Technique Differences - MMA Training, Workouts, Jujitsu and Muay Thai

Maeda had been heavily influenced by Kano's training methods, which were centered on live sparring and by the influx of ground-fighting technique that entered into judo as a result of the tournament loss to the jujitsu of the Fusen ryu. We should note that judo is quite different today than it was before 1925, when it was much less restricted by rules and referee intervention. Ground grappling was far more prevalent than it is now. Indeed, ground grappling dominated judo so much that Jigoro Kano instituted wide-ranging rule changes in 1925 to prevent ground grappling from completely dominating judo.

Since then, numerous additions to the rules and regulations of judo have progressively eroded the amount of the ground grappling allowed in judo competition. This is due to a range of factors. First, Kano definitely had Olympic aspirations for his sport, and concern about spectator interest may have caused him to limit ne waza. The result has been a lack of interest and training among judo players in ground grappling, since the current rules of judo make it unlikely that extensive training in ne waza will pay and dividends.

But there is one important exception to this general trend. One particular branch of judo-kosen judo- has consistently avoided the pressure to emphasize standing-throwing technique over ground grappling, In kosen judo, ne waza almost always determines the outcome of the match. If there is any martial art that Brazilian jiu jitsu most resembles, it is doubtless pre-1925 judo. which today is seen only in the few kosen judo organizations still in existence. The only traditional style of jujitsu that Brazilian jiu jitsu has close links with is Fusen-ryu jujitsu, which was itself a direct forebear of kosen judo. It appears, however, that Fusen-ryu jujitsu largely died out after being assimilated into judo. The similarities, then, between kosen judo and Brazilian jiu jitsu are far greater than those between traditional jujitsu and Brazilian jiu jitsu.

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 1. Motion: Retreat backward to get an opponent moving in toward you. Lower your level, then shoot as he moves into you. This will create a combined velocity that makes it difficult for your opponent to successfully resist the shot.

2. Angle: Step out to one side to create and angle on your opponent. A wise angle to work with is the one in which your step outside your opponent's lead hand. This position puts you in a relatively safe place and marked the shot easier.

3.Range: Step into contact range, thus giving your opponent the opportunity to strike. As he commits to strike, lower your level and shoot into the takedown.

4. Striking: By attacking your opponent with strikes, you preoccupy him with defense and thus make the task of shooting into a takedown much easier. The jab is the best strike to set up shorts, but fighters have also used the rear cross and various kicks with some degree of success.

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Positional Control

We noted earlier that modern grappling approaches to jujitsu employ strategy at two separate levels. There is an overall strategy based on phases of combat the grand battle plan, as it were. Once the two fighters begin the match, however, they uses strategy at another level, a strategy that guides their actions minute by minute, second by second, throughout the course of the fight. This is the concern to constantly strive for superior position over their opponent-their positional strategy.

At any given moment in a fight, the two fighters occupy certain positions relative tot each other. Some of these positions give one fighter a considerable advantage over the other, allowing him to attack more readily and successfully than the other can. Other positions are neutral, offering neither fighter any real advantage. Still others are disastrous, giving the opponent a considerable advantage in offensive possibilities. These positional concerns become especially important once the two fighters lock  up in a clinch and go to the+ ground. Should one fighter attain a really dominant position, he can attack with virtual impunity while his hapless opponent can only think of escape. If an opponent is not skilled in grappling, the chances of his escaping unscathed from a dominant position are remote.

Indeed, in early MMA matches, the establishment of a strong, dominating position was nearly always enough to finish a fight. The fighters of that time simply lacked the grappling skill to get out before unacceptable damage was done to them. The current generation of MMA athletics are much better trained in grappling jujitsu skills and theory. As a result, they are much better equipped to avoid or escape dominating positions and resume the fight.

To clarify the theoretical underpinning of positional strategy, we can offer clear definitions of the terms dominating position or inferior position.  A dominating position is any position that allows one fighter to control the body and movement of an opponent in such a way that the fighter can attack with strikes and submission holds with greater efficiency than the opponent can. Obviously, an inferior position is simply the opposite of this.

Note, however, that domination comes in degrees. Some dominant positions are simply  more dominating than others, and there are many dominant positions. The mounted position, knee-on-belly position, side-control position, and some versions of the headlock are all examples of dominating positions, though this is by no means an exhaustive list. Of these, the mounted position and the rear-mounted position are often considered more dominant than the others because an opponent by attaining good position. Once a good controlling position has been attained, the opponent can be put under severe pressure with strikes and grappling technique. This intimidating pressure almost always forces the opponent into error and greatly increase the likelihood of a submission hold being successfully applied on him.

The advantage of this workmanlike approach to combat is that it greatly increases the likelihood of a fighter's success when well applied. Fighting is a game of chance, There is always a chance of victory and a chance of defeat, no matter what respective skill level exists between the two fighters. The strategic fighter constantly looks to stack the odds in his favor. This is best done by striving to put oneself in a position where one can easily attack an opponent while his ability to strike back is severely undermined. This is a high-percentage approach to fighting, and it has proven its effectiveness countless times in MMA combat.

