The Craft of MMA

It is perhaps in name or nature that MMA has a great many practitioners, that fail to appreciate the very nature of the craft and sport that they either wish to ply or actually do. They stumble and grasp through the sport with all the zeal and devotion in the world, but it is with either arrogance or misguided zest that they come to some inaccurate or poorly realised conclusions.

Perhaps it is in the very name itself that MMA condemns a great many, having a sport of such sophistication so closely associated with 'Martial Art' is in many ways enslaving to those who take the sport beyond the dojo. While the origins of MMA are well known and do stem from stylistic conflicts it is in no way a an indicator of where the sport is today or where it shall end up in the coming decades.

There is a distinct difference between a fighter, especially a professional one, and a martial artist. Just as their is a difference between a carpenter and some one that makes wooden art models as form of expression. When one utilises a skill set in a ferociously competitive environment whether that be the market place or the battle grounds one is forced to 'lift' their game and utilise what works as opposed to what is more or less aesthetic or traditionally dogmatic. Now while a great many MMAers have their origins in the Martial Arts and do call themselves Martial Artist's this is perhaps a mislabelled appropriation on their part or on others that think that artistic expression is the substance of what they do and not an out come of their excellence. Their is no doubt that in watching a Dan Gable, Ray Robinson or George St Piere that one can not help to appreciate a great level of artistic perfection in what they do, this however looks past the very core fundamentals that these men have perfected in their craft. It is very seldom do you find a building that is merely utilitarian, instead you find a great deal of architectural mastery and decorative enhancements to make it all that more appealing, these however are not fundamental in keeping this building safe or up right as the humble foundations and structure of the building is. And therein lies the less than sexy secrets that few wish to appreciate. There lays the very humble fundamentals of form that helped get these elite warriors to where they are.

MMA should be in line with other elite combat sports that it has more in common with, than the gi clad martial arts of the hypothetical. It is in the assumption of the supremacy of art that one over looks the intricate nuances of what really makes MMA distinctly hard to master and supreme as a combative sport. It is a sport that is hard to excell at let alone ply, it is a sport with few real apprentices and too many DIY weekenders that give most tradesman of near talent a bad name.

While for the most part MMA is unregulated at the grass roots level, it does have its own distinct identity thanks to the popularity of the big name shows that have been the rallying point for many to emulate and which have been the ultimate goal for its athletes to aspire to. It is however with great confusion amongst fans, trainers and some fighters just how to achieve success in or even to enter the realm of the cage is to be achieved. Many scramble together a scrap book of training methods borrowed from their traditional martial arts back grounds, what they see on an episode of UFC count down, what their friends tell them to do in the steel pushing room and even what they have seen in a Van Damme film. Anything is fair game in the realm of MMA fame and fortune. At least in the training for it. Or even boasting in the training for it.

The reality however is that for the most part their are no secrets beyond the nature of the trades very hard to learn fundamentals. The tech shop honesty found in the fight gym is not something the average beginner yearns to learn as they only see the flashy power tools of the trade and not the skill needed to apply them for the right job at the right time.

For every jump spinning back kick, flying arm bar, instant right hand KO or Rampage like slam there are thousands of minutes of set up, an almost endless need to learn the basics tirelessly so that near perfect form sets in even when your mind is clouded by the fog of battle and is exhausted by fatigue. It is here that MMA's true association with boxing, wrestling and other combat sports is apparent. It is in their endless drilling and re addressing of the most basics and honest of fundamentals that the elites get to be where they are. For ever Muhammad Ali or Anderson Silva you have scores more of those desperately short of all their well put together attributes that allows them to take so much risk with so much reward.

