Karate Mat

As the sport of mixed martial arts grows throughout the country, we continue to see martial arts gyms pop up throughout the country. The majority of these gyms focus on Brazilian jiu jitsu and a form of striking, typically muay thai kickboxing. While these arts are great and are essential aspects of mma, these seems to be lack of emphasis on wrestling.

Understandably wrestling is not as sexy or exciting as learning how to submit someone with a flying armbar or land a spinning roundhouse kick. That being said, it is still one of the core foundations of mixed martial arts, as can be seen by the success of many former wrestling greats including: Randy Couture, Mark Coleman, Matt Hughes, Josh Koscheck, Brock Lesnar, Tito Ortiz, Rashad Evans, Dan Henderson, Matt Lindland, Uriah Faber, Mike Brown, Mo Lawal, Sean Sherk and many others. Even current ww champion Georges St. Pierre considers wrestling his main strength and he holds blackbelts in jiu jitsu and karate.

Having a strong wrestling base allows you the option to dictate where the fight takes place. For an athlete who prefers to have the fight on the mat and utilize ground and pound and submissions ala Matt Hughes wrestling is essential. Conversely if you prefer to use effective striking, is imperative that you have the take down defense necessary to fend off your opponent. Chuck Liddell is the perfect example of this as he made a career out of defending take downs to set up his devastating strikes. Many great strikers have struggled in mma due to the fact that they lack take down defense, once you are taken down and put on your back, your striking abilities are irrelevant. Similarly if you are a submission wiz, it is detrimental to your success if you are unable to take your opponent to the ground.

Of course any great wrestler needs to evolve with the sport and develop their skills so that they are not one dimensional. But by having the ability to keep the fight standing or take the fight to the ground, gives you different options and allows you to exploit your opponents weaknesses. Ultimately your wrestling will make the other areas of your game more dangerous. By presenting a threat of take downs, an opponent has to be weary of not only your punches and kicks but your shots. If your opponent is solely focused on your take downs it provides openings to land punches or kicks. If your opponent is forced to respect your strikes, they are more vulnerable to be taken down.

In mma, being on top of your opponent is considered the dominant position. While it is not always popular we have seen many fighters win decisions by being able to take their opponent down, control them and inflict ground and pound. If wrestlers can develop submission defense, they are at an advantage due to the current rules of mma as well as having a mechanical advantage of being able to deliver powerful blows whether it be from guard, side control or mount.

With wrestling being overlooked in training throughout the country, there is a great opportunity for athletes to focus their attention on this discipline to gain an advantage. Even if you are not from a traditional wrestling background you can still develop the skills that will ultimately lead to success within the sport of mma. Georges St. Pierre had no formal wrestling experience, but recognized the importance of the sport, by training with top notch wrestlers GSP was able to develop a great arsenal of take downs and take down defense.

Mixed Martial Arts requires athletes to be well rounded in many areas. By overlooking a critical element of the sport you only hinder your max capabilities.

Jarred Mercado http://www.shutoutwrestling.com

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 9th, 2009 at 10:20 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.