Photo taken from MMAgospel.com
Two weeks ago I moved to the Boston area, where I will be attending
Tufts University to start my Ph. D. in conservation biology. Returning to a
University setting, I was eager to seek out opportunities for training; both
through new martial arts and new martial artists. With a little research, I was
happy to find a Mixed Martial Arts club on campus, and made haste to join them
for their first meeting this past weekend. That Saturday, I found the group—a
handful of friendly and enthusiastic undergraduates with a volunteer instructor
about my age--and spent just short of two hours learning the basics of
Brazilian Jiujutsu and wrestling takedowns. Later in the week, I was told, we
would practice striking drills and sparring. Walking back to my apartment in an
almost euphoric state of excitement about the new techniques I could study, I
began to think carefully about my relationship with this new and growing
phenomenon, “Mixed Martial Arts”.
As a martial artist with a primarily traditional training
background, I am often pigeonholed as someone who hates or looks down upon
“modern” martial arts, especially MMA. I will admit to have been unfairly
biased against them when I first started the martial arts, but eight years
later I don’t think my criticisms were entirely unfounded. At the same time, my
experience with Tufts MMA reminded me of the things I value and respect about
MMA. In this post, I’d like to clarify my stance on mixed martial arts and the
role I think they play in the world of 21st century martial arts.
When MMA arose in the U.S., starting perhaps with the start of UFC
in the early 90’s, it did not revolutionize the martial arts the way that many
practitioners will insist it did; in fact, I would say it scarcely introduced
anything novel or unprecedented. That being said, I believe MMA played an even
more important and beneficial role; it revived the spirit of its namesake, the
open-minded blending of different martial arts styles. Naturally, the idea of
combining and comparing martial arts has been around since martial arts
themselves, and certain prominent historical examples in the West come quickly
to mind.
E.W. Barton-Wright’s self defense system of Bartitsu embraced mixed
martial arts as central to its doctrine, focusing on the honing of skills from
multiple fighting arts to apply at different ranges and in different
situations. Jeet Kune Do, the far more infamous philosophy started by Bruce Lee
(which he insisted was not a style, but has since become just that), was also
formed on this perspective; as Lee explained, Jeet Kune Do “uses all ways and
is bound by none”.
Jeet
Kune Do also focused on breaking away from elements of classical styles
considered “non-essential”, especially Americanized interpretations of Eastern
Traditions which led to poor attitude and unrealistic training. With Lee’s
early death, I think the “MMA” philosophy—one of bringing arts together and
focusing on what really works—was for a time neglected, and did not
reawaken until the arrival of the MMA scene, when raw competition and
originally open-ended rules allowed fighters from many disciplines to compete
unfettered by stylistic requirements or traditions. It is this attitude, I
believe—one of both liberal mixing and an uncompromised desire for reality
above all else—which promises the perpetuation of the martial arts into the 21st
century, and will present them from either sinking into cultural obscurity or
ineffectiveness. Thus, with the advent of MMA, the “no-nonsense” attitude
returned (just take a look at the popular online martial arts community
Bullshido, clearly founded on this mindset) and forced the martial arts
community to return to practical thinking and more realistic practice. The fierce
competitiveness of the mixed martial arts—and their avoidance of attaching
moral or spiritual “decoration” on technique and strategy—forced many martial
artists to re-examine their disciplines and why the reasons they study them,
returning practicality to the top of an expanding list of priorities. I could
not be more grateful for this influence, and for that I am overjoyed at the
growing popularity of MMA.
While
watching a documentary on Bruce Lee recently, I caught the end of an interview
with his daughter Shannon, who was explaining how overjoyed her father would
have been to see MMA as it exists today. She described how perfectly it fit his
philosophy and is a real representation of what he was fighting for in the
martial arts. I disagree. I can understand that Lee would be pleased for the same
reasons I am for MMA, but it is clear from even a cursory inspection of his
training and philosophy that MMA as it exists today is not what he was looking
for, nor, for that matter, what I view as the ideal modern martial art.
Part
of me believes Lee would be disgusted at some of what he might see watching a
UFC fight today. Corporate sponsors, round girls, walk-out shirts, cages,
pay-per-view sessions, and technical rules had no place in Lee’s vision for the
future of martial arts. Though he shunned traditional forms and kata and
advocated sparring and real time fighting as the highest ideals (both fantastic
qualities of MMA training), Lee Maintained that fighting should never be bound
by rules, lest it lose its applicability to reality. His first answer to most
self defense situations was an eye-gouge or kick to the groin, but his training
manuals sggest everything from foot stomps to biting in grappling situations.
By creating rules with the obvious—and legitimate—need to keep competitors from
killing one another, MMA fighters have taken at least one step away from the dynamic
and limitless reality within which Lee’s ideal fighter thrived.
Lee
the philosopher despised arrogance and ego, and quoting Aurelius and Laotzu
alike spoke about the humility and virtue to be practiced by martial artists; I
doubt he would be pleased to see the bottles of UFC sponsored shaving gel
lining the aisles of the Rite-Aid down the street.
Lee
also disliked the concept of style. To him, styles limited possibilities and
trapped martial artists by narrowing their training and perspective on fighting
situations. As arts like Muay Thai and Brazilian Jiujutsu found repeated
success in the context of the ring, they soon became the go-to disciplines for
MMA, and the training background of MMA fighters has since steadily homogenized.
As a result, MMA is quickly becoming a “style” of its own, capping off the
steady flow of variety and creativity which led to its initial formation.
Thus,
while I am deeply appreciative of MMA and everything it has done—and continues
to do—for the martial arts, I do not think of it as the “ultimate” martial
art, nor the ideal for the martial arts of the future. With a burgeoning
fanbase and legions of talent, the MMA community has secured itself as an
undeniable presence in the world of martial arts, and one which readily
commands respect and emulation. At the same time, I would hesitate—as I would
with any other style—to label it the be-all-end-all form of empty handed
combat, and believe that more comprehensive systems can and will arise in the
future, likely from the very seeds that MMA has planted. The way I see it, MMA
isn’t going anywhere, nor should it in any hurry; it has done great things for
martial arts in the United States and around the world. No matter how often I
scoff at the flash and fanfare in the octagon, I can’t deny the presence of
some serious martial substance beneath the walk-out shirts and shaving gel.
