Everyone give a little background on what (if any) training you did before coming to the MMA fold. When you get in trouble, what style do you fall back on? I started in TKD many moons ago, but my base is my boxing.
Ooh, TKD? hehe wow, cant imagine the legendary 1ONEfighting doing TKD I originally started with Kung fu, but then left for jujitsu & kickboxing; my base seems to be boxing these days. I used to be a huge fan of kicking because it looked pretty, but then got into MMA and realised how impractical it is when over used. So i joined a boxing club and work hard on learning to use my hands. I'm currently working alot of the Bas Rutten audio training tape which has helped with combo's, but im having difficultly applying it to the sparring.
Yep. I had a blast, and was a fairly good point fighter. I got frustrated at the open tourneys, where the judging seemed to get more and more biased, and decided if I wanted to take the power from the judges, I had to start knocking people out. Can't do that in point fighting. I changed styles, and still train with my old point fighting buddies when I go home.
I really cant imagine you doing point fighting hehe this was continuous point fighting? or point stop? I know some guys who do point stop compititions but thats it!
I mix my martial arts but I don't go to a MMA gym. so my ground n pound is not very good But my base is thai boxing. kicks from afar (although never above the stomach) punches closer in, then knees and elbows in the clinch. then my judo ability takes over and my opponent sails through the air followed by a triangle or kimura I also used to do point fighting but I came to the same problem as 1onefighting. I had been cross training kung fu and muay thai for several months and entered a local competition. there were no other blue belts in my division so I had to enter the brown belt division. I fought a ten year old kid and a 30 year old woman. I went easy on the kid (he was quite good though) just planting my foot in his chest if he got too close, but still somehow lost. then I fought the woman who was more aggressive. by the end of the fight I had merely broken a sweat- she was gasping for air, hobbling around, with a bruised arm and leg. she won and the next week I quit kung fu. I had about ten opportunities where I could have kncked her clean out because of her arms dangling at her sides, but the rules restricted me (plus I didnt want to make orphans of her children) and I decided that leaving a fight solely to the decision of an outside party is not a good move.
I'm finding it difficult to imagine 1ONEfighting halting to a stop once the ref shouts point hehe (please dont take any offence, i mean it in a nice way) All i know is quitting Kung fu was one of the best descisions ive made in a long time; Since starting mma ive become alot better and more confident. Rather than the old "my super side kick to the face will stop anyone..." mind set
If anyone has seen my clips they can tell I'm new to the striking game. But Judo principles just flow out of me when I get in a clinch or close in a real fight. From there-ground and pound. A decade of Judo I feel was worth the sweat. But I also did boxing and apply that but with follow through. In rounds you kind of hold back because of the sport aspect, but in a real fight it's balls out.
UUMMMMM, check out my name But really, I have done kenpo my whole life, but the real kind. Not the pitty-pat kind that sickens me to no end on the mainland. I do the kind that the Hawaiins called Hawaiin streetfighting. I have done about 12 years of bjj, and judo. I am not half shabby in arnis, and on top of that, I am faster than hell if I need to run from a dog
I'm guessing by your name you do Tai Chi? ehehe aye that was ment to be a joke... That's one hell of alot of BJJ i tell ya! i bet i could learn a thing or two from ya
In MMA class, my striking is strong because of my Kickboxing. In Kickboxing class everyone says I move strange probably because of my Kung Fu class. In Kung Fu class everyone says I bounce around too much like a kickboxer. ( i confuse easy ) I want to concentrate more on the MMA side because i love grappling even though I'm crap and I tap almost every 2nd move made on me. But I enjoy it so much.
I know the feeling Im slowly moving to every 3rd or 4th move made on me though! hehe it all takes time...
Well I started doing judo since I was 7 and did that till I was 16.Now Ive done BJJ for 6 years. So I'm pretty much a grappler with little striking.Im a hopeless kicker and Ive only boxed for a year now so I cant punch that well either. So pretty much I was born a grappler and thats how I fight really....If I had done a striking art first maybe this would have turned out different
While I'm on a bit of a break from taking "official" MMA classes, I still consider myself to be a classically trained MMA person. My base art is a rather adaptable form of Kung Fu. From the beginning my instructor has encouraged me to go out and pick up suplimental skills. So I have a year of BJJ and another year plus Shootfighting under my belt. If all works out I'll also be getting a year of Judo soon. On a different note: I had a similar experience with BJJ. In my case, because of my weight (or moderate lack there of) I was thrown into a lightweight/kids division at a school tourney. So most of the folks in this grouping were 16 at best. And I was about 25 and had about easily 20 lbs on the closest competitor. So I ended up squaring off against a 14 year old who I outweighed by easily 50 pounds. And all of that became really apparent when he went for an armbar and I lifted the kid up, still holding onto my arm. There was no question that I could have won the entire thing on strength. But the kid was legitimately better than me (arm bar aside). So I took strength out of the equasion and just rolled with him. And he legitimately beat me on points (I'm hard to get a submittal on, but my offense sucks). I still feel proud about not letting my ego get in the way. - Matt
-I will steal a line from Joe Lewis. "My main problem with point fighting is you are training to miss (with your strikes) your opponent, that never made any sense to me." Personally, I prefer full contact where you win if you hit the guy hard, rather than lose for hitting him too hard. When I was younger, I used to go to point tournaments to have a legal way to go knock someone out. I would really go for it in forms or weapons. If I stayed long enough for the black belt point sparring(I hate to refer to it as fighting), I would keep it under control until someone intentionally fouled me, then I would turn up the contact. My point fighting record was one first place and 16 disqualifications for excessive contact as a black belt. -I began in Daito-ryu aiki-jujitsu in 1971 for three years, then my instructor quit teaching (i did go back to one of his colleagues and tested for 1st dan when I turned 18). I then switched to American Kenpo (school closed within a year). I began TKD and Hapkido in 1977 and have been under the same instructors ever since. They began to expand into other systems starting wioth the FMA in 1978, then Thai kickboxing about 1980. Small Circle JJ and BJJ, Submission Grappling, Kenpo, pressure point(Dillman method), CDT/LRT, and judo all followed. Now NHB is a mandatory part of our black belt cirriculum, too. I wish the sport was at the level it is now 10-15 years ago. I really would have liked to have gotten into it at the early phases of my career before both the injuries and the responsibilities had to be dealt with.
Boxing was my first art mainly where I lived we didn't have any martial arts schools that were close enough to drive unless we wanted to spend an hour driving to a school and then an hour home. But there was a boxing gym a mile up the road, so that's where I went. Moving around and whatnot, I eventually ended up back in Oklahoma where i concentrated mostly on Hapkido and Tae Kwon Do with a bit of other arts to add to it.