Without doubt, there is something rather callous about such an approach to fighting. Usually, we are raised with a sense of a 'fair fight" in which the two opponents square off with an equal chance of hitting each other, the idea of putting yourself in a position where you can hit while your opponent cannot certainly runs counter to the notion of "fair fighting." However, the central concept behind jujitsu as an approach to fighting is not fairness, bu efficiency.

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MMA Training and Conditioning in Illinois and Indiana

Most major styles of martial arts to enter the West from Asia since World War II have enjoyed a certain vogue status. In fact, judo was the most well-known Asian marital art in the 1950s, but with each succeeding decade came karate and kenpo, kung fu, taekwondo, and ninjitsu. Little attention, however, was paid to one of the oldest of the Asiatic martial arts-jujitsu. This changed dramatically when mixed martial arts competition was introduced to North America in the 1990s.

The guiding idea behind this type of event was to pit the various styles, methods and philosophies of combat against one another under few rules to see which prevailed. The unexpected and dramatic success of certain styles of jujitsu brought tremendous recognition and interest to this previously neglected style of combat. In a short time, the public's perception of jujitsu went form an obsolescent and ineffective art to a formidable fighting style indeed. Along with this change in perception came a massive interest in learning the techniques that enabled jujitsu fighters to do so well in MMA fights. Soon, almost every martial arts school in North America was offering "grappling and ground fighting" as part of their instruction and syllabus. This inclusion was in direct recognition of the success jujitsu had experienced as a result of its highly effective grappling technique, most of which was applied on the ground.

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Rise of Koryu Jujitsu - Jujitsu, Muay Thia and MMA Training

With the gradual decline of battlefield combat in Japan after 1601, the emphasis in combat instruction changed from battlefield art to personal protection in a civilian setting. It became more and more a means for an individual to defend himself in the face of attack in daily life. Thus, the nature of jujitsu changed in response to changing social conditions. It was the last period of open feudal warfare in Japan that gave rise to what generally considered the first jujitsu ryu, as opposed to bugei ryu, which was concerned only with military combat.

The Takenouchi ryu was founded in 1552. Although it certainly taught many military weapon skills, it also taught a large array of empty-hand combat skills that were derived from yoroi-kumichi grappling arts. (grappling in armor). Takenouchi ryu began a shift in emphasis toward hand-to-hand skills that grew stronger in the peaceful Edo period. Succession was passed on only to family member, and within two generations, the emphasis was almost entirely on nonmilitary technique. This shift was due to the wish of the school's founder, Takenouchi
Hisamori. He declared that his sons should divorce themselves from allegiance to any powerful warlords. This decision was the result of his own bad experiences with the warlords, and this declaration meant that school taught people from all social castes, most of whom were not allowed weapons and were not of the military classes. Thus, the emphasis naturally had to fall on civilian self-defense.

The Takenouchi ryu had a tremendous influence on may ryu in Japan. As the long-term peace of the Edo period wound on the military arts withered, it became the standard model for the koru jujitsu schools. IT was in this time that traditional jujitsu, arose as an independent predominantly weaponless system of self-defense in everyday situations. Whereas the roots of the earlier bugei/bujutsu arts are set in the aristocratic warrior caste, the roots of koryu jujitsu are much more plebeian. Most of the demand for a weaponless fighting art came from the commoners, who were forbidden from carrying weapons. This "common people's yayara" became popular in the Edo period with manuals that demonstrated techniques written and released for the public. The idea was to give civilians the techniques written and released for the public. The idea was to give civilians the techniques to defend themselves from the kinds of situations that they  might find themselves in during the course of daily living. Old documents show the existence of at least 170 koryu jujitsu schools by the mid-Edo period, demonstrating well the degree of popularity they enjoyed as they came to replace the classical military arts.

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Example of Range and Technique : Jose "Pele" Landis- MMA Training and Jujitsu

An instructive way to analyze the question of range as the basis of strategy and technique selection is to look at a concrete example drawn from contemporary MMA competition. Jose "Pele" Landis, a distinguished MMA fighter from Brazil, is an apt example of a fighter who demonstrates the limitations of classical theories of range and distance in real fighting.

Pele came from a background in Muay Thai kick boxing and Brazilian jiu jitsu. The former is a style that strongly emphasizes knee strikes from many positions and ranges. Pele's natural body type-long legs and flexible hips-made him ideally suited to the use of the knee as a striking weapon. In MMA events around the world, Pele made the knee strike the basis of his offense, often catching unwary opponents from the unlikeliness of angles and positions. In both the free movement phase of combat and the clinch, Pele was without doubt one of the most dangerous and unpredictable fighters in MMA, largely as a result of his uncanny use of the knee strike.

One might ask, then, what was the basis of Pele's successful use of the knee strike? According to classical theories of range and distance, it ought to be due to the fact that Pele was an expert at controlling distance and range, since there is supposed to be a range at which the knee strike is the optimal weapon. The fact is, however, that Pele used the knee strike at all ranges. Range was not the relevant factor is predicting how he would attack. Rather, his training background and body type made him unusually suited to knee strikes, and it was these factors that made him continually select the knee strike as his weapon. It did not matter whether his opponents were short, medium, or long range, or at "kicking range," "punching range," or "grappling range," or at any other distance for that matter. Pele would look to score with some variant of the knee strike.

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