Mixed Martial Arts
There are two main styles of MMA:
Sport MMA-Mixed Martial Arts designed for sporting competition, such as the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), Pride Fighting Championship, or Vale Tudo style fighting matches. These matches usually have two unarmed persons duking it out with the core rules being: No biting, No eye-gouging (with fingers or chin) and No fish-hooking (inserting body parts such as the fingers into bodily crevices such as the mouth or nose). Groin attacks (striking or squeezing the groin) are also often illegal.
The promoters may add more rules, or simply use what are considered to be the core rules. More restrictive promotions of MMA include Old Pancrase, Shootfighting, or RINGS rules. These rulesets often ban striking on the ground, closed-fist striking, or both
In general, boxing (kickboxing/muay thai included), wrestling (Freestyle, Greco-Roman, and to a lesser extent Judo), and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu (BJJ) are the three styles that comprise the core of nearly all modern MMA training.
Street MMA-The principles of Mixed Martial Arts as applied for non-sport situations. There seem to be fewer mixed martial artists interested in this as compared to sport MMA, though the number of practitioners is growing. In practice, many, though not all, of the persons doing this come from a Jeet Kune Do background, and sometimes call what they do Jeet Kune Do (ex. Matt Thornton, Erik Paulson)
Their work is somewhat different from the JKD mainstream in calling for large amounts of few-
rules sparring, and they encourage their students to do sport MMA sparring/competition. One can argue endlessly whether what they do is or is not MMA or JKD- suffice it to say there are similarities to both.Most Street MMAers believe that sport MMA merely needs some changes in strategy (less emphasis on staying on the ground, more weapons awareness) and the addition of some techniques to become highly effective for the street. By far the most common addition to street-oriented MMA is Filipino martial art (FMA) training, due to its emphasis on, and practical use of weaponry (stick and knife), Filipino Boxing ("dirty boxing") and empty hand trapping and grappling skills.
Description:
Most Sport MMA fighters fall into one of three general categories- the groundfighter, the wrestler, or the striker.
The groundfighter is the closest to a "pure" grappler one finds in MMA nowadays. The groundfighter's strength is the ability to force a fight to the ground, where they then seek a fight-ending submission
(joint locks or choke). While the ability to perform takedowns is integral to groundfighting strategy, a clean, powerful takedown is not as important to the groundfighter as it is to the wrestler.
The wrestler is a stand-up and striking on the ground oriented grappler, whose strength is usually the takedown. A common strategy of the wrestler is known as "ground and pound." This refers to the method of taking an opponent down, achieving a dominant ground position, and finishing the fight with strikes.
The striker is also commonly known as the standup fighter, due to their preference to stay on their feet and win with a knockout. The strategy of the striker is called "sprawl and brawl". This refers to their focus on nullifying takedowns (the sprawl is the highest percentage defense to one of the more common entries to a takedown in wrestling, the shoot) in order to stay upright and exchange blows.
These categories should not be taken as exclusionary of other categories - groundfighters learn at least the basics of wrestling to be able to take down people and the basics of striking to keep from getting KOed. Strikers learn enough wrestling to neutralize takedown and throw attempts and enough groundfighting to get back to their feet if they are taken down. Wrestlers learn enough groundfighting or striking to protect themselves in one of those areas and to be able to easily finish opponents with another.
On rare occasions, you will see fighters highly skilled (by MMA standards) in all three areas. These types of fighters are becoming increasingly common as the sport becomes more professional.
Training:
Students will learn a variety of skills to become a well-rounded martial artist. Fundamental punching, kicking and grappling techniques are taught, as well as how to safely block and evade strikes.
Students will also learn how to use focus mitts and what to do in a clinch. Striking from the clinch, "dirty boxing", and takedowns are covered as well as striking on the ground ("ground and pound") in addition to fundamental submission holds, locks, chokes and defenses.
The main difference between "sport and street" MMA isn't one of tactics, it's one of strategy. Street MMA may add weapons drills and awareness training. That is a huge point that everyone should be aware of.
Contributors: Rob Meyer, Christopher Kallini
Visit Dragon Within Mixed Martial Arts today!
26 Howley St Peabody, MA 01960
Call: 978-531-8511
Here at Dragon Within Mixed Martial Arts we teach brazilian Jiu-jitsu, Mixed Martial Arts, BJJ, MMA, Kickboxing, under Kenny Florian and Matt Thornton for salem, lynn, peabody, danvers, marblehead, swampscot, beverly, middleton, wakefield, saugus, MA, and the North Shore