MMA, martial art or not?

Nikki Sypult: No. This question is on here too much. Actually it is tiring responding to such useless things. In my opinion there is nothing wrong with mixed martial arts. MMA is a name associated with a sport under the rules of that sport. Martial Arts do not have rules. Sports do. Many martial arts have some sports aspects. In other words the art has been modified to allow for competition under a set of rules specific for that sport.In mma you do not have to know multiple styles but you may compete against people that may know parts of one or more styles. This may put you at a disadvantage if you don't know how to defend against such attacks.In most martial sport you only have to compete against someone that can only do one aspect of fighting such as striking or grappling depending on the rules. However, in mma it allows for both striking and grappling in its set of rules.In a martial art the goal is life preservation/protection. It is not to win a contest. In most mart! ial arts your objective is to injure or use deadly force upon your attacker in order to protect your life or the life of others. If the attacker is injured enough they can't continue the attack. You have accomplished your goal. It is not about winning. You survived an attack. You escaped from an attack....Show more

Arlene Maycumber: MMA stands for mixed martial arts. It is not an art, itself, but a randomly composed mix of techniques from various styles. I, personally, consider it a very inferior way to train. My preference is to pick any one traditional style and pursue it into the black belt ranks, as far as you can.

Helen Zafar: I don't think of boxing and MMA as martial arts but instead as fighting arts and to me there is a difference. Martial arts to me imply arts with a long history and which are steeped in culture and embrace various aspects of that culture and a period of time in it. Take a jump or flying side kick for instance which is a technique! that was developed for knocking a samurai or soldier from his! horse. People no longer fight from horses like they once did during the feudal periods of Japan and China and you now see this technique today being done and applied effectively in movies and television against a person standing which would not generally be the case unless they were blind, stupid, or drunk and just simply stood there and watched you launch yourself up and hit them with it.So there are techniques in martial arts today that are still taught and held close but there might not be a need for their application today like there was a hundred or two hundred years ago. The spear hand thrust is another such technique and I could name a number of others but yet they all are still largely taught and practiced in things like kata and students are tested on them. This is because of custom and embracing things of that culture and that martial art for that period of time though in which these techniques as well as others were developed, some of which still have their a! pplication today.Contrasted with that you have fighting arts which don't revolve so much around custom and culture or embracing certain aspects of that culture. Instead they are purely are based on application and you often don't see any philosophy or religion associated with them either like you do in martial arts. That is another thing that separates the two in my mind at least.While you can make an argument for the fact that some of those things in fighting arts come or came from martial arts there are many things that did not as well. Other than that association they have less in common with martial arts in my mind and they are exclusive of any religious and cultural aspects and those ties to them in my mind.This is just how I see it and what separates the one from the other and helps me to keep them separate in my mind....Show more

Dannie Briseno: MMA is a sport that features a mixture of many martial arts and fighters who use many different martial systems.Bo! xing is BOTH a martial art and a sport because Boxing was originally ta! ught for military purposes. did you know that Boxing allowed kicks, grapples and throws? Boxing we see now is a sport, but Pugilism, is a very real martial art....Show more

Kip Ockenfels: Katana made a good point. Those of us that have been in traditional martial arts for a long time(over 41 years myself) have been experiencing the frustration that you are feeling now. Only thing is for serious mma students it is only just beginning. TMA practicioners have had to put up with one fad after another . Every few years another martial art becomes really popular. When it happens every wannabe jumps on the band wagon. The interest then results in many schools for this MA springing up like weeds in a garden. While some are legitimate most are simply not qualified. It takes years to become a knowledgeable/qualified instructor of any serious MA. Yet shortly after a new one becomes the fad there are thousands of guys opening schools and claiming to be qualified. Personally I see! there being several problems with the martial arts both TMA and MMA. 1) The public is ignorant and does not know how to tell the real from the fakes. 2) Americans and many others don't have the patience to spend the time to really learn the MA, so schools have watered down the training. This is because many people simply would not train if they don't get promoted often, or the classes are not fun. 3) The ignorance and the greedy open MA schools and will compromise the training so that they can make money. That is why in the 1960's you did not see young children in the MA. 4) The MA have become a joke to many because they see so many 5 and 6 year olds with black belts. Not to mention the 15 to 18 year olds that are 2nd and 3rd degree black blets and teaching classes. To sum things up, the problem is greed, the desire for instant results(promotions), underhanded business practices, and an increasingly ignorent general public. It really frost my ........ when I meet an adult ! and as soon as they know that I'm a long time martial artist, they say ! something like, "Oh my 6 years old just got his black belt". 80% of the students in the martial arts in the U.S.A. are children. So what is wrong with this picture? The public views the MA as a children's activity, not a serious method of self-defense. Sad but true....Show more

Antone Youla: Martial art is a very broad term. Anything can be considered "martial art" as long as it involves self-defense.Boxing is a martial art. so is MMA

Brice Greczkowski: no its a training method just like cross training is, since they are the same thing.its a method of training thats it

Whitney Saborido: MMA is not a martial art. It is a fighting sport (or martial sport) that has rules.When rules are introduced to limit the actions of people in "combat", the event becomes a sporting contest.