Hmmmm. Very curious. So, how would a guy fair in MMA if he was a good wrestler with a Black Belt in BJJ and ONLY trained Karate for Stand up?
Stand up: 100% Karate
Ground: Wrestling/BJJ
I dont know much about the subject, but I would assume this would be a killer combo.
So, we keep having the same discussion over and over, then I get irritated and start talking to people like they're stupid and everything goes to shit. So I'll try to avoid that.
I assume you are talking about the afore mentioned Mr. Machida, whom we all love to refer to as "semi-orthodox". There are many traditional techniques that Machida does not use. For instance he does not use traditional defense. Hell, NOBODY uses traditional Karate defense cuz that shit don't work.
Having been trained in style with no functional defense, and having fought in lots of tournaments, he has done what lots of other Shotokan fighters (including me) have done over the years, which is adapt his style to suit the conditions.
He has developed very good footwork, evading and closing the gap smoothly and quickly, hence the inevitble adjective "elusive". That footwork is not traditional Shotokan either. Traditional Shotokan footwork; low, stable stances, feet flat on the ground with toes gripping, feet sliding over the ground in an in-and-out motion, don't work either.
My point is this. Get a copy of Karate-Do Kyohan. Read it. Tell me how many of the techniques pictured in the book are being used by Lyoto Machida or any other Shotokan fighter in actual competition. Maybe 25%?
At what point does it stop being "Shotokan" as designed by Gichin Funakoshi and become something entirely different? Why continue using the techniques that don't work for demos, kata, belt tests, etc?
I stopped studying Shotokan when I realized I had basically become a self taught kickboxer and then decided I should focus my training on those techniques that I was actually using.