To few look to learn the proper fundamentals of their craft inside the gym, they instead perhaps seek the glory of imagery that apparently being a cage fighter offers up. They will look for some power moves that are more at home on the arcade machine than in the cage. This is a general failing in the trainers-coaches themselves as well as the athletes. Now while MMA is still in its some what early stages it should look to its brother sports for guidance as it matures. Boxing went through great changes in how the game was played as far as fundamentals went as it entered the days of gloved exchanges under the Marques of Queensbury rules from the bare knuckle blood letting of the London Prize Ring rules. It was in those early days of the late 19th century that boxing went from near crude barbarity into the finely tuned sophisticated sport that it is to this day.

Boxing from the 1890s through to the roaring twenties had achieved a great amount of leaps and bounds as more and more competed in the sport from all over and the craft went from being one dominated by those few that trained relatively proper (or trained at all) against those who entered the ropes with farm boy strength and a hungry belly. As the sport became more of a learned craft the athletes began to show a steadier application in what we know today as 'the basics' or fundamentals of 'good' form. The modern boxing stance, the jab, the cross, the bob and weave etc did not simply appear as soon as man laced up gloves. These were tools and skill sets developed over years of leathered exchanges and were parts of the sport that slowly trickled from the arena into the gym as ex fighters and trainers began to teach the new generation what they had learned. It was by the 1930s and onwards that boxing became the sophisticated sport with fundamentals and 'basics' that many can associate with to this day, while the athletes lacked many of the athletic and nutritional benefits and enhancements of the modern age their skills are very much the same, some would argue better, than modern day prize fighters.

Mixed Martial Arts is emerging from the 1920s and is no doubt entering its own '1930s' as far as general fundamentals and basics of the craft go. It has been with great support from its popularity and modern media that it has advanced quicker than boxing in its early days as far as fan and athletic knowledge goes. However despite all of this a great many attempt to enter the cage with very little knowledge of the sports intricate nuances. They fail to appreciate just the level of sophistication that the sport commands. Many think that simply by grappling some, throwing clusters of kicks and punches onto the pad and taking some Ju Jitsu lessons that they will be technically adept at entering the cage.


Over time MMA at the most basic of levels will free it self of the shackles of Martial Art and hypothetics, with true market forces and greater popularity those that simple do not know will drift away as those willing to fight and eager to learn will go to the gyms that produce successful athletes. While marketing and empty promises will always seduce and entice the ignorant beginner, the factual blunt honesty of the arena will always give a new hopeful the answers that they need. Just as no boxing or wrestling gym-school would avoid competition, so should no MMA school or gym lack active athletes whether on the most basic of levels of competition or at the higher echelons of the sports cages. Other wise why associate yourself with the sport of MMA, unless your intentions are less than pure.

The proof is always in the pudding, and if a plumber can not fix that leaking pipe then find one who can. A good plumber will not incite his artistic talents or the 'way' as justification for a lack of any real skills or talents in his trade, just as a fight gym should not meander with philosophy and ancient seductions to justify away the fact that they do not know the craft that they profess to be expert at.

It is with great optimism that MMA will evolve and strive to a higher level where at a lower level its most important yet most basic of skill sets and fundamentals are taught as they should. With patience and hard work. And when that happens we shall see the sport and its athletes excel at higher and higher levels, just as no one in Dempsey's time could ever imagine anyone thereafter having such ferocity and aggression or any one in Tunney's age could ever imagine such a skilled or talented boxer beyond him. It was with the lessons offered and learned from such past greats that we now have subsequent to them the likes or Frazier, Armstrong, Marciano, Tyson, etc and Robinson, Louis, Ali, Holyfield and so on. And just as the MMA or NHB stars of yesterday seemed to this writer as being the ultimate of the sports realisation it would be with some degree of arrogance to deny the future of its excellence should the fundamentals and craftsmanship of the sport be truly appreciated as an important aspect of this or any sport.

Just as every fighter, even those that call themselves a Martial Artists do it for a varied assortment of reasons. They never put the fighters purse before the opportunity to express themselves as artists. Contrary to what every promoter out there may tell you.

The Illusion is beautitful and appealing, the reality is cold and grim it is no wonder many prefer to live in a delusion.



Feb 2011