Hi everyone, thought I had better introduce myself. I competed in wrestling for my school as well as dabbling in other arts (including very brief stints in Aikido, Kung Fu & Judo), unfortunately when I left school I also stopped training. Last year I returned to martial arts after a break of over a decade. I am in my early thirties and am training in MMA at Groundcontrol in Auckland, New Zealand and am really enjoying it. I have been training for around a year and plan on training for another full year before I get into the cage. However I have competed in No-Gi grappling, and have another comp coming up in November ("ICNZ Contender 6" on the 17th of November).
The MMA scene in NZ is reasonable, there is probably around one MMA show a month in Auckland. It is currently undergoing a growth phase. Both Gi and No-Gi are pretty small as grappling is not a traditional NZ sport, and striking seems to take precedence here. However, I would guess that there will be around 100 competitors at the next ICNZ Contender No-Gi comp, so it's not too bad for such a small country.
Existing Maori martial arts are weapons driven. I did some training in Mau Rakau (Maori spear/taiaha fighting) through our Maori cultural group at school though I have no Maori heritage. There is no existing codified system of Maori unarmed combat that I am aware of, either striking or grappling.
Welcome Kave, from your neighbor (Aussie)! Like you, wrestled in high school, dabbled around a bit, and re-discovered martial arts in my mid-20's. That was nearly thirty years ago and still doing it. Best of luck on your journey.
That's really interesting, thanks for that. I always assumed that there was some form of folk wrestling in most countries, if nothing else it serves as an outlet for the young bucks of a society. Mitch
I just had a quick look, and it appears that there were codified systems of grappling but they died out in the 70s. http://www.coreedaoz.com/main/page_sumopacific_island_traditional_wrestling.html http://nzetc.victoria.ac.nz/tm/scholarly/tei-BesGame-t1-body-d2-d1-d3.html
Oh, this is exciting! Another kiwi who knows about Mau Rakau/Te Mau Taiaha, yes Mau Rakau did have a empty hand application. However, much of the techniques are not freely taught and usually reserved for the higher practitioners of the art (so I've heard), much of it is based on the concepts of pressure point striking. There is more information covered in this article: http://www.fighttimes.com/magazine/magazine.asp?article=1149 My ancestors were well known practitioners of the art in their Iwis (tribes). Though where I live, its near impossible to learn the art. The only place I know of who still teaches much of the applications publicly is a group in Rotaroa. Teaching of the art is limited as many of the practitioners prefer to teach the art to fellow members of their Hapu's (subtribes).
