[quote]FightinIrish26 wrote:
[quote]JD430 wrote:
-Spar and roll a lot. When I say spar, I mean with gloves and a headgear on where you actually get hit.
-Condition yourself to the point where you are an anaerobic machine.
-Know how to separate real world MA from more “artistic/cultural” pursuits. If you need help doing this, MMA should be your guide.
-Hit things(heavy bags, pads).
-You should spend a lot of time training wrestling, Judo or aggressive, top-game BJJ(there is a difference).
-Find a Filipino MA guy and learn something about knives.
-Learn to shoot and carry a gun if you can. If not, keep one(or many) in your home. Learn some CQB tactics too…different than just learning to shoot.
I think that covers it… [/quote]
I agree with you on nearly every point- except on the “use MMA as a guide.” You should not use MMA as a guide at all, because many things that work in the Octagon don’t work in the street, and vice versa.
Although I strongly dislike the way that TMA instructors have destroyed the arts they teach, it doesn’t mean that the art doesn’t have usable parts and pieces worth learning. You’ve just got to find the right instructor that teaches awareness, self defense, etc. BESIDES just how to not get a boxer’s fracture when you hit somebody.
See, I look at it like this- a good self defense instructor is someone like this… but nothing he teaches is really going to be effective in MMA… or really has anything to do with sports at all.
I used to think that way too. I have been at this a long time. Every “self-defence” instructor I ever came across was a hack who couldnt really fight. I also have had the added benefit of being around law enforcement “defensive tactics” guys. Some of them are the worst. Maybe it has just been my experience. I don’t know.
The only people I have ever trained with that could really handle themselves trained like MMA fighters(actually, were or are MMA fighters). There is no other way to acquire the power, reflexes, timing and reactions to really scrap with a human being than training in competitive arts like boxing, muay thai, BJJ or wrestling. Those endeavors also forge a high level of specific combative conditioning and breed mentally tough people. I’m not a guy who pisses on TMA’s either. They just need to be done a certain way and with a certain attitude if there is going to be anything useful on the street or battlefield to be learned from them. They are not typically done that way in the US very often.
Do you have to modify some of the sportive aspects of any art? Absolutely. That is why I advised studying the blade and firearms too.
I’ll take a stud D1 wrestler on my side any day of the week over a self defense guru if it comes down to a fight. However, it is fair to mention that “survival” in a hostile environment, be it a dangerous neighborhood or whatever, has relatively little to do with any martial arts and so much more to do with behavioral and psychological concepts.