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What’s the Difference Between MMA & Street Effective Self Defense? Part III

This is our final post concerning the differences between MMA fighting (whose main goals are sport & fitness) & Street Effective Self Defense (whose main goals are escape, survival, incapacitate).

The typical response that I have received from most of the 15 MMA types who have challenged me, is summarized as them telling me that my idea of martial arts is messed up and not moral or ethical.

The problem is that they came to me thinking that their view of fighting is the reality of real self defense, and it’s not!

If MMA was the reality of street fights then life would be simple and there would be no need for real self defense arts.

I could simply say “You Win and I concede the fight” and the conflict would be over. Murderers are not generous or sportsmanlike.

Real attacks are generally brutally evil events that are designed to completely destroy and take advantage of the intended victim. Fairness and civility was NEVER a part of the equation for the attacker and the defender seriously risks their life if they do not take the situation seriously. This is a potentially lethal event because the criminal does not care and is not constrained by any rules or regulations.

This is the primary difference between real Street Effective Self Defense vs MMA.

In a real street situation, if I am having a bad day where I am old, out of shape, injured, sick or tired and distracted I can not simply concede the fight. The attackers are very likely to laugh and then do their best to torture and humiliate me before they kill me.

I wish the harsh reality of street situations and the crime wave we are currently experiencing here in America was different.

But my wishing does not make it so.

So I train and teach real world self defense for adults instead of MMA.

Point of Interest – I have been challenged by a lot of MMA fighters, but I have never been challenged by someone who trains for self defense. I think the reason for this is fairly simple. As soon as a challenger steps forward and makes a challenge he may be practicing fighting but he is definitely no longer practicing self DEFENSE.

Thank you MMA guys for putting on good tv. Please keep the show going.

Best,

Richard Clear

What’s the Difference Between MMA & Street Effective Self Defense? Part II

Continuing our discussion from the previous post about the difference between MMA fighters and my training/what we teach in our self-defense and martial arts for adults classes. If you’re taking classes with us, you know that the best self-defense result for you and your loved ones is to evade your attackers and escape unharmed, but for now we’re talking a little more about street attacks. . .

In an extremely violent street attack by someone young, strong and built, I will do whatever I can as rapidly as I can to end the attack.

I will not stop until one of us is completely incapacitated or dead because that is the reality of a terrible street attack.

Make no mistake, this is a fight to the death and it is them or you.

If this means stabbing them with my knife, biting them, gouging, taking out one or both of his eyes, crushing his throat, breaking whatever small joint I can, stomping, using whatever objects might be laying around as a weapon, etc., then all that is acceptable.

In my martial art, Clear Silat Street Kung Fu, such tactics are a part of street real self defense. MMA practitioners primarily train for the ring.

In real street self defense survival is the key and there is no such thing as cheating against a criminal attacker (mugger, murderer, rapist).

My street real self defense arts vs MMA looks at the primary weaknesses on a human body and makes a study of the most expedient way to exploit them so that a 98 pound girl or middle aged business executive can have a hope of defending her or himself against an angry 250 pound muscle bound guy.

This means his eyes, throat, testicles, arteries, knees and life are all good attack options and major points of time and study. She does not want to wrestle, trade hits or be in the situation any longer than absolutely necessary because she cannot afford to exchange blows with such a person without her risking her life. By the way, the same can be said for the average person whether they be older, weaker (not lifting weights for a couple of hours every day), sicker such as being a diabetic or having parkinsons or just being the average person living a normal life.

The vast majority of MMA stylists who participate and train for competitions can not honestly say they train for the street and to prevent real attacks because when was the last time you saw a fight in an octogon?

Or ring match that was a real, true to life, ugly, no rules, street manner fight without the participants immediately getting disqualified?

How many times has an octogon or ring match opponent showed up to fight with a knife? Baseball bat? Or had a group/gang of attackers inside the ring to help him?

In fact if the MMA fighter showed up and did half of the things that a real street self defense art considers and trains for and against then they would get barred and eventually completely banned from competition.

So the key takeaway here is that real muggings and attacks need real self defense like we teach at Street Kung Fu here in Maryville, TN. These aren’t tactics for children learning a sports martial art. These are martial arts for adults who want to learn to defend themselves.

Best,

Richard Clear

What’s the Difference Between MMA & Street Effective Self Defense? Part I

This is always a bit of a controversial topic here at Clear Silat’s Street Kung Fu.

