Full Contact
Coming of Age: Mixed Martial Arts Hits the Mainstream
Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) is fast becoming the most popular martial arts discipline the world. Training at sites such as the Baltimore MMA Academy, fighters practice a combination of traditional personal combat styles. As the sport has evolved, MMA adapted these traditional styles to give MMA the look of a sophisticated discipline in its own right. Promotions such as the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) have seen MMA become a mainstream sport that fits neatly into the sports regulatory regimes of countries worldwide.
Baltimore MMA Academy incorporates all personal combat styles into training regimes that focus on traditional disciplines, such as Aikido, Brazilian Jiu Jiitsu, and Karate. A major program at the academy brings them together in a mixed martial arts regime. MMA is a full contact sport that requires strength, flexibility, speed, reflex, and intelligence. Fighting includes kicking, striking, and grappling employed in a variety of strategies that emphasize differing tactics to gain the upper hand. Intense competition has caused fighters to evolve continuously more sophisticated styles. Rule changes and the nature of MMA combat have kept bouts competitive and interesting. Knockouts are less common than in boxing though several MMA styles have knockout as their aim. Submission is more common with those whose strategies emphasize grappling and ground fighting, but either outcome will produce victory under MMA rules.
Victory can also come if a fight is halted as a result in injury that can halt a fight cause if there is serious impairment. Safety improvements, such as rules for disqualification and the use of gloves, have helped mainstream this violent sport. A referee can call a fight if a fighter appears to be seriously injured or impaired and rules limit the use of more dangerous techniques, emphasizing skill over brute force and violence. Disqualifications which give victory to an opponent have encouraged fighters to fight aggressively, but play by the rules. These rules have prevented all but one death or serious injury in a sanctioned fight in the modern history of MMA.
Serious injury in the early no holds barred era of MMA made the sport a brutal, bloody spectacle. Rules and safety regulations surrounding fierce but keen competition have moderated the violence and propelled the sport into the mainstream. Mixed martial arts now competes as one of the most highly viewed pay per view television broadcasts worldwide.
Adam Delbrugge
self defense Krav Maga Full Contact 2009