COMBAT MARTIAL ARTS vs COMPETITIVE SPORTS

Throughout history, and to this day, our Masters have had backgrounds in many martial arts styles as well as military experience in numerous wars. Today our modern era Instructors have backgrounds in Muay Thai, Jujutsu, Judo, Yawara, Shaolin, Boxing, Taekwondo, Greco Roman Wrestling, Kickboxing, Escrima, and Kenjutsu. Some of our Instructors have spent time competing, and some have even owned Judo & Jui Jitsu schools before coming to train at Imperial Combat Arts.
Additionally, our Grandmasters have served as Imperial Bodyguards, Veterans of the Second Sino-Japanese War (WWII), Vietnam era Special Forces (Green Beret Officer), as well as Instructors and Students today with current U.S. military training, and work in Law Enforcement. With this said, it is important to understand that there are vast differences between training for competitive sport, and training to prepare for real conflict at Imperial Combat Arts.

WEAPONS

Real world altercations often involve the use of weapons. Anyone with the intent to cause you grievous harm will use a weapon, or improvise one out almost any common object. The maneuvers and techniques to fight with, and against weapons, are quite different than training for sport fighting. Weapon training is the core of our martial arts and has been throughout our entire military history. Our empty hand styles are designed to fight against weapons as well as unarmed men.
"In all of my years of teaching I have personally met 4 people who have been stabbed repeatedly and thought they were just being punched, not to mention my friend growing up only had one lung from a knife attack. In the real world, engage every strike as if it could be a knife, because it might be." -Master Mang Taan

HAND TOUGHENING

Hand Toughening is a huge part of the arts taught at Imperial Combat Arts and absolutely crucial for real combat. Striking with bare hands can break or injure them. If your hand is too injured to operate a firearm or hold a weapon you're ability to fight or survive situations is greatly diminished. Bone and joint toughening takes years of careful development and dedication to master at its highest level. If you're training with wrapped wrists and gloves, you are not training Combat Martial Arts.

THE MILITARY MODEL

It is not uncommon for sport fighters to boast that you can't be prepared for a fight unless you engage in contact sports. In reality, soldiers since the dawn of combat training have prepared for real war through well established and proven drills, sets, and exercises designed for real world conflict. Sport fighters train for one opponent using non-lethal force, and it has been proven time and again that in the heat of battle you respond in the way you've trained to respond. 
“We don’t rise to the level of our expectations; we fall to the level of our training.”
– Archilochos​

COMPLETE MARTIAL ARTS

As the early years of the UFC taught people, you have to be a balanced fighter to engage with all manner of arts. Even if you don't train an aspect of combat, like grappling for example, you still have to be able to fight against it to be a MMA fighter. The arts taught at Imperial Combat Arts have long included all aspects of fighting and with combat intent. A complete combat style includes: Ground-fighting, Joint Locks, Throws, Toughened Strikes/Kicks, Weapons, Multiple Opponents, and Real Terrain.

MULTIPLE OPPONENTS

Fighting multiple opponents is often misunderstood by sport fighters as being tough enough to take out a couple people. The combat tactics we're referring to are ancient and still used in the military today to keep yourself from being overwhelmed by superior numbers. These war tactics such as overlapping, entanglement, use of environment, and maneuvering versus groups must be trained and integrated into a combat style to happen instinctively during a fight, just like any technique. 

ENVIRONMENT

Opposed to focusing solely on a single opponent in a ring, the real world poses much greater risks and potential advantages. Along with having the awareness of multiple opponents and looking for weapons, awareness of the environment can also be a huge factor in the outcome of a fight. This training uses important tactics like bottle-necking, and includes improvised weapons, training in low light, uneven or challenging terrain, compressed fighting in tight spaces, and ground-fighting.

VITAL POINTS

Many sport fighters feel that they can seamlessly adapt their style to combat fights. In reality, because a sport cannot attack vital points they have developed many bad combat habits that leave them open to certain kinds of attacks and any weapons. When applied by a trained combat fighter these devastating vital point attacks can destroy a sport. There is a reason these types of combat techniques are illegal in sports, and it is not because they don't work, it's because they could cause serious harm.
“People often focus on vital point attacks in relation to sports, and see it as a one sided advantage. Our arts are to their core designed to fight against other combat fighters. The alignment of the stances and all the engagements assume against vital point attacks and weapons. All fighters are capable of savageries, especially when their life is on the line."

