Am I a Mixed Martial Artist?

I have agree with the whole semantics subject. I believe that if you're learning a traditional martial art that's not intended for sport and you train in the traditional ways, whether you do so with more than one martial art, I say it's still simply traditional martial arts.

OC Bujinkan had an incredible answer to one of my questions similar to this. Maybe there's something in it for you too: http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=Au7jC...

Years ago when Bruce Lee came onto the scene one of the knocks against him was that what he was advocating and teaching was not traditional martial arts. While many of the techniques were his approach and philosophy about the use of them was new, unorthodox, and not readily accepted by many "traditional" mucky-mucks. Forty some years later his teachings and approach are now more widely embraced by most except for the most hard core traditionalists and there is not near the negativism about him that there once was among that group. What is new and may not be readily embraced or accepted today will not always remain so tomorrow.

To me if a person studies and largely follows the approaches and philosophy's of a traditional martial art then they are a traditional martial artist. It could be a traditional Philippine or Indonesian style but to me traditional martial arts are ones that have a history to them and that are also closely associated with the culture, traditions, and way of life and it's people. At the same time it is possible to be both I think for people like yourself who come from and have an established background in traditional martial arts.

MMA does not bring some of these things to the table. However many of the people now taking up MMA have never studied a traditional martial art or set foot in a traditional school and never will. I hardly look at or consider them in the same light as someone like yourself that has a background in traditional martial arts and to me they are just mixed martial artists. Forty or fifty years from now that thought might be overtaken by time and the general thinking and consensus of the martial arts public but for now they are separate to many or most I think.

While I would agree that we are mixed martial artists with this unnecessary denomination of martial art styles; I personally would say that there is no such thing as mixed martial arts...

There is only martial art........ That is it, nothing more.

Martial arts can be learning to wrestle, grapple, strike, shoot, cut, hammer, drive, anything to defend oneself in any sort of physical combat. It's all the same. The only difference is how much does the artist know. It's like a mechanical engineer... something I am... A mechanical engineer can work on a boat, a plane, an automobile, a refrigerator, etc. What the specialize in or have experience in does not mean they are something different, but that they have an area of expertise.

Screw the denomination, we all learn to fight so we don't have to struggle with it...

PS- should I go back to Aaron J?

MMA is a sport. You are a Traditional Martial Arts practitioner. There is a term called "Hybrid Martial Arts". This basically means training in different styles and combining the techniques from two or more styles. Bruce Lee's "Jeet Kune Do" martial art is a good example of a Hybrid Martial Art for Lee himself trained in and studied Wing Chun, Savate, Judo, Jujutsu, and other martial art varieties and combined and modified the techniques he learned from each styles which lead to the development of Jeet Kune Do. The US military themselves developed Combatives, which I have a fair knowledge of, I hear it has roots in Japanese martial arts of Judo and Jujutsu, western Wrestling, boxing, etc. which should be considered a Hybrid Martial Art.

Well if you have been combining and modifying your techniques from the styles you've learned, you may be considered as a Hybrid Martial Artist.

You are a Martial Artist first,and than you can specialize in one area if you want. Though I tend to think it is better to learn one system well before jumping around, life gets in the way. MMA is a term kind of stolen by the media to label of sport fighting. So in that regard it really is a term that in the common vernacular means something other than a Traditional Martial Artiest.

So you have a "mixed" background in the arts I see you as a "traditionalist".

I follow the advice of the Tao Te Ching. Don't get so attached to names, because they don't mean as much as you think. I may say that I train or do martial arts or MMA, but I would never call my identity a "martial artist" or a "MMA fighter". The Path I wish to explore is not something limited to the names of MMA or martial arts.

Look the point is: it doesn't matter what you call yourself. Personally, I think MMA fights are awesome and require great skill, but even Bruce Lee declined MMA matches because he was raised preparing for the streets. He didn't believe in the MMA rules and without them he was unstoppable. Personally, I feel as long as I can kick some *** when I need to, I don't care if I'm called a Yodelling Unicorn Rainbow Cow.

while i gotta say Psychopathickids is RIGHT on the spot i more then agree with him and i also want to add a few more things is that

your struggling to find or see yourself as a Traditional Martial Artist or a Mixed Martial Artist

here let me tell you this it DOES NOT matter its perfectly okay to have both

well it seems to me that you like Traditional Martial Arts more well then work towards it, go traditional

you have a wide variety of martial art history well thats good if you wanna go traditional then it shouldn't effect you at all. just use those mix martial art to back you up just in case you get bored and wanna try different techniques or maybe to have more knowledge and understanding of martial arts.

well i say dont worry about it.

I have to agree that this is more an issue of semantics. While mixing martial arts is older than dirt, the term "Mixed Martial Arts" now refers to a specific combat sport.

I guess people (continue to) classify themselves and others as either a TMA or MMA practitioner simply for the sake of simplicity.

You are a martial artist, that is all. Mixed martial artist, traditional martial artist, they're just words. Martial artists use whatever techniques they can to protect themselves and those who cannot protect themselves. I practice Choy Li Fut Kung Fu. That doesn't mean that if the situation arises I wouldn't use a Jiu Jitsu lock in combat, or that I wouldn't throw a punch similar to a boxing jab despite the technique not traditionally being considered a Choy Li Fut strike. As a martial artist you use the techniques you need to in order to survive, no matter the lineage of the technique in question, or your own martial art's lineage. Martial arts teach principles through application of techniques in mock combat, be it in forms, shadow boxing, sparring, pad or bag work, or by whatever other means we have developed over the centuries. The techniques themselves are secondary to the principles passed on through their applications and serve as good guidelines to active application in a fight, not as an end all be all database of the only techniques that can be used by a martial artist to good success.