Mixed Martial Arts

You must be familiar with martial arts, but many of us would not be aware of what 'mixed martial arts' is. Mixed martial arts is a form of combat sports that allows different varieties of fighting techniques and skills that includes martial arts and other non-martial arts traditions.

Due to the same reason it is also famously known as no holds barred fighting. It was established in the United States in 1992 with Ultimate Fighting Championship which was the first recognized championship for this sport.

When compared to others, this type has relatively less rules, most of which were established in the last decade, when the sport was just beginning to receive recognition and popularity. Before these rules were set, it was a brutal and deadly combat sport in which the fighter's health was always at risk.

As no official association for this sport has been formed yet, the rules of the sport slightly vary from country to country.

Stand-up fighting, ground fighting, and clinch fighting are the three stages of this fighting technique. While martial arts techniques such as punching, kicking, elbowing, and kneeing the opponent is a part of stand-up fighting, holding the opponent down using grappling holds is involved in ground fighting.

And clinch fighting is where the fighter holds the opponent to either prevent the strikes or to get a dominant position when on the ground.

The types in this combative sport can also be referred to as fighting styles. The most common fighting styles include:

• Submission Wrestling
• Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu
• Muay Thai
• Western Boxing
• Judo
• Collegiate Wrestling

Among the different moves, submission holds are the most important. Given below is a list of moves that are used in submission holds. These moves are referred to as locks. These locks are used to hold the opponent down on the ground in such a way that it becomes impossible for them to strike back, thereby causing them to give up and accept defeat.

Compression locks involve pressing a muscle against a bone. This type of submission hold is further classified into three locks, namely, bicep slicer, leg slicer, and Achilles lock. Bicep slicer is used to apply pressure on the bicep, leg slicer is used to compress the calf or the thigh muscle, and Achilles lock is used to pressurize the Achilles tendon.

Joint locks are a kind submission hold that extend a joint to an abnormal range. It could be used for any body joint. Different joint locks are to be used on different joints. Some of them are:

• Kimura: A kind of joint lock used to hyper-rotate the shoulder.
• Arm Bar: A technique that over-extends the elbow.

• Omoplata: It is a joint lock which is applied with the legs to lock the shoulders.
• Heel Hook: It extends the ankle joint.
• Knee Bar: This joint lock is used to hyper-extend the knee.
• Can Opener: It is used to hyper-extend the neck.
• Twister: This again, is used to hyper-extend the neck.

• Crucifix Neck Crank: Applied from the crucifix position, it is used to hyper-extend or over-stretch the neck.
• Spine Crank: Used to hyper-extend the spinal vertebrate.

Choke Holds
This submission hold is applied to the neck in order to stop blood flow to the brain. Some choke holds are as follows:

• Arm Triangle
• Triangle Choke
• Guillotine
• Rear Naked Choke
• Gogoplata
• Gator Roll

The most important aspect of mixed martial arts training involves cardiovascular conditioning, strength training, speed drills, and flexibility. These workouts are different from the regular workouts. There are many schools and training centers in the United States for those who wish to learn this kind of martial art.