MMA, particularly UFC, is the dominant martial sport in the US. It has a massive following, sophisticated advertising and spectacular televised events. It is all over social media. It is international—popular in Iowa and in Singapore. It has been around now for decades. Those who grew up watching it will believe that it’s the only way to effectively fight—the way you should defend yourself. Diehard MMA followers are convinced that UFC-style mixed martial art is THE self-defense mechanism, period. To many MMA adherents, traditional, legacy martial disciplines are antiquated and, to some, even laughable.
For many of us ordinary folks in mainstream, traditional disciplines such as Shaolin or Taekwondo, we can feel a bit slighted sometimes by the exuberant omnipresent hype of MMA’s towering superiority.
The core disciplines making up MMA—boxing, Muay Thai, wrestling and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu—are believed by MMA afficionados to be amongst the few efficient fighting methodologies because they are the components of modern MMA, the vaunted ultimate of the ultimate. Within the context of current day sport fighting, I can’t say that they are wrong, as UFC is the big moneymaker and occupies the front stage in fight entertainment.
Mixed Martial Arts—MMA—is a martial sport. Arguably, it is the martial sport. Without a lot of room for argument, it is safe to say that UFC is the undisputed champion of the current day full-contact combat sport. While I don’t believe that MMA replicates street reality, I believe that the UFC is probably the closest one can get in civilized society to full-on hand-to-hand exchanges without killing each other.
All that being said, MMA wasn’t designed to be a self-defense discipline for the masses. It is an elite martial sport. It can certainly be used very effectively for self-defense, just as boxing can. Most of us—especially older martial arts practitioners—are not particularly well suited, in a physical sense, for UFC-style mixed martial arts. MMA gyms, even casual ones, are full of young guys and gals, not old ones. MMA, like Muay Thai, wrestling and boxing, are arduous martial disciplines that favor the fittest and, therefore, the youthful. The once or twice a week hobbyist practitioner, like the aging enthusiast, likely would not fare well in UFC-style MMA gyms. A few might—most wouldn’t; they’d tire of the surgeries to fix the injuries.
MMA is Spartan-level physically. Certainly, those people who compete in UFC and on the other MMA circuits can fight extraordinarily well, operating at a level most of us will never experience, just like NBA, MLB and NFL players do. Like I stated in a previous article on tournament fighting, sport fighters are in truly phenomenal shape, have spectacular timing and highly refined “ring instincts,” placing them amongst the most highly skilled of martial artists. I am a huge fan of MMA and of the UFC. However, the martial arts universe is far more expansive than the UFC. I grew up when the martial arts world was dominated by the likes of Joe Lewis, Chuck Norris, Jeff Smith, and Bill Wallace. Most of us back then understood that we weren’t in the same category as those luminaries just like today most martial artists are not in the same category as a Conor McGregor.
MMA is not the be-all and end-all of martial skillsets outside of the Octagon. Outside the Octagon there is a different world.
The martial arts world outside the Octagon is largely populated by everyday people with regular jobs and family responsibilities who attend hour-long martial arts classes a couple times a week. Most of those are participating more as hobbyists and enthusiasts than anything else. Some enjoy the tournament scene, but the vast majority aren’t high-end competitive fighters. Many see the arts as a personal or family sport activity with self-defense and physical fitness being valuable side benefits along with discipline and a code of ethics.
This “normal” martial arts world is light years from the UFC, just as local fast-pitch softball leagues are light years from Major League Baseball. That doesn’t mean that everyday practitioners are lesser martial artists practicing lesser martial arts. Not at all.
Like I said, I am a huge UFC fan. It is regrettable that the hype and fanfare surrounding professional MMA has spawned the idea amongst some narrow-minded fans that all other martial artists and their martial arts are inferior. While MMA is king in the Octagon, the martial arts of the masses are serving their needs quite nicely as they have, in some cases, for centuries. Enter Kung Fu, Karate, Taekwondo and the other traditional, “legacy” martial arts that most people practice. While there are plenty of MMA gyms, most people in the martial arts practice traditional systems at traditional schools.
