When asked which martial art they study, how many times have you heard people say “I do MMA”?

A common misconception is that MMA is a martial art system of it’s own, however this is not the case, and in fact couldn’t be further from the truth.

MMA’s origins date back to an ancient Olympic sport called Pankration, a method which utilised a combination of striking and grappling skills much the same as MMA competitions do. Pankration originated in Ancient Greece and was later adopted by the Romans. In fact as early as the 1880′s there are documented examples of practitioners of Greco-Roman Wrestling, Catch Wrestling (Catch-As-Catch-Can), and other grappling styles meeting to compete in no-holds-barred tournaments around Europe.

In 1899 another early example of MMA was created, called Bartitsu. This was used in the 2009 Sherlock Holmes movie starring Robert Downey Jnr, and was a combination of Judo, Jujutsu, Western Boxing, Savate and Canne De Combat (French Stick Fighting). Bartitsu was founded in London by Edward William Barton-Wright and is believed to be the first martial art to blend Asian and European fighting styles together. By the early 1900s these ‘blended’ contests were becoming increasingly popular throughout Europe and across Asia. In Japan such contests were known as Merikan (a Japanese term meaning “American Fighting”). Victory would be determined either via a points decision, the best of three throws/takedowns, or by knockout/submission.

At the end of World War One, the art of wrestling experienced a sad decline in overall popularity, and subsequently split into two distinct genres called Shoot and Show. Whilst the Shoot Wrestlers continued to compete in combat tournaments, the Show Wrestlers developed the modern professional wrestling events that we see on television today.

The modern MMA scene stems from Shoot Wrestling, Vale Tudo, and Brazilian Jui-Jitsu (BJJ). This latter style gained popularity after the now-famous “Gracie Challenge” issued by Carlos & Helio Gracie, and indeed the Gracie name is now renowned within the MMA world. In 1993 Royce Gracie entered and won the the first Ultimate Fighting Championship tournament (UFC) in America, bringing the art of BJJ and the world of Mixed Martial Arts into the public eye. This echoes the work of Bruce Lee, who gained public exposure after blending a variety of martial arts and western styles together to create his now-famous Jeet Kune Do concept.

If you look carefully, you will discover that behind every good tournament fighter there is plenty of time and effort spent building a foundation of specific arts, styles, and systems that they then adapt to work within the rules of Mixed Martial Arts competition. So it would appear better to learn one complete art, style or system, than practice & prove what you’ve learned, instead of trying to take many small elements and not see the bigger picture.

The general thinking of many people who take up “MMA” is that it is a quick fix, or shortcut to learning a martial art or martial sport. So, wouldn’t you rather have mastered at least one art, instead of being a jack-of-all-trades and master of none?