MMA at Tae Kwon Do school. Bullshido? (Chu's Martial Arts)

**ProudClod** · Posted On: 5/21/2007 4:40pm

Before you make any comments, please hear my story out.

I've been doing Brazilian Jiu Jitsu for a bit more than a month now, at a school called Lin Martial Arts. Steve Lin has his own place in Markham, Ontario, but is also renting a room from Chu's Martial Arts in Toronto. I go to his Toronto facility, as it is closer. Chu's Martial Arts is primary a Tae Kwon Do school, and Master Chu heads that division up. A Muay Thai instructor also rents a room from Chu, so it seems to be a respectable school. Master Chu also goes to my Brazilian Jiu Jitsu class, and is a beast. Recently, he told me and a couple of other BJJ practitioners that he has an MMA class every friday, so we decided to check it out.

His MMA seemed allright, but there was something fishy about it. We did some regular stuff for the first half of class. We did some cardio, and upperbody strength building exercises. Afterwords, we worked on punching drills, and then on take downs and ground work. I noticed that there was an interestingly dressed fellow in the class. This is where it got weird. Once we hit the half mark, this individual declared himself as a master of Wing chun. He had been invited by Master Chu to work on our blocking drills. So here you go, in an MMA class where we had only 2 minutes prior practiced Muay Thai/BJJ, a Wing Chun master was giving us a run down. He was a great practitioner of Wing Chun however. I can't really tell if his techniques were any more effective than the Muay Thai, as I'm not a practitioner of either... But I could not hit him as hard as I tried. I could not take him down as much as I tried. So there we have this insanely fast Wing Chun guy, making an MMA class do wing chun drills. It was interesting, but very fishy.

Upon the completion of the class, we bow down to the Wing Chun master, and say our goodbyes. Put our mats away, ETC. I then talk to Master Chu. He plans on bringing professionals of other arts into our class. Boxers, Thai Boxers, He'll head up Tae Kwon Do, Judo ETC. This all seemed great... But is this all just smoke and mirrors? How are we supposed to learn MMA if we are introduced to a new martial art every week? I mean, sure the drills are there. But if I'm sparring Wing Chun one week, Muay thai the next, and Tae Kwon Do the last, am I going to learn anything?

This doesn't chang the fact that I really enjoyed this class, and plan on signing up... I just want to know how effective the things we learn will be? Keep in mind, I'm still a vanilla BJJ practioner.

**winnersguard** · Posted On: 5/21/2007 4:54pm

Originally Posted by ProudClod

Before you make any comments, please hear my story out.

I've been doing Brazilian Jiu Jitsu for a bit more than a month now, at a school called Lin Martial Arts. Steve Lin has his own place in Markham, Ontario, but is also renting a room from Chu's Martial Arts in Toronto. I go to his Toronto facility, as it is closer. Chu's Martial Arts is primary a Tae Kwon Do school, and Master Chu heads that division up. A Muay Thai instructor also rents a room from Chu, so it seems to be a respectable school. Master Chu also goes to my Brazilian Jiu Jitsu class, and is a beast. Recently, he told me and a couple of other BJJ practitioners that he has an MMA class every friday, so we decided to check it out.

His MMA seemed allright, but there was something fishy about it. We did some regular stuff for the first half of class. We did some cardio, and upperbody strength building exercises. Afterwords, we worked on punching drills, and then on take downs and ground work. I noticed that there was an interestingly dressed fellow in the class. This is where it got weird. Once we hit the half mark, this individual declared himself as a master of Wing chun. He had been invited by Master Chu to work on our blocking drills. So here you go, in an MMA class where we had only 2 minutes prior practiced Muay Thai/BJJ, a Wing Chun master was giving us a run down. He was a great practitioner of Wing Chun however. I can't really tell if his techniques were any more effective than the Muay Thai, as I'm not a practitioner of either... But I could not hit him as hard as I tried. I could not take him down as much as I tried. So there we have this insanely fast Wing Chun guy, making an MMA class do wing chun drills. It was interesting, but very fishy.

Upon the completion of the class, we bow down to the Wing Chun master, and say our goodbyes. Put our mats away, ETC. I then talk to Master Chu. He plans on bringing professionals of other arts into our class. Boxers, Thai Boxers, He'll head up Tae Kwon Do, Judo ETC. This all seemed great... But is this all just smoke and mirrors? How are we supposed to learn MMA if we are introduced to a new martial art every week? I mean, sure the drills are there. But if I'm sparring Wing Chun one week, Muay thai the next, and Tae Kwon Do the last, am I going to learn anything?

