[I also posted this on the Mantis Qtly Form...]

Someone should come up with a class on this. Lately I've been watching a lot of UFC reruns on Spike TV. I always wonder what moves, footwork, etc. from mantis could be incorporated in sport fighting, either sanshou or mma. The gloves worn in mma fighting may be more conducive to mantis, I'm not sure what they use in sanshou.

Do any of you watch UFC or other sport fighting and try to analyze technique? It seems that the punches are more muscle and arm generated instead of from the waist or core. Also, the kicks never come back faster than they go out, making it easy to steal someones balance. What about bouncing vs gliding, angle, or circular stepping vs. straight in? Of course you would have to scrutinize the rules to see what is allowed.

Also, while I'm on a rant, what about mantis techniques for point sparring. Even though I have won trophies in it, I really hate karate point sparring; but that is all we have around here. It's like there are two paradigms. One for when you go to tournaments to spar and one when you are actually learning your style. It blows my mind that I am reduced to about three basic techniques when I spar. Why can't we spar using techniques and concepts we supposedly learn through forms? Granted, there is some overlap but....

And finally, would I use any of my Mantis/Shaolin concepts in a street fight? Or does self defense boil down to a few generic concepts and the style doesn't really matter.

It does seem that I receive conflicting messages in my training....anyone else feel this way