What is MMA'S Impact on Kung-Fu Should MMA be its' on Art Now?

[Ultimatewingchun]

Regardless of whether or not some TMA's have "always" had some locks, clinch, sweep, throw, and ground within them - in addition to striking and kicking...it's undeniable by this point that MMA's and the VENUES through which they proceed have had an enormous impact on TMA's...

if for no other reason than the intense competition (and real, no BS contact) has made it crystal clear that the emphasis on striking/kicking - to the neglect of the other phases of fighting (clinch and ground)...

doesn't cut it anymore.

[Green Cloud]

MK I think you are taking what I said out of context. I wasn't talking about training in MA but fighting for a living, there just isn't any money in it.

I'm sure you are very successful, but realy are you training to become the next ultimate fighter???

The fact is if becoming the UFC champion is not your plan Kung Fu makes sense for staying in shape learning how to have the edge on someone in the street.

Yea yea yea I know MMA works to in the street what ever Just wanted to ad that.

[Mr. Horse]

Wasn't JKD the first MMA? WAS Bruce Lee the first MMAist?

[PangQuan]

its full circle. this is how things often work.

so-called MMA, is just a format of how fighting REALLY is. there just happens to be popular styles people box themselves into to fit this format.

bjj+MT+boxing is most popular, but not required.

its just a twist of modern cultural meshing. thats all. now days we can actually get a guy to train japanes, thai, and western arts all at one time. 500 years ago, this just was not possible.

there is no such thing as mixed martial arts. there are martial arts. some people box themselves in and use only from a selected platter they have put on a pedistle, then there are people who use combat effective material.

ie: the gladiator. use what works, when it works, how it works, IF it works.

there is no seperation but the seperation that is placed by the ego of man. i train in a CMA school, but show me an applicable and effective african wrestling technique. ill keep it.

[Green Cloud]

Just because MMA is televised doesn't mean that it has any influence on CM. Seriously think about how many styles of kung fu there is, do you think all these styles were created just because MMA would one day become a sport???

Kung Fu is a highly developede art and has survived all these years due to the fact that it's effective.

I'm not saying that all kung fu people train effectively for fighting. One thing for sure advanced practitioners of Kung Fu understand its effectiveness when it come to the street.

Will sport MMA ever influence something that's been evolving for over two thousand years???

Every now and than a student will aproche me and say Sifu look what I made up, and I always respond, " It's already been done".

[Knifefighter]

Will sport MMA ever influence something that's been evolving for over two thousand years???

Yes, the smart practitioners and instructors will pick up a variety of useful things from MMA.

The dumb ones will continue to think they already have all the answers.

[MyDrills]

MMA's Impact on KungFu, In my view, it has made a lot of close minded CMAist realize that forms is not what makes them a good fighter.


MMA can be an art now but unlike traditional styles where you have lineage, etc etc. This is non classical hybreed or freestyle fighting as the more appropriate term.

Advantages of TCMA/CMA
-Wide variations of striikes
-Speed Accuracy
-Better stances, distance, balance
-Training emptyhand vs bladed weapons
-More techniques vs multiple opponents
-Breathing, relaxation, econimical
-simplest of all, defense against groin kicks!!!


Advantage of MMA
-can win without hurting opponent (by submission)
-a good martial arts and a sport at the same time.
-less brutal than TCMA, more friendly to opponent
-better training format


I became more open to change after watching a lot of MMA fights. We must admit that some TCMA moves are already outdated or no longer applicable. We can throw away those but keep what is still useful. We can pickup new moves or technique from other style.


chill

[MasterKiller]

I'm sure you are very successful, but realy are you training to become the next ultimate fighter???

The fact is if becoming the UFC champion is not your plan Kung Fu makes sense for staying in shape learning how to have the edge on someone in the street.

I'm not training to fight. I'm training to train.

When I was practicing kung fu full time, I wasn't training to fight, either.

