Picking a School

Martial Arts fads come and go. In the 1950's and 60's it was Judo and hard style Japanese and Okinawan Karate. In the early 70's Kung Fu was popular. By the late 70's it was Tae Kwon Do. The 80's saw the rebirth of NinJitsu. The early 90's was Kenpo and by the mid 90's it was Gracie Jiu-Jitsu due to Royce Gracie's brilliant performance in the Ultimate Fighting Championship.

Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) is here to stay. The reason is because it is the most legal form of realistic hand to hand pugilism and... ever since the beginning of time, man has always wanted to see what would be the best way to fight. Since MMA is as close as it gets to the real deal it will remain popular.

The almighty dollar dictates what people do and what schools teach. I have seen Tae Kwon Do schools teach an executive MMA class at lunch, so that busy people can run in during their lunch break and train. Is that wrong? No. But those of you who want to compete, stay away from executive MMA classes. The problem with those classes is anyone who wants to teach one can go away for a weekend camp, get their certification, and start teaching. To me that is wrong. I wouldn't want a 2 day carpenter building my house and I certainly wouldn't want to learn MMA from 2 two day martial artist. If you want to learn MMA, stay as far away from the strip mall karate places as you can. Just say no to ATA, National Karate, and every other Traditional Martial Arts (TMA) establishment.

There is also a problem with Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu (BJJ) schools that market MMA but when you sign up, all you do is BJJ. There are very few Royce Gracie's out there. If you have over 20 years of BJJ, go ahead and step into the cage. I'm sure you'll do fine. That is the reason Royce did so well. He has trained since birth. But you can't take just a couple years of BJJ and step into the cage nowadays. If you watch the training sessions Royce does now you will see he is using grappling, boxing, leg kicks, knees and elbows. You need to be multifaceted to compete today. The problem lies with all of the aggresive marketing the TMA and BJJ places do towards the MMA crowd. Once you sign up you are told fallacies about how their training is MMA, when it is not, and that is unfair to the consumer. It takes years of striking,grappling and competing combined before you can come up with a program that is usable. The instructor himself should have competed or still be competing, although there are very good coaches who have never stepped into the cage, so there are exceptions.

I am not insulting BJJ schools. I personally love BJJ. Just don't call BJJ MMA and quit advertising MMA when all you do is gi BJJ (a gi is a uniform with a belt). Strip mall karate places should put their time in before they "get certified" in MMA to increase revenue.

Things to run from when you observe an "MMA" class:

1. Everyone wearing a gi (uniform with belt)
2. Testing fees to get your yellow belt in MMA
3. If you hear any other title besides coach or Mr.__________. Examples: Sensei, Master, Grandmaster, etc.
4. Bowing
5. Stiff punching and tag sparring such as point karate where they restart after scoring.
6. A packed MMA class with not one fighter who competes.
7. If they tell you that you have to wait six months before you can grapple with submissions.
8. Telling you that you should wait a few years before competing. In golden gloves you compete in the first year and when you wrestle in school, you compete right away. I knew a guy who started boxing and turned pro in 5 years and had over 40 amateur fights before turning pro.
9. If they tell you their style is too deadly for competition.
10. If they teach the Dim Mok death touch or break boards, or channel their chi energy.
11. If the school teaches any form of aerobic boxing or kickboxing.
12. If the students at the school consider grappling tournaments "fighting".
13. A window full of trophies, but no championship belts.
14. Not letting you try a class for free.
15. Any place whose fighters have a 95% win to lose ratio but no UFC champs (see sandbagging).

I know this seems harsh towards BJJ schools. There are many with top notch grapplers and NAGA competitors and you need grappling for 50% of your MMA game so it's essential to learn it. The problem lies in marketing towards the MMA crowd and then teaching only grappling. All I'm saying is, tell the truth and quit conning the public. Mixed Martial Arts is just that, mixed. There is nothing wrong with learning with a gi, I love gi grappling, but MMA class should be no gi. There are also many schools that make you take BJJ and Muay Thai for a certain length of time before you start their MMA class, which is a very good idea. MMA classes are usually fast paced and you should know your basics.

Things to look for when choosing a facility to fight out of:

1. The MMA class should consist of equal parts striking and submission wrestling drills with a lot of sweat... people should be working hard.
2. Sparring or grappling should be done with contact to assimilate cage fighting. I knew a guy who trained for a year at a very prestigious Academy and only sparred standup two times before his first MMA match, he lost, never to train again.
3. The facility has to fit your price range. Most fighters are broke. It shouldn't cost the price of a car payment to train.
4. The driving distance is important, training to fight is very demanding. You should be training six days a week. If you have a long drive, you need to make sure you have the discipline to make that drive before you sign.
5. The gym should have fighters that compete on a regular basis, so you are not the only one walking the plank.
6. Training should be hard, but safe. If everyone is injured, no one can train.
7. With the recent outbreak of mat herpes and ringworm, it is important for people to wear long sleeved rashguards... no half naked men rolling around in pools of sweat.
8. The guys fighting should be well conditioned.
9. Classes should be tailored to correct the mistakes of previous fights.
10. People should be friendly. There is nothing worse than working out with a bunch of stuck up jerk offs.

These are just a few do's and don'ts. Train hard and have fun.