Southern Preying Mantis - GM Henry Sue - Oz

[Yum Cha]

and BJJ was still being taught in garages in the early 90's and no gi submission grappling was no where untuil the late 90's, MMA was all but dead until the UF series in the 2000's, yet all these are growing and have evolved, why hasn't TCMA

Well, what the Gracies have done is unprecedented. I kind of see it as they practicalised an academic art, with the expected salsa flair...or perhaps fire. No, its remarkable. What more can you say?

The game is magic, you can play it as hard as possible, and tap once the result is inevitable. Add the ground and pound - its a new standard.

I think TCMA is evolving, but its a percentages game. Are 10% practical, 20, 30? It will ebb and flow as they split between the wu shu mentality, and the black iron gym mentality, regardless of style. Certainly not leading anything. HOWEVER, the stuff is rich, lots to learn, lots of options, if you get a good teacher.

Maybe some styles are easier to use gloves with than others, but this still does not explain why there is so little sparring clips out there of some styles, be it bare handed, small gloved, with full on head guards, or with gloves whilst acknowledging it limits their skill set slightly.

Speaking for myself and my club at least, we have training videos we won't publish because it does show how we fight. That's part of our gig, surprise.

Does it work? So far results are over the last couple of years, students 3 - Loser A-holes 0, which is minimally reassuring, but reassuring nevertheless.

But, the point you make is a good one, there are no videos because there are no winners to boast about, cept Cung Lee.....

To be honest gloves annoy and limit grappling no end: they limit our sensitivity, and make slapping on a lot of subs harder and make it easier to defend for none grapplers etc but you still see guys sparring with them

Gloves are like Women, can't live with them, can't live without them.

My current thinking is to break down the full into parts. Train the parts under control, and occasionally, put them together and check the result.

This is simply the enabling, that will allow the fighters to come to the fore, and get what they need.

In every school I ever visited, there are only a small core of real fighters, I bet the same is true in an MMA gym too, but granted to a much lesser degree?

We also train more aspects of 'self defence' than fighting. We cover situational awareness, body language, group tactics, multiple attackers, escape strategy and the like.