Is mma and bjj effecting the size of your martial art class?
With all the attention to the UFC and mma training is it effecting your bottom line? Does it take a little more work to get a student in the door because of the attention payed to bjj and mma? Do you address bjj and mma in your self defense class demonstrating how strong your martial arts compared?
sorry so many questions, but I am finding martial artists are intimidated by the growth of mma and bjj and thus the lack of interest in other traditional arts.
Kokoro2011-09-20T04:45:32Z
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i know longer have a store front, i havent for a few decades now, i do teach out of a few place though
if anything it has help, mma still utilizes traditional martial arts, just look at many of the top mma fighters and you can see that. if anything mma has proven that there is no superior style, i dont see it doing any more damage then its original version of shootfighting back in the 70's. for the most part all mma is, is shootfighting repackaged. bjj has been around almost a 100 yrs now or so, it is nothing new. bjj evolved, just like tma evolves nothing stands still, everything is constantly evolving. you people assume tma is stagnate and locked in time when it isnt it also changes with the times, every thing must change, but at the same time all the techniques that are used have been around for hundreds of yrs, even all the techniques in mma they all come from tma.
as Aaron R said what is more damaging is the scam places, and now you see them turning into mma gyms, to keep up there con. that is the real disgrace to this industry, people that rip off others.
I wouldn't say they ruined the martial arts world as much as stupidity did. It certainly wouldn't be the first thing that stupidity ruined. I mean BJJ is seriously the first martial arts that was sold completely on a gimmick. "All fights go to the ground." Okay. How do you prove that? I admit BJJ is a good style. It has great things in it. But to take up an art because some MMA champion said it a long time ago is just plain dumb. There is nothing wrong with MMA either. But to go around and say that it's the ultimate way to determin style superiority is wrong as well. MMA can give you valuable insight on fight physics. But it will not determine of something is good or bad.
I found it to have a positive effect on attendance where I used to teach before I moved. There was a MMA gym a few doors down from my dojo. A couple of my students went there to check it out. Several of their students also came to me. None quit their original program. Their students were learning things from me they weren't being taught in MMA. Conversely, my students were learning stuff they couldn't learn from me. My dojo became stronger because of that MMA club, and the MMA club became stronger because of my dojo. Win/win, no doubt about it. I agree With Aaron R and Kokoro. The phony McDojo/McDojang thing is hurting all martial arts and MMA much worse than any misconceptions between legitimate arts and.or sports.
I know why it worries you but there is nothing you can do about it, the kids today think they know best. The burnt hand teaches best. You can't mix martial arts unless you know some martial arts to mix.
I've heard people say Bruce Lee was the father of MMA, in my opinion he would be horrified.
I don't own a school but go to a local uni judo club and boxing gym to train. Both places BENEFIT from UFC since the crowd is more aware of the concept of "aliveness" and both of my styles stress that. Still, most of the newbies step into the dojo/gym mostly due to a) fitness, b) self defense or c) ancestory (i.e. parents or siblings used to do judo/boxing) reasons.