Mixed Up Martial Arts

My background is mostly in Japanese Karate but I do enjoy learning about other martial art forms and over the years have come to the conclusion that any good martial art will evolve over time and include the best practices from other art forms. When I formed this conclusion though I was thinking more along the lines of martial art forms that are primarily self defense focused.

Take this into consideration, Judo and Tae Kwon Do are events in the Summer Olympic Games, Chinese Wushu recently failed in its bid to be included but will surely try again. Practitioners of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and most Japanese Karate art forms host sporting events all over the world (I'm not even including MMA, UFC, Kickboxing or other purse oriented events). There are a few art forms such as Aikido, Wing Chun, and Krav Maga that generally spurn such competitions but these are few in number.

Most martial art styles have a side to them that focus on sport competition. In this they formalize rules for one-on-one confrontation, typically a point system of some sort, and eliminate a large amount of moves that would leave the opponent blinded, crippled, or otherwise injured. I believe that the rules under which competition takes place have diminished the combat effectiveness of martial artists. Sport oriented martial arts now focus on winning in a ring rather than in the street and to some degree are no longer cultivating a particular moral character (but that would be a whole other argument). Some schools may now be going so far as to only concentrate on the competitive nature of the sport.

Sport oriented martial arts may be a good thing for some students but not necessarily practical for real self defense. Some would argue that it trains the practitioner to not use certain moves that would quickly end a real fight in favor of a move that was learned and practiced for sport fighting that would simply leave the opponent momentarily dazed. Remember here that the key to training is repetition, what you practice in the dojo will be what you perform in the street. Many instructors feel that it is difficult to train for both the sporting aspect of the martial arts and the self defense aspects. If one trains enough to be effective on the street, then when rules are imposed on them they will be physically and mentally challenged to confine their responses to the rule system. If one trains enough to be effective in sport competition, then when no rules are imposed in a life or death situation they may find themselves not using the best move for the situation, or worse yet, not anticipating a deadly move from their attacker.

Some would argue that the Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) and Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) leagues are the answer to this conundrum. I say that they both still have rules and a competitor has a particular focus while training for such an event. I also think that the MMA (and to a lesser extent the UFC) is less of a sport and more of a meat market for spectators. I find that these type of leagues reduce even further the moral and peaceful aspects that are taught in the martial arts.

Please keep in mind that here I am only criticizing one-on-one type sport competition. Many martial arts also sponsor non-sparring competitions such as breaking or choreographed techniques such as poomse, kata or aka. I find that these type of events don't necessarily detract from a martial artist's effectiveness and a well balanced training regiment will allow a practitioner to be both competitive in such events and effective on the street.