I voted that it hurts and helps the "MA community" equally. On one hand, it's great advertising. No one can deny that. I'd say it's probably sparked as much interest in the martial arts as Bruce Lee did in his day. So on that front, it had helped the community.
It also gives a dynamic environment in which to stress-test
some aspects of the martial arts. Without turning things into a deathmatch, or creating an entirely new format with an advanced type of protective gear that allows for a much greater deal of realism (stay tuned on that one, kiddos: it's coming, and sooner than you think
), MMA serves as a good vehicle to add at least a little bit more realism than wrestling or point sparring.
On the other hand, it hurts MA in a variety of ways. First and foremost is the view that this type of fighting is realistic. In the current days of MMA, There are a whole slew rules, which are for the most part necessary for the safety of the fighters. But it makes for decidedly
unreal competition. That's all well an good, but the presupposition being propagated is that this is as
real as you can get.
Another way MMA hurts the MA community is that it makes the Martial Arts all about fighting. A lot of my students are fans of MMA. I am too, as I see some truly impressive technique from many of the fighters. But the problem comes when my students try to apply the same mentality, intensity, and techniques with eachother. It creates a dangerous training environment.
Only on rare occasion do I work with trained athletes, and the opportunities where I train athletes conditioned for MMA. More often I work with kids, soccer moms, teenageers, etc.-- the people who need martial arts most. But we take this demographic and incorporate the MMA mentality, and this leads to an even
more dangerous environment.
I'll also combat the mentality that any publicity is good publicity. There are a lot of people who now
won't go into martial arts -- and again, these are the people
most in need of martial arts-- because they think they have to be in optimal shape and willing to take a massive beating to learn anything in the martial arts (this problem is compounded by the fact that, in the advanced ranks, it is true to a certain degree).
One further reason it hurts MA is something I'm seeing on the streets more and more frequently: kids with no training reenacting what they see on TV. These kids have no training in the spiritual principles of MA or the proper use of force, and they are beating the tar out of eachother. This is making kids tougher, faster, more highly skilled (though unrefined)... and more willing to fight for no reason. It's making the streets more dangerous.
I teach people to use the gentle answer first and use as little force as possible, none being optimal. But frankly, I'm wondering if I can handle some of these kids
myself without causing the kids serious harm. Hopefully I can, but these kids seem a
lot tougher and more agressive than kids were when I was a kid. That's scary, because as a kid I got the crap kicked out of me with decent regularity, and had been jumped by groups of other kids more than once. One of my students got jumped recently and he was just barely able to keep training. And he
won.
Granted, as the streets change, we must continue to refine our training and training methods to maintain relevancy. But I sincerely think I can point to MMA as a major influence in this change.
So all in all, MMA has both helped and hurt the community in roughly equal measures. We can't ignore the detrimental impact, but there are also Shining examples of beneficial things within MMA (BJ Penn's project comes to mind..)
There's my long-winded explanation of my vote.
