Hey, I was just curious if any one on here trains MMA for competitive or other purposes. If anyone does, how did you get started, what styles did you first train in, how/when was the transition into other styles, etc.

I'm asking this because there's a gym near me where a lot of local fighters train at that has Muay Thai, Boxing, BJJ, and MMA classes, and I'm interested in training in MT and BJJ and maybe transitioning into MMA. I have a wrestling backround and a bit of submission training and I was wondering what you guys think? It's definatley something I'm interested in, I'm very passionate about wrestling and I am pretty sure I would be passionate about other combat arts if I trained in them.

So basically my question is:
Should I take MT classes first or do BJJ and MT classes at the same time(different days)?

I doubt I could do straight into the MMA class, one of my wrestling buddies just started it a few months ago and he has been boxing, MTing and submission grappling for a while.

Any comments/advice.

Thanks.

I do MMA mostly just for fun. I had a fight scheduled but it fell through. Student teaching picks up, so it'll have to wait until next year if I do decide to enter the cage again. That and I'll prob be moving to nearly every other to every month Highland competitions, so that will eat up my time with training and travel.

As far as my background-started in boxing and spent a few years there. Took a hiatus when I went back to live with my mom and started wrestling in school. I then went back to live with my grandfather after a couple of years of practicing nothing but some military combatives type training and started into TKD. I picked up Hapkido on a fulltime basis and tried my hand at a bunch of arts through the years...everything from Aikido to Kendo to Kenjutsu and etc. Even had a bit of Capoiera in there.

I then met a couple guys that train in MMA through a program I work for and was invited out to train with them and have ever since.

The Thai Boxing and BJJ would be a great base for MMA or you could just go directly into the MMA if the coach will let you. I'd go directly into the MMA if you can.

Good luck.

Thanks for the response, evo. I'll check out trying to go straight into the MMA class if I can. Haha, I'm not planning on joining until next spring because right now I'm trying to find a job so I can save up some for lessons(I don't want my parents to pay for them, they already pay for my gym membership) and I'm concentrating on preparing for wrestling season, even though it starts in November. I plan on starting training after the season, I wouldn't have enough time let alone energy during.

Alright, thanks again.

thanks again.

If you take the MT option, you're likely going to be told that you need to train for 2 yrs or so before you'll even to get to fight.
After traveling the world training myself in all sorts of styles and systems and with police and armies and grand masters and great gurus of whatever was available at the time, and for up to 12 hrs a day for almost 16yrs, last year I was training with the world heavy and middle weights eying off a world title belt myself..knowing what everyone else was doing who had belts and how much harder iii was working than anyone on the feeemale circuit ( and quietly putting inmore hrs than even alot of the boys), but the buggers wouldn't give me a fight!! ..unless I stayed for 2 yrs. I was alllready in world title shape...and during training, even the experienced men I sparred weren't landing much on me.. @).
I think that's relevant to you though on the MT circuit because they block funny..as a wrestler youre going to be restricted.
Anyway, there aare other competitions you can take like sanshou and the ameteur circuit has some good mma comps you can get into pretty easily. It sounds lame but I know the world fml hvy weight kungfu champion does them and so do quite a few others who're worth fronting against. It's a good way in to comp anyway, and if you can train a striking art while you're doing one of those circuits, you should be able to make reeally good progress on where your weaknesses are and what exactly it is you need to train to be more competitive.

Sounds fun anyway.

cheers
Blooming Lotus

Thank for sharing your experiences, Lotus.

Apparently there's a (real) boxing class at my gym on Thursday nights, I'm going to check it out this week and see if it's legit. I was reading info about it and it says I need to bring my own gloves for heavy bag work. I know my gym has gloves available, but if I can't use those what size is suitable for bagwork? 8oz?

you should check out everything you can. boxing will help your stand up skills and grampling will help your ground skills, tkd will help your stand up and ju jitsu will help your ground and stand up also. I take Jeet Kune Do and if you know anything about it then you know we do anything that works. if you wanna check up on anything i do my teacher even has his own book and videos online if you wanna check ito ut

I was interested in Jeet Kune Do when I was younger, I might look into it. BTW that class at my gym turned out to be total BS, hahaha. I'm thinking about training at this place www.cityboxing.com. It's going to be a while before I start though, I don't want to start then have to stop during wrestling season, I wouldn't be able to fit school, wrestling and MA into my schedule and still keep everything straight.