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Folding Elbows, Missing Techniques, And Using The Rules
Less rules are better for creativity and entertainment
William
August 8th, 2023
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Mixed martial arts is more spectacle than sport and that’s largely due to the degree of freedom it offers. Degrees of freedom are defined as there being multiple ways for people to do a movement and achieve a specific goal. More degrees of freedom = more ability for an individual to choose their path.
MMA is about impacting and controlling your opponents until they stop, or the referee and rules make you. There are minimal constraints on what techniques you can use to score and win leaving your strategy limited only by your imagination.
Look at sprinting for an easy contrast. I‘m willing to bet there hasn’t been much strategic development since the first Olympic games. You had to be fast then and you have to be fast now. It doesn’t matter how clever you are, you need to run in your lane and get from point A to point B as fast possible. More rules, less degrees of freedom, and ultimately a display of athleticism more than artistry.
MMA fighters often import the techniques of other martial arts and combat sports. For instance, we recently saw a one arm buggy choke attempted at UFC 291. That’s certainly a creative solution for the problem of being on bottom in an MMA fight, but that probably won’t make it into many fighters’ game plans. What I find most interesting are fighters that take advantage of MMA’s lack of rules, the cage, and limited equipment to create completely unique and novel techniques.
Remember What Sport You’re Doing
I started doing MMA with George Tsutsui and Gil Castillo in the Bay Area. Castillo had just ended his career as a professional MMA fighter when I met him. Before that he fought for two UFC titles and trained, coached, and briefly managed the Diaz brothers. He also produced one of the coolest submissions in MMA history. What I appreciated most about Gil was how pragmatic and ahead of his time he was.
Castillo was a wrestler first and a jiu-jitsu practitioner second. Jigoro Kano, the founder of judo and great-grandfather of Brazilian jiu-jitsu, wrote out an important principle for judo: maximum efficiency with minimal effort and mutual benefit. Castillo's game was all about maximum efficiency with minimal effort for disproportionate punishment. | Gil Castillo vs Raymond Mansfield  |
Castillo employed some of the most unique ground-and-pound techniques I have ever seen. He was a mid-forties, average-sized, athletic guy who routinely made collegiate wrestlers trying to go pro in MMA quit on the mats. At the time, it was both alarming and eye-opening. Today I'm surprised to see that people rarely hurt their opponents in the positions that he did.
Castillo and the other coaches would routinely droll on and on about hitting in MMA. Every new wrestler and Brazilian jiu-jitsu practitioner that came in got the same speech:
“People come in here and they want to fight. Then they go fight and forget they’re doing MMA. Don’t get stuck grappling on the floor. You need to hit people.”
How many times have you seen a Brazilian jiu-jitsu player pressure and pass instead of hitting and hurting on top in MMA? It’s a silly and stubborn way to refuse to use the rules and give away a fight. Castillo would routinely use one strike on the floor that I have yet to see popularized in the modern MMA ground game that fully takes advantage of MMA’s lack of rules.
Folding Elbows With Grips
Folding elbows are named for their movement. The elbow folds down and across your opponent's face to cut and hurt them.
Smith throws a punch and Rodtang avoids it. Rodtang throws a right elbow. Rodtang keeps his right arm on top of Smith’s left to prevent Smith from hitting him. This gives Rodtang an open lane to throw two additional elbows. | Rodtang vs Jacob Smith  |
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