Self Taught Muay Thai

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thedave

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Hello, this is my first post. I am 17 and I some day want to compete in MMA. I started taking Traditional Ju Jitsu a month or so ago. The people I take it with all have black belts in Tae Kwon Do so naturally they can all kick. My sensei has taken a liking to me and is training me in Muay Thai. He himself has never been a Muay Thai fighter but his friend that did Chinese Kempo was also a Muay Thai guy. Now he's showing me what he knows in Muay Thai and I keep looking it up and it all seems to be correct. I also stated to him that either next year or the year after I'll go into the city (Pittsburgh) and train at the Thai gym. The reason I cannot now is that well it's an hour away and all. What I am trying to ask is, is this a good idea for now? I mean he's taught me how to do the clenches perfectly and he's working on my low kicks right now and my knees in the clench. He knows what I want to do in the future and he's very supportive. He trains me privately on the weekend. And I'm going to take it that he knows what he's talking about because he's had 20 years of experience in Martial Arts with Traditional Ju Jitsu and Goja-Ru Karate. Can anyone help me here on this?
 
My opinion on this matter is that you should focus on the best your city has to offer as far as reaching your goals in MMA. You know you can go to a muay thai gym in a year. So focus on other aspects of MMA that you'll be more efficient at improving by considering your resources (time, money, location).

Do they have any BJJ gyms in your area? Thats what you should be looking at. I've been there done it man, trust me on this. Choose going to a BJJ place over learning mediocre standup from Tae Kwon Do practioners (dont mean to insult your instructors, but you said yourself he doesn't even do muay thai).

I know you care more about your standup than your ground fighting, and you dont want your ground fighting to become dissproportionate to your standup game. But you're going to need some solid bjj as a standup artist in MMA. So put your time in now in BJJ, so you won't have to later on.

Try to find a BJJ gym that rolls no-gi at least once a week.
 
I take Traditinal Ju Jitsu which isn't exactly BJJ but it is Ju or Jiu Jitsu. I didn't say TKD guys were teaching me Muay Thai. I said that my JJ teacher is. When I had to full contact spar them they kicked the shit out of me in my upper legs. So I had to rely on watching Muay Thai and dabbling around with it. What happened was, well I wrestled when I was younger so I wanted to get head controll, that I did. Than I realized it would be a great opportunity to try out the Clench and throw knees. So I did that and well it worked. After we had to spar my teacher showed me the correct way to controll the clench and hold the head and neck. I honestly think BJJ is a bit overrated and I will stick with JJJ. I will take BJJ in the future but it isn't twoards my interest right now. Right now I want to take JJJ until I have a black belt some day than look around for sambo and judo places. I might also wrestle next year but I'm unsure. Oh and the only BJJ school around here is also located in Pittsburgh which is an hour away.
 
Dude, your sensei is focusing on an art that isn't even his just to support you.

Thank your lucky stars.
 
DropBows said:
My opinion on this matter is that you should focus on the best your city has to offer as far as reaching your goals in MMA. You know you can go to a muay thai gym in a year. So focus on other aspects of MMA that you'll be more efficient at improving by considering your resources (time, money, location).

Do they have any BJJ gyms in your area? Thats what you should be looking at. I've been there done it man, trust me on this. Choose going to a BJJ place over learning mediocre standup from Tae Kwon Do practioners (dont mean to insult your instructors, but you said yourself he doesn't even do muay thai).

I know you care more about your standup than your ground fighting, and you dont want your ground fighting to become dissproportionate to your standup game. But you're going to need some solid bjj as a standup artist in MMA. So put your time in now in BJJ, so you won't have to later on.

Try to find a BJJ gym that rolls no-gi at least once a week.
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He said he learning jujitsu. You dont need BJJ in order to compete in mma. I for one think BJJ is way overrated. It works I'll admit it, but people act as if you dont train in BJJ you cant compete in mma.
 
Arnis_7788 said:
He said he learning jujitsu. You dont need BJJ in order to compete in mma. I for one think BJJ is way overrated. It works I'll admit it, but people act as if you dont train in BJJ you cant compete in mma.
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What's he going to do when he gets taken down because he's throwing head kicks? How is he going to neutralize someone from the bottom if he doesn't understand how to fight for position? Ju Jitsu isn't enough to supplement this, neither is sambo.

Will they teach you how to pull guard from being side controlled? Will they teach you how to escape mount? Will they teach you how to protect your back on the ground? What about submission defense? If the answer to any of those is no (and they most likely all are) then you need BJJ.
 
