The character of James Bond is well known for his very particular method of preparation of certain beverages. In fact, people have used his famous line “shaken, not stirred” for so many things that it has become somewhat of a cultural phenomenon. People use it to describe anything about which they are picky in preparation or about which they have a certain preference. We at VJMA have a similar statement: “Blended, not mixed”.
It may sound rather silly, seeing that both blended and mixed essentially have the same meaning, but for us, there is a significant difference. The rise of “MMA” (mixed martial arts) has also become a cultural phenomenon in the last 30 years. The realism and excitement of the UFC, ONE Championship, Belator, and other fight sports organizations has taken most of the world by storm. In many ways, that has had a very positive effect on the martial arts community. Many of the instructors who were teaching non-functional martial arts have been put out of business or have seen that they need to change for the benefit of their students. Many of the original meanings of kata and poomsae have begun to resurface because the martial arts community realized that something was missing. Unfortunately, there has been a significant downside to the rise of MMA as well.
In almost every midsized town and city you can now find a gym or school that teaches “MMA”. That in itself isn’t a bad thing, but many of those schools are missing something that shouldn’t have been lost in the traditions of martial arts training. In 1882, Jigoro Kano created an educational system that we know today as the practice of Judo. His desire was to strengthen the bodies, minds, and hearts of the Japanese students. His focus on character and education has been carried down through the traditional martial arts ever since. Traditional schools (Karate, TKD, BJJ) often have a “code of honor” or a creed that students are expected to memorize and live by. This has become so widely known, that parents with difficult children will often bring them to a martial arts school hoping the culture and instructor can help them overcome the difficulties that trouble the family. In MMA, no such character requirement exists. The MMA craze allowed instructors to leave behind many of the less entertaining traditions of martial arts and teach a more violent and efficient skill set with less moral foundation. The culture of traditional martial arts that helped so many people overcome their personal struggles is being lost in many of the performance-based MMA schools popping up all over the world.
That is why, at VJMA, we say that we teach a “blended” style of Taekwondo, and we also continue to offer seminars and classes in kickboxing and Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. We truly believe that martial arts should be three things: functional for self-defense, viable for long-term fitness, and effective at character building. If we are going to have all of those, we must be able to utilize the good parts of the MMA revolution without losing the beauty and honor of the traditional martial arts. MMA has truly done amazing things in the martial arts community, but let’s be careful not to allow our values and purpose to be lost “in the mix”!