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Thread: Kicking Shoes For MMA?

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    Kicking Shoes For MMA?

    People often talk about mma as an approximation of a real fight. It is probably pretty close in a lot of significant ways, but I often wonder what the shape of mma would be like if shoed kicking were permitted. Would being allowed to kick with shoes no in mma almost completely render "pure" boxing obsolete?

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    Quote Originally Posted by HumbleWCGuy View Post
    People often talk about mma as an approximation of a real fight. It is probably pretty close in a lot of significant ways, but I often wonder what the shape of mma would be like if shoed kicking were permitted. Would being allowed to kick with shoes no in mma almost completely render "pure" boxing obsolete?
    I think people talk about MMA as being as close as you can get to an real fight, but they recognise its not the same, Paul Vunaks guys spar alot with shoes on and they still end up in boxing and clinch range alot.

    It would certainly make things interesting...and it would give the leglock guys a field day

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    Quote Originally Posted by HumbleWCGuy View Post
    People often talk about mma as an approximation of a real fight. It is probably pretty close in a lot of significant ways,
    The term "real fight" is silly. What is a "real fight"? Any fight "on the street" or only a life-and-death struggle or what? That sort of thinking -- in terms of "real fighting" -- is specious.

    What the MMA ruleset permits is for the fight to occur in any range, in stand-up, clinch, and ground, and for people to be able to use both striking and grappling at those ranges. Does this correspond to what can occur "on the street?" Yup.

    but I often wonder what the shape of mma would be like if shoed kicking were permitted. Would being allowed to kick with shoes no in mma almost completely render "pure" boxing obsolete?
    If you grasp the following, you'll know the answer.

    The skills you NEED to fight are fundamental. The tactics -- how you use your skills/tools -- will change DEPENDING ON THE CIRCUMSTANCES.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Frost View Post
    I think people talk about MMA as being as close as you can get to an real fight, but they recognise its not the same, Paul Vunaks guys spar alot with shoes on and they still end up in boxing and clinch range alot.

    It would certainly make things interesting...and it would give the leglock guys a field day
    It would really change the game up all the way around. It would be something for sure.

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    Shoes are permitted in some MMA rule sets, though usually both parties have to agree and you're normally not allowed to kick.

    shoed kicking is permitted in savate.

    I don't know how much more realistic or how much really it would change things. Some shoes (steel cappers and hobnails, for example) have no place in a sporting contest.

    It's hard to get sponsorship and TV rights if people are getting seriously injured in sporting contests. We had a lot of "pundits" in Australian journalism whining about "all the blood" in UFC 110, which anyone who'se done any sparring knows happens occasionally, and in UFC110 was pretty benign anyway. But it's way too heavy for many people. The worst injury was probably Foster, the guy on the wrong end of that beautiful rolling legbar, not the guys who were bleeding.

    And if you allow shoes, why not allow both parties to wear motorcycle helmets and body armour?

    You still see plenty of "boxing" in fights on the street where the participants wear shoes, most times you only see kicks when the other guy is on the pavement. If you want to approximate a "real" fight ...
    Last edited by anerlich; 02-27-2010 at 06:46 PM.
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    this is for the moderator, why is this tread in the wing chun forum when its about mma and shoes, i mean i put something up about a competition in alantic city and the moderators moved it so what gives?

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    Shoes were permitted in many MMA events in years past. They didn't really change anything.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Knifefighter View Post
    Shoes were permitted in many MMA events in years past. They didn't really change anything.
    I have never seen any where shoes where premitted and the wearer was allowed to kick (outside of Savate of course). Have you? Also, BJJers aren't big with the ankle locks so I wonder how that might play out differently today with the greater influence of Sambo?
    Last edited by HumbleWCGuy; 02-28-2010 at 04:53 PM.

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    My only problem with using Vunack's guys as an example of how the shoed kicking would play out is that a lot of the JKD that I have seen just isn't good enough to make a judgment. There aren't many jkers who I would consider great or even good kickers.

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    Quote Originally Posted by weakstudent View Post
    this is for the moderator, why is this tread in the wing chun forum when its about mma and shoes, i mean i put something up about a competition in alantic city and the moderators moved it so what gives?
    I have kidnapped the moderator and am holding him for ransom. Until Gene comes through, you can expect more of this.

  11. #11
    Quote Originally Posted by HumbleWCGuy View Post
    I have never seen any where shoes where premitted and the wearer was allowed to kick (outside of Savate of course). Have you? Also, BJJers aren't big with the ankle locks so I wonder how that might play out differently today with the greater influence of Sambo?
    Most of the early MMA events of the 90's, including the UFC, allowed kicking with shoes.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Knifefighter View Post
    Most of the early MMA events of the 90's, including the UFC, allowed kicking with shoes.
    I don't recall seeing that. Although, I missed a stretch of UFCs.
    The striking was either bad or the strikers had such poor grappling that nothing that they did seemed to matter back then. Do you think that shoes would make a difference today?
    Last edited by HumbleWCGuy; 02-28-2010 at 07:13 PM.

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    BJJers aren't big with the ankle locks so I wonder how that might play out differently today with the greater influence of Sambo?
    Ankle and leg locks aren't fundamentals in BJJ but they seem to come up often enough. Any reasonably good purple belt will have a decent knowledge of leg and foot locks. There have been plenty of good leg/footlockers in MMA, and I wouldn't say Sambo necessarily has had a "greater" influence on MMA over time.

    Getting back to shoes, it seems to me that most Sambo competitors wear them, not that I've watched a lot of Sambo. Not sure if it is a requirement or not, though it certainly would make footlocks easier.
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    Quote Originally Posted by weakstudent View Post
    this is for the moderator, why is this tread in the wing chun forum when its about mma and shoes, i mean i put something up about a competition in alantic city and the moderators moved it so what gives?
    You make it sound like having a post moved is punishment rather than the helpful courtesy that it is. If you put a post in the wrong place, it won't get as many responses because people won't know where to look.

  15. #15
    Quote Originally Posted by t_niehoff View Post
    I have kidnapped the moderator and am holding him for ransom. Until Gene comes through, you can expect more of this.
    hahahahaha great

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