- What is MMA ?

What is MMA ?

Date Added: November 17, 2008 06:13:30 PM

Author: JAMES

Mixed Martial Arts (also known as MMA) is a fairly new development in the world of martial arts, having come about around the year 1993. Mixed Martial Arts is an excellent concept and true to its namesake, it takes techniques from several different forms of martial arts and combines them into a single form – perfect for any student that is a fan of martial arts in and of itself as opposed to a single martial art. The basic concept behind Mixed Martial Arts is for the opponent to use any technique that comes to his or her mind (within reason – some schools and competitions will not allow certain harmful, dangerous or fatal moves) to defeat his or her opponent. Mixed Martial Arts has a “no holds barred” concept – just about anything goes in a Mixed Martial Arts competition. Many different arts are utilized in the Mixed Martial Arts, such as Taekwondo, Karate, Boxing, Aikido and more. Although it is possible to use softer martial arts (such as Tai Chi), it is not often used because more than likely, any technique such as this will be defeated with a harder, more aggressive move. Of course, for safety reasons, extremely harmful techniques such as biting, small joint locking, and blows or strikes to particularly vulnerable areas (such as the crotch or eyes) are not allowed. When Mixed Martial Arts was first created, the “anything goes” attitude truly let anything go – even the aforementioned injurious techniques. But to move the art into a more popular sport category, most of these techniques were outlawed and call for immediate disciplinary action if used during a Mixed Martial Arts competition or match. Because of the allowance of several different martial arts in a competition, MMA is largely an art based on strategy – a student of Mixed Martial Arts will need to learn real-life fighting techniques and instead of learning a preset form on which to base his or her techniques, the student learns on their own which defense or attack is best in any given situation. www.martialartstutor.com