I've been trying to get into MMA for a while now and since I finally moved to a bigger area there's two schools that I could go too. Neither of them look too great but my choices are really limited.

The first place I found has a Judo class which I would really love to get into, but no striking.
click here for link

The second place has an MMA class but it sounds kind of shady just going by the description of the website. It says it combines Karate, Sambo, Kyusho and boxing/kick boxing. Not too interested in any of those.
click here for link

I'd really like to do Muay Thai for striking and BJJ or Judo for grappling. Right now I'm leaning on just going to the Judo place but I'm going to check both of them out pretty soon. Can't start for a while yet because I want to finish a tattoo in progress first.

sambo would be sweet to learn, its pretty rare on this side of pa to find a legit sambo instructor. the cheap defintion of sambo would be russian bjj with splash of judo

click here for link

wron jen will be able to help you with this one

I'd heard of sambo before but never really anything about it. Not too sure how legit that place is. I'm sure i'll have a better idea after I go check it out in person. Gotta wait a week or so until my truck is fixed, I'm stranded on campus right now.

i wouldn't use any "karate" in MMA training but it seems like your options are limited.

Sambo is awesome. Borba Sambo (aka Sport Sambo) is very similar to BJJ but has alot of focus on leg locks and some of the submissions are set up and done differently. Also the uniform is different. Andrei Arlovski was a former Junior World Sambo Champion.

Combat Sambo is basically MMA except done on a mat and in the Sambo uniform. Instead of just submission grappling, Combat Sambo incorporates striking. This is what Fedor Emelianenko trains in and is probably why he does so well in MMA competitions. He's basically trained in MMA all his life because of his Sambo training.

for your striking id suggest kyokushinkai karate, (knock down fighting) as this incorperates all strikes including elbows and low leg kicks, but it depends as u say if you can get a good club, if u find a decent enough karate club that sends fighters to competition you can bet that they do alot of randorri(grappling ground work) too. check out www.kenshinkazokukai.co.uk and folow the links to kazoku international if ur not in britian.

i would not suggest any kind of karate ever.....i would say just do Sambo....fuck the rest......thats all that Oleg needed and i am sure it will have the same outcome for you......positive

do whichever is most fun for you and whichever gym has the coolest people.

anyone who derides any specific art is biased. EVERY system has its merits, it's not like punching and kicking is all that different from style to style, pretty much the basics are the same for all.

i don't deride any specific art but obviously the guy wants to get into Mixed Martial Arts. And from my training i would say there are definitely better arts for it. You should know that too, Yan. Karate is pretty impractical for cagefighting. You say punching and kicking don't really differ from art to art. Take one class of Muay Thai and one class of Tae Kwon Do and then talk to me.

If someone wants to just take 1 specific discipline to learn it/have it as a hobby then i saw the options are pretty much wide open. But if the goal is cage fighting there are definitely limits on what i would take.

I checked out both gyms and I'm pretty sure I'm going to go to the one for for Judo. The other gym you couldn't take just Sambo, it was just like a mixed program of everything and didn't seem that great. But I might transfer to temple next year so I'm pretty sure some more options will open up then.

ok well ill just clear somthing up about karate, its the only system that uses every possible movement of the human body for striking, grappling, locks ect, i dont know about america but in britian i will agree it is hard to find a karate club that will adapt to mma or cage fighting, but i feel i have been blessed as sensai tony bergin seems to be a very unorthadox trainer, we practice mma style moves and drill once a month and from that alone i have won 3 british mma contests, not to mention a british muay thai title british kickboxing and 2 karate titles and placed 3rd in the world open championships. i think karate does work very well as a mma form but it needs to be trained in the right way with the right sensai, if you can find a good club well done to you, Muay thai is very good for your striking and limited neck wrestling but you miss out the intricacy of foot sweeps and head locks. but it is true dont tie yourself to one style use the best bits of multiple styles and utilise whats useful and disregard whats not. thats what ive done and its also chalenging to compete in different disicplines.

i am as well, but i have no idea where to start
i wrestled in hs but now that im not doing anything with my life i need to get into something

Originally posted by:WhatTheFuck???

Judo is a good place to start. That will give you a good base on grappling, and get your feet wet when it comes to ground fighting/submissions. Once you have a solid Judo base, I would continue to progress with grappling by studying Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu or Submission Wrestling. Once you are comfortable with grappling and working on the ground, you can progress to striking. For that I won't recommend anything other than Muay Thai. You can do boxing, but MT fighters generally have a huge advantage over boxers when it comes to MMA.

for the most part i agree with you. I would recommend MT over Boxing as well but with MMA if you have a good wrestler going against a Muay Thai fighter, chances are the second he picks up one of his legs the wrestler is taking him down. Boxing and Muay Thai have different footwork because of the lack of kicks. Alot of fighters go back to train straight boxing when they know they are fighting a good ground guy.

Originally posted by:(dave)

i am as well, but i have no idea where to start
i wrestled in hs but now that im not doing anything with my life i need to get into something

where at in jersey do you live? i could probably recommend a half a dozen schools.

Originally posted by: WREN

Originally posted by:(dave)

i am as well, but i have no idea where to start
i wrestled in hs but now that im not doing anything with my life i need to get into something

where at in jersey do you live? i could probably recommend a half a dozen schools.

berlin, right next to voorhees
like 10-15 minutes away from cherry hill

www.daddisfc.com


the jersey school is in Cherry Hill.