TECHNIQUE EFFECTIVENESS

It's not uncommon for people to show a strike to the groin, eye gouge, or some other combat strike, usually by a weak untrained person, that doesn't negate the opponent and say "see it doesn't work".

If you think of how many strikes a fighter may take to the head before a knockout, you could argue that striking to the head mostly doesn't work.

​All strikes must connect with force to be effective, and versus a moving and combative opponent, it's not uncommon to fail to fully connect. Still some often question the effectiveness of combat techniques because they cannot routinely see them in action. You don't have to cut with a knife to know that it can cut, and the reason that techniques like eye gouging and groin strikes are taught in the military, is because they are effective. However, these combat techniques are not easy to apply to a trained fighter. It takes a lot of training, strengthening, and hard work to master them. Life and death combat is often savage, and far from easy.

RULES

Some people believe that MMA competitions are no-holds-barred fights that prove the best martial arts in the world. In reality there are rules in these sports that omit all combat styles and techniques. These competitions only prove what arts and techniques best conform to that specific set of rules. In battle of course there are no rules, and there is only one true test for a combat system. Again this isn't to imply some one way advantage, a true enemy will also fight as savage as possible.
“Rules are for children. This is war, and in war the only crime is to lose.”
― Joe Abercrombie

NONTRANSFERABLE SKILLS

It is not uncommon to see arts that demonstrate combat techniques, and unusual modes of movement, but then when they full contact spar with gloves the style looks completely different, it looks just like kickboxing or mainstream MMA. Why? Because the combat skills are non-transferable to the rules and limitations of the sport. No modern ring fighting is a representation of a combat style. In the same respect, no sport fighting is designed for combat, especially with weapons. 

THE RAW STATS

  • As of 2016 there have been a total of 4 deaths in the history of all types of M.M.A. competitions in the United States.
  • In Iraq between 2003 and 2014 a total of 4,491 U.S. service members were killed.
  • In 2014 alone the F.B.I reported 13,984 homicides in the U.S. as a part of an estimated 1,165,383 violent crimes.
This is why we train for life and death scenarios.

GENERAL HEALTH

In the sports arenas the moment of glory is often brief, if at all, and challengers often suffer from long term and permanent bodily injury as well as brain damage caused from hits to head.
These hits have been proven to cause irreversible damage that leads to destruction of brain cells and cognitive impairment. The training at Imperial Combat Arts is very challenging both mentally and physically, but our arts are also legendary for training into the senior years with a strong mind and body.

COMBAT PREPAREDNESS

​Good training should not be a traumatic event and far from needing weeks or months to recover from contact sports, our warriors are training for their real lives, perhaps even the very next day. The main objective in combat training is to prepare warriors for battle in a way that is safe and healthy and keeps them strong, sharp, and ready to go at a moments notice. This preparedness is more than the physical and mental aspect and also includes the weapons and equipment used in combat.
‘Be polite, be professional, but have a plan to kill everybody you meet.’
​-James Mattis

DRILLS & SETS

​Drills and Sets are a part of most all martial arts training. Sport fighters don't just walk into a ring and start brawling. Its takes time to learn to move, strike, and build the skills of any style. There are a lot of sets and partner interaction also trained in sport. Once they feel ready some may decide to test their skill in some form of competition or sparring, some people train as hard and decide not to compete. Combat sets are trained the same way as sports, but can only be tested in real combat.

EQUIPMENT

Sport training has its equipment requirements, wrist wraps and gloves to protect the hands, and bare feet, because being kicked with shoes hurts a lot more. Imperial Combat Arts in contrast trains with bare knuckles, shoes, weapons, tactical gear, and even armor. Our students train in the same basic clothes that they wear in the real world, uniforms, but not costumes. Sport fighting in shorts with gloves on is nothing in comparison to a fully outfitted and trained combat warrior. 

REAL ATTACKS

A common criticism of martial arts that don't engage in contact sports is that they're not trained against "real attacks". While this may be true of some schools our students do match and engage thousands of full force strikes in addition to countless weapon sets for armed combat. Attacks in combat are often savage and surprise weapon attacks. These brutal weapon attacks are a far cry from the "real attacks" of a man you signed a contract with, and that is only trying to knock you out. 

