Showing posts with label Finding the Right MMA School. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Finding the Right MMA School. Show all posts
Wednesday, April 10, 2013
Monday, April 8, 2013
Wednesday, April 3, 2013
Saturday, March 23, 2013
Why Quality Instruction is Crucial When Choosing a MMA School
Patrick Head March 2013
People choose to train mixed
martial arts for a variety of reasons.
Some take the sport very seriously and want to participate in
competitions and perhaps even become professional fighters someday, whereas
others see the sport simply as a fun way to stay in shape. If you are in the latter category and are not
very serious about participating in the sport on a competitive level, you might
mistakenly assume that receiving quality instruction is not important in your
case and that all you really need is a teacher who knows just enough about the techniques
to make the sport fun and physically challenging.
The truth is, however, that picking
a gym with high quality instruction is crucial no matter what reason you have
for wanting to train, and this is mainly because lower quality instruction
often carries with it a much higher risk of injury. If you have ever seen mixed martial arts matches
on television, you know that the sport can be very violent and even dangerous
if it is not properly controlled. Although training mixed martial arts at a gym
may not be nearly as dangerous as participating in professional fighting, students
at MMA gyms still run a high risk of getting injured if their instructors do
not properly inform them on how to stay safe.
Quality MMA instructors can almost completely eliminate this risk of
injury by making sure that students understand how to perform moves slowly,
carefully, and with minimal force so that no one gets hurt, but less qualified
teachers may be comparatively negligent in this area.
Mixed martial arts is the most
extreme combat sport a person can train in, and it requires knowledge of a
multitude of different martial art disciplines.
Students who practice this sport are required to learn how to fight
effectively both from standing and on the ground through utilizing striking,
grappling, and takedown techniques. Low
quality gyms will often have one person teaching in all of these different disciplines
even though they are only experts in one of them, and this is definitely not an
ideal situation from a risk management perspective. For example, if an instructor is an expert
boxer but is teaching Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu in spite of the fact that he is not
very well-versed in grappling techniques, he will be slower to notice when a
student is performing a move that is going to injure her partner, and he may also
neglect to teach students the important safety techniques that are associated
with this sport such as the proper way a person should land when an opponent
throws them to the ground.
Another reason that training at a
low quality gym is not as safe as training at a gym that prides itself in having
high-quality instruction is that lower quality gyms tend to attract a less
dedicated crowd. When this happens, the
gym obtains a number of members who saw violent UFC fights on television and
have decided that they want to try to inflict that kind of damage to others
themselves. These individuals are not
really interested in learning techniques, and their aggression and lack of respect
for the sport will likely result in injury to their training partners. A gym with quality instruction will quickly
teach these individuals that practicing mixed martial arts requires discipline
and respect and is not about just beating people up. Any dojo that is worth training at will not
allow people who refuse to respect their partners on the mat so that the safety
of their students will not be compromised.
To find high quality MMA instruction in the Nederland, Texas area,
please check out our website at www.unitedmmafight.com.
Tuesday, March 5, 2013
Finding The Right MMA School - Expert Advice From BJJ Black BeltPatrick Head
How to Choose an MMA School
Learning the sport of mixed martial arts can be a rewarding,life-long pursuit, but finding the right gym can be both tricky andintimidating. The sport’s recentexplosion in popularity has given rise to many gyms that advertise their styleas mixed martial arts but have no expertise in the sport. In this climate, how does one spot the fakesand find a legitimate gym to learn MMA?
To begin, an easy indicator of a legitimate gym is theselection of martial arts being taught. Generallyspeaking, MMA is a blend of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, Boxing, Kickboxing andWrestling. Other martial arts such asJudo, Sambo, and Karate, while not as common, have also given rise tosuccessful fighters at the highest levels of the sport.
Traditional martial arts such as Aikido, Taekwondo, JeetKune Do and anything advertised as Ninjutsu, however, have not provedsuccessful inside the cage. Schoolsteaching these martial arts and advertising themselves as MMA schools areplaces to avoid. It’s also a good ideato avoid gyms that bill their instructors as “street fighters” that can teach“secret moves.”
If you’re hoping to learn the MMA game, there are noshortcuts or secret moves. Successfulfighters know that to win in MMA, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, Boxing, Kickboxing andWrestling are all essential.
The selection of martial arts offered at a gym can be a goodindicator of legitimacy, but there are gyms out there that advertise themartial arts that form the cornerstone of the MMA game with no qualifiedinstructors to teach them.
A good way to sort the real deal from the fakes is toresearch results in competition. Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, for example, has a largeand flourishing competition scene. Manygyms will have competition results or footage that can easily be found online. It might be easy to hang a sign for BrazilianJiu-Jitsu in a gym’s window, but it’s impossible to fake winning a bigtournament like the Pan Ams or the Mundials. Credible MMA gyms will usually have an active competition record forboth grappling and MMA.
Once you’ve done your research, call and ask about freetrials. Most legitimate gyms offer someform of trial period where a new student can take some classes and see thelevel of instruction first hand. Don’tbe intimidated! Take advantage of this trial period and attend all of theclasses that you can. In addition togetting a feel for the different martial arts that make up MMA, trial periodslet you experience the gym’s facilities and amenities first hand. There’s no better way to get a feeling for aschool, than by making use of this trial period, and since it’s free, there’sabsolutely no risk!
While in class, don’t be afraid to ask questions if you getconfused or overwhelmed. All of theinstructors and more advanced students started exactly where you are, and theyremember what it was like to be new to the sport. Asking questions and being eager to learnwill show you how the instructors respond to students and how they teach.
Being active during your trial period will also show you oneof the most important and unsung aspects of MMA: the team atmosphere and camaraderie that growbetween teammates. Take advantage of thetrial period and you’ll see how you can fit into this atmosphere. Chances are, if you stick with MMA, you’llmeet some of your best friends at the gym.
Whether you’re looking to step in the cage, trying to get inshape, or learn a practical system of self-defense, mixed martial arts is afulfilling pursuit. Once you’vethoroughly researched the classes and level of competition that a gym has tooffer, take advantage of trial periods and experience the classes firsthand. The knowledge, self-confidence,and physical fitness that are direct results of learning MMA are well worth it.
See you on the mat!
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