This doesn't chang the fact that I really enjoyed this class, and plan on signing up... I just want to know how effective the things we learn will be? Keep in mind, I'm still a vanilla BJJ practioner.

I suppose it wouldn't be bad if once a week or so a new guy comes in to show a different perspective on similar techniques - as long as you get to work on the ones you think will work best for you in a live environment. As long as you aren't spending weeks learning dim mak and chi blasts, and most of the time is spent training.

**ProudClod** · Posted On: 5/21/2007 5:14pm

Punchline: The MMA class IS only once a week.

**datdamnmachine** · Posted On: 5/21/2007 6:01pm

Hmmm, very interesting. Other posters more familiar with "the chun" should chime in on that. I will say that if you find that this mixture is hampering your martial arts training then you may need to speak up to the instructor or find a different MMA class. Another option is to take the arts seperately; BJJ, Muay Thai, wrestling, etc, and put them together on your own. I honestly think it's a better approach to training then to try to blend everything right away. But that's just my opinion. As for all the guest visitors coming in then it depends. If these instructors can show you techniques that you can apply in as realistically a situation as MMA is then you may find some useful things in there. If it's them just talking out of their ass about how a triple spin round kick with a 37 hit chain punch is "t3h d3@d1y" and if more MMA fighters would use it, they would win.....RUN!

But I'm sure there are some badasses out there who can make the triple spin round kick and 37 hit chain punch work for them...:)

**EternalRage** · Posted On: 5/21/2007 6:09pm

I don't know about this. MMA isn't "grab all the styles you can and learn them all," least not in the mainstream definition of the acronym. That's what it sounds like Master Chu is sort of half doing at least - the first part of the class sounds fine.

If you have fun with it, and that's what you're lookin for, then great.

If you want MMA training like for actual MMA competition, then I don't know. Something you could do is go to an actual MMA gym, watch a class, and see if that's what yours is like.

**ProudClod** · Posted On: 5/21/2007 7:13pm

What the chunner taught us was somewhat useful, as after a good solid 10 minutes of practice, I could deflect a full speed punch and go in with a hook. The problem I see is, that we're borrowing way too much from too many different styles without actually getting good at any of them. Let's say that this chun technique is useful... But we only got one class to work it!

Seperate arts: I love this idea, but unfortunately my wallet doesn't. The MMA class is only 25 bucks a month. I'm already paying 100 for BJJ (Which I go to 5 times a week, and in the sumemr will go 7 times a week). Muay Thai is out of the question ATM, because it's more than thrice as expensive as the MMA class. While I understand that it's a lot more useful to rely on my own bridging of the techniques, than that of a TMA instructor... But this is the closest thing I can do to train myself some MMA. I have a good grappling base (I used to do Judo, currently doing BJJ), so I am really mostly looking to improve my standup. Since I'm not experienced in stand up... If this MMA class is all I have for improving my standup... Are there any particular excercises I should do? Any particular things I should suggest to the instructor? Anything I could do outside of class to get a better sense for standup?

**hoodedmonk** · Posted On: 5/21/2007 8:24pm

Stay with the bjj. until purple or at least blue belt and then train muay thai if your planing on competing in mma. There thats my 2 cents worth!

**Liger** · Posted On: 5/22/2007 7:13pm

Positives:

-Exposure to more styles for your money and time.
-Can pick and choose what you want froom what you are exposed to
-If allowed, sparring against many styles is a good thing, tho it sounds like quickie lessons.

Negatives:

-Focusing/questions on a technique from a guest instructor when they're not there will take longer to get answered, if at all(unless the main instructor is trained in the same style as well)

The technique sounds familiar(pak sao,lop sao...). Anyone that self proclaims themself a master is often a red flag. Can you describe in any more detail what you did or post a vid?

Does it look anything like this?

http://www.garylamwingchun.com/movie...0clip_512k.wmv

Compare with other places.

As long as you can apply it in sparring, and it doesn't negatively affect your game, nothing necessarily wrong. Make it a point to spar with people from other schools if you can.

**Grashnak** · Posted On: 5/22/2007 7:19pm

Just my 2 cents, but if you've only been doing BJJ for one month, I would concentrate on that and forget about training anything else for at least a year. I think that focus is probably the best bet for people just starting any art.

**TEA** · Posted On: 5/23/2007 10:52am

Originally Posted by Grashnak

Just my 2 cents, but if you've only been doing BJJ for one month, I would concentrate on that and forget about training anything else for at least a year. I think that focus is probably the best bet for people just starting any art.

What he said.