Combat Sports vs.
Traditional Martial Arts
How to Choose?
People want to be healthy, happy, and lead meaningful lives. The purpose of martial arts to to help people accomplish this. The purpose of a sport is to win a match and excel in that particular sport.
Aikido is a traditional Japanese martial art. When discerning which martial art to train in, a person will first have to decide between a traditional art, like karate, aikido, kung fu, or taekwondo, or a modern combat sport like Brazilian jiu jitsu (BJJ), or mixed martial arts (MMA). In spite of having "martial arts" in their names, these sports do not deliver the complete benefit of a traditional martial art. How can a person know what to choose?
Refined
Through Tradition
“True victory is victory over the self.”
Founder of Aikido
Self-defense is often the impetus to begin training. When most people hear the word self-defense, what do they typically think of? They think of an attacker who wishes to harm a defender: me and them. The thought is: "I must stop them from harming me." But a more fundamental question is: what is the best way to bring them back into a balanced state, and resolving the conflict so that both the attacker and defender are unharmed?
In traditional martial arts (TMA), the goal is to cross over the gap so the attacker and attacked are one. When this is accomplished, through rigorous training of the mind and body, the practitioner understands how to resolve a violent situation without excessive harm. They know how to do that verbally if possible. If not, they know how to use technique to bring the attacker back to peace so they lose the spirit to attack people.
Mixed martial arts (MMA), is a sport that uses some techniques of combat, and is constrained by a rigid rule set to preserve basic safety. The techniques that are used in MMA are only the ones that are expedient for competition in that unique rule set. All other techniques, as well as methods of training the spirit to avoid violence, are not a formal part of the training process.
The difference between traditional martial arts and MMA can be understood through their historical evolution. Traditional martial arts began as ancient warfare. Over centuries they evolved to become a complete way of life leading to health and societal peace. They honed their methods to reduce injuries in training while maintaining the efficacy of the techniques. This is no small accomplishment, which is why it has taken centuries.
MMA is a recent addition to the culture, appearing only a few decades ago when the Gracies, who started Brazilian jiu jitsu, envisioned a forum to promote their art against others. It has stayed a sport, where the main focus is training in techniques that win matches. Noticeably absent is training against opponents when you are disadvantaged such as multiple and or/armed attackers, etc., which is a common approach for an actual attack. The sport has not had the centuries of evolution that TMA has had, where it becomes an entire lifestyle encompassing self-defense, purification of the spirit, health, and benefit to society. It has also not been able to evolve to reduce their injury rate. Combat sports such as MMA and BJJ have very high rates of injury, and privilege the young and fit who train until injuries prevent them.
These days the dojo one is most likely to see is an MMA or BJJ dojo. In the UFC and entertainment, they are also most likely to be exposed to MMA. Through incessant hammering in the culture to popularize MMA, and social media algorithms prioritizing click bait videos, their efficacy as self-defense has been accepted with little question by many.
Learn About Self DefensePeople confuse winning matches with self-defense. And they don't ask the important question of what is self-defense, really? This is a deep question that has been asked and answered by traditional systems that have techniques that have been pressure tested over centuries, built on a foundation that prioritizes overall health and benefit to society.