Someone @ TMMAC recently posted a thread about what is the best style of traditional martial arts for MMA. No takers posted... really. MMA is "centric" to MMA, is the answer.
I think a better approach is not about just selecting or evaluating style of traditional martial arts... the better approach is understanding TMA, as the no-takers on posting replies to the above thread indicates. And this is where I can help, if MMA is so inclined.... Now that I'm done sobbing over Wonderboy's drubbing by Woodley, I can concentrate again.
I came across this shorty YT vid explaining how to do karate. And that's the elephant in the room because the lion-share of the karate-stylist failures in MMA is because the karate-experienced stylists... don't really know how to do karate well. Wonderboy is on that fringe... and the really tough, determined MMA opponents he's had in Brown & now Woodley have borne this conclusion out....
So here's the vid. This style has somewhat of an Okinawan flavor. To me, their are three main branches of traditional karate, along ethnic lines for a first distinction. Okinawan, Japanese, and Korean. Chinese also have "karate," for instance, but it would be more accurate as a generalization to name it Kempo. As a generalization. The Kempo's or Kenpo to me are really applied kung fu... very fighting, self defense oriented.... I'll explain more after the vid.
As a preamble though, I want to get out of the way the fact that the instructor is using a smaller, weaker, less experienced partner to demonstrate... I hate this because is weakens credibility in any demo. Commercially, I can see as an Ad. But a large portion of the criticism of traditional karate is that it really doesn't work against strongly-resisting opponents... and this kind of inferior-skilled partner plays directly into that criticism... and rightly so.
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=77q25TatdZE
FIRST, what's good about this video is that it is short & sweet... yet says a lot.
SECOND, the video also presents the information in a way that does cause some confusion about how to actually understand karate traditionally, and how to then properly train it. I'll enumerate.
1. Karate's Origination. Karate originated in Okinawa and is an ancient art. Well, as far as my understanding, ancient is several hundred years old. I leave defining that time frame to all the karate lineage buff. For my purposes, it's critical to understand that karate evolved out of the Kung fu's ... colloquially speaking... which cover a comparatively vast number, make & manner of traditional martial art styles.... Important point, is that karate tradition has been around for centuries... the relevance is that the principles underlying traditional karate have been developed over & practiced for centuries. A ton of thought & study has been put into the martial art of karate....
2. Karate Later Spread to Japan (Rest of World). The significance here is that the predominate styles and practices of karate we see today, particularly in the U.S., are Japanese based models. Essentially popularized forms of Shotokan karate or it's derivatives... Depending again on lineage investigation... this form of traditional karate is less than 100 years old... maybe originating about 1930's. Again, lineage buffs can pontificate. My person karate style is a derivative of Shotokan... with some very important differences....
3. Karate Uses Total Body As A Weapon. The is completely true.. yet very vague. Vaguery creates confusion & mis-understanding.
Ricardo goes on to define how karate uses varied parts of the body in different forms to hurt the opponent. He starts with uses the fingers as an attack against the eyes.... What Ricardo is doing is defining karate by technique, describing karate as a set or menu of techniques. And doing so in the context of martial action against the opponent. The implication is to hurt the opponent in a way that impairs physical function... a finger-poke damaging the eyes... trauma, can't see, the fall-out of that....
What I like about this explanation is Ricardo explains the diversity in karate technique. And that karate proper doesn't limit those technique in terms of target.... So ya MMA, you don't need Muay Thai 'cause it has elbows and karate fighting only has the reverse punch.... that's wrong. People are mixing conventions with principles....
4. Karate is Limited With Kicks. This IMO, is a generality with Okinawan styles of karate. It's less true with the Japanese styles and even less true with the Korean styles. However, traditionally, the hands among karate styles are the preferred weapon.... that's generally a principle.
Very Important. Note the kicks that Ricardo demos. It's the basic kicks, around the middle zone. It's kicks that keep you directly facing the opponent. These are the tactically effective way to employ kicks in actual fighting because they are efficient, feasible for great strength, relatively fast, and minimize your vulnerabilities of being on 1-leg, a physically limiting posture.
