The martial arts are inherently martial, meaning warlike. There is a tremendous amount of martial technique that deals in lethal force. From art to art and from country to country the amount of lethal techniques vary but are ever present. For many the value of any given art has been based upon the number of lethal techniques involved. There are some who do not think an art has merit unless the focus of the art is attacking potentially lethal or highly vulnerable targets on the body. These areas include the head, throat, neck, eyes, groin and ear. The primary goal of self preservation dictates that these targets be a part of the total package. The problem created by including lethal technique is training and developing it. It will be pretend for the most part. There is no way to pad up the neck and deliver repeated, full power throat strikes. You cannot gouge the eyes of your sparring partner and you cannot execute a hard core neck twist on someone in routine training. There are practical and methodical ways to train lethal technique as to make it understood by the practitioner and develop a mind muscle connection. However, it is not so practical to functionalize. In other words, it’s difficult at best to create a training environment where routine training gives you the ability to apply these techniques against a fully resisting opponent who is focused on applying them on you as well.

Mixed martial arts combines conditioning, footwork, striking, clinch and groundfighting but excludes all lethal techniques. The various rules involved are a point of contention for those who advocate the use of lethal techniques. These rules normally have the eyes and groin off limits. In some events you may not stomp or kick a grounded opponent and in others they may not allow the use of elbow strikes. It is extremely aggressive and adversarial in nature yet executed in a very sportsmanlike manner. Mixed martial arts events have proven to be serious battles of very worthy competitors. The successful execution of numerous potentially crippling techniques against fully committed and resisting opponents has, without a doubt, validated the tactics and training methods of mixed martial arts. Because of this many from the martial arts community have looked to mixed martial arts in an attempt to extract training methods which they feel could be used as a delivery system for the more lethal techniques. This is a progressive approach and one that has proved to be of some use. I feel that this is flawed thinking however. If mixed martial arts has been shown to be functional it would make more sense to include mixed martial arts in it’s totality rather than just using it’s training methods. I say include rather than replace. They can both exist in the same space.

From the get go, it is of extreme importance to be in fighting shape. If Bruce Lee did anything for the martial arts he exemplified strength and conditioning, and that was more than thirty years ago. Mixed martial arts fighters are well versed in combat athletics. When it comes to landing a shot on an opponent, or avoiding one yourself, footwork is the real crux of the matter. This is a large area of focus for the mixed martial arts fighter. Striking effectively is an overlooked given. Many still think that if you just randomly girate your appendages in the direction of your opponent you will eventually hit something. This is silly at best, but common. Understanding boxing and kicking combinations and the use of a tight defensive structure is crucial in interpersonal combat. The clinch is a critical area of training. Being able to close on an opponent and stop him from effectively punching and kick you is of extreme value. Learning to counter and execute takedowns, use control ties ups and close quarter striking is standard practice in MMA. Groundfighting is a big part of the MMA game as well. The ability to force the ground game on an opponent and use arm locks, leg locks and chokes or ground and pound strategies is vital. Stopping these techniques from being used against you is huge as well.

A basic understanding of this material should be standard fare for a realistic self preservation programs. It truly can be used as a delivery system for other martial ideologies but is of great value independently. Mixed martial arts training prepares one to utilize its tactics and training against real people who are seriously fighting back. Whereas other arts or structures that focus on a more lethal approach have you training predominately against cooperative opponents. Many in the traditional martial arts community and also some in the reality fighting world discount MMA as being a valid form of fight because of the rules involved. Often overheard are observations like “There are no rules in the street” or “I don’t play by the rules, I cheat” or the ever popular “I’ll just bite and eye gouge”. In my opinion these types of statements are a lighting rod for criticism. Those usually saying them have never had a training mechanism to develop the bite or eye gouge and they are giving too much weight to their effectiveness. The rules of MMA create an environment where personal attributes and fighting strategy can develop with injury being a well managed risk. Still, in my experience choke outs, knockouts and even torn ligaments and broken bones have been a part of the training.

The Fatal Flaw

In the totality of Self Preservation training (as opposed to unarmed interpersonal combat) MMA falls short of being complete in a number of areas. Its combatants know when they are going to fight, who they are going to fight and why they are going to fight. This negates training for pre fight setups, verbal de-escalation and verbal redirection. Pre fight setups would include recognition of one or more persons coordinating a plan of attack against you. Verbal de-escalation is attempting to verbally calm a would be attacker verbally. There are a number of approaches to this including simply backing down and away from the altercation. Verbal redirection comes into play when you have made a decision to attack preemptively and you want to distract you opponents thought processes for a split second before you do. This can slow down his reaction time giving you great probability of landing your attack. An example of this could be if your opponent says he’s going to “bounce your head off the sidewalk” you could say “I don’t have any money”. As his brain stutters and he says “I didn’t ask you for money”, you nail him on a word fragment. These tactics may or may not be appropriate for any given situation but they are not addressed in MMA.

Another area not covered is multiple opponents. This area should not be approached with a win, lose or draw mentality but as a survival situation. It is common for criminals to work together in assaults and muggings as they are not looking for a fight or even a conflict. They are looking for effect. Likewise, weapons are of extreme importance in the big picture. weapons include, pepper spray, impact weapons, bladed weapons and improvised weapons. Combatants must know how to fight weapon vs weapon and empty hands vs various weapons. Weapon characteristics dictate the potential offensive and defensive responses so being intimately familiar with weapons is important. Firearms for home defense and concealed carry are are not even afterthoughts for MMA. They have no place in the training.

I acknowledge that in an MMA competition you know ahead of time why you are fighting and who you are fighting. There will be no weapons involved and no multiple attackers. There is a referee to make sure the fighters don’t get hurt and a doctor standing by in case one does. Your corner can throw in the towel or you can quit at anytime. The benefit is that this framework has allowed for tremendous growth and development.

As I see it, the idea that martial arts are for health and spirituality is a huge distraction from the primary purpose of self preservation. In the final analysis I think it is also a mistake confine your training to a lethal force platform of unarmed techniques you cannot train athletically and functionally. You should also avoid adopting the tactical error of simply agreeing to exchange blows with larger, stronger, multiple or armed opponents. Training to use pre fight deceptive dialog, high probability unarmed tactics and weapons is a must. But depending on your arsenal of deadly techniques, too deadly to even train, is suicidal at best.