| You stand there and look across the cage at your | | | | fighting system. |
| opponent. He stares back at you. Nothing else in the | | | | Enter Mixed Martial arts. Mixed martial arts (mma) |
| world matters except this person that you know is | | | | competitions have been around a long time, more |
| going to try to defeat you, hurt you, make you give up. | | | | recently popularized in the United States. Mma style |
| The key word is try! You have been studying this | | | | usually combines Thai boxing, wrestling, bjj, (Brazilian |
| fighter, watching his fights and training hard for this day. | | | | jiu-jitsu), kick boxing, boxing, and other standing and |
| You know what you are going to do; your game plan | | | | ground techniques. The point of mma is to be able to |
| is ready. The ref says "fighters, are you ready." No | | | | have the skill to trade punches with a good stand up |
| turning back! | | | | fighter or the skills to submit a good ground fighter. This |
| Modern day mixed martial arts. It is such an exciting | | | | is where mma drifts away from traditional styles. If a |
| sport. It has been around for many years, but now is | | | | fighter's opponent takes him to the ground and mounts |
| becoming more mainstream due to a certain popular | | | | him, he must rely on his "ground game" to escape or |
| reality show. What is meant buy reality fighting? Usually | | | | look for a submission opportunity. (Just because you |
| the term indicates that the fighting systems used by | | | | are on your back does not mean you are losing!) If the |
| mma fighters are more applicable to real fights as | | | | same fighter's opponent decides to stand and punch it |
| opposed to traditional martial art styles. I am not going | | | | out, well that's ok to. Mma is very versatile and an |
| to argue this issue but merely help identify the | | | | outstanding sport. The one thing that has remained the |
| difference. | | | | same between the traditional martial artists and mma |
| Traditional martial arts. When I speak of this term I am | | | | fighters is the respect. Both groups of fighters have |
| referring to the arts of old such as certain styles of | | | | respect for each other and the opponents they |
| karate, judo, aikido, etc. These arts have been around | | | | compete against. When you get down to it, it is a |
| longer than anyone really knows for sure. They have | | | | competition against yourself. What I mean by this is |
| certain forms, traditions, philosophies, and a pretty | | | | that are you going to do another set of bench |
| particular way they are to be taught and learned | | | | presses, another set of squats, extra sprints, intense |
| (there are always exceptions.) All of these styles are | | | | rope skipping, 15 more minutes on the heavy bag or |
| great. They all make up our wonderful vast world of | | | | mat.... 15 more than your opponent? You are only held |
| martial arts. Are any of these styles an absolute to | | | | back by yourself. |
| fighting? Will any of these styles work in a "real" fight? | | | | No matter if you want to practice traditional martial |
| Many people are aware of the martial art great Bruce | | | | arts or get into mma, the reality of fighting is the |
| Lee. His movies did not make him great to the martial | | | | respect. The key principal martial arts are based on. |
| arts world, but his philosophy on fighting did. He | | | | This article is for information purposes only and is not |
| believed that you should take many styles and | | | | meant to be instruction. |
| combine their best techniques to have a well-rounded | | | | |