7 ms·

Kind of confused why this is on HN, but I practice Jujitsu and would just like to say, it is perfectly fine to think your style of martial arts should be compar

Kind of confused why this is on HN, but I practice Jujitsu and would just like to say, it is perfectly fine to think your style of martial arts should be compared to Yoga. Don't however compare your art to MMA. Also, this article really makes MMA sound like a brutal no holds barred sport, which is just incorrect. MMA is as beautiful as all the other previous martial arts (I know, I know, MMA is a conglomerate of all of them). People have spent the last 20 years trying to say MMA is a blood sport. This is just another attempt to pose it as such.

aaron-lebo 9y ago
edit: said better by others
- komali2 9y ago
  The difference is that it's suspected that boxers and NFL players actually receive more head injuries because of the padding, whereas the lack of padding on hands and heads means people's heads aren't being bobbed around too much, either because it hurts too much to hit heads as hard or because the cushions aren't acting as springs.
- orasis 9y ago
  16 year MMA and jiu jitsu practitioner here. The secret of success at MMA is learning how to control your opponent in ways that protects yourself. This is what the Gracie family was proving when they created the UFC. Modern fighters such as Damien Maia and Ryan Hall are taking virtually no damage in their fights. As you learn to control your opponent the sport actually becomes very safe - far safer than snowboarding, mountain biking, etc. I haven't taken any serious blows in years.
  - aaron-lebo 9y ago
    Never would have guessed that. Very interesting.
    - tcoff91 9y ago
      Damien Maia barely deals or takes any damage, he just effortlessly takes people to the ground, chokes them out, and they tap and both walk away fine. It's magnificent to watch.
      - orasis 9y ago
        This is why I still find jiu jitsu so beautiful - it requires a basic level of skill to beat someone's ass, but it's another thing entirely to control them so well that inflicting damage becomes optional.
        hprotagonist 9y ago
        I once heard it described as "drunken uncle" martial arts. When your drunk uncle is being an ass at christmas dinner, you want an escalating scale of options, ranging from "suddenly he's in the living room unharmed and doesn't know why" and moving through "he's in a great deal of pain but hasn't taken any damage as you escort him out the door" to "that spiral fracture in your arm is going to take 6 months to heal". Not all forms teach that kind of finesse.
tyingq 9y ago
It's close enough to "no holds barred" that horrific things still happen: https://www.rt.com/sport/354025-cyborg-santos-skull-injury/ https://www.rt.com/sport/354025-cyborg-santos-skull-injury/ I can enjoy an MMA fight, but you can't pretend it's not brutal and bloody...it is.
agumonkey 9y ago
It sure is the bloodiest martial art I've ever seen. It also has no form it seems. It's too freeform and too violent IMO.
- Tharkun 9y ago
  That's what fighting is.
- tinco 9y ago
  What do you mean by that is has no form? I feel this might just be that you're not used to watching these matches. It's the same as someone not familiar with soccer watching a soccer match, it's just some guys running around kicking a ball randomly. There is technique, tactics and strategy involved in MMA. As evidenced by this Tai Chi master being worked to the ground quickly and effectively. In my opinion the MMA fighter demonstrated excellent form.
  - agumonkey 9y ago
    Arts and sports have constraints, MMA has none right ? I don't say it's easy, just that it's first in the coma loses. In soccer you don't score a goal because you said so. In most martial arts you use dedicated forms and styles which impose constraints on how the match evolves. In Chess you have limited movements.. etc etc
    - orasis 9y ago
      I'm sorry, but you mispercieve. As you train the patterns and dance of MMA become clear even if they are inscrutable to the casual observer.
    - TremendousJudge 9y ago
      the constraints are not getting whopped by the other guy. you can try everything that falls inside the rules (no biting, kicking in the nuts, and so on), and your constraints are how good the other guy is at beating you up
    - 9y ago
chikei 9y ago
I think the problem is that china is lagging behind the whole "modernized, scientific fight training is way better than romanticize traditional fighting technique" thing and the KungFu novel just increased the myth. Which leads to that certain percentage of people joining the club/learning martial art because they thought they can be real strong after training. One can image that it may cause this industrial collapse if they admitted "this is nothing more than your typical jogging/yoga/whatever sport" publicly.
zdean 9y ago
I also practice BJJ but think of MMA as a pretty brutal no holds barred sport. The 2 things are not the same (although often talked about as being the same). BJJ is a (relatively) narrowly defined practice. MMA is a sport where you can bring any fighting practice or combination into the ring (and the successful fighters bring many). BJJ is a big part of MMA, but arguably no longer the defining skill needed to succeed (especially in the past 5 years or so).
H1Supreme 9y ago
I've watched lots of MMA fights. Obviously, there are rules to the sport. But, to suggest it's not brutal is a bit much. It's brutal. That's why people watch it. No one turns an MMA match on hoping to see a beautiful display of athleticism. They tune in to see someone get their ass whopped.
- kbenson 9y ago
  > No one turns an MMA match on hoping to see a beautiful display of athleticism. I think that's a bit unfair. I don't watch MMA much, but it's interesting when I do, and I don't watch to see someone get hurt or to see a lot of blood. If I want to see that, I can go back and look at any of the first few UFCs. Just as with boxing, there's a lot of skill involved in MMA fights. Some people tune in for the technical display, some people tune in for the sport of it, some people tune in because they want to see a fight, and that might include someone getting hurt. There are many reasons to watch.
Balgair 9y ago
" People have spent the last 20 years trying to say MMA is a blood sport." Because it is. In MMA when you are bleeding, the fight pretty much continues. In nearly every other organized form of martial art, blood stops the match. If you can't stop bleeding, you forfeit. This has been seen as a good idea in terms of sanitation and infection since the original Olympics in Athens. MMA is a lot of things, and uses the techniques from a lot of martial arts; if you like it, that's your call, no judgement. But MMA itself is not a martial art, its human cock fighting, it is a blood sport.
johndotsun 9y ago
MMA might be a beautiful martial art but it's still a blood sport. Young men beating each other's faces into a bloody pulp and doing their best to give the other guy a serious (and cumulatively permanently damaging) concussion between their fists and the ring floor. I don't know how that wouldn't be a blood sport.

