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Marcus_1
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Video - Okinawan Karate - The Original MMA

Apologies if already posted on here, but I have only just found this little video montage of various traditional karate moves and how they are used in MMA (complete with a cameo by Iain)

I really like how they've shown just how modern MMA has developed from kata and other "traditional" methods.

Iain Abernethy
Iain Abernethy's picture

Marcus_1 wrote:
Apologies if already posted on here, but I have only just found this little video montage of various traditional karate moves and how they are used in MMA (complete with a cameo by Iain)

It has been posted before, but it’s always worth a re-watch and there is a good chance other members / readers may not have seen it too.

Marcus_1 wrote:
I really like how they've shown just how modern MMA has developed from kata and other "traditional" methods.

Cultures change, objectives change, laws change; but the human body remains constant. There are only so many ways that human beings can hurt one another; some commonality is to be expected.

It’s a really well put together video and I think it does a superb job of showing how kata does contain functional methods. I do have a couple of reservations though; not really with the video itself, but the way it may be perceived.

1) MMA is definitely its own thing. The karateka of the past were not practicing anything close to modern MMA. Even the UFC fighters of 15 years ago were not practicing anything close to modern MMA. We can legitimately say that karate was a “mixed martial art” due to many systems that have influenced it; but it’s not MMA in the modern sense. The title is a good one in terms of getting people to question karate’s eclectic and holistic nature; and then compare that to the eclectic and holistic nature of modern MMA. However, it could be seen as claiming that old-school karate was more closely comparable to modern MMA; such that the rapid rise and evolution of MMA is “history repeating” and we karateka had already got their first. That’s plainly not the case.  There are many differences then and now.

2) I think we need to be careful about using MMA as the “gold standard” to which everything else is compared. There is certainly a subsection of people who do believe that everything else is obsolete now MMA is here; but that’s the old problem of tribalism. Different people have differing requirements and objectives.

MMA is primarily focused on the young and athletic out-fighting a fellow fighter, and hence it is lacking in the things that make karate appeal to me i.e. a focus on non-consensual violence, a sense of belonging to a tradition, a fascinating history, a built in means to ensure lifelong practise, etc. Not for one second saying that karate is better than MMA, because that’s a matter of stated objective and personal taste. I can say I have a strong preference for karate. I don’t need to compare karate to MMA to give karate legitimacy.

Again, I’m not saying the video is deliberately doing that; but it could be perceived that way i.e. karateka feeling that we should aspire to be like MMA, or assert we are already like MMA, in order for karate to have legitimacy. Likewise, MMA types could see it as karateka abandoning their art in order to practise “pseudo MMA” while still calling it karate.

I’m a fan of the video though and I hope the above concerns don’t suggest otherwise. As I say, it’s very well done and hopefully it will get karateka to better consider the nature of their kata and their art. It may also get some MMA folks to better understand the value of kata to us karateka (providing it is part of a wider training matrix).

This old article discusses what traditional martial arts can learn from MMA and would also seem to be relevant: https://iainabernethy.co.uk/article/what-tma-can-learn-mma

All the best,

Iain