The latter leads me to believe that Ricardo & Premier Martial Arts in this studio hue to an Okinawan flavored karate style... ALSO, the emphasis on damaging technique using many different body parts....
5. Karate is Very Good for Self Defense. That's karate's applied goal. I will add civilian self defense... not specialized roles like the military... police, etc. As a general principle, the techniques are for civilian self defense.
6. Karate is for Everybody. Yep. A personal endeavor for humans. Don't need to compete, don't need to be a killer, can be for fitness, recreation, rudimentary self defense, an avocation, etc. Karate is really self-improvement which then can transfer that set of heightened capability& channel into multiple endeavors....
7. Karate in It's True Form is a Combat Art. Yep. To clarify, the applied goal of traditional karate is self-defense. Self-defense is the guiding, principle goal in application... on how it is used in life. That really speaks volumes in defining how serious an endeavor traditional karate is, should you desire to actually use it for it's intended application. An assailant can be very dangerous... can cause grievous harm,, or even if not,,, a lot of trouble for you. The use of karate the same. Karate in application involves the potential to hurt people, maybe badly.
8. It's Not About Power; It's Not About Strength. I'd redefine, it's not about raw power, it's not about brute (bigger, unthinking,) strength.
9. It's About Technique, It's About Accuracy. We replace 8, with Technique that intelligently applies power; that accurately applies strength. We definitely use the body's strength, now where No. 3 above comes in, the WHOLE Body's strength to direct power in an efficient, effective way.
To summarize, karate is not about raw power or strength against same; it's about tactically efficient application of power against raw power or strength.... generally the most important when the latter is superior to our own. I.e., the female against the male, bookworm versus the bully etc...
10. The Demo. The weaker attacker, coming on weak & passive... why MMA pans karate dojos. Their only excuse is that I haven't done my own vid... they have me there.
Then, though the demo gets better, in principle. How Richardo structures his response to the co-instructor coming in... nice presentation. Especially in demoing how karate takes on technically the invincible Muay Thai clinch or Gracie grapple r which the karate striker is "unable" to defend. Really silly promotions by the grappling crowd... Eagerly waiting the Wonderboy-Maia matchup.... really wanna see that one....
11. Karate Done for Cardio & Strength. This was brought up sooner, in term of karate being a "combat art." The point is that Ricardo makes plain that karate involves, actually requires physical strength & conditioning... a per-requisite... & a requisite actually.
The further implication though, is that we take all of Ricardo's instructional teachings about how to do karate into our conditioning formula. We are conditioning the WHOLE BODY in the ways that produce the ability to use the entire body as a weapon.... i.e. and effective weapon.... i.e. for self dense... i.e., back to combat art in application.
Is that McGregor doing the Ido Portal stuff... may be so... what's the principles behind our conditioning... to reach our combat art training objective. Or, is it pushups? Or is it hitting tractor tires with sledge hammers? What, how should we best condition, efficiently condition for karate?
ENDING: Ricardo's Tactical Response. I like the structure and technique he uses. It's a tactically intelligent response. I like the multiple techniques. Here, we don't see Ricardo step back like in my white-yellow belt 1 Step Sparring vids. He just takes the assailant on.... again very Okinawan in flavor, what one can see. No back peddling, throwing his hands up to cover, duck, moving all over with exaggerated footwork like we see constantly in MMA.
It's a nice, Okinawan-flavored vignette on how karate shuts down a classic MMA move, right-out-of-the-box. IN PRINCIPLE. Contrast Ricardo against the Wonderboy-Glorified "Distance Management (NOT)." The drawback to Ricardo's approach is that it doesn't sell tickets. It is, however, the model to defeat Duke Roufus. No sheet.
I especially like the ending with hands, employing sound stances & striking bang, bang, BANG. Ricardo's tactic is a similar to my kumite style. I don't back away... I don't hesitate. I poise, then take on the opponent with deliberation. My strike(s) are directed for effect & finish. I avoid demonstrating on fellow class members who I don't need karate to "beat up."
Can't be throwing upper-body strength boxing-like punch @ Woodley and win. UFC 205 proved that kind of "karate" is WEAK. MMA > "Karate," right again.
