It's like this, every second of your training life you spend practicing horse stance, and blocks like gedan barai, age uke, shuto uke, etc., are seconds you could spend learning something that might actually work. This is wasted time. A great fighter can overcome inefficient training and techniques but just think how much better he would be if he started out with shit that actually worked?
Even the best TMA fighters, guys like Lyoto Machida for example, can't make TMA techniques work in combat or competition. Not only do they not work, may of them are self defeating. Blocking full-power, full-contact, low kicks with the hands is a guaranteed way to fuck your hands up and eat lots of tasty counter punches to the head because your hands are too low to defend your head.
If you like TMA for the "philosophy", the camraderie and the feeling of belonging to some ancient warrior society or something, thats fine. If you want or need to have some skills that actually work in a fight, TMA will not only teach you shit that won't work it will give you bad habits that will take years to unlearn. I know. I started off in Shotokan and TKD, and have fucked around with a bunch of other stuff that doesn't work.
MMA, pro KB and MT are full of guys that started out in TMA. Almost all of them have transitioned to a style that uses the same basic punching and kicking techniques as well as defense. Its called evolution.
If you post video of a pro fighter, Lyoto Machida, GSP, or whoever else, in a traditional horse or front stance and using gedan barai or age uke in a fight I will take it all back...
