Is MMA a Martial Arts Style?! Fight Talk w/ Icy Mike | Hard2Hurt

Styles have a defined, closed cannon of movement. MMA does not. MMA has specific objectives that can be met in numerous ways. Take for example- executing and/or defending takedown off the cage. That concept doesn’t exist in other combat sports, and it doesn’t exist in the cannon of movement of any mainstream fighting styles. But there’s no codified MMA style method of doing those things. There are higher percentage techniques, there are lower percentage techniques.

The problem is the word “style” Bruce Lee addressed this too - MMA is simply a hybrid of traditional martial arts that invites the student to explore a great variety of these disciplines and can then interpret the techniques in their own way - you can have a variety of styles within any singular martial art like Karate or Judo or BJJ etc.

If mma became it’s own style It might end up being almost identical to combat sambo.

I really don't think anyone should try to learn MMA rather than learn two or three different martial arts and either Master them or get extremely good at them and that can translate into MMA instead of trying to learn MMA by itself because they have to understand a bit of everything if that makes sense..................???

The only style is your hands, your feet and how you move them. All styles are one and there are no styles. There is only what you know, what you don't and what you prefer, or do not prefer.

Take 20 boxers ask them how they fight. You will have some in fighters, some counter punching out boxers, some Philly shell some southpaw, some unorthodox. Do the same with Karate or Gung Fu, even Muay Thai. Results will only resemble each other in their differences.

well, no, obviously not

it's in the name

mixed martial arts

duh ?

style
/ staɪl /PHONETIC RESPELLING
noun
a particular kind, sort, or type, as with reference to form, appearance, or character:
the baroque style; The style of the house was too austere for their liking.

a particular, distinctive, or characteristic mode of action or manner of acting:
They do these things in a grand style.

Style is an individual’s conditioned response to physical threats. Practicing a named martial arts style could result in achieving a black belt and being able to teach a style formed during a different historical period or originating from some one with a different set of physical attributes in a particular environment (capoeira?). I say what you are skilled to do is one’s style (belt ranch). And hopefully it’s gradually improving. But, do you have the abilities of the black belt of its style? Develop your style with the skills that meet your abilities and needs. Try understanding different styles, but remember it’s not your style until you have mastered it because you will only do under stress what you have mastered or overwritten as skill. Far too many people began sparring with techniques before their nervous systems have coordinated footwork and the specific technique of “their“ style. Ultimately what most people call style is practice of someone else’s style. I say that style is what you do reflexively individually although you may be trying to emulate someone else.

I feel the idea of MMA is really more different martial arts styles mixing together against eachother.

The unique ruleset of MMA, including the allowance of strikes on the ground and the freedom to transition between striking and grappling, demands a fundamentally different strategic approach compared to its parent disciplines. This strategic aspect shapes the way fighters move, anticipate, and react, leading to a distinct rhythm and flow that characterizes MMA as a whole. Therefore, while it's true that MMA draws heavily from existing martial arts, the unique adaptations and strategic demands of the sport elevate it beyond simply being a mashup of other disciplines. It's a constantly evolving fighting system with its own identity and set of skills, shaped by the crucible of competition and the innovarion of its athletes.

I go to an MMA class where we learn to combine strikes with grappling. We do drills with strikes leading into takedowns and then dominant positions. We then spar with both strikes and grappling trying to apply what we've learned. MMA is a style the same way kickboxing is a style. There might be different versions of it, but it's still a style.

I think the best way to describe what "MMA" is that its a "rule set." I wouldn't say its a style because you can have two MMA fighters who approach things almost entirely differently. That said...there is a "standard mixture" for MMA which is an American collegiate/freestyle wrestling base with watered down Muay Thai and BJJ bolted on for striking and submissions. That mixture is sort of becoming its own style. Its sort of a subtle matter of linguistics in determining what context the word is being used in -- do they mean "MMA" as all possible variations on a rule set or do they mean "MMA" as shorthand for that most-common mixture.

Consider this metaphor.

"Pizza" generally means a bread base (pan, thin crust, cracker crust, flatbread, etc.) with a layer of sauce (red, pesto, bbq, etc.), a layer of cheese (usually, but not always mozzarella...lots of different blends), and toppings (near infinite). But those elements can be interpreted so many different ways. So, when people are describing a specific dish, they usually don't just say "pizza" -- they say "pesto sausage pizza" or "bbq chicken pizza" or "Hawaiian pizza" or etc etc. Still...when you say "pizza" what most people think of is red sauce, mozzarella cheese, and pepperoni.

So you have to judge from the context how they're using the word.

Fencing mixed with Archery is MMA, just like Savate with JJ.

MMA is a ruleset, but as people compete in it and a meta develops, it becomes a style.

MMA is as much a style as boxing or judo or taekwondo or any other combat sport. It's a ruleset that tends to favour a certain set of techniques. I don't see how it's really any different.

I was for 4 months in a gym training Kick Boxing when i was in university, and at the second month i asked the trainer why it felt so much like a younger dumb brother discount version Muay Thai, he laughed and told me that Kick boxing was to Muay Thai what Thai was for Muay Boran, the less dangerous more profitable and easy to learn version of the older one that was less focused on oh, im gonna make it flashy and more on im gonna destroy that other person because or im in a war or asaulted hundreds of years ago in the middle of nothing

From my understanding MMA, Kick Boxing, Krav Maga, JKD. Are systems because they knowgly pull from styles to assemble something that in theory eliminates the weaknesses of the individual styles .

