Skill Set in MMA Karate

[ryosakazaki]

My friends, I'd like to hear your input on how I currently conduct our training sessions.

70% of our training is dedicated to striking/karate matters (karate, kickboxing, boxing) while the remaining 30% to grappling. Regarding grappling, our focus is directed more on basic takedowns, takedown defenses and fighting from guard position (leading to submissions from guard position or sweeps for escape or offensive grappling), instead of fighting from mount.

My reason for such approach is, inevitably, strikers get taken down at one point in a match. As a striker, it is sound strategy to outstrike your opponent and not to grapple with someone whose focus is grappling (as Po1 pointed out to me). A fair amount of grappling may help familiarize strikers on possible submission attempts thus improving his/her overall ground game (with the inclusion of sprawls and other takedown defenses). And since a grappler's main strategy is to put their opponents' on their backs/guard, learning to fight from guard may help increase a striker's chances of escaping a grappling game.

If there are any points I've missed, please feel free to share your thoughts. Thank you.

[MMX]

I will leave the comments to those that are more knowledgeable about grappling. I am interested myself.

[meguro]

The way I see it, you work on whatever is the weakest link because that's where you will see the most improvement. If your fighters are natural at stand-up, spend most of your time working on the areas they are least comfortable in whether it be takedowns, takedown defense or grappling. This is not to say that their fight game will be more 50/50 split, or more biased towards grappling.

[powerof0ne]

Some years back, I put my striking trainer on the back burner, and focused primarily on grappling. When I first fell into Muay Thai, I put my karate training on the back burner, so I could really learn Muay Thai (tried to "forget" karate). I have found this approach works best, and once you get to a level where you're confident in grappling (wrestling, BJJ, Judo, etc.), than you really start to combine what you're doing. With that being said, I have found it helps to really get strong roots in one martial art before you start cross training.

However, I have seen those that train in schools where a beginner from day one is taught to fight in all ranges, and they seem to do well. I'm not the quickest learner myself, and my way of success has come way of focusing on one path instead of trying to take multiple paths at the same time.
Osu!

[ryosakazaki]

Thanks for that advice, Po1. I've been eating a lot of chokes (guillotine, RNC, etc.) from my students and the grappling coach. It seems they are having their field day with me...

Kidding aside, thanks for that advice. I've always had that at the back of my head though in the heat of things, it seems I forgot about that. My students are really getting the hang of grappling (regardless if it is jiujitsu, judo, wrestling), although we make it a point to stick it to the basics.

I'll put your advice in effect