quitting karate.

I have been thinking about quitting karate, and boxing. Switching to mma only. It covers most of what I want. Karate covers all that snazzy stuff that I think is cool, but lacks the real punch. In karate we do a ton of weapons training that is awesome. Major draw back is the Katas. I left tkd because of them. I can do weapons o. The side for a Xtra $$$$$

Boxing is part of mma training, along with throws , take downs etc from my karate classes. BUT the huge emphasis on bjj is my issue. I prefer Greco-Roman wrestling. It is coverd once in a while.

Finance issues are forceing me to drop to 2 classes tops . Just looking for your input.

 

So you want MMA type stuff and some weapons? Find a Dog Brothers crew!

Problem solved.

 

What do you want from your training (ie what are your short term goals and long term goals) and what do you enjoy?

Our advice will depend on that.

I'd advise kata for good physical self defence - but if you don'r drill the bunkai regularly they're a waste of time unless you are doing them for balance, technique development and coordination.

If you like hitting things (and your karate does very little padwork) and the MA does lts of padwork, then MMA is a safe bet.

If you like to stand up grapple (or grapple on the ground) and your karate doesn't do that, then again MMA may be the best bet.

 

My goals are primary self defense, helth and fun. I live in a safe city now and highly doubt i.will.every need to use anything I learn for sd.

My karate class is mostly point sparing we only do kata once in a while. I don't mind kata once I a while but would rather not learn it at all. The ideal class would be boxing and judo. No judo in my area . It is coverwd.in the mma classes from time to time. Then there is the weapons class that I am loosing.

 

Stick to the MMA if that's what you want, you will get a good workout, learn techniques that you can actually use in and out of the cage and not have to worry about katas etc

 

Ask your sensei if you can take the weapons classes separately. People do it at my dojo routinely. I myself only train in sword and kobudo, even though krotty is offered and included in the monthly fee.

 

I dont wanna tell you what to do bro, but since I like talking about myself I will tell you what I did. I got tired of doing the same boreing line drills, one step sparring and bag work, you know the ones, line up with everyone else wait your turn get a few techniques off and then go to the end of the line waiting for the next technique or drill to be called. For me the ultimate offense was to be forced into Kata at the end of an hour of that other stuff, my friends loved it I dreaded it so my membership ran out and I never went back.

I found a small hole in the wall Hybrid Karate school I went for the trial lesson and liked what I saw, no Kata, sparring everyother week, ground and clinch work and the belt progression is to my likeing, and the best part of all is it costs thirtyfive bucks a month and requires no contract..... Im happy now and I absolutely dont miss Kata or hours of one step sparring.

As a side note I would like to mention something about the people I met there, for the most part the people at my new Karate class were like minded people, in other words I get more from training with people who think about MA the same way I do, the other school was just a pud program and for the most part so were the people I trained with, like I said I just never went back.

 

Um... do what makes you happy. Not really much more feedback to give you. I you like class B more than class A and you have to drop a class, it makes sense to drop class A.

 

Honestly though there isnt anything less fun than joining a martial arts school that you dont really like, the only thing worse is participateing at a Ma school you dont like.

 

Are you certain that its a "real" MMA school? A lot of places have hopped on the MMA bandwagon and spout the lingo but they aren't producing competitive fighters for either the regional or national circuits. Have they been around for a while?

Not that one must want to compete, mind you, but its nice to know that you are getting ( or have access to ) the same level of training that the semi-pros are receiving.

If you're gonna jump ship, make sure the boat your jumping on floats.

 

On an individual level I agree but on a (MMA) school level I think you need to compete. The beauty of MMA is the same as with boxing or judo, because of the competitive nature you know what works and what doesn't gets quickly left behind. Without that testing you can larp around as much as you like but you can't accuratly call it MMA it's just a hybrid martial art with tap out t-shirts. That's just my opinion though.

That doesn't mean it's useless by any means just that it isn't an MMA school without MMA fighters.

 

Don't quit Karate, quit the Karate School and find another

 

And that I believe is the whole and true meaning of this entire thread, quit the school not the activity.
Now it seemes to me that bell toller brought up a good point, is the new school a legit program, and thaats a good question. Dosent matter TMA or MMA if its taught incorrectly its not going to be worth your time anyway.
I looked at their web sight and from what I could tell its very Japanese in its charicter, now rather or not its Tma I dont know....Makes me wonder why all the hang up on another culture since that dosent help make technique anymore effective, again its all about how you train techniques not what culture you mimic while training them...:hat: That said it dosent matter who you mimic culturally as long as you train correctly lols, although alot of guys arnt into all that weird stuff.

