scotto

just looking for a bit of advice on learning mma. I have been a martial arts fan all my life( im now 24) and have been following mma(mainly ufc and pride)for just over a year. I really want to learn mma but the main problem i have is the fact that i live in the shetland isles(scotland) and the only thing close to mma we have is a karate club!
For this reason i am thinking the only solution is to teach myself with a couple of friends...i know it will be very difficult without the aid of experienced fighters/coaches to help out but i am sure we should be able to learn the basics at least. I would ideally like to learn muay thai, kick boxing and bjj and was wondering if anyone can recommend any good tutorial books or dvds that could help?
I am building a 1 1/2 storey house in shetland at the moment and i plan to turn the top floor into a gym with matts for bjj and various punch bags and training aids. me and my girlfriend plan on moving to the states in a couple of years so i would like to learn basics now so i have a bit of experience for when we go there.
Any help or advice on learning and training mma would be much appreciated!

Judoka

What style of Karate is it? I would go down to the club and test it out. Even if it's the traditional Karate you can still get a lot out of it if YOU try and then adapt what you know to MMA.It is not hard to do and when sparring they may even do it themselves. Lyoto Machida, Bas Rutten, Georges St Pierre all rely on their Karate a lot.

Look up instructional videos for Jiu Jitsu, Judo, Wrestling, Boxing, Muay Thai, Kickboxing, Karate and everything on youtube. Focus on EVERYTHING in the video, It is hard to good good technique from these videos without doing it.

If there are others training i suggest you get a Brazilian Jiu Jitsu instructional book that focuses on basic techniques.

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scotto

thanks for the reply. i have been speaking to a couple of people now who recomend trying the karate class as i will probably learn alot from it and it will certainly be better than doing nothing. Gonna look into it this week and see how it goes!

newbreedfighter

Hi scotto, im almost your age im 23 and ive never been coached by anyone in any style, i have also been a martial arts fan all my life and like you im also training with friends teaching ourselves.
If you have a bit of experience and love for the game you can defently improove from your own teachings and the support and help of your friends.
Oviously it is a lot more difficult without experienced coaches and you will make lots of mistakes but thats how you learn and you will also develope a unique style.
Here are some links to some training videos we made just yesterday, they include sparring, padwork and freestyle bag workout, we train straight out of my garage.
So if you could make a whole room in your house that would be awsome, it defently wouldnt hurt.
Weve only just begun our training journey this week so they are our first videos, we've only taught ourselves to mix it up through watching and studying ufc fighters so bare with me, hope they are still inspirationl enough.
We still have to improove 100% but you have to start somewhere.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dTRrTnMBZQo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yuKeUUanrJY

B1GL3W1

I have ur exact problem. i too live in shetland and i also despratly want to learn mma. I have been to the Karate club at clickamin and they teach the particular disipline of Budokai karate. I had reached green belt and i decided to leave because i was not getting very far in terms of mma. They tought me basic kicks punches usuall stuff. Also they taught me throws particularly judo/wrestling throws. But in terms of other disiplines i found it pretty much pointless for lack of a better word. I wanted to learn particular bjj and muay thai but that did not happen.

Squirrelfighter

Karate isn't too bad. It gets a bad rep because it takes time to manipulate it to be effective in MMA. However as a fighting art it gives you a solid base to fight from and will help drastically when it comes to sparring and building up muscle memeory as well as conditioning.

I myself started out doing Kenpo Karate, later Shotokan Karate and still do as a major part of my striking. Its got good preceps as an art on the whole, though each studio varies. I would think it would be obvious to do a formal martial art or at least try one out before implying it wasn't worth it.