Traditional Asian Arts in MMA

[j]

i copied my post from a thread i just posted in as i think this could make an excellent topic:



i believe there is a new breed of fighters starting in pro mma. it is more traditional asian martial arts orientated. tim cartmell and cung le are 2 great examples. cung le, who uses a mixture of bjj, kickboxing, san shou(a chinese sport martial art comp), and vietnamese kung fu, is doing outstanding in pro mma. he is also known as the king of san shou.

there are quite a few traditional chinese martial artists who i believe are making an impact in amateur mma, and may turn pro in the near future.

as mentioned, there is also an excellent chinese boxer(same style i practice) and bjj blackbelt by the name of tim cartmell who will most definitely be a big part in the future of this movement. i provide some info on these guys below.

tim cartmell:






cung le:







i'll be happy to discuss any thoughts with fellow mma fans and fellow practitioners of fighting arts. this should be an interesting thread.

[Konstantin]

Im going a little off topic but I have a friend that is a Taekwando practitioner and he swears by it and I was wonder how useful is it in actual combat?

[j]

well bro, i have never practiced 태권도, but i have practiced karate when i was much younger - they both seem to have a love for high kicks and rigid forms.

you know, depending on the person teaching, it may be OK. however, many of the moves do not seem very practical. btw, i am really trying not to bash tae kwon do, since all of us martial artists(boxers included) are like brothers and i even speak korean.

the general consensus around is, however, that TKD is not especially effective or very practical. if you look around on the MMA messege boards, they really LOVE to slam TKD. me, i cannot stand flowery spinning backkicks and **** like that. i can't say much about it other than what little i have seen and read.

actually that reminds me of a story. my younger brother had a fight with a numerous trophy winning black belt in TKD - same age and weight too. the TKD guy got his ass kicked. now, does this mean that it is useless? i would say no. if you train it in a practical way, and train hard enough, you should be able to use it in combat. however, i would not rely on point sparring to get you combat ready for the streets, much less another martial artist or boxer. also, black belts, they really do not mean **** these days.

one last thing. from what i see of TKD mechanics, it lacks fluidity. no six harmonies. no root. they do not seem to have a good base of mechanics for power punching.

if he studies hard enough at it, keeps an open mind, absorbs more from other arts, he may turn out OK. personally, i wouldn't take up TKD as a single art at least.

[mma monster]

truthfully tkd is just about useless besides the kicks. I have 22 years of tkd multiple black belts and had a school for 2 years.My family owns the boxing gym in my town and untill last year i was not very interested in it untill I got in the ring with one of our better boxers and i got OWNED.Granted i can run all of them at kickboxing but tkd never taught me how to throw a real punch. I now train in boxing and in bjj and i have learned more in the last year than in 22 years of tkd.So take it from me if you want learn how to fight take kickboxing and bjj I think this would be the best combo to learn how to not lose a street fight

[Drunken Cat]

Im going a little off topic but I have a friend that is a Taekwando practitioner and he swears by it and I was wonder how useful is it in actual combat?

I was at a SpiritMC event in Seoul a couple months ago, alot of the Korean there were several straight TK fighters, a couple did pretty well. There were some hapkido guys as well.

Also alot of the more grappling or freestyle based fighters seemed to have TKD as their standup, which is sorta natural since its TKD is so big there.. its kinda like how Japanese fighters often have judo skills even when its not there predominant style, since judo is so wide spread in Japan.

[GhostInMachines]

i copied my post from a thread i just posted in as i think this could make an excellent topic:



i believe there is a new breed of fighters starting in pro mma. it is more traditional asian martial arts orientated. tim cartmell and cung le are 2 great examples. cung le, who uses a mixture of bjj, kickboxing, san shou(a chinese sport martial art comp), and vietnamese kung fu, is doing outstanding in pro mma. he is also known as the king of san shou.

there are quite a few traditional chinese martial artists who i believe are making an impact in amateur mma, and may turn pro in the near future.

as mentioned, there is also an excellent chinese boxer(same style i practice) and bjj blackbelt by the name of tim cartmell who will most definitely be a big part in the future of this movement. i provide some info on these guys below.

tim cartmell:






cung le:







i'll be happy to discuss any thoughts with fellow mma fans and fellow practitioners of fighting arts. this should be an interesting thread.

your style must be alot like wing chun right
ive done judo, tang soo do, and chinese kempo jui jitsu since i was little.
guys ive trained with in kempo have won championships in kickboxing in new england and do pretty well in mma because they train down the street from our dojo in a reality self defense school that does vale tudo and BJJ

[Palma]

There are many techniques within Traditional Martial Arts that can be very useful in combat competition. But the bottom line is the individual that applies the style. Here is a perfect example of Tae Kwon Do being used in full contact competition and winning.

Like I said, this guy is an exceptional athlete!
Serkan Yilmaz Turkish Samurai K1 Fighter

[j]

your style must be alot like wing chun right
ive done judo, tang soo do, and chinese kempo jui jitsu since i was little.
guys ive trained with in kempo have won championships in kickboxing in new england and do pretty well in mma because they train down the street from our dojo in a reality self defense school that does vale tudo and BJJ

no! quite a bit different. now, i have never taking wing chun, but have seen many videos and some live performances in competitions of wing chun.

what i can tell you is whet we generally like to do - and this is thoroughly "own" our opponent. now, different people may teach it a little differently, depending on theirs and your characterictics. but if you ever happen to have the good fortune of meeting and playing with a skilled XY guy, you will no what i mean by "owning" an opponent. we like to think of your space, as our space. we just let you occupy it until we want to put you on your ass.

the general flavor is you get power exercises right away, then you learn to master a few movements. the basics are no more than 5 short forms consisting of a move or two apeice. nothing fancy. nothing useless. the thing is, like boxing, these simple movements are drilled endlessly. brought out more in two person drills, and refind in sparring. unlike boxing, the art utilizes a softer approach which pretty much forces you to investigate how to generate power while you learn.

this simple basic movements, don't teach techniques per say, but teach principles of force, energy, and motion - so they can be adapted to any physical art. and since this movements can be strategically linked either destructively or in a creative manner, they can be applied mentally to any situation.

after a few years of practice, where i am at, you notice that people say you feel heavier, more solid. light touches seem to actually hurt people. you find yourself having to be extremely carefull to not injure people. you know what, everytime i think i have a good amout of power, i always find another way to push out even more. it turns out, that eventually, using less and less raw muscle that you would use in the beginning, the more power you get. it is actually scary considering i am still at the beginning.

so much more i could write, but who the hell wants to read 10 paragraphs in a row.