>Technique-level: Does the style or move work in a real fight? If it never shows up in MMA, that’s a red flag.
I think there’s truth to this, but a very important qualification needs to be made: Many of the most effective self defense techniques are explicitly banned in sanctioned MMA bouts.
As a huge fan of combat sports, and someone who’s been in/seen more street fights than I’d like, I think illegal techniques such as eye gouging/raking, groin strikes and particularly head butts and kicking downed opponents are among the very best self defense techniques but are never seen in MMA.
In a surprising respect, this is one way MMA also contributes to practical fight knowledge.
For instance, even just ten years ago, the calf kick wasn’t a common technique in MMA. General wisdom held that a leg kick was far more effective targeting the larger muscles of the thigh. But pioneers like former lightweight champion Benson Henderson demonstrated how even a single well placed calf kick could disable the leg more quickly. It caught on. Unfortunately, this technique also greatly increased the risk that the kicker might suffer a catastrophic injury to his own leg if the kick is checked, and this was reflected in a rash of compound fractures and devastating breaks that occurred in high-profile bouts. This was bad for the sport. If fighters can’t develop the technique to where it isn’t quite so risky, it could become regulated by the governing bodies in the same way that head butts and eye gouges were.
'In a surprising respect, this is one way MMA also contributes to practical fight knowledge.'
That is an excellent point. And it highlights, in a different respect, the many tradeoffs involved in professional combat sports and self-defense knowledge (especially when offered on a large scale).
Also, at their best, the most effective tools are knives and guns. So there's that too.
'If fighters can’t develop the technique to where it isn’t quite so risky, it could become regulated by the governing bodies in the same way that head butts and eye gouges were.'
That's part of the problem though, no? Presumably, to develop the technique to where it isn't so risky requires time and trials, and perhaps devastating losses depending on the technique. Maybe headbutts, for example, would remain effective and hard to guard against even where endless uses in the octagon, such that no one ever develops a good defense. Or, it could be that because they are banned, a good defense never develops. I go back and forth. Thoughts?
Like you indicated, it’s complicated. Head butts, for instance, were legal in early UFC fights. They were a staple of the great Royce Gracie. One reason for why head butts have long been illegal in most combat sports is the associated bleeding. They produce gaping, fight-ending cuts. And that means doctor stoppages, which is bad for the gate. Why the UFC permitted them initially isn’t entirely clear. Probably they thought it would increase the sport’s singular anything-goes appeal. The best defenses (Gable grip, Thai clinch, high hands, distance) are widely known, but insufficient. The UFC banned head butts as one component of a number of changes in 97-98 meant to improve fighter safety that also included adding weight classes, scoring, etc. There weren’t particularly severe injuries due to head butts in those early UFC fights that led directly to the change that I’m aware of.
With groin strikes, there is little defense, thus the cup. Eye gouges are simply too severe in their consequences and there is no possible protective equipment other than a closed-finger glove. Inadvertent eye pokes are still one of the greatest problems in MMA due to the sport’s necessity of open-finger gloves. And inadvertent eye pokes regularly end bouts prematurely.
The calf kick on the other hand, has always been legal in all kicking combat sports, but no one truly understood how effective (but not dangerous) it could be until recently. And unlike these other illegal techniques, it didn’t initially result in catastrophic injury, just decisive injury, because though the strike deadens the nerves in the leg and makes the fighter unable to defend themself, it doesn’t cause lasting damage. It wasn’t until fighters began regularly checking calf kicks that the kickers began breaking their legs. The practical fight knowledge gained was initially how effective the kick was, without being “dangerous”, but then, as the fighters improved their checks, the more important knowledge gained was how risky and physically dangerous the kick was to employ. The calf kick is still legal.
In short, with the other illegal strikes, fighters have known forever how devastating they were and how ineffective defenses have proven to be. They are illegal, I think, because defenses have been thoroughly explored without success and there isn’t a practical way to adequately protect fighters from severe injury due to their use. With calf kicks, a fighter can always avoid the most severe associated injuries by simply not throwing them.
More than you ever wanted to know (and we didn’t even touch on fish hooking, throat strikes, etc).
When MMA or Ultimate Fighting first came out it was phenomenal to watch. I still remember brawlers like Tank Abbot. But then it evolved into grappling or wrestling matches, which many of us find boring. I wish they had rules against anything beyond the briefest wrestling.
