krav and kickboxing (at least what i have been practicing) is huge. I love both but kickboxing is much more sport based whereas krav is very focussed on quickly and efficiently removing yourself from a difficult situation using the most basic simple and logical techniques that can be remember quickly and under pressure. Kickboxing obviously helps get your body used to the physical aspects of throwing strikes etc but sparring and krav pressure testing a very different beasts.