MMA or Mixed Martial Arts is a sport based system of martial arts which has increased greatly in popularity in the last few years here in the U.S.

I have chosen to write about Street Effective Self Defense vs MMA for our blog because publicly there seems to be a lot of confusion about the difference between these two very different kinds of arts. I find that a lot of people including a lot of MMA teachers simply do not know the difference between MMA and arts that are intended for real street self defense.

So, I hope to shed a little light on it here in a way that will help everyone.

The most interesting way I can think of to illustrate this point about the difference between Street Effective Self Defense vs MMA is to publicly state how many times I have been challenged by MMA / UFC type fighters and to explain a bit about the outcome of those challenges. Over the years I have been challenged to fight (mostly by MMA /UFC type fighters and teachers) about 15 times or so. My basic response to such challenges normally goes as follows.

First, I explain I do not train MMA and that because MMA is not what I do or train for that if I play by the rules in an MMA fight against an MMA fighter who is specifically training for such an event that I will probably lose (likely to disqualification) although I do enjoy watching MMA and UFC events from time to time just like I like watching football, boxing, or WWF wresting.

Second, and much more important to me regarding the difference between Street Effective Self Defense vs MMA, is that all of my self defense training and the arts that I practice for self defense are life or death based arts with survival being the #1 goal.

This means that in an awful street attack, evading and escaping is a very acceptable option for me. It also means that if I can not evade or escape the situation then I want to terminate the situation with extreme prejudice, as fast as I can, with as little injury to me or my loved ones as possible. There is no shame in a tactical retreat that results in me and my family safe and far away from our attackers.

Best,

Richard Clear

Clear’s Silat & Street Kung Fu

This post is designed to give a greater overview of the types of martial arts we teach at our local martial arts school here in Maryille, TN. We’ll also cover a bit of the history of Kun Tao Silat martial arts. If for some reason you ended up here when you’re looking for more advanced martial arts instruction, or you’re not able to attend our local classes we offer a wide variety of teaching products as well.

Clear’s Silat & Street Kung Fu is Kun Tao Silat.

Kun Tao Silat is a mixture of Silat and Kun Tao martial arts. This mixture goes back quite a few generations and is a blend that came has come about starting with the Chinese trade with the spice islands of Indonesia and Malaysia in the 1200’s.

Although pure pentjak Silat and pure Kun Tao styles can be found in the islands the majority of martial art styles that can be found in Indonesia and Malaysia today are a combination of Kun Tao and Silat. Part of the reason for this is that the primary purpose for martial arts study in the islands is survival. This tends to mean that if something works then use it and if it works particularly well then claim it as your own.

The mixture of Kun Tao and Silat in styles range from close to 50/50 % to as much as 95/5 %. It just depends on which region or area you are in and what styles are available and what kind of techniques and skills you will need against nearby enemies. Techniques can also depend on who married who and what family arts are / were available.

We teach a blend of Kung Fu, Self Defense, Kun Tao, and Silat as a series of quick and dirty moves regular people (at all fitness levels) can use to defend themselves. Essentially, we teach personal security for everyone. More on this in future posts.

Best,

Richard Clear

What is Clear’s Silat & Street Kung Fu?

We often refer to and market our Clear’s Silat & Street Kung Fu (Kun Tao) program as Street Self Defense for our local self-defense classes here in Maryville, TN.

What defines or is meant by Street Self Defense, Clear’s Silat, or Street Kung Fu?

Well, first an art that claims to be an effective Street Self Defense has to take physical safety into account.

If you cannot defend and protect yourself with it then it is not Street Self Defense.

Secondly, it must take into account situations and scenarios. This includes the fact that the odds are often against you and sometimes those odds are overwhelming.

Thirdly, it must take into account the legal ramifications of your response to an intended assailant.

Real Street Self Defense has no sport component. It is not a sport modified for the street and it is certainly nothing you can use in any contest such as an extreme fighting event.

It is brutal and there is nothing sportsman-like about it. Running can be, and often is an option. When you are forced to physically fight in order to protect yourself then going for vital targets designed to incapacitate the attacker is high on the list of immediate options.

Personal survival is the primary concern. This may sound harsh and intense, but our programs are safe and fun exercise. We teach you to defend yourself with care and precautions that an assailant would never use.

Best,

Richard Clear