Mixed Martial Arts School
What makes a school mixed martial arts school? There weren’t any before the early 1990’s, but now it seems they’re all over the place. Everybody wants to learn Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and nobody just teaches karate any more. It seems everyone has hopped on the martial arts band wagon. This isn’t the first time it’s happened, but previously it took a hell of a lot longer. Since the founding of the United States, wrestling and boxing have been popular. They were the manly sports that brought in thousands of screaming, beer drinking fans, and everyone talked about the fights. Sure baseball and football are more popular, but everyone liked the fights. Even when wrestling became more show then substance people flocked to see their favorite stars battle it out. But as we all know the only thing that is constant is change.
It is hard to pick an exact date, but in the early 1960’s Japanese martial arts like Karate, Jujutsu, and Judo slowly started to be come popular. American military personnel stationed overseas began training in the martial arts to improve their hand to hand combat skills and help keep in shape. Among them was martial arts legend Chuck Norris who trained while he was stationed with the Air Force in South Korea. He and others would bring back what they learned, and slowly but surely martial arts studios began to appear around the United States. Not many Americans had trained in martial arts, but in the 1964 Olympics the United States still made a descent showing even though no medals were won in Judo. In the beginning martial arts were all about self defense.
The problem was as karate and other martial arts grew in popularity they stopped being good for self defense. Sure some people stayed dedicated to the principals of their style, but many more wanted Karate and other martial arts to only be sports. Actor and martial artist, Bruce Lee, found that many people were doing unnecessary movements with their Kung Fu, and weren’t learning what they needed to know to win a street fight. The mixed martial arts school is just the latest martial arts craze. A real martial artist trains in different styles not for competition, but to learn even more moves for self defense.
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