aaron-lebo 9y ago

edit: said better by others

komali2 9y ago
The difference is that it's suspected that boxers and NFL players actually receive more head injuries because of the padding, whereas the lack of padding on hands and heads means people's heads aren't being bobbed around too much, either because it hurts too much to hit heads as hard or because the cushions aren't acting as springs.
orasis 9y ago
16 year MMA and jiu jitsu practitioner here. The secret of success at MMA is learning how to control your opponent in ways that protects yourself. This is what the Gracie family was proving when they created the UFC. Modern fighters such as Damien Maia and Ryan Hall are taking virtually no damage in their fights. As you learn to control your opponent the sport actually becomes very safe - far safer than snowboarding, mountain biking, etc. I haven't taken any serious blows in years.
- aaron-lebo 9y ago
  Never would have guessed that. Very interesting.
  - tcoff91 9y ago
    Damien Maia barely deals or takes any damage, he just effortlessly takes people to the ground, chokes them out, and they tap and both walk away fine. It's magnificent to watch.
    - orasis 9y ago
      This is why I still find jiu jitsu so beautiful - it requires a basic level of skill to beat someone's ass, but it's another thing entirely to control them so well that inflicting damage becomes optional.
      - hprotagonist 9y ago
        I once heard it described as "drunken uncle" martial arts. When your drunk uncle is being an ass at christmas dinner, you want an escalating scale of options, ranging from "suddenly he's in the living room unharmed and doesn't know why" and moving through "he's in a great deal of pain but hasn't taken any damage as you escort him out the door" to "that spiral fracture in your arm is going to take 6 months to heal". Not all forms teach that kind of finesse.

tyingq 9y ago

It's close enough to "no holds barred" that horrific things still happen: https://www.rt.com/sport/354025-cyborg-santos-skull-injury/ https://www.rt.com/sport/354025-cyborg-santos-skull-injury/ I can enjoy an MMA fight, but you can't pretend it's not brutal and bloody...it is.

agumonkey 9y ago

It sure is the bloodiest martial art I've ever seen. It also has no form it seems. It's too freeform and too violent IMO.

