What is Practical Martial Art? An Article by Fahad Rehman

The following post does not necessarily represent the views and opinions of Mixed Martial Arts Pakistan. The post is to give fans of MMA Pakistan an avenue in which to express their opinions on anything Martial Arts. Please use these posts as starting points for discussions on martial arts in Pakistan. We appreciate the time and effort put in by our fans to make MMA Pakistan a reality in the near future.

Martial arts. Meaning arts of war. Most people who are familiar with flashy martial arts moves, assume all martial arts are Chinese. But there are lots of other kinds too which are non Chinese in their origin. Lots of people around the world started getting martial arts training in the discipline of “un armed” combat popularly known as “karate” in 20th century. But everyone who joins a dojo has his own intentions as to why they join. Some want to get in shape, some need fancy dancy kicks and katas, some get bullied and want to learn how to defend themselves, while others also learn it to make it a source of earning.

But all those, who learn martial arts for self defense, somehow, at some stage, get disheartened- , disappointed coz they get beaten up in the street despite all the martial art techniques. Keeping Pakistan in view, its very common!! The reason this happens, is very simple. Martial arts, is of two types,#1:Sports or fancy martial arts #2:Real life updated martial arts. What happens in the street, is that a person, lets say a black belt in Tae Kwon Do, gets into a fight, he kicks, the opponent being in rage, takes that kick, but what next?? the Tae Kwon Do guy start getting beaten up coz the street fighter has now come close than the space needed by they TKD guy to throw next kick. The street fighter takes him down, and the TKD guy is in more trouble as he knows nothing about ground fight, and the result is, that he becomes the biggest advocate of the phrase “MARTIAL ARTS IS USELESS IN REAL FIGHTS”

But the fact is , he is wrong ,as I told earlier, he is a black belt in the “fancy or sports” martial arts, which is always useless in close range. Now a question arises. “WHAT works on street??” The answer is very simple. Any art, that tells you quick and simple moves and includes ground fights and locks works on street. In a street, no fight lasts long, no fight stays in erect position (both fighters standing), no fight obeys any rule or referee. That’s why, I will advise u ,to ask yourself a very simple question “What is that I need??” before joining any dojo . If you need to be a professional fighter, or know street self defense, never join TKD , YUN JUNDO, KAYOKUSHIN types of arts as they are “awesome sports”, but very bad street fight styles and if you want good stretching, fancy kicks , katas , do join previously mentioned arts , as they got all you need!!

Looking at the craze of UFC around the world, I want to mention, that in Pakistan ,there is no such dojo which can train for Mixed Martial Arts . Except those who practice “jeet kun do” and kenpo. A very experienced master named master Chan (Jackie lee Chan) has his dojo in f-8/4 below Nadra office and a very talented, experienced 4rth degree black belt master Billy Malik trains kenpo in f11 Markaz above Habib bank. Besides that, if there are any, I don’t know about them, but there is a very big need of guiding our youth towards martial arts which can help them on street and also in the ring of mixed martial arts.

But MMA is not only about punching, or kicking your opponent to a K.O. , its also not confined to locking your opponent and getting a K.O. by putting him in pain. What a lay man never notices, is suffocation. Locks which suffocate opponents are more effective than the pain locks as one can stand pain, but not suffocation. The very precious art called Kushti is entirely about locking your opponents. A slight modification to it can prove deadly in a fight regarding suffocating your enemy. And this modification cant occur unless we don’t have a gym of MMA. Dedicated only to improve MMA techniques.

But it doesn’t mean that if you don’t do MMA , you can’t be a good fighter. You can still be a very quick sharp and good fighter. But you should always know, that in a fight, front kick, side kick and back kick are the only three kicks worth something. Rest like tornado,, flying, spinning, and other fancy kicks are too slow to beat a raging street fighter. Regardless of what art u do, remember to keep your guard always up!!. If u closely watch TKD, 90% of the knock outs wont occur if they keep their guards up!! For example, the knockout in TKD gold medal match of Athens Olympic would never have happened if the Greek guy had kept his guard up. And finally, if your art doesn’t teach you ground fight, never let the attacker come close to you, or believe me, you’ll suffer.

Written by Fahad Rehman

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