So, I got some really interesting comments on yesterday's article about the "TMA in MMA" videos that have been floating around... here are a few of the more interesting comments, along with my responses.

Joe C. said:

"The only real difference between MMA style training is the conditioning. If you had Karate instructors hitting heavy bags, pads and sparring hard regularly they would do well as well. However its been my experience that many Karate schools train more for katas and point fighting."

I agree, Joe, to a point. Really, I think it's the resistance in sparring that makes the difference. You can't really fake taking a punch and then dishing it back out again, which is why MMA has evolved into something that is brutally effective for single combat.

Stephen F. said:

"Honestly I am more worried about the fake martial art systems, self proclaimed grand masters, bullshit styles being made up because people couldn’t hack it in a real martial art than I am with this kind of advertising."

Hmmm... I kind of have mixed feelings about "made-up" styles. I mean, all styles were made up at some point, and who am I to tell someone who is a martial arts genius that they can't create their own system of training and fighting? On the other hand, yeah - the 25-year-old 10th degree soke grandmasters are ridiculous. But then again, that's what we have Master Ken for... to make fun of how obviously ridiculous that stuff is, right?

Eugene said:

"The test is simple. Put a beginner who is 30 years old with no prior martial arts training into an MMA gym. Put an equally physically talented person, same age and weight into Okinawa karate or traditional school for same amount of time. The mma guy will win. I am not saying traditional martial arts have no value. They do. A great deal. But, for pure fighting ability, mma gym offers a more well rounded approach to combat."

Yeah, one thing I found when I started doing Burton Richardson's "MMA for the Street" curriculum with my adults (this was at my second dojo) is that it only took about 90 days to make someone functional in self-defense... versus four or five years in my traditional curriculum. It's not that we weren't teaching similar skills, it's just that the focus in training was on resistance and teaching specific skill-sets for pure self-defense applications.

I'm not knocking TMA, but a lot of the training has nothing to do with fighting or self-defense. If someone came to me purely looking for self-defense, I'd rather teach them Burt's stuff or krav maga instead of TMA, especially if they only had a few months to train.

Victor said:

"Those videos really just make them out to be giant nerds. All those TMA folk, reveling in the superiority of grasping the nuance of their nerdery ... whereas the rest of us wish they would do something more productive with their time."

Lol, Victor. Yeah, I see your point. I've talked about the nerdery in the martial arts world in the past. But I can't necessarily say that I'm not guilty of it myself, either. :)

- - -

Some other people pointed out that people just don't fight the way they did hundreds of years ago, so it doesn't make sense to train that way for modern combat. I agree.

TMA has a lot of good things going for it. To me, kata has always been moving meditation. Also, many people really like the discipline and respect that is part of the culture of TMA - I do too. And, let's face it - some people do TMA because they like the "cosplay" aspects of it. There's nothing wrong with that, either. 

But, if you just want to learn how to fight, training in TMA to prepare for modern combat is like trying to win the Dakar Rally in 2016 with a Model T. You'd have to modify the thing so much to make it race worthy, after everything is said and done what you end up with will look nothing like the original thing at all, which kind of defeats the purpose...

To me, the bottom line is that you restore the Model T because you love old cars; but you drive a modern rally car in the race because you want to win. And that's the way I look at TMA vs. MMA and other modern combat methods. You do TMA because you love it, and you train in other modern combat methods because you want to win in the ring and in real life. 

At any rate, these are just my opinions, and as always I welcome being told that I'm wrong. And, I also really appreciate all the feedback I got on the article, for and against.

Finally, if you want to chime in, by all means feel free to do so on the blog:

http://martialartsbusinessdaily.com/5908/is-this-false-dojo-advertising/

Or, you can chime in on the discussion thread at the MABD Facebook page:

https://www.facebook.com/MartialArtsBusinessDaily/