which is better and why. I don't see any ufc/bellator fighters that trained mma. They all trained bjj and muay thai individually, so which is better? To train in both muay thai and bjj or just take mma classes???
I think the ability to lift & train MA in the same place is so convienient. Depending on the club you may find you can train different arts seperatly but also learn how to combine them as well.
The one school I attended had separate BJJ, sub-grappling, MT and boxing classes. It also had MMA classes that focused on pulling the skills together and showing what worked and didn't work, or needed to be modified in an MMA ring.
You also got to remember that MMA is still kind of new to the widespread audience. Jon Hathaway is a straight up MMA fighter, whose only previous fitness came from Rugby. Then you got guys with backgrounds like Wanderlei, Pedro Rizzo etc with Vale Tudo backgrounds (though Chute Box was more MT based). MMA gyms usually run a individual style class and a MMA class. So as to strengthen individual techniques quicker. So I say look at the whole package and go from there.
Im not sure yall understood my question. What I meant was what exactly makes you a better fighter? Taking mma classes alone or crosstraining in muay thai w/ BJJ.
Depends on the quality of the respective clubs but an mma gym is generally going to be better at teaching you mma. That's my experience anyway. The bjj guys at my gym are have better technical knowledge than the mma guys but the latter will generally win when they roll, especially no gi. I think that's the big difference really. Training specific arts will give you deeper knowledge and a wider list of techniques while mma gyms will give you a more limited skillset, but you'll do it very well. And obviously mma is better for teaching you to combine them and filling the gaps. BJJ guys might outgrapple mma guys under bjj rules but they don't now how to deal with strikes. Muay thai guys might win a kickboxing fight but they'll get wrestled under mma rules etc etc.
For MMA I'd go to an MMA gym. I think training in pure arts is a good thing for MMA, but if you only do that you're going to miss a lot of 'MMA Skills'. Also some of the stuff you might train in Muay Thai/BJJ may not apply. I'd also like to point out if you only did MT/BJJ then you wouldn't have any wrestling which is not a good idea. Depends what your goals are really though, I'd say try them out and stick with what you enjoy.
neither...improvement as a fighter comes from training with the best instruction you can fund ($), find/get too (locality), sparring partners and solid commitment to training for the long haul and a pathway within the club to competition. If you do bjj/muay thai at legit competitive schools you will get good at both but may lack some of the subtleties of MMA (wresting, cage work, ???). The issue with training "MMA" is its a lot more of a hype up at the moment, a lot of styles rebrand as MMA to try and appeal to a wider audience. Realistically you need to look at where you live, whats availiable and suits your timetable/budget and decide based on this. Or, do judo.
I think cross training would make you a better fighter because you would learn a wider range of techniques, and have a better understanding of each art individually, but it would depend on the quality of the schools you trained at and it would require more time and money putting into training. I feel you wouldn't learn true authentic Muay Thai or BJJ in a MMA class. But more their version of it adapted to their particular style/system of MMA.
thanks. What makes you fight proficient the quickest. MMA or muay thai? Muay thai generally takes under a year up to a year. I'm trying to weight things out to see what I should do. I'm in college right now so I don't have time to train in more than one art. I was thinking I could get ground and striling training at the same time if I just did MMA. However, if it takes too long before you get fight proficient like many traditional MA's it may not be worth it.
How long it takes to get proficient is more dependant on you and your school rather than the art you choose. It's dependant on how quickly you pick up techniques, how good your fitness is, the quality of the schools training, etc. You could get fight proficient under a MMA class in the same time as a Muay Thai class dependant on the above factors. You could take Interclub bouts at 6 months if you picked things up quickly enough. and were fit enough with a strong determination to succeed. What level you would be fighting at would be a different matter entirely.
My question would be which ruleset would you prefer to fight under? If you mean fight proficient from a self defence standpoint then I'd say either muay thai or mma, both will teach you effective stuff and have you spar hard to use it, but if you mean competing then I would of thought you'd have a more natural leaning towards one over the other. If competing's your goal then I'm with Unreal that you could be doing interclubs after a couple months, and for bjj I'd say compete after a month if you want, but for mma I would be wary of any place that lets you fight before you've trained close to a year unless you're a natural beast. As far as self defence I'd say it also depends where your priorities lie. Assuming the gyms are similar caliber then over a 6 month period training muay thai is going to give you better striking because at an mma gym some of the time will be taken up with other stuff. If you're more interested in being well rounded then obviously mma would be best but you have to accept it'd take a bit longer to get to the same proficiencies. You should still be able to defend yourself in a relatively short time, but obviously your individual skill levels would be lower than if you trained a pure art.
Thanks. I may go with MMA now for self defense. The school I would go to is really good they have trained world champions in most of their classes.
You're in college so you could train in 3 or 4 arts if you cut all the crap out of your life. Of course, there's a chance you haven't realised how much of your day is crap yet. A few months of 9-5 will sort that out.
I will have to work internships, in addition to college very soon. That means part time employment along with 3 classes. I won't have as much time as you think.
This is probably my re-reading "Tao of Jeet Kune Do" a half dozen or so times talking, but I have always thought that it would make more sense to evaluate and find a way to blend them together in one "MMA" class. There is frequently an issue you see with fighters who did only one of these things and then did the other. It seems that you would want there to be no "transition of mindsets" in the middle of a fight. There are things they teach in wrestling for example that will get you knocked out by a striker, there are things they teach you in striking that will get you taken down in a heartbeat. There are modifications made to Muay Thai, Wrestling, BJJ, etc when someone is planning to go into MMA. Doing your BJJ for example is a heck of a lot easier in a grappling tourney where the opponent is not punching you in the face over and over every chance he/she gets. Panktration if you can find it would be a good style to bridge the two. As would Sambo.
Unless that part time job is actually a full time job and those 3 classes involve 10+ hours of classes each, then I'm not buying it.
