MMA Greater than the sum of its parts

Upon its creation the sport had the interesting problem that all new things have, what to call it. When it come down to it a few names were rejected in favor for Mixed Martial Arts for a reason--previous examples were No Holds Bar fighting, extreme fighting, ultimate fighting (feeding off of the "ultimate" name being tossed around a lot during the early 90s but now copyrighted by the UFC) and cage fighting (in the end, not all matches occur in a cage). MMA became a de facto moniker where it became necessary to refer to it within a mainstream and politically correct context. The history and story surrounding the name MMA would likely take a few thousands words to describe. However, let's skip all of that to take a lesson out of the name 'Mixed Martial Arts' by allowing the title to give us a useful way of looking at the sport.

One way to appreciate and to train for the game is to break down MMA into a few basic parts: Striking, Wrestling, Grappling, and Conditioning.

Striking- for the most part lifted from boxing, kickboxing, and Muay Thai kickboxing. Basically, hitting for the purpose of stopping an opponent. (note the goal is full contact and LEGAL techniques as opposed to those found in some other martial arts)

Wrestling- most techniques taken from folk wrestling, freestyle wrestling, greco roman wrestling and judo. The act of taking an opponent down, keeping them down, keeping them underneath you. Add to that the ability to counter these actions.

Grappling- with greatest influence coming from Brazilian Juijitsu and submission wrestling. The main difference between wrestling and grappling is that grappling does not always focus on staying on top, but instead on applying techniques that finish an opponent. These include chokes, strangulations, joint manipulation, and bone breaking. The difference between chokes and strangles will be a future lesson.

Conditioning- the x-factor so to speak in MMA. Cardio, power, strenth, diet, personal care (such as recovery and injury treatment) Perhaps more recently this area of the sport has received the most attention as successful camps with long histories have only just recently been adding strength and conditioning coaches that might have only a theoretical understanding of actual combat.


Overall, MMA is an expansive sport. Part of its great appeal is that this is so. However, there are two things to keep in mind when appreciating and training within the sport. One is to break it down in its part. Two is to be able to put it together.

*I rarely purposely input my personal decisions in this blog but in my humble opinion the second is the most important.