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Are Mixed Martial Arts Studios Ripping You Off?

By Scott | April 2, 2009

by Scott Buendia

A then unknown fighter named Royce Gracie steamrolled over several other martial artists during the first UFCs, nobody had seen his style, and no one could defend it (and even the one who had the best chance of negating it couldnt, Ken Shamrock). Many black belts in their styles stood up and took notice, because that wasnt supposed to happen. Their end all be all style should have stopped the takedown, negated the chances of being in a submission, and even if it did go to the ground, one of the mythical knock out or death touches should have finished the fight. None of the above happened, and something else happened at the same time. An explosion of interest in grappling and mma came to be. Enrollment was down at martial arts school everywhere, as the ones who were already teaching mma and grappling did well. So the martial arts school hired marketing gurus to tell them what to do, and the word came down. Teach MMA and grappling. So thats what they did, they hung up a shingle and said, We teach MMA and grappling. Students flocked in, even though the school itself had lied to everyone, they had never trained mma, they had never competed, they had never fought, they never earned a black belt in mma (doesnt exist no matter who says it does), and they never found a grand master in it (they dont exist in it). They just started to say that theyve been teaching it all the time.

So the problem becomes obvious here, many schools are blatantly ripping off the unsuspecting because they have a belt and the talk with authority about a subject they know virtually nothing about. They’ve never competed or studied grappling close enough to teach it, and its all second hand information that is propagated and spread throughout communities, all while defrauding the masses. To give you a better idea, let me tell you a story.

Mom and dad bring in little Tommy because the bully at school has been picking on him. McDojo has just hung up its shingle for mma, they picked up a couple of books about grappling and mma and decide that they should catch the wave and get the money thats floating around out there while grappling. They quickly develop a belt system around it and start marketing and teaching it. Poor Tommy and his parents are roped into the hype and the child earns a brown belt in MMA (which dont exist and neither do grandmasters in mma). A bully decides its a good time to test poor Tommy, hearing of his new fighting prowess, and figures it a good way to up his street cred (the bullies). Tommy proceeds to defend himself and low and behold. Tommy gets beat up.

Why? His sweeps are wrong, his submission holds arent tight, and hes never actively sparred against someone who has tried to at least make contact on him. He is embarrassed and the parents blame themselves for not enrolling him in more classes, Tommy blames himself because he didnt work hard enough, and the school owner blames Tommy and his parents for not enrolling him in more classes and scolds Tommy for getting in the fight in the first place and demotes his belt rank.

How do you fix this problem? Check out the instructor before training with them; make sure they have valid verifiable experience. Make sure that they actually have competitors or the teacher has competed himself or herself. Make sure that they come from someone who has actually competed in MMA or grappling tournaments, make sure you know what youre getting into because you accept someones word for it (training). If you can do this, you will always make sure your child, or yourself, is getting the best MMA/grappling experience possible.

Scott Buendia loves to teach in his Hillsboro martial arts school and teaches: Jeet Kune Do (the art used by Jason Bourne), Filipino martial arts, and Shamrock Submission Fighting in his school. Get a totally unique version of this article from our article submission service

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3 Responses to “Are Mixed Martial Arts Studios Ripping You Off?”


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    April 26th, 2009 at 6:25 pm
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    April 28th, 2009 at 1:30 pm
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    April 29th, 2009 at 3:13 am
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