COMBAT VS SELF DEFENSE

There is a big difference between self-defense training for the general public and a fully immersive combat study that spans 20-30 hours each week, like the training at Imperial Combat Arts. Unlike self defense techniques that try to give weaker people a chance during an assault, our combat training produces elite and highly toughened warriors capable of incredible feats and powers they've developed over years of study. True masters of all aspects of hand-to-hand combat, and of melee weaponry.
"Some techniques we train are mastered by people with 180+ pounds of force behind their grips. The average 18 year old today in the U.S. only pulls 60-80 pounds. It isn't that the move is impossible or doesn't work, it just won't work for someone so weak."
​-Mang Taan

COMBAT VS MILITARY

Most soldiers today only briefly train hand-to-hand combat and melee weapons. Soldiers are fairly quickly ready to be deployed and begin their specific jobs, with only special forces moving into any advanced levels. The hand-to-hand and melee weapon training at Imperial Combat Arts is much more advanced, with Masters training continuously for decades. There is a reason why many of our Students and Instructors come from the military to advance their martial arts training.
“I takes a minimum of 12 years to reach the highest levels of bone toughening and body conditioning as the skeleton has completely replaced itself under the constant harassments of toughening. The average term of U.S. military service is less than 5 years, and most sports fighters retire by 8 years.”
- Mang Taan

MEDICAL RESPONSE TIME

Having an referee, E.M.T., and ambulance close at hand would be nice in any fight, however more often than not, in life and death encounters of any kind, it may be a while. Battlefield first aid is a important facet of training at Imperial Combat Arts where within our ranks we have Instructors who work in the emergency medical world as Paramedics, Firemen, Surgical Technicians, and Medical Assistants. These Instructors  have developed battlefield first aid courses for our own Students.
“When two tigers fight, one is certain to be maimed, and one to die.”
- Gichin Funakoshi

THE UNKNOWN

In a sport you know who your opponent will be, and have weeks or even months to prepare to fight them. When training for combat you work to maintain a state of preparedness for any number of unforeseen encounters. With so many variables that no two encounters are the same, you have to prepare for worst case scenarios, like being outnumbered and outgunned. This training for surprize attacks can change all aspects of life, like how you dress, where you sit, and how you arm yourself.

SCHOOL FOCUS & INTENT

All martial arts regardless of the style can be focused on in different ways, and this intent greatly affects the outcome. Some focus on health and internalization, some on grace and performance, some on general self-defence, and others focus on tournaments or sport fighting competitions. The focus of Imperial Combat Arts, permeated through our entire history, our curriculum's, and every technique, is to train and prepare to fight multiple armed opponents in life and death combat. 

DIVERSITY

People may look at a one armed man and think, there is no way that he could be a great fighter. A one armed man may think he had better train twice as hard. Imperial Combat Arts has a fighting style specific for amputees. We have a style, Leopard, made for small, light fighters. Tiger for large powerful ones, and so on. Opposed to a one-size-fits-all art with weight classes, our arts recognize that different people need unique styles, and styles that can fight all other types of people.

EGO VS RESPECT

There is often a lot of trash talking and disrespect in modern sport fighting, both to fellow martial artists and against other martial arts styles. While this talk is part of the hype around some sports, it also makes its way onto the internet, and out into the streets, influencing culture. Training under men who have seen battle, killed enemies, and lost friends, you quickly see much more respect for combat. There is a focus to never underestimate anyone, and an understanding that even some of the greatest warriors eventually fell in battle.
This same serious intent is seen in law enforcement training, in the military, and anywhere where people are preparing to face real death. In these places it is recognized that ego will get people killed, and that boasting or being overconfident is a shortfall. One of the reasons why Imperial Combat Arts has Students and Instructors that have come to us from all kinds of different styles, is that their previous training is respected. Our members will be banned from study for failing to have a proper attitude online, and are expected to be professionals in all things. This difference is probably one of the biggest indicators if a martial artist is play around, or training people for the serious world of combat.
War is delightful to those who have had no experience of it.
- Erasmus