The biggest red flag for me was the belt tests, way to complicated in my opnion that looks like enough technique to test on way past BB, id say fourth or fifth degree, that dosent mean you couldnt practice those techniques way before 2-5 degree but damn that BB test is a bit lengthy. Some of those techniques in there system arnt even ok for everyone to use which means theres technique youll have to learn that you wont wont be useing in your own bag.
I think if I were you I would look around some more but if your heart is set on it take a trial lesson before you committ to anything.

 

Yep, I agree with you 100%.

 

Just because you dont compete dosent mean you dont practice MMA, in fact a dude named Matt Thornton whose trained a whole lot of mma champions has even said that it isnt necessary to fight full contact in order to learn mma, he sights several women and a few disabled people who are learning the new mixed style(boxing, Juijitsu, wrestleing) and staying in shape and haveing fun. In fact the "beauty" of Jujitsu is that you can effectively practice it in your eighties. The beauty is never in the compitition, compitition is always the beast my friend. The beauty you speak of is similar but not the same, the technique and simple mechanics of boxing is in fact a thing of beauty, same as Jujitsu techniques many of the training methods are simple and beautyful, like a sun set, natural, easy to understand and gets the job done.
Hybrid Karate/MA systems arnt a bad thing, there an extension/version of mma, its been going on for years its not UFC its mma, mixed martial arts... Again and again I try to explain you cant compair martial arts by asking if they have anyone representing in the ring, that has little to do with the art its self and more to say for the people practiceing it. Dont think Im dissing you though badger Im not, the measure of good martial arts dosent lie in who wins or looses in the ring, the true measure of a martial art lies within its practical use ease of learning and cultivation of charicter.

 

The gym I train at is a fighting gym with pro fighters. Karate is just one of the classes taught there.

I spar with the mma guys and gals often. Even do their classes once in a while. I have no intention on competing. I had no intention of doing point tourneys either.

 

Oh...so the karate that you are wanting to quit is taught at the mma school? Okay, you're switching programmes, I see. Clear now.

 

Honestly I wouldnt care if a professional fighter walked threw the the door of the place in its entire history, the only thing that matters is rather or not the technique they use is effective and the method they use to train it is effective. Anyone can get in the ring and win, look at tank Abbot, you wanna learn Karate from him, hey guys come on lols we gotta get real here.
As long as your not doing power ranger fu and your actually covering all ranges of combat from ground to stand up with effective training methods/equipment/technique your going to fair pretty well. If your able to polish your skills with sparring then your golden. The moment you start spending weeks months and years on one step sparring and Kata(sorry TMA guys) and you start focusing on really obscure technique with really obscure training methods is the moment you need to start being honest with yourself about what your doing. I wont knock TMA or in my opnion fantasy based mma's because for some people thats what they want to do...However your not effectively learning the art of combat.

 

I'm not answering for the Badger, but I think what he means is, as an individual, you don't have to compete, but to be respected as an MMA school by other MMA schools and so forth, it should be seen as a fighter producing establishment in some regard.

I can see that. I had my son in TKD for a couple of years and when we moved to the Midwest, I had decided that he should spend some time in boxing, as the TKD had not taught him a lot of that, obviously.

It just so happened that the best boxing place in our area at that time was a long established MMA school that was co-owned by a UFC fighter at the time and had several fighters in various promotions.

They had several people in the group who were not competing ( I being one ) no pressure to compete as an individual at all. They had a very good kids' BJJ programme as well as an okay kids' boxing component. The kids BJJ class did field a number of winning competitors but my kids felt no pressure to compete ( actually, in hindsight, I kinda wished they had ).

Years later, the school went through a tough time. For very bad luck of timing and probably other factors some of the students of the school began taking some very high-profile losses - just all of a sudden, everyone who was competing was taking loss after loss. They were having people that had contracts in the UFC being released and sent to the small regional promotions, the ones in the smaller promotions were out all together - eventually the school had no real competitors and its classes began drying up - which isn't really fair as all of the experience was still there ( till the instructors began leaving, anyroads ) nothing had changed except the perception that the school was a school of "winners".

But that lack of perceived competitiveness literally killed the school - I'm sure there were other factors but that was undoubtedly the main one.

Anyway, just to say, no ... you don't have to compete individually, but from what I've seen, its imperative that a school calling itself an MMA school is seen as competitive.

Whether that's right or wrong is a whole new thread.