Why does Kung Fu not work in MMA?
Kung Fu is one of the most popular fighting styles that has been around for many years. Whether you are into fighting or not, you have likely watched a movie or know a person who trains Kung Fu. But despite so many skilled fighters and dojos, Kung Fu is not that popular option for MMA fighting. Why?
In short, the main problem with Kung Fu is that the art hasn’t evolved over time. It teaches the same skills and techniques as hundreds of years ago, out of which most of them are not that practical in MMA fighting. The same stands when it comes to the concept of training as the art doesn’t include any sparring or competition. lastly, it will teach you how to use dirty tactics, which are illegal in MMA.
Keep reading this article to find out more about why Kung Fu is bad for MMA. We will explore all of its main problems.
Kung Fu training doesn’t include sparring
The lack of sparring in Kung Fu training is one of the main reasons why this art is bad for MMA fighting. It is also the key reason why people think Kung Fu is bad overall, which is not true in our eyes. But, you can’t expect Kung Fu to work in MMA when its fighters never spar, and here is why.
Sparring plays a key role not just in MMA training, but in other combat sports like boxing or Muay Thai. This is because fighters can’t develop skills like timing, reactions, or learn how to keep their range without sparring. It is the only way you can see whether you can apply the skills you learned or not. You can have all the skills in the world, but it is all useless if you never spar against the partner who is fighting back.
The same stands if we move to the mental aspect of fighting. Although you are doing it in a gym against a partner who is probably your friend, sparring will fool your mind. Once you start swinging punches and being hit, the mind will forget that you are just “playing” in training and will enter the fight or flight mode. Some students, notably beginners, may even freeze or get too scared. But this is all good as it teaches you more about yourself, and how to control your emotions.
Kung Fu training doesn’t include any of this as its students rarely do any live drills at all. This is a huge downside as you need sparring to develop crucial fighting skills.
Most Kung Fu techniques do not fit well into MMA
Don’t get us wrong here, we are not saying that all Kung Fu techniques are bad for MMA. For sure, some elements of this art work well in MMA fighting, notably if we talk about Wing Chun. But overall, some of the Kung Fu basics are really bad for cage fighting, as a stance for instance.
Stance is one of the most important things in combat sports no matter if we are talking about Kung Fu, MMA, or boxing. It really doesn’t matter. You can’t proceed to learn how to strike or grapple without knowing how to stand in a proper stance. In some way, from offense to defense, everything begins and ends with a stance. You can look at it as a base on top of which you add other fighting skills. What is wrong with Kung Fu stance?
Well, this type of stance may be good for self-defense or some other form of fighting, we won’t dig deep into that. But when it comes to MMA, Kung Fu stance is terrible and it won’t help you much. In fact, standing in this type of stance makes you an easy target. Things get even worse if we move to the grappling aspect as any wrestler, with basics skills, would walk right through this type of stance.
This is a huge problem because the stance is very important in Kung Fu and students spend years learning it. This means that, if you train Kung Fu for a long time, you will have a hard time adapting to MMA. Stance is not a punch or a kick which you can change in a few months.
A lot of Kung Fu techniques are not allowed in MMA
While talking about Kung Fu in MMA, people tend to forget that this art wasn’t designed to work in cage fighting at all. No, Kung Fu is a traditional art that focuses on self-defense and it doesn’t include any competition. This also means that it teaches you how to use dirty tactics in a situation where you have to defend yourself. But the problem is, these moves are illegal in MMA fighting.
The type of dirty tactics you learn in Kung Fu training really depends on the form and style. But in most of them, students learn how to punch the neck, attack the eyes, or kick the groin area. Although this is hard to do in the heat of the moment, no one can deny that these moves are painful and may back off the attacker. In MMA, however, these moves will get you disqualified.
MMA rules do not allow the fighters to dirty tactics at all. Due to the nature of the sport, we can see a lot of eye pokes and strikes to the groin area. But once that happens, the referee would stop the fight, and give the fighter who received an illegal strike time to recover. In the case they are not able to continue, the referee would disqualify the fighter who landed an eye poke or a strike to the groins.
This doesn’t mean that “Kung Fu” is too dangerous for MMA. No, in the end, it’s really hard to gouge eyes or hit the groin area in the middle of the wild street fight. These things look easy only in movies. And on top of that, MMA fighters are far more skillful.
It’s not worth the time and effort when it comes to MMA
When it’s all said and done, Kung Fu is not worth the time and effort and it’s much better for fighters to train in other arts. Yes, some of its elements work really well and might help you win a fight. But overall, most MMA fighters choose to train more practical arts like:
- Muay Thai
- Boxing
- Jiu-Jitsu
- Karate
- Wrestling
MMA fighters train only in arts that will teach them the most practical techniques. Kung Fu isn’t one of them because it doesn’t include sparring and teaches bad and illegal techniques. In the minds of MMA fighters, this is a waste of precious time they can spend more efficiently by training in the four arts we mentioned above. It is all about time management as the hour of training in Muay Thai will teach you much more than Kung Fu.
Who are the best Kung Fu fighters in MMA?
Over the years, there have been many great MMA fighters who had a strong background in Kung Fu. But bear in mind that these are all around fighters who have good BJJ, wrestling, or Muay Thai skills. In fact, they never used Kung Fu techniques that much to win fights, but rather just some elements of it. Here is a short list of the most popular Kung Fu fighters in MMA:
- Patt Berry- is a UFC legend and one of the best leg kickers MMA fans have ever seen. Before shifting to MMA, Berry used to train with the Chinese National Sanshou team at the Shaolin Temple. Despite such strong Kung Fu skills, he never used them that much in MMA.
- Roy Nelson– is the former TUF 10 winner and one of the hardest punchers in the history of MMA. He used the famous right hook to put many people to sleep. What people often miss is that he is a master in Shaolin Kung Fu and in his own words, he practices it every day.
- Kevin Holland– resembles a modern Kung Fu fighter in MMA. He is a great instance of how some Kung Fu moves work as he uses them all the time in his UFC fights. He is a black belt in Kung Fu and has a really awkward fighting style.
- Muslim Salikhov– is often seen as the “king of Kung Fu”. This is because he is a master of sports and World and European champion in Wushu Sanda. For the ones who don’t know, Sanda is a full contact fighting system based on traditional kung fu.