>Technique-level: Does the style or move work in a real fight? If it never shows up in MMA, that’s a red flag.
I think there’s truth to this, but a very important qualification needs to be made: Many of the most effective self defense techniques are explicitly banned in sanctioned MMA bouts.
As a huge fan of combat sports, and someone who’s been in/seen more street fights than I’d like, I think illegal techniques such as eye gouging/raking, groin strikes and particularly head butts and kicking downed opponents are among the very best self defense techniques but are never seen in MMA.
In a surprising respect, this is one way MMA also contributes to practical fight knowledge.
For instance, even just ten years ago, the calf kick wasn’t a common technique in MMA. General wisdom held that a leg kick was far more effective targeting the larger muscles of the thigh. But pioneers like former lightweight champion Benson Henderson demonstrated how even a single well placed calf kick could disable the leg more quickly. It caught on. Unfortunately, this technique also greatly increased the risk that the kicker might suffer a catastrophic injury to his own leg if the kick is checked, and this was reflected in a rash of compound fractures and devastating breaks that occurred in high-profile bouts. This was bad for the sport. If fighters can’t develop the technique to where it isn’t quite so risky, it could become regulated by the governing bodies in the same way that head butts and eye gouges were.
'In a surprising respect, this is one way MMA also contributes to practical fight knowledge.'
That is an excellent point. And it highlights, in a different respect, the many tradeoffs involved in professional combat sports and self-defense knowledge (especially when offered on a large scale).
Also, at their best, the most effective tools are knives and guns. So there's that too.
'If fighters can’t develop the technique to where it isn’t quite so risky, it could become regulated by the governing bodies in the same way that head butts and eye gouges were.'
That's part of the problem though, no? Presumably, to develop the technique to where it isn't so risky requires time and trials, and perhaps devastating losses depending on the technique. Maybe headbutts, for example, would remain effective and hard to guard against even where endless uses in the octagon, such that no one ever develops a good defense. Or, it could be that because they are banned, a good defense never develops. I go back and forth. Thoughts?
Like you indicated, it’s complicated. Head butts, for instance, were legal in early UFC fights. They were a staple of the great Royce Gracie. One reason for why head butts have long been illegal in most combat sports is the associated bleeding. They produce gaping, fight-ending cuts. And that means doctor stoppages, which is bad for the gate. Why the UFC permitted them initially isn’t entirely clear. Probably they thought it would increase the sport’s singular anything-goes appeal. The best defenses (Gable grip, Thai clinch, high hands, distance) are widely known, but insufficient. The UFC banned head butts as one component of a number of changes in 97-98 meant to improve fighter safety that also included adding weight classes, scoring, etc. There weren’t particularly severe injuries due to head butts in those early UFC fights that led directly to the change that I’m aware of.
With groin strikes, there is little defense, thus the cup. Eye gouges are simply too severe in their consequences and there is no possible protective equipment other than a closed-finger glove. Inadvertent eye pokes are still one of the greatest problems in MMA due to the sport’s necessity of open-finger gloves. And inadvertent eye pokes regularly end bouts prematurely.
The calf kick on the other hand, has always been legal in all kicking combat sports, but no one truly understood how effective (but not dangerous) it could be until recently. And unlike these other illegal techniques, it didn’t initially result in catastrophic injury, just decisive injury, because though the strike deadens the nerves in the leg and makes the fighter unable to defend themself, it doesn’t cause lasting damage. It wasn’t until fighters began regularly checking calf kicks that the kickers began breaking their legs. The practical fight knowledge gained was initially how effective the kick was, without being “dangerous”, but then, as the fighters improved their checks, the more important knowledge gained was how risky and physically dangerous the kick was to employ. The calf kick is still legal.
In short, with the other illegal strikes, fighters have known forever how devastating they were and how ineffective defenses have proven to be. They are illegal, I think, because defenses have been thoroughly explored without success and there isn’t a practical way to adequately protect fighters from severe injury due to their use. With calf kicks, a fighter can always avoid the most severe associated injuries by simply not throwing them.
More than you ever wanted to know (and we didn’t even touch on fish hooking, throat strikes, etc).
When MMA or Ultimate Fighting first came out it was phenomenal to watch. I still remember brawlers like Tank Abbot. But then it evolved into grappling or wrestling matches, which many of us find boring. I wish they had rules against anything beyond the briefest wrestling.
Good from a self-defense perspective, since many fights go to the ground, but not as exciting to be sure.