The Martial Arts of MMA: The Grappling Arts

The sport of mixed martial arts has progressed a great deal in just over a decade, and the fighters have changed as much as the sport. Fighters went from knowing only a single discipline to being multifaceted machines armed with an array of martial arts.

Fighters have defined their base martial art, and certain martial arts have proven to be more effective in the realm of mixed martial arts than others. This is not to say that a martial art is ineffective or useless, rather just that they do not work within the arena that is mixed martial arts.

I intend to look at the grappling martial arts in MMA and at one I believe will soon enter MMA with a bang.

Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu

The martial art that started it all, as the UFC was started by the Gracie family in part to showcase Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu.

Jiu-Jitsu was originally a Japanese martial art, created by the Samurai as a form of fighting without weapons. Since Samurai wore armor into battle, punches and kicks were obviously not used.

The result was an art that relied on throws, position, joint locks, and chokes. But in the Meiji Era, Japan looked to modernize their martial arts and reorganized Jiu-Jitsu into the more scientific Judo.

Esai Maeda, one of the last masters of Jiu Jitsu, moved to Brazil in the early 1900s and taught the Gracie family everything he knew about the grappling arts.

The youngest and smallest Gracie, Helio, reworked the Jiu-Jitsu he learned to suit his smaller and weaker body, focusing more on leverage and position than strength.

The result was Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, arguably the most effective martial art, in or out of MMA. It is very effective in an MMA fight because if you have not trained to defend against Jiu-Jitsu, you are almost helpless when facing even a beginner while on the ground.

The one big knock on Jiu-Jitsu is the lack of focus on takedowns, but if a Jiu-Jitsu ace gets you on the ground, you are in serious trouble.

Greco-Roman Wrestling

Really the 1b to Jiu-Jitsu's 1a, wrestling helps for the essential triangle of mixed martial arts with Jiu-Jitsu and striking. While Greco-Roman wrestling is normally taught in purely a sporting context with no self-defense aspects, it has proved its worth in fights time and again.

As the name suggests, it is a blending of two arts, Greco and Roman styles of wrestling. Greco wrestling allowed no grabbing of the legs, resulting in dramatic throws and suplexes.

Roman wrestling focused more on ground grappling and pinning the other fighter. Combined, you get the current Olympic sport we know and love.

It is possible that no fighters, as a group, experience more success in MMA than college wrestlers. I think this is due to the combination of wrestling, athletic ability, and education.

To be a DI college wrestler you have to be a freak athlete, you have to train like crazy, and you get a college education. I feel that education makes a big difference, a difference that is on full display in the current season of TUF with Rashad against Rampage.

Submission Wrestling

Now I picked that picture above because the primary art I have in mind when I say "submission rrestling" is the Greek hybrid style of Pankration. But it includes so many styles, some of the them old, some of them new.

Basically, it contains techniques that belong both to wrestling and Jiu-Jitsu and allows for victory by submission.

The Greek martial art of Pankration was invented by the Spartans and was included in the ancient Olympics. It is theorized that Pankration could be the root of all martial arts, as it used punches, kicks, takedowns, and submissions.

There was a Pankration revival in Greece in the last 20 years, and several Pancrase champions have done very well in MMA, including current UFC middleweight contender Nate Marquardt.

Submission wrestling gives fighters all the advantages of Jiu-Jitsu and wrestling, and really serves as an outstanding MMA base.

Judo

Judo was adopted as the official Japanese martial art in the late 1800s as a replacement for Jiu-Jitsu. Judo functions on the basic properties of inertia, using minimal energy to throw an opponent to the mat with amazing force. Judo also includes some submissions and ground work, but mostly focuses on takedowns.

Judo's real world success is very documented. it is damn useful in a street fight and is the official hand-to-hand style of Japanese police departments. But it has had a very difficult transition to MMA, with its only true standout fighter being Karo Parisyan.

This is partially because the takedowns are perfectly effective in an MMA fight, but then Judo fighters don't have the ground game to finish guys, as many Judo ground matches end in pins or the ref stands them up.

An instructor at my Jiu-Jitsu school that holds a black belt in Judo also puts it very well: Judo's ground work vs. Jiu-Jitsu's is like comparing basic mathematics to calculus, but the reverse is true for the standing takedowns.

Dave Camarillo has taken strides to give MMA fighters a more effective form of Judo, combining its standup with Jiu-Jitsu's ground work. He calls it Guerrilla Jiu-Jitsu and it has been used to great success by several fighters, including Jon Fitch.

Judo gives fighters an excellent takedown game that is outside of western wrestling, but Judo fighters have to add a ground game in order to really enter the world of MMA, because you have to finish guys after you get them on the ground.

Sambo

A Russian hybrid fighting art, known for its red and blue gis, hard strikes, and bone-crushing slams. Sambo is a true mixed martial art form of fighting, but its grappling nature is based on Judo mixed with Russian steppe wrestling.

Like MMA, Sambo allows punches, kicks, knees, takedowns, and submissions. While Sambo's standup isn't its strongest aspect, Sambo grapplers are known and feared through out the world for their vicious leg locks.

Sambo has provided MMA with some excellent fighters, most notably and arguably the best fighter in the world, Fedor Emelianenko (I say arguably, but please don't on this thread, it's been done to death). More fighters are emerging from Russia or going to Russia to train, like Strikeforce/DREAM super star Gegard Mousasi.

The Next Big Thing: Southeast Asian Grappling

Southeast Asia is home to several understudied, under-respected martial arts that include some nasty grappling moves.

From the Filipino Dumog techniques used in Eskrima, the Buno style of Filipino wrestling, the shooting takedowns of Pradal Serey, or the joint lock takedowns used in Malaysian Silat, there are nasty moves out there.

These martial arts are still very raw and closer to their combat form than a sporting form and as a result many of the movements that included wrist locks or groin strikes are not legal in MMA, but as fighters keep looking for new submissions and techniques, expect to start seeing some modified Southeast Asian moves to sneak their way into MMA.