"MMA sucks, traditional martial arts suck more":

While reading back posts on Wim Demeere's blog I came across one that he had written with the above title.  I thought it was a pretty good read and so thought I'd pass it along.

Frankly, there's not much that I can disagree with in the post, or really add to it (or part two of it) but I thought I'd offer my two cents on the subject anyway.

First off, I believe that the "this martial art style vs. that martial art style" is a false argument.  As Bruce Lee said, "...there are no superior martial arts, only superior martial artists." In my interpretation, this means that any martial art will work to defend its practitioner assuming that he or she is using it to defend their life and/or wellbeing rather than their ego, i.e., human (generally male) ritual combat or "the monkey dance".  For a really good introduction to the realities (rather than fantasies) of self defense, check out Marc "Animal" MacYoung's website page on the subject.  In fact, I would highly recommend you read everything on his website!

False argument or not, it can be a fun one to have.  But rather than the "martial art (a) vs. martial art (b)" argument, I much prefer the "martial artist (a) vs. bad guy (x), martial artist (b) vs. bad guy (x)".  I think that perhaps the best point Mr. Demeere makes is that you must take context into consideration.

According to Marc MacYoung, there are five categories of martial arts: 1) Self Defense/Professional Use of Force, 2) Tradition/Physical Art/Self-Discipline, 3) Spiritual/Health, 4) Sport/Tournament and 5) Demonstration.

So, I guess the real question is, "mixed martial arts suck at what?" and, "traditional martial arts suck at what?" Which one of the above categories do they suck at? Which one are they good at?  Remember, it's all about context.  

As I mentioned in my first blog post, very few, if any, martial arts teach everything you would need to know for every scenario you may encounter.  MMA is no exception. Believe it or not, there are techniques and strategies in both MMA and traditional MA that can, and will, fail you on the "street". 

Referring back to the above Bruce Lee quote, I believe superior martial artists will come to similar conclusions regardless of what style they practice, and their personal interpretation and manifestation of their style will reflect this.