My name is Kevin. I’ve been competing in amateur MMA matches for a while now. I saw some of your videos. How come I’ve never seen your system of jiu-jitsu in matches? How would it hold up in the UFC?
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Hi Kevin,
Well, ok, that is a great question you asked. Why we don’t compete in the UFC or MMA competitions?
One reason is that our goals are very different. What we teach here takes time to learn. There is anatomy and science and that takes time to understand. We are teaching students to end confrontations as soon as they are started, to go after whatever they can reach at that moment, take out an eyeball or kick someone in the groin, do your best to snap someone’s leg or arm, how to break a neck by performing choke holds, and also how to use and defend against knives, firearms, and impact and flexible weapons. Then there are improvised self-defense weapons like your belt or necktie. You can use a flashlight or a walking stick or cane to defend yourself. Your surroundings can also be used. A bar stool, a car bumper, a pole or a stop sign can be used to throw your opponent into causing injury to them. We also cover self-defense situations against multiple opponent situations.
The way we approach ground fighting is very different as well. We don’t tie up with any one opponent because if we do and he happens to have a few friends that wouldn’t end well for us. So we train our students to ground fight with various strategies that allow us to stay mobile on the ground against multiple attackers.
Then with all this comes the proper mindset. In what we do here we are trying to teach people how to rethink what they were told growing up from childhood — that hitting someone is forbidden. We are good people and don’t go around striking down others because we disagree with them. However, criminals don’t worry about this and do go around striking others. They do this to instill fear in their victims. This helps them accomplish their goals to disrupt your thought process and unbalance your mood and mindset. This makes their job a lot easier to rob you or kill you as they have the element of surprise on their side.
We must rethink what we are actually doing here and to retrain our mindset to prepare for real life encounters that could cost us our lives at a moment’s notice.
MMA and the UFC are good. They showed everybody what works and what didn’t. All those martial artist that entered into the squared circle learned right away what was real and what was fantasy. After these MMA and UFC matches martial artist started to rethink what they were teaching because what they thought would work didn’t actually work in the ring in reality.
In MMA they train to beat their opponents without actually causing harm or injury. Now this is a really hard thing to do and takes a great deal of skill. Sometimes people get their arm or leg broken before they can tap out. When you train for MMA you must be in top physical shape. You need stamina and strength along with flexibility and speed. Your techniques have to be spot on and your pain tolerance has to be conditioned high. MMA will toughen you up depending on who you study under. If you do it slowly and take your time you will be one of the greats. But if you rush the process you will get injured. Once injured and I talk from experience, it stays with you for life. MMA is healthy to train in. It is fun and you can learn how to defend yourself. The only thing lacking is weapons and multiple opponents. But I feel it is a great experience if you have the time to commit to it.
I get a lot of different types of students from all walks of life. Most are already injured when they come to visit me or become members of our online program at Combat Science. And, yes, a lot of them come from other types of martial arts where they took injuries during their training in the past. My job is really difficult because I have to be able to teach these good individuals how to be effective around their injuries. Some of these people are older folks and don’t have the flexibility or strength or speed they once had. My job is to teach them how to be effective in a life-threatening situation despite the physical limitations. They are not here to win a match and get paid or become famous. They just want to survive.
My goal is to teach family people, business people, or professionals how to accomplish this in a way that is conducive to their bodies and mindsets and compliments their personal goals. Their training includes edge weapons, impact weapons, flexible weapons, and firearms training.
A lot of people ask me which is better? Mixed martial arts or what I’m teaching through Combat Science?
My answer to that is I’m teaching a mixture of different concepts and principles along with martial science and the strategies that go along with them. The difference is the goals. We tend to strive for life and death encounters compared to a sport method of martial arts. So which is better? It depends on who wants to learn. If you are a young person looking to go into a sport competition then that is better for you. However, if you’re not interested in learning a sport then maybe what we do might be better for you. Better is in the eye of the beholder. It’s really not for me to say.
The reason why you haven’t seen me in MMA or UFC matches is because I’m too old for that right now. If I was much younger maybe you would see me in there. I already had my fill of fighting growing up and I never got paid for it. It was for survival purposes only.
I hope this helps. Take care and be safe.
With much respect,
Grandmaster Peter Freedman