Mixed Martial Arts

Mixed Martial Arts - Zen Budo (fighting art of the moment)

Mixed Martial Arts is increasing in popularity around the World mainly due to the UFC cage fighting series on TV. Originally UFC was put together to help discover which Martial Art would be superior in a 'real fight' situation. The only difficulty with creating a sport to simulate a real fight is that sport has rules and 'real fighting' does not. The Mixed Martial Arts systems in use today however, comes as close as I believe is possible to providing a way to determine the best techniques to use in fighting situations.

Our Mixed Martial Arts syllabus is called 'Zen Budo' which literally means

'Fighting Art of the moment.'

and we have intentionally named it this to reflect the fact that Mixed Martial Arts is an evolving, developing style of combat that continually changes as aspects are added from more and more traditional styles of combat.

50% of the class time is devoted to fitness and body conditioning as these are key to being a good mixed martial artist. The technical aspects of this style include; stand up fighting (kicks, punches, knees, elbows), shooting techniques (moving in, grabbing, grappling), takedowns (sweeps, throws) ground fighting (locks, chokes, manipulations, submission moves and strikes). 

And the question often asked is;

"Which techniques are the best for 'real' fighting?"

The best answer I can provide is that this arena is a 'moving feast.' Sometimes a great ground fighter will dominate the other competitors with his skills until perhaps an equally formidable stand up kicker and puncher prevents him from going to ground without sustaining injury. This may be followed by a resilient wrestler who takes those kicks and punches in order to get in close and execute a choke or lock.

It seems that it is not about 'the best techniques' but more to do with 'the best competitor using his favourite techniques.' All in all this is a very exciting art form that will continue to grow and develop for many years.