If all you want is a good workout, I would argue MMA is better. It's extremely cardio oriented. Kung Fu keeps me flexible, but MMA keeps me in bikini shape.

Seriously, I dropped 10 lbs the first 3 weeks of MMA, and I was already in pretty good shape from my years of Northern Shaolin workouts.

Plus, all the grappling and grip fighting toned my arms up nicely.

I like Kung Fu, I practice Kung Fu, I still consider myself a Kung Fu Fighter, and I even run my own Kung Fu program now, but it makes more sense to train Kung Fu the MMA way that it does to train Kung Fu the Kuing Fu way.

MMA is like this mean biologist who keeps pointing at the fossil record of fighting as proof of evolution, and traditionalist are the Christian Scientists plugging their ears and screaming "Chinese invented fighting 2,000 years ago and it's never ever changed."

[MyDrills]

Wasn't JKD the first MMA? WAS Bruce Lee the first MMAist?

NO!! I think GM Wan Lai Shen was the first GM of MMA!!!

[ShaolinTiger00]

MMA is like this mean biologist who keeps pointing at the fossil record of fighting as proof of evolution, and traditionalist are the Christian Scientists plugging their ears and screaming "Chinese invented fighting 2,000 years ago and it's never ever changed."

That is beautiful.

[jstreet]

Interesting obsevations. I hope MMA continues to grow myself and it makes sense to use anything that works, regardless of its origin. Bruce Lee combined many different styles, if it works, it works.

[Fu-Pow]

I think somebody said it best that MMA is a venue, not a style.

A combination of training that has worked in this venue is boxing +Muy Thai+BJJ/wrestling.

Those styles were naturals for MMA because they were already geared towards and had training methods that had proven effective in their own venues.

That doesn't mean that there won't be a better training combo that comes along for MMA.

Who knows, maybe it will be Wing Chun + Shui Chao + BJJ?

I think that as fighters look for methods that others don't have they will eventually "rediscover" the Chinese styles.

I guess people that consider themselves "kung fu" won't compete in MMA because they don't consider "ground fighting" to be authentically Chinese. So you will probably see those people more in San Da/San Shou types of venues where you can throw but not grapple.

Plus the Chinese version of grappling is all stand up and particularily nasty. I recently saw that standing armbar footage posted on here and it reminded me of the kinds of Chin Na that you see in Chinese martial arts. Good for self-defense but not particularily well suited to a competition where you expect the fighters to have a "career."

[Knifefighter]

I think somebody said it best that MMA is a venue, not a style.

MMA used to be only a venue. Now it is both a venue and a style. The components of MMA (standing striking, clinch, takedown and ground are all done differently when incorporated into the MMA format than when done individuaully as boxing, Muay Thai, wrestling, or BJJ).

Plus the Chinese version of grappling is all stand up and particularily nasty. I recently saw that standing armbar footage posted on here and it reminded me of the kinds of Chin Na that you see in Chinese martial arts. Good for self-defense but not particularily well suited to a competition where you expect the fighters to have a "career."

Complete BS.

Those standing techniques are not seen often, not because they are so brutal, but because they are very low percentage. When they do occur, they are almost accidental. That arm drag to the arm bar was a fluke. That is a technique that is done all the time and usually results in nothing more than getting an angle.

Believe me, if those "brutal" standing Chi Na techniques were so effective, MMA fighters would be using them all the time. MMA fighters are not concerned with shortening their opponents' careers. They are concerned with winning.

There is a reason most submissions happen on the ground and it has nothing to do with "brutality", or lack thereof.

[Green Cloud]

Yes, the smart practitioners and instructors will pick up a variety of useful things from MMA.

The dumb ones will continue to think they already have all the answers.

That's a good statement but it's backwards. I think a smart MMa should take Kung Fu to improve his game.

The dumb MMA with an abtuse mind set will continue to think that the MMA way is the only way to fight.

[ShaolinTiger00]

it's not the ONLY way to fight, but it is beyond question that it is the BEST way to fight.