Tharkun 9y ago
That's what fighting is.
tinco 9y ago
What do you mean by that is has no form? I feel this might just be that you're not used to watching these matches. It's the same as someone not familiar with soccer watching a soccer match, it's just some guys running around kicking a ball randomly. There is technique, tactics and strategy involved in MMA. As evidenced by this Tai Chi master being worked to the ground quickly and effectively. In my opinion the MMA fighter demonstrated excellent form.
- agumonkey 9y ago
  Arts and sports have constraints, MMA has none right ? I don't say it's easy, just that it's first in the coma loses. In soccer you don't score a goal because you said so. In most martial arts you use dedicated forms and styles which impose constraints on how the match evolves. In Chess you have limited movements.. etc etc
  - orasis 9y ago
    I'm sorry, but you mispercieve. As you train the patterns and dance of MMA become clear even if they are inscrutable to the casual observer.
  - TremendousJudge 9y ago
    the constraints are not getting whopped by the other guy. you can try everything that falls inside the rules (no biting, kicking in the nuts, and so on), and your constraints are how good the other guy is at beating you up
  - 9y ago

chikei 9y ago

I think the problem is that china is lagging behind the whole "modernized, scientific fight training is way better than romanticize traditional fighting technique" thing and the KungFu novel just increased the myth. Which leads to that certain percentage of people joining the club/learning martial art because they thought they can be real strong after training. One can image that it may cause this industrial collapse if they admitted "this is nothing more than your typical jogging/yoga/whatever sport" publicly.

zdean 9y ago

I also practice BJJ but think of MMA as a pretty brutal no holds barred sport. The 2 things are not the same (although often talked about as being the same). BJJ is a (relatively) narrowly defined practice. MMA is a sport where you can bring any fighting practice or combination into the ring (and the successful fighters bring many). BJJ is a big part of MMA, but arguably no longer the defining skill needed to succeed (especially in the past 5 years or so).

H1Supreme 9y ago

I've watched lots of MMA fights. Obviously, there are rules to the sport. But, to suggest it's not brutal is a bit much. It's brutal. That's why people watch it. No one turns an MMA match on hoping to see a beautiful display of athleticism. They tune in to see someone get their ass whopped.

kbenson 9y ago
> No one turns an MMA match on hoping to see a beautiful display of athleticism. I think that's a bit unfair. I don't watch MMA much, but it's interesting when I do, and I don't watch to see someone get hurt or to see a lot of blood. If I want to see that, I can go back and look at any of the first few UFCs. Just as with boxing, there's a lot of skill involved in MMA fights. Some people tune in for the technical display, some people tune in for the sport of it, some people tune in because they want to see a fight, and that might include someone getting hurt. There are many reasons to watch.

Balgair 9y ago

" People have spent the last 20 years trying to say MMA is a blood sport." Because it is. In MMA when you are bleeding, the fight pretty much continues. In nearly every other organized form of martial art, blood stops the match. If you can't stop bleeding, you forfeit. This has been seen as a good idea in terms of sanitation and infection since the original Olympics in Athens. MMA is a lot of things, and uses the techniques from a lot of martial arts; if you like it, that's your call, no judgement. But MMA itself is not a martial art, its human cock fighting, it is a blood sport.

johndotsun 9y ago

MMA might be a beautiful martial art but it's still a blood sport. Young men beating each other's faces into a bloody pulp and doing their best to give the other guy a serious (and cumulatively permanently damaging) concussion between their fists and the ring floor. I don't know how that wouldn't be a blood sport.