I have noticed that in the last few years mixed martials arts has become the most popular fighting sport and one of the fastest growing sports in the world. Pretty much every city you go to will have some kind of mixed martial arts classes and shows. Not to far in the past the Brazilian Jiu Jitsu world and especially some members of the Gracie family showed the importance of ground fighting that until 1993 was quite unknown, now 20 years have passed and we are able to evolve martial arts to the next level.
MMA can almost claim itself as a unique style. But the truth is that Mixed Martial Arts is a mixture of different martial arts put together into a holistic concept.
So if you are planning to be a really good MMA fighter or good MMA practitioner you must incorporate a number of styles in full. A few of the main base arts of MMA these days are:
BJJ – specialised for ground fighting expertise in submissions and fighting from your back.
Wrestling/Judo – specialised in take down and defence.
Boxing/Muay Thai/Karate- specialised in strikes to the body and head.
So if you really want to be good in MMA, you must combine these styles by training them individually and then in your MMA class you will be taught the skills to weave them all together.
Conclusion:
By training MMA alone you will not get the same foundation of practicing these base arts separately. If you really want to be good at MMA you should study at least couple of different styles separately and then use the MMA classes to connect it all together. Try to combine at least one grappling art with at least one striking art and this will ensure that you’ll have a much better experience of MMA.
Daniel Lima