EDIT: Needs Far-easterner y music background... lacking.
I think a better approach is not about just selecting or evaluating style of traditional martial arts... the better approach is understanding TMA, as the no-takers on posting replies to the above thread indicates. And this is where I can help, if MMA is so inclined.... Now that I'm done sobbing over Wonderboy's drubbing by Woodley, I can concentrate again.
I came across this shorty YT vid explaining how to do karate. And that's the elephant in the room because the lion-share of the karate-stylist failures in MMA is because the karate-experienced stylists... don't really know how to do karate well. Wonderboy is on that fringe... and the really tough, determined MMA opponents he's had in Brown & now Woodley have borne this conclusion out....
So here's the vid. This style has somewhat of an Okinawan flavor. To me, their are three main branches of traditional karate, along ethnic lines for a first distinction. Okinawan, Japanese, and Korean. Chinese also have "karate," for instance, but it would be more accurate as a generalization to name it Kempo. As a generalization. The Kempo's or Kenpo to me are really applied kung fu... very fighting, self defense oriented.... I'll explain more after the vid.
As a preamble though, I want to get out of the way the fact that the instructor is using a smaller, weaker, less experienced partner to demonstrate... I hate this because is weakens credibility in any demo. Commercially, I can see as an Ad. But a large portion of the criticism of traditional karate is that it really doesn't work against strongly-resisting opponents... and this kind of inferior-skilled partner plays directly into that criticism... and rightly so.
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=77q25TatdZE
FIRST, what's good about this video is that it is short & sweet... yet says a lot.
SECOND, the video also presents the information in a way that does cause some confusion about how to actually understand karate traditionally, and how to then properly train it. I'll enumerate.
1. Karate's Origination. Karate originated in Okinawa and is an ancient art. Well, as far as my understanding, ancient is several hundred years old. I leave defining that time frame to all the karate lineage buff. For my purposes, it's critical to understand that karate evolved out of the Kung fu's ... colloquially speaking... which cover a comparatively vast number, make & manner of traditional martial art styles.... Important point, is that karate tradition has been around for centuries... the relevance is that the principles underlying traditional karate have been developed over & practiced for centuries. A ton of thought & study has been put into the martial art of karate....
2. Karate Later Spread to Japan (Rest of World). The significance here is that the predominate styles and practices of karate we see today, particularly in the U.S., are Japanese based models. Essentially popularized forms of Shotokan karate or it's derivatives... Depending again on lineage investigation... this form of traditional karate is less than 100 years old... maybe originating about 1930's. Again, lineage buffs can pontificate. My person karate style is a derivative of Shotokan... with some very important differences....
3. Karate Uses Total Body As A Weapon. The is completely true.. yet very vague. Vaguery creates confusion & mis-understanding.
Ricardo goes on to define how karate uses varied parts of the body in different forms to hurt the opponent. He starts with uses the fingers as an attack against the eyes.... What Ricardo is doing is defining karate by technique, describing karate as a set or menu of techniques. And doing so in the context of martial action against the opponent. The implication is to hurt the opponent in a way that impairs physical function... a finger-poke damaging the eyes... trauma, can't see, the fall-out of that....
What I like about this explanation is Ricardo explains the diversity in karate technique. And that karate proper doesn't limit those technique in terms of target.... So ya MMA, you don't need Muay Thai 'cause it has elbows and karate fighting only has the reverse punch.... that's wrong. People are mixing conventions with principles....
4. Karate is Limited With Kicks. This IMO, is a generality with Okinawan styles of karate. It's less true with the Japanese styles and even less true with the Korean styles. However, traditionally, the hands among karate styles are the preferred weapon.... that's generally a principle.
Very Important. Note the kicks that Ricardo demos. It's the basic kicks, around the middle zone. It's kicks that keep you directly facing the opponent. These are the tactically effective way to employ kicks in actual fighting because they are efficient, feasible for great strength, relatively fast, and minimize your vulnerabilities of being on 1-leg, a physically limiting posture.
The latter leads me to believe that Ricardo & Premier Martial Arts in this studio hue to an Okinawan flavored karate style... ALSO, the emphasis on damaging technique using many different body parts....