I think one of the better arguments in support of the "not a style" thesis is that, 1.) a style can be applied in other, similarly ruled sports, and 2.) MMA is a composite of styles so citing it as the style of a fighter tells the listener nothing useful.
1.) For instance, a Muay Thai style can be employed in a Glory or K1 kickboxing match. Petchpanomrung and Superbon come to mind. Similarly, a Sambo or American wrestling style can be utilized to great effect in MMA. But MMA can't be reasonably employed in other sports. If you say a fighter has an MMA style when they are fighting in a KB match you have not narrowed anything down. What you're really saying is that they are using one or more of the styles that compose many MMA fighters' backgrounds, ie boxing or Sanda, which leads to point #2.
2.) If you say a fighter has an MMA style it doesnt give your listener any information. They might be a grappler or a kickboxer, or both. Because MMA is by definition a composite of styles, to say they are using an MMA style is just so vague as to render the statement meaningless, akin to saying "I like things".

interesting thought technology as applied to my preferred martial arts Style... which in it's contextual heyday was a place where guys who studied a thing learned how to decontextualize their thing

There is a school in our area that calls themselves Tae Kwon Do and teaches classes in Boxing, Krav, and TKD, all separate but a lot of students take multiple disciplines.

Mma is not a martial art, it's mixed martial arts lol 😆 which means it has no set techniques. You can use any traditional styles that work best for the individual.

MMA is a combination of styles.

As a style I think it would be considered freestyle martial art

I can't tell if you guys said if it was or wasn't a style

I think one could argue that how a fighter executes on their mixture of skills stemming from multiple main disciplines could be a "style", just like a writer can have their own style of writing. So, in that sense, you could have many "MMA styles" that are directly related to the disciplines you're mixing which could look, transition, and execute differently. As an example: let's consider cocktails. All the ingredients you can choose from exist in their own right, and it comes down to how you want to mix the ingredients, how many of them and by how much, as to the flavour and colour of the end result. Yes, I just compared MMA and martials arts to alcoholic beverages. 😆

However, as a "style" in the traditional sense of a martial arts discipline, I don't think MMA itself should or could be considered as such. I think the scope is just too broad, deep, and diverse.

As a martial arts instructor specializing in kickboxing and jiujitsu, i had previously tried to teach a full mma class but after a while a felt people were not evolving quickly, too much to cover. So i moved back into teaching the arts seperatly and it yields way better results. The REAL mma styl is basically the glue that fits everthing together but if your athlete kinda suck everywhere they're not ready for the glue

Perhaps an mma style can become like... an advanced class

I feel that a mixed artist is not someone like me who does boxing, Muay Thai, and bjj. I am just a martial artist, now whenever I go later on to a gym that has the mma rule set and sparring consists of mma rules and I start mixing my techniques, then I will become a mixed martial artist.

I've been looking for the best martial art but everyone says something different which means there is no best I discovered that you don't need style you develop the fundamentals and fight the way you feel comfortable that's how you become the best you don't use just karate or just bjj or kickbox you learn the fundamentals of everything and hone your skills to the limits

Great video Adam.

"Be like water" - Bruce Lee.

Now, this may be a VERY controversial take on what MMA is, but I am interested to see other viewpoints about this (I know I'm about 2 years late to this). When you are trying to define what MMA is, you typically look at it as a conglomoration in some form of multiple martial arts styles. In a very similar note, that is at it's core, what was done with the Shaolin temples in China. They weren't a singular note of studying, it was a religious temple, that martial artists would gather and it was preserved and ultimately became identified as it's own style of martial art with it's different subsidiaries like Karate is known for. So, in this sense, could you classify MMA as a style?

Nice video Adam Kenpo

MMA isn't a style, it's where you go after learning multiple styles, to test them out and learn how to integrate them into a real fight.

MMA=Category of various styles

So what I am hearing (two years after the conversation) is that MMA is not a style partly because it does not teach the basics?

MMA is a combat sport not a style, you can train boxing, muay thai wrestling and bjj with are sports individually but it only becomes MMA when you practice actually combing them.

MMA isn't a style, it's a sport.

I can't wait for Adam Kempo vs DC at Wrestlemania.

Your Kung Fu in this video is top notch, all three of you.

I feel like MMA has become a "style" but can't be taught by one guy.

The only reason I say I do mma is because it’s easier then saying “oh yeah I do boxing,jiu justu and Muay Thai”

Isn't the "style" of MMA in essence jeet kune do? Be water, absorb what is useful and all that.

My local gym teaches separate classes for wrestling/jiu jitsu/boxing/kickboxing but also has mma classes where they combine techniques and concepts from the separate classes, I think it was the best way to teach mma because you still got the specific lessons you needed to go along with the combined classes

“MMA is the style of mixing martial arts” … so Jeet Kun Do… but practical

Though is karate not a style if you have different people coach different things

Wouldn’t “mma” just fall under jeet kune do? It is just a different variation of what styles you think are most important. In a cage, yes there is different strategies. Calling cage fighting mma sounds better and is easier than calling it cage fighting. Lol

In my head MMA is the transition between sriking, takedowns and grapling. It's the link that connects theese. And if I go by this logic, you can't just lear linking things without knowing how to do the things

Old movie I would think of MMA as a skill set. The idea being that you need a you need to develop a certain set of skills to at least a moderate level everywhere to do well in the sport of MMA. A style is how someone approaches building their individual skill set and a martial art would be the building block or foundation for building their style.

Is there blood on the floor?