Most people who read my articles or come to my seminars see me as being very critical of wrestleboxing but I don’t really see it that way.
If people want to talk about the degree of difficulty in it, how dedicated the athletes are, or how popular it has become I’d have to agree with them; my issue is with the people who glorify it as it being something more than just a sport and I feel that is very dangerous to lay people who believe that it represents some form of “Real” self-defense, and it seriously hurts the reputation of actual martial arts by misrepresenting what a martial art actually is.
First they call it “Mixed martial arts” which is an absurd term.
Every legitimate martial art is a mixture of the ones that have come before it, so in 2012 the term “Mixed” is pretty much redundant and the term “Martial arts” doesn’t even apply in my opinion.
It seems to me that they refer to it as a form of martial arts because it utilizes punching, kicking, and other combative techniques and so do martial arts, but I wear clothes and so does Heidi Klum so does that mean I’m a hot blond? If all the martial arts are at the end of the day is simply throwing your limbs in the air then kickball is a martial art as well as is hacky-sack and soccer… because they utilize kicks too.
What makes a martial art what it is, is twofold, the “Martial” and the “Art”.
First it has to be geared toward a real combative purpose; in my opinion if a style doesn’t activity deal with attacks from knives, clubs, guns, and multiple attackers then it’s more of a “Martial-style activity”, in the same way that Tai Chi is a “Martial-style exercise” while Tai Chi Chuan is an actual martial art.
The “Art” of martial arts isn’t in that you punch, because anyone can do that, it is how you punch.
What makes a martial art what it is isn’t so much exactly what you do; it is how you do it.
Then I correct him and let him know that he wasn’t doing martial arts when he threw that last punch.
Another thing is intent; as a martial artist I believe in the concept of Budo and every time I throw a punch it is with the intent of seriously injuring or killing another person who is trying to do the same to me.
It is then that I tell them they mistakenly entered a martial arts school where we train to survive real violence and I recommend gyms that have wrestleboxing programs.
It’s like watching a basketball game and saying, “Based on what I’m seeing here, the only way to be successful in life is to be black and tall.” You wouldn’t watch baseball and think because the guy has a large stick that you can learn to stick fight by joining your employer’s softball team, so why do people think that wrestleboxing will teach them how to survive a real violent encounter? The problem is people don’t understand the difference between a competition in a ring, a competition out of a ring, and a real act of criminal violence.
If you want to train in the martial arts you need to ask yourself why you are training and what you hope to gain from your training, and this is a conversation I have with every new student.
Growing up I did martial arts constantly and my main art was a really aggressive art my teacher just called “Kenpo”.
For some reason wrestleboxing has been largely seen as the proving ground for all martial art and martial art style techniques.
Wrestleboxing does in no way mirror the reality of a violent encounter; it is taking two guys that don’t want to seriously hurt each other and putting them in a safe environment with a list of rules as long as your arm, that deliberately eliminates the most effective techniques the martial arts have, and then you give them pads and a referee to make sure the fight is “Safe”.
Now I’m not saying that a wrestleboxer can’t successfully defend himself when faced with a real attack or that the things taught in wrestleboxing cannot be successfully used in a real violent situation.
It can perhaps showcase different aspects similar to the martial arts but it is not a martial art and it does not represent the martial arts.
The people that compete in it are great athletes and some of them are martial artists in addition to being wrestleboxers but it is “Apples and oranges” and trying to extrapolate usable data about what is effective in the face of criminal violence is like going to a demolition derby to learn how to drive a car.
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