I'm not compltely dismissing BJJ. I will take it in the future just not right now or next year. I want a Black Belt in Traditional Ju Jitsu before I begin taking BJJ. I just don't want to put to much on my plate if you can understand that. But I want the best of the best from every art. I mean I have plans within my life time of getting my black belt some day and hopefully higher in JJJ, taking BJJ, Judo, Sambo and Aikido. I really do feel everything is going to have something to offer but JJJ is going to be my foundation on everything.
 
thedave said:
I'm not compltely dismissing BJJ. I will take it in the future just not right now or next year. I want a Black Belt in Traditional Ju Jitsu before I begin taking BJJ. I just don't want to put to much on my plate if you can understand that. But I want the best of the best from every art. I mean I have plans within my life time of getting my black belt some day and hopefully higher in JJJ, taking BJJ, Judo, Sambo and Aikido. I really do feel everything is going to have something to offer but JJJ is going to be my foundation on everything.
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How long does it take to get a Trad JJ black belt? I don't think you'd want to wait 3-4 years before your first BJJ class, a little cross-training wouldn't hurt you.
 
The only problem like right now is that I am a Jr in highschool. So I have two years including this one of school left. After school I workout every day until 4:00. After that on mondays and wednesdays I go home and rest or work out more. Than I will go to my Ju Jitsu class. Now on tuesdays thursdays and fridays I will be at work all night after I work out. So on Saturdays I have a 3 hour day of doing anythng I want. It's like a relaxed day of class with my sensei and those are the days he usually helps me with my striking. So If I do take BJJ it's not going to happen for another 2-3 years depending on my situation. And taking it right now is out of the question since I'm under my parents roof and I dont think they would like me driving to Pittsburgh for an hour to learn BJJ. I will cross train in BJJ and JJJ if it comes down to it in the next 2-3 years. But as of right now I only have access to traditional JJJ which I happen to like a lot.
 
I took TJJ. I dropped it for MT and BJJ classes and study judo and wrestling as best as my time allows. Clapping dudes in the ear, karate chopping their neck and kicking them with little power in the nuts will just piss guys off if they are already trying to kick your ass.

They won't stand still while you go through your 7 point strike and grapple sequence like in Steven Segal movies. Just as you get to the groin strike after the elbow to the jaw on one of them, his friends will notice and they will beat your ass and bottle you and stomp you the fuck out. No black ninja sequential approach, just a mauling. Not a pretty sight to have to haul people out of.

The best thing TJJ can offer you is the mentality of controlled aggression, the use of some standing restraints and some judo throws that lack the finer technical points refined in actual judo. Hell, even your fellow students took TKD and the reason is likely they know TJJ striking is weak. I can apreciate your instructor wanting to help you improve your striking, but a MT coach is better suited to that than a TJJ instructor, however well intentioned he may be. If you are set on wanting to go the TMA route, look at Kyokushin Karate or TKD yourself.
 
from my experience. most ppl with tkd experience tend to be able to teach themselves mt techniques and learn quite easily. you may realize that it may be better to stick to tkd kicks though, or maybe not, just find your own preferences.
 
Well the only thing I have right now is Traditional Ju Jitsu and that's the only thing around here. I found my teacher out of luck you know. He knows all of the submissions and I'm sure more. So basically I'm learning what I can until I get around a BJJ and Muay Thai school. I want the black belt in JJJ because I want to finish what I started. I shouldn't have said traditional JJ. He is not teaching us traditionally. I mean he teaches us everything he knows actually. Like yes everything you said is listed above. But he's also teaching us grappling and everything. He's taken a bunch of different Ryus or whatever of JJJ. Not sure which one he holds his black belt in. I've seen the certificate of his though it's fucking huge. There's no doubt about it that I can learn and a lot from my sensei because he has a lot to offer. I will take Judo eventually to perfect those throws. But the reason most of all I will want that Black belt is if someday I may want to teach for a profession and that would look good for me. I like the art of JJJ a lot and there have been successful fighters that have had it as a background. Like Carlos Newton for example. He isn't teaching the TKD guys to strike either. So don't like make assumptions. I met my sensei through them because they told me they are taking Ju Jitsu and wanted me to join if I were interested. They have black belts in TKD because they've been taking TKD since they were 8 or something. He doesn't teach us how to strike. He taught me how to use Muay Thai kicks and that's it. I mean I do know the kicks for traditional Ju Jitsu he's showed me them. But I don't actually use them ever. I like the Thai kicks because using your foot in a kick is compltely stupid in my oppinion because the shins more powerful. I don't have access to BJJ or Muay Thai as of yet so I'm just using what I can for now.
 
The one TKD guy I take JJ with's dad is an ex golden gloves boxer and he's been showing me how to box. I'm not being trained like a boxer exercize wise because there isn't a class or anything but I do work out. There arn't any boxing gyms around here in my area that I know of anyway.
 
infamous mattyd said:
lol at wanting a bb in akido
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I never said I wanted a black belt or anything in Aikido. I want to see if there's anything in that martial art that would help my throws or grappling or anything at all. I have a book somewhere on Aikido throws and some of them look good.
 
Thedave,

get yourself into a real BJJ gym and focus almost entirely on that. Look, you may getting mediocre instruction in MT, but what you are getting (MT wise) will absolutely not prepare you for MMA at all...the guys you will be going against will be extremely good at MT and will have alot more experience sparring than you. Focus on BJJ, then get into MT next year.
 
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