The grossly overplayed and too often quoted “90% of all fights eventually end up on the ground” is not an accurate, reality-based assessment. For one thing, nobody keeps track nationally. There exists no official body for tracking statistics on street fights with an eye to how many ‘go to the ground’. Unless first responders are involved, many fights are never documented at all. I bring this up because there are ground grappling proponents out there who believe that, if you’re not a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu practitioner, you’re not a competent fighter, a viewpoint tracing to the popularity and perceived supremacy of UFC-style mixed discipline martial arts that has BJJ as the primary ground component.
It is true that a many a street brawl can wind up on the deck because the combatants trip over environmental clutter or one or the other of the belligerents bulldozes his opponent down. If the combatants start out shoving and swinging in typical bar fight fashion and end up entangled, there’s a strong possibility the intertwined fighters will wind up stumbling and fall to the ground. The serious self-defense practitioner is, consequently, compelled to recognize the importance of training fall mitigation and ground survival. However, the fact that some fights will turn into ground grappling situations doesn’t translate to 90% of all fights ending up on the ground. Nobody knows, anyway—every fight is different, and the vast majority aren’t documented.
Sourcing the “90%” statement to an LAPD study in order to invoke an aura of legitimacy is misleading, as most who cite that statistic fail to highlight that the police study was focused on police officer altercations with suspects involving specific arrest processes designed to minimize injury, get the cuffs on and ultimately take the suspect parties into custody. Police arrest procedures and use-of-force continuums are policy-driven and, therefore, different from free-for-all melees. Street fights are, for all intents and purposes, unpredictable free-for-all melees with eye gouging, biting, headbutting and other unrestrained tactics.
So, what does all this crap mean for the average martial artist? Simply put, there is no such thing as a superior martial art. There are certainly superior martial artists, but no superior martial arts. Don’t dwell on statistics or the promotional hype surrounding some martial systems. Effective martial arts do exist outside the Octagon. You don’t have to be a UFC fighter to adequately defend yourself. Legacy martial arts aren’t inherently inferior.
No one would dispute that Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu is great on the ground or that boxing, Sanda and Muay Thai kickboxing are spectacular in the stand-up arena. That does not mean that any of those arts are superior or functionally better for street self-defense. The viewing public’s fixation on UFC also does not translate to competitive MMA being better for street fighting. The truth is nobody with any street savvy will intentionally go to the ground in a street self-defense situation. Those who train street oriented BJJ won’t either because they know better. Doing so destroys your mobility and, consequently, your ability to quickly egress; it certainly puts you in peril if your attacker has a buddy and you wind up with multiple opponents, who will all be on their feet, by the way.
Traditional Kung Fu systems—like Karate systems—that haven’t been cannibalized over the years tend to be fairly well-rounded, encompassing striking, joint manipulation and grappling within their repertoire of techniques. Judo isn’t the only Asian throwing art; Chinese Shuai Jiao, arguably the oldest system of Kung Fu, has devastating throws, takedowns, and submission tactics. Chin Na shares similarities with Jujutsu, Aikido and Hapkido and its joint locks are just as painful and debilitating. Up close and personal, a skilled Chin Na practitioner is a very dangerous opponent.
All those aforementioned martial capabilities are found within the classical kung fu cosmos. You don’t have to shift to current day MMA methods to be a multi-faceted fighter—everything you need can be found within kung fu, whether it be a legacy system like Shaolin or a modern iteration such as Jeet Kune Do. The applications, strategies and concepts are there, you just have to render them applicable to the contemporary self-defense environment.
I am, by no means, demeaning Mixed Martial Arts, BJJ, boxing and Muay Thai, nor am I criticizing the martial capabilities of the athletes of the UFC. Competent practitioners of any of those arts are dangerous people capable of defending themselves. My point is that traditional kung fu, karate, taekwondo and the other legacy disciplines have all the elements necessary to afford their adherents very adequate self-defense, and they are reasonable physically for the majority of everyday martial artists. Reasonableness regarding physicality is a very important factor, especially for older practitioners.
Even if you practice at a traditional school that minimizes or ignores ground grappling, there are steps you can take to enhance your ground survival skills.
