How do I get started in MMA?
 

How can you tell which schools are good? Thanks for any info.

Riley

check the students...what i mean by that is see how long they have been coming there...you dont want to be constantly training with new guys after youve been doing it for awhile.

I guess I'll have to start calling/visiting schools in my area to be able to ask the students, if that's what you call them, how long they've been going to that particular school. I'm guess I would also have to visit an advanced class to ask questions of the students who would be at that level to where they could have been going to that particular school for a long time. It would probably be good to visit a beginner class since that's what I am. I would be able to see how the teacher works with a beginner class. I'm a newbie so I'm not even sure of the terminology... class, teacher, student etc.

Are there belts in MMA? I assume they divide the classes by age and experience/belt?

If you find a school that has belts in MMA, walk right out of the door.

Look for schools that has actual fighters and others that compete. That way you know that they at least try to better themselves and put it out on the line. I also think that a MMA school should have BJJ and not just submission wrestling, doing Gi make for a better no-gi grappler.

One question, what schools were you thinking of looking into?

I don't know what's around me. I've seen Tae Kwan Do schools, Karate schools, Kung Fu and Jiu Jitsu schools around where I live but I've never seen any 'MMA' schools. I would have to search online or in the yellow pages. I would think a store that sells martial arts equipment would know of schools. I've seen a few of them in my area.

By the way, what is Gi, do you mean Gi as in the uniform? While watching a fight on TV I thought I heard an announcer say that it's better to learn/train without the Gi because you don't have the Gi to work with in the ring.

I'm just a beginner so would I learn Jiu Jitsu at an MMA school or should I start learning Jiu Jitsu even before I think about getting involved in MMA?

Its really going to come down to what you have available in your area Riley. I'd suggest trying to find an MMA gym, as aposed to TMA (traditional Martial Arts) School.

If thats not an option, you may want to find the best your area has to offer in a ju-jitsu school, and cross train in boxing, or perhaps look for a good kickboxing, Karate school, or Muy Thai.

for MMA you really want to have a well rounded set of fighting skills, so no one art is going to cut it, thats why MMA gyms have the advantage. Plus you dont end up paying 4 or 5 instructors to learn different skill sets like that.

yes gi means uniform. Don't beleive everything you here on TV from an announcer, unless it is Mir, that guy knows his mma.

You have to look at it as trying to figure out a puzzle/ or problem. How could one convert a Gi move to a no gi move and vice versa. Not only that each one has it's benifits when it comes to working out and training.
Some schools will not say MMA on it. so you would have to do some deeper looking. I have to look, but I have some mma search site I'll post, they are on my other computer at work.

Thanks everyone for the help.

Do any of you train at an MMA gym? How many days a week do you guys train at MMA, not including lifting or jogging?

I do and I train from 2 to 4 times a week, usually 1-3.5 hours a day.

mma searches.
 

Here are some mma/ traditional martial art's search engines you can use to find schools in your area.

enjoy.

http://www.fightresource.com/index.php?cid=5

http://www.gymdb.com/

http://www.subfighter.com/academy.php

http://ultimatemmadirectory.com/Category/mma_schools/

http://www.onthemat.com/school_database.php

http://www.grapplearts.com/search.php

Thanks!

So far I can't find anything. Do you know of any good Brazilian Jiu Jitsu DVDs I could learn from until I can actually find a school in my area?

Also, are there specific weight lifting exercises that are good to do for Brazilian Jiu Jitsu?

as for DVDs.... Youtube.. has everything you need. As for exercises, anything that involves hips and grip. Cleans are my favorite. Also, you must be flexible if you are going to be any good at BJJ. It will help in your submissions and escapes.

Move to Las Vegas. It would seem that almost every one of the top MMA fighters past and present is now the owner of or associated with a school here.

Aside from that, I think there has been some great info so far on finding a school.

Aside from moving to Las Vegas, I thought to get started on my own I could buy Jiu Jitsu training DVDs and a training dummy. Has anyone had any experience using a training dummy? So far I've found the following training dummies.

http://www.championmats.com/id55.htm

http://www.mmawarehouse.com/Combat-S...p/csi-1125.htm

http://www.grapplingdummy.net/

http://www.bubbadummy.com/hints.htm

I'm sure that the dummies are of great benifit. I have personally never used one. Aside from that I would visit as many schools as you can in your area. Talk to the people who go there regularly and do a lot of watching. Good luck..

the last 3 are a lot of money. I wouldn't waste it on that. What area are you looking at for schools. It says you live in NY but where. You don't have to give me an address just a general location.

I live on Long Island.

OK.. Long Island is big but there are TONS of schools in that area. You might be able to go to Matt Serra's school.
http://www.serrajitsu.com/index.php?...d=34&Itemid=27

Did you really search? There is tons of listings in the phone book.
I just picked the first link I gave with all the MMA search engines and saw tons of schools..

http://www.fightresource.com/viewsch...&go=1&state=NY

You just have to go and check them out. Do some leg work. I went to a couple schools and it was nothing. I narrowed it down to one right next to my work and one that was a couple miles away and if I didn't do my homework I would have ended up with the closes one but I went with the further one because I saw that they ran a very well put together gym. You just have to get out there. Don't worry if you don't come back to the gym, it may not be the one for you. Also, you might be able to get a boat load of free classes. Some schools do promotions to get people to join. If you go to a couple schools that are doing that you might have almost 2 months free, depending on the promo. I know one that had a 30 days free with no strings attached.

Do you know anything about Matt Serra's school or any others on LI? Thanks.

Well it's Matt Serra, so you know he does MMA and is a black belt and was world champ. I don't know anything else about Long Island. You're just going to have to take some time and look up and go to some schools.

this might be late but there's ray longo's school in garden city, ive actually been looking into going there myself, supposed to be good.