Traditional Martial Arts and MMA: Keeping it Real

I started Karate training in the early 80’s in New York City. At that time known as the tail end of the golden era of karate, the art form was still far from what is seen today. This is of course years before the Ultimate Fighting Championship, years before Chuck Liddell and Tito Ortiz and Brazilian Jiu-jitsu would not be known in the U.S. for decade.


At that time most of the baddest fighters known, were exponents of karate and the poster boy for modern gladiators were guys like Chuck Norris, Joe Lewis, Bill Wallace, and Steve Anderson just to name a few. A strong side kick or a swift back fist to the head was trained with a daily fever that resulted in large golden trophies. Fights in those days while rough, rarely ever resulted in a knock out. A bloody nose here and there, perhaps broken fingers and toes were probably the worse that can take place. Fights were determined by who scored the cleanest quickest points, yet bravado was at an all time high.


Today, we have a new method of measuring one’s fighting prowess. Unlike the point karate tournaments of decades past, fighters engage in what is known today as mixed martial arts or MMA for short. MMA is far from point karate fighting. There is no judge calling “yame” every time a clean clear point is scored. It doesn’t end with 3 points and knockouts are as common here as in boxing. MMA is truly the combat sport of the present and there is no doubt that it will be here tomorrow. MMA is growing every day, and no matter how many articles written by either disgruntled former karate champions or frightened boxing analyst the sport will continue to grow.


Some fear that the traditional arts are dying because of MMA and that soon there will not be as many traditional karate and judo schools left. While there is some truth to this fear, you see more and more full contract kickboxing and MMA gyms every day, I feel that the traditional arts and MMA can coexist peacefully, not mention they can even be in some cases combined to form a blend that benefit practitioners of all styles. In fact some schools have already begun to see benefits from both sides of the fence. Fighters such as Chuck Liddell and Lyoto Machida are both top level MMA superstars and both practitioners of karate. They found a way to learn how to utilize there karate training in the vigorous MMA environment, and their achievements lay testament to the fact that karate can be an effective fighting style.


I have years of karate training under my belt by some of the best instructor in the country but I have found ways of learning new skills to update my training and make it work in the MMA ring. Today I am known on the East coast as one of the premiere MMA coaches and my fighters have laid wreck on many MMA events, winning by both knock out and tap out. My style Kuk Jin Do (The Ultimate Way) as practiced in my East Harlem Gym Ultimate Karate USA is one way to express traditional karate and MMA. I hope that this book sheds light on traditional karate players as well as MMA fighters and aids in success in the current arena that is here to say.


Many will ask this question when they realize that the heart of Kuk Jin Do is MMA style training. They will wonder why a traditional martial artist would be interested in integrating MMA and what relevance it has with street fighting self defense. First I would like to clarify the issue that not all Kuk Jin Do practitioners participate in MMA competition. We have a fight team with about 10 members participating in MMA. However MMA style training is beneficial to all students regardless of age. For years traditional martial arts such as Tae Kwon Do, and Shotokan karate practiced standup self defense techniques will little or no ground fighting training. It was not considered important and necessary to train in these tactics. Likewise arts such as Aikido, Jujitsu, and Judo trained in small joint manipulation with little or no striking because it was not considered necessary. Today we know the importance of training in both aspects of martial training and all fighters no that if you are well versed in one aspect of the game, you are short changing yourself.


I’ll give a quick example as to what I mean, in the October 2007 issue of Black Belt magazine, James LaFond researched some 512 acts of violence to determine which techniques would cause the highest number of knockouts, in this issue taking aside attacks with either a firearm or knife, and the number one highest ration knockout attacks arise from a poor leverage throw from a larger opponent, or a poorly executed wrestling or judo type throw. Next up were sucker punches and so forth, but being able to defend against a throw seems like a worthy must, and MMA training certainly would help.


MMA training is done in real time, with full contact. It’s not pretty most of the time but it’s highly effective. Unlike one step sparring type techniques from traditional karate MMA training most closely resembles with reason, what a street fight looks like. My critics would argue that it would be suicide to go to the floor in a real fight, and I would agree stating one to the ten most popular MMA tactics the “sprawl-and-brawl” as a method which would help.


My critics might also state that grappling is ineffective against eye gouges and groin shots, however if a poorly trained grappler fought an experienced grappler, the poorly trained grappler would find it extremely difficult to get into a position to employ those “dirty tactics”. They would lay in a state of confusion resorting to useless petty techniques and would with certainty within a short time end in a painful choke or submission lock.


Some might say MMA is unrealistic since there are “NO RULES” in the real world. Well I have news for those who believe this, there are always rules whether we call them “street code”, or some would call “laws”, you can’t eye gouge, or face rip an opponent who tackles you in a head lock. Chances are you’d be held responsible for your actions and likely not be viewed as the “good guy” in this circumstance.