- Learn to Fall (for older practitioners, this is a critical skill).
- Learn how to assume the Guard.
- Learn how to Protect your Face and Neck (potential lifesaver against multiple attackers).
- Learn how to Shrimp (against an unskilled grappler, this could facilitate your escape).
- Learn Side Control.
- Learn how to Stand Up from a grounded position.
If ground grappling simply isn’t your thing, or you are an older martial artist with no interest in enduring the jarring impacts of being thrown, having your chest compressed and your appendages pretzeled, I would highly recommend that you still lend some attention to proper falling technique. Knowing how to properly fall can save you a lot of grief and, for aging martial artists, it is a valuable skill for everyday life outside the martial arts arena. The second thing I would lend attention to is how, from a grounded position on your back, to protect your head and neck against kicks and strikes from standing aggressors.
In many street attacks with multiple assailants (gang beatings, in other words), the aggressors tend to swarm the grounded victim with soccer-style kicks, stomps and windmill-style or “swimming” punching flurries. Having even rudimentary fall mitigation competency can prevent debilitating injury from the fall itself. Knowing the basics of shielding in a grounded position can help reduce the damage from kicks and strikes to the head, neck, and ribs. I’m not suggesting these skill sets will eliminate injury, but they might reduce the severity. That’s worth something.
The key to rendering traditional martial skill sets applicable to modern self-defense scenarios is recognizing what a contemporary self-defense scenario—a street assault—looks like. If you are familiar with what the bulk of street attacks in your neighborhood consist of, you are then able to contour your particular Kung Fu practice to address that threat scenario. News media will give you a pretty good idea of what is happening out on the streets regarding physical assaults. Besides news accounts and social media, you can talk to bouncers and security personnel at some of your local nightclubs and get an idea of what sort of physical altercations they commonly encounter when dealing with the public. Police blotters in newspapers are good sources, too.
If, in your neck of the woods, most assaults occur in cramped quarters, you adjust your repertoire of techniques to be functional in confined spaces. If the majority of reported attacks involve multiple assailants, you devote training time to dealing with multiple opponents. If most of the street altercations in your area tend to involve weaponry, you adjust accordingly. In other words, you prepare for what constitutes the most likely attack dynamics. You also train and prepare for the deleterious impact of adrenaline dump and the “fog” of war, which apply to civilian H2H engagements just as much as they do to large scale military conflict.
Streamline your go-to self-defense techniques and maneuvers with a preference given to gross motor movements that you’ll be able to execute in the adrenaline-fueled, wits-draining confusion of sudden violence. Stay away from complex combination threads requiring perfect execution when practicing self-defense skills; plan for failures and work on continuous flow adaptation to rapidly changing fight dynamics so you don’t “stall” amid a fight due to a failed technique. Read the police blotter—know what’s going on in your neighborhood.
Traditional systems such as kung fu, karate and aikido take a lot of guff in martial arts blogs, oftentimes tagged as being ineffective for real-world self-defense. Don’t listen to that rubbish. Some of it is based in truth, but overall, the broad stroke condemnations are unfounded. The diehard amongst the UFC generations tends to be blind to anything not found in the Octagon. Remember, there are no superior martial arts, only superior martial artists. Be the superior martial artist. Whatever your discipline Shaolin, Wing Chun, Hsing-I—train for the reality that you will step into when you walk out of the kwoon doors onto the streets of your city.
In my estimation, the greatest self-preservation benefit of martial arts practice is situational awareness. Martial artists have a great appreciation of the incredible damage that can be done by way of human appendages. If street threats are addressed in their training halls, martial artists also tend to develop a solid sense of what environments, venues and situations are ripe for physical violence. That awareness is enhanced if they read the police blotter and watch the local news.
I have said in previous articles that the best block, the best counter, is simply not to be there. The knack for “not being there” is a direct manifestation of situational awareness.
We can’t all be UFC fighters any more than we could all do what Tom Cruise does in his movies. We can, however, be highly competent in our personal practices and prepared for whatever might come our way.
“Remember, success is a journey not a destination. Have faith in your ability. You will do just fine.” –Bruce Lee
