I’ve been a martial artist for as long as I can remember, and I hope that I always will be one.  I never really expected to see a the community get shaken up the way it has been by MMA.  One thing I’ve noticed a lot lately has been good, long-term, martial artists beginning to question whether or not Traditional Martial Arts have a use, or even a future, in a world where MMA is king.

I’ve seen teachers contemplate leaving the art, because the students only care about fighting in the ring.  I understand how they feel.  Many martial artists dont like seeing their art become a sport, others take issue with the lack of spirituality, and yet others feel that martial arts should be something else entirely.  I’ve been torn on the subject myself.  I dont know that there’s really anything wrong with MMA, other than the name.  If we could get the “Martial Arts” out of it, I think there would be a lot less contention in the community.  Unfortunately I really doubt the name is going to change at this point (and while it would help, I’m not sure that it SHOULD change – the name is technically accurate, even if it is being used for sport).

I’ve seen experienced martial artists question what the point is of studying a “Traditional Martial Art” anymore, because they are incomplete styles and you need to cross-train to pick up the gaps anyhow, so why not just do straight MMA?  Especially since it seems to be so effective in the ring.  I think this is mostly misconception.  Most martial art styles ARE complete styles.  The real problem is that (at least in the US) they’ve been watered down, and had a lot of components removed.  We need to bring them back.  I certainly wont argue that cross-training can be a great idea for a martial artist, but it isnt quite the same as MMA training.  MMA trains you for a specific thing – competing.  Martial Arts training does not (or should not – if you are then you’re doing a sport, and then you might as well do MMA).

Basically what it comes down to is this: “Traditional Martial Arts” are going to become a niche activity.  All the people who were just in it for fitness, or were just in it to compete, will probably migrate over to MMA.  If you run a school, this could be a big problem.  Either start offering MMA, or accept that you’re probably going to have to slim down quite a bit.  For teachers and students, I see this as a time of opportunity.  Rededicate yourselves to fully exploring your style.  Find the stuff that got left behind years ago and bring it back.  Become a better Martial Artist, and stop worrying about what the MMA guys are doing.

Tags: editorial, fighting is your friend, fiyf, martial arts, mma, tma, training

This entry was posted by Damen on Tuesday, May 25th, 2010 at 8:16 pm and is filed under Editorials. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.