CMA has evolved as well as devolved to Sanshou/Sanda and some other CMA styles have done the same but kept the name. And before anyone attacks me I train Sanda, the police/military version,as wellas Taijiquan and XIngyiquan. There was something pointed out by a Sanda person and Author Dr Mizhou Hui that points to the fundamental difference between MMA and things like Sports Sanda and things like Police Military Sanda and TMA.
This not saying one is better than the other just that the view they take of the opponent is very different. Sport wants points to win, non-sport wants finality to win. Sports may expect to see the same opponent again. Non-sport hope to never see the same opponent again.
Sanda is not the best MA nor is it the most deadly, it is however a way to learn how to hurt someone else really badly and not have to train to long to do it. This had evolved from traditional Chinese Martial arts. It has however removed all Qi training and it has removed a lot of the philosophy of CMA. This leaves you with an art that is very effective and easy to learn so if you have a teacher that is less interested in who he teaches and teaches anyone that will pay potentially he can teach some rather bad people to become rather good at hurting others. Luckily my sifu is very concerned about this and will not teach just anybody.
I also train Traditional Yang Taijiquan and have for many years (much longer than Sanda) and I have seen, in many cases, it evolve as well. But into something that I feel is much less than what it once was. It has changed from a very effective martial art that takes a long tome to learn into a health dance were many fool themselves into thinking they can actually defend themselves with it. Then it changed again into a conglomeration of arts. People that do not understand it or don't want to put in the time adding another martial art to it, such as Taiji + Sanda or Taiji + karate or Taiji + Aikido and although they may be effective at fighting and many that do this claim it is evolving it is not. It is changes into something other than Taiji, which is really not a problem per say, just as long as you don't try and sell it as Taiji. It is not more Taiji than Yiqhuan is Xingyiquan.
As for Sanda it is what it is and it is very good at what it was designed for so it has evolved from CMA into something that takes less time to learn to become dangerous but it has removed the philosophical side, which can be a dangerous thing.
As for Taiji I world like to see it return to what it is. I would like to see people take the time to learn it like it is suppose to be learned and learn to apply it like it is suppose to be applied and then they will see not only the health benefits but the martial applications as well. But this takes years so I guess I am wishing that students of Taiji would evolve to have more patients.
