Shotokan Practitioner going mma,your opinion?

[pLackR.brizzL]

I'm currently a lower belt level shotokan practitioner,i'm interested highly in the mma aspect of the art though,specifically in the bjj realm and grapple quest tournaments.Theres 2 top schools in my area that has produced some of the finest in the ufc(choosing which one is tough)I've been on the fence for approximately a month or so..So should i dump shotokan and roll bjj/muay tai or keep both?I surely dont wanna waste any unnecessary time or money.Thanks for the advice.:XXspermy:

[LI GUY 1]

Yes, yes you should. If you ae interested in MMA, and two schools in your area are top producars in MMA, it is a no brainer.

[sempaiman]

No,no...stick with Shotokan. practice the Kata and develop KI. You will be the next Machida.

[galois]

I did shotokan for 2 years from 15-17. Trained hard four plus times a week. In the opinion of my sensei I was pretty good. I was certainly very good at kata, and held my own in point sparring even with black belts. Couldn't fight my way through an open door of course. Six years later I spent the first month or so of muay thai getting rid of the bad habits I picked up from the training that were still with me (chambered punches anyone?). I don't think my experience is particularly extraordinary.

[PointyShinyBurn]

If you want to learn grappling and compete in MMA then you should train at a school that does those things. Whether you also continue with Shotokan you should decide for yourself after seeing how the training stacks up against that at the MMA places.

[bassai]

Shotokan is notoriously variable when it comes to quality , if you do train at one of the few schools that train hard then stick with it , otherwise , if you attend the normal kata intensive point stop only sparring school , move onto something more suitable.

[sweats]

I did Shotokan from age 9 through 22. What do you mean the "mma aspect of the art"? There isn't an MMA aspect. Of course all Shotokan guys hold up Machida as a shining example of what karate can do and perhaps to some extent that's true. What they neglect to point out is that Machida is extremely talented and cross-trained his ass off.

There are some good things you can take from Shotokan as a striking art. Mainly just the body mechanics and generating power in a strike. HOWEVER, there are gaping holes. Do you learn to grapple? No. Do you learn to clinch? No. Granted you won't learn that in a multitude of striking arts, but you'll have bad habits to unlearn as an earlier poster pointed out.

The biggest problem I see with Shotokan as a striking discipline for MMA is that usually Shotokan schools don't do any realistic sparring. Are you used to someone stepping into you and throwing combinations of face punches at you? Do you know what to do when someone backs you into a corner or against the cage and starts working you over? I doubt it. If you want to fight MMA, go train MMA. It's a no brainer. If you like Shotokan and thinks it's fun, you can keep doing it, but don't expect it to translate very well.

[Gypsy Jazz]

In my totally unprofessional opinion the most valuable part about shotokan, which Machida displays in spades is the ability to read an opponent's intentions and counter appropriately. This can be worked in any striking art, but the so called "traditional" karate styles emphasize the idea of one hit ending a fight place a lot of emphasis on reading intents and remaining non-telegraphic.

What's really remarkable is how slow someone good at this can make you feel, even if you're physically faster.

All of that said, if you want to fight mma, training mma is almost certainly your best bet.

[battlefields]

1.Watch every single Machida fight in slow motion.
2.????
3.Win Title Belt.

[pLackR.brizzL]

Idunno about the next machida,I admire his style(Machida-do)which is shotokan/bjj/muay tai.He's been studying it since birth as his father was a master,i love traditional martial arts..But ****,i don't think i wanna spend a hella of long time learning all the 26+Kata