5. Karate is Very Good for Self Defense. That's karate's applied goal. I will add civilian self defense... not specialized roles like the military... police, etc. As a general principle, the techniques are for civilian self defense.
6. Karate is for Everybody. Yep. A personal endeavor for humans. Don't need to compete, don't need to be a killer, can be for fitness, recreation, rudimentary self defense, an avocation, etc. Karate is really self-improvement which then can transfer that set of heightened capability& channel into multiple endeavors....
7. Karate in It's True Form is a Combat Art. Yep. To clarify, the applied goal of traditional karate is self-defense. Self-defense is the guiding, principle goal in application... on how it is used in life. That really speaks volumes in defining how serious an endeavor traditional karate is, should you desire to actually use it for it's intended application. An assailant can be very dangerous... can cause grievous harm,, or even if not,,, a lot of trouble for you. The use of karate the same. Karate in application involves the potential to hurt people, maybe badly.
8. It's Not About Power; It's Not About Strength. I'd redefine, it's not about raw power, it's not about brute (bigger, unthinking,) strength.
9. It's About Technique, It's About Accuracy. We replace 8, with Technique that intelligently applies power; that accurately applies strength. We definitely use the body's strength, now where No. 3 above comes in, the WHOLE Body's strength to direct power in an efficient, effective way.
To summarize, karate is not about raw power or strength against same; it's about tactically efficient application of power against raw power or strength.... generally the most important when the latter is superior to our own. I.e., the female against the male, bookworm versus the bully etc...
10. The Demo. The weaker attacker, coming on weak & passive... why MMA pans karate dojos. Their only excuse is that I haven't done my own vid... they have me there.
Then, though the demo gets better, in principle. How Richardo structures his response to the co-instructor coming in... nice presentation. Especially in demoing how karate takes on technically the invincible Muay Thai clinch or Gracie grapple r which the karate striker is "unable" to defend. Really silly promotions by the grappling crowd... Eagerly waiting the Wonderboy-Maia matchup.... really wanna see that one....
11. Karate Done for Cardio & Strength. This was brought up sooner, in term of karate being a "combat art." The point is that Ricardo makes plain that karate involves, actually requires physical strength & conditioning... a per-requisite... & a requisite actually.
The further implication though, is that we take all of Ricardo's instructional teachings about how to do karate into our conditioning formula. We are conditioning the WHOLE BODY in the ways that produce the ability to use the entire body as a weapon.... i.e. and effective weapon.... i.e. for self dense... i.e., back to combat art in application.
Is that McGregor doing the Ido Portal stuff... may be so... what's the principles behind our conditioning... to reach our combat art training objective. Or, is it pushups? Or is it hitting tractor tires with sledge hammers? What, how should we best condition, efficiently condition for karate?
ENDING: Ricardo's Tactical Response. I like the structure and technique he uses. It's a tactically intelligent response. I like the multiple techniques. Here, we don't see Ricardo step back like in my white-yellow belt 1 Step Sparring vids. He just takes the assailant on.... again very Okinawan in flavor, what one can see. No back peddling, throwing his hands up to cover, duck, moving all over with exaggerated footwork like we see constantly in MMA.
It's a nice, Okinawan-flavored vignette on how karate shuts down a classic MMA move, right-out-of-the-box. IN PRINCIPLE. Contrast Ricardo against the Wonderboy-Glorified "Distance Management (NOT)." The drawback to Ricardo's approach is that it doesn't sell tickets. It is, however, the model to defeat Duke Roufus. No sheet.
I especially like the ending with hands, employing sound stances & striking bang, bang, BANG. Ricardo's tactic is a similar to my kumite style. I don't back away... I don't hesitate. I poise, then take on the opponent with deliberation. My strike(s) are directed for effect & finish. I avoid demonstrating on fellow class members who I don't need karate to "beat up."
Can't be throwing upper-body strength boxing-like punch @ Woodley and win. UFC 205 proved that kind of "karate" is WEAK. MMA > "Karate," right again.
EDIT: Needs Far-easterner y music background... lacking.
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