Denis Kelly MMA | Martial arts school

Denis Kelly MMA

Phone: +61 420 621 523

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20.01.2022 I’ve been training in mma since 1998. My first instructor was Fred Rado at Pancrase London. I’d already been training in other martial arts styles for 5 years before I began MMA training. MMA has changed a lot since then. It wasn’t even called Mixed Martial Arts back then. MMA events were usually billed as No holds Barred, Reality Fighting or No Rules Fights. The sport only attracted people who had already spent a lot of years training or competing in martial arts or combat... sports and wanted to test themselves in what was seen as the most realistic fighting rule set. This is what originally attracted me to the sport. I wanted to test my training and myself under the most realistic rules available against opponents of similar skill level and ability. I never cared about the show business or promotion side of it. To me it was always simply about testing martial arts. The sport and concept of MMA has changed a lot since those early days. Now it’s not unusual to see fighters who are more focused on the show business side of it than the actual training and fighting. There are fighters who have Facebook fan pages and sponsorship deals before they’ve even stepped foot inside a ring or cage. Obviously the sport has grown enormously since those early days and many things have improved but I still miss the days when the only people who knew about or took part in it were the serious life long martial artists and fighters. (Thanks to Lee Johnstone for the original pancrase photo)

15.01.2022 Final training session of 2020 done and dusted. Looking forward to 2021.

09.01.2022 Next Bushido Amateur MMA event Saturday 30th January

09.01.2022 What I Love about MMA Realism. Like most MMA fans in the early days, I wanted to see which techniques would work in a real fight against someone who wasn’t play...ing by the same rules as me. Which karate techniques or judo techniques will I be able to use if I’m in a fight against someone who doesn’t understand or respect the rules of karate or judo? There is a tendency in Martial Arts to believe exaggerated incredible tales. People who are otherwise critical thinkers are willing to suspend their disbelief when it comes to martial arts and believe the stories of mystical grand masters who could defeat hundreds of opponents at once using their mystical pressure point techniques. MMA has shown what will generally work and what won’t in a real fight. Of course, there have to be rules so it will never be 100% accurate but it's as close as we can legally & ethically get The growth of MMA has encouraged Martial Artists to become more realistic and honest in their training. Rather than believing that certain styles, techniques or strategies will work in a real fight when there is overwhelming evidence that they probably won’t work. The Evolution of martial arts, Since the early days of the modern era of MMA we have witnessed a constant evolution and improvement of Techniques, Tactics & Training methods. In the early days if you knew how to do a takedown and apply a rear naked choke you had a serious advantage over 99% of the other fighters you were likely to come up against. Since then the game has evolved in cycles every few years. Starting with the BJJ strategy of clinch to takedown to mount to back control to submission. This was followed by the wrestling era of takedown to ‘Ground & Pound’ popularised by Dan Severn, Mark Coleman, & Mark Kerr. Then came the ‘Sprawl and Brawl’ era of fighters like Chuck Liddell. The game has been continually evolving and building on what came before. The tactics and strategies that worked ten years ago won’t work now. There are also so many techniques that are commonplace nowadays that were previously written off. For example the use of high kicks. Prior to the modern MMA era, Jean Claude Van Damme was the biggest star of martial arts. Everyone was training to do the splits and land spinning heel kicks. After the first UFC many martial arts fans came to the conclusion that high kicks looked good in movies but were too risky for real fights and will leave you vulnerable to takedowns. One of the first things that changed people’s minds about this was Maurice Smith knocking out Brazilian Jiu Jitsu expert Conan Silvera. Followed soon after by Pete Williams knocking out UFC champion and elite wrestler Mark Coleman with a head kick. After that head kicks came back into fashion again as a legitimate weapon in real fighting. The purity of the sport. Fighting is the purest expression of a competition between two athletes. Unlike many other professional Sports, Fighting has been around for as long as human beings have existed. Physical Combat was always necessary in order to protect yourself , your family or your tribe from enemies. Over the centuries as societies became more civilized the need for physical fighting became less and less necessary. However it's clear that human beings still recognise the value of the ability to fight and defend yourself. This led to the development of martial arts & combat sports in every country and culture around the world. Mixed Martial Arts is the ultimate expression of this human need to fight & defend yourself and the ultimate test of the martial artists ability to apply his skills and techniques against an equally skilled and equally trained opponent. After all, what is the point in training for years if you can't apply the techniques under the pressure of a real fight? MMA sums up the idea of one person against another equally matched opponent. Sometimes fighters will try to gain an unfair advantage through the use of steroids or other methods but most fighters are doing for the right reason. To test themselves and their training and push themselves beyond their limits.

02.01.2022 Getting ready for your first MMA Fight (I first posted this article nine years ago but its just as relevant today) Why do you want to fight?... You need to get the reasons straight in your head first. Make sure your reasons will be strong enough motivators to make you train hard and prepare well. You are not just representing yourself but also your team and your coach. The best reasons to compete are to test your skills and training or maybe this is your first step on a fight career. If you just want to have a go at it so you can tell your friends that you’re a fighter, I would advise against it. It takes a lot of hard work and commitment to train for a fight, even if it’s just a low level amateur fight. When are you ready to fight? You are ready to fight when your coach tells you are ready. Your coach should have enough experience to know when his students are ready to compete (if he doesn’t then think about training elsewhere). Don’t ask your coach to get you a fight; it puts him in the awkward position of having to tell you that you aren’t good enough. Ask the other fighters at your gym how they started and what sort of volume of training they did before their first fight and then try to follow in their footsteps. What experience to have first? I’d recommend that most people train for about 6 months to 1 year before they have their first fight. This is the minimum time required to get comfortable with the fundamental skills (basic kicks, punches, takedowns & grappling) needed for MMA. Don’t try to fight without being good at the fundamentals of striking & Grappling. You wouldn’t take part in a triathlon if you could ride a bike and run but don’t know how to swim. It’s pointless, you need to be comfortable with all the skills first before you try to utilise them in a competitive environment. It’s a good idea to have competed in some grappling or BJJ competitions too. However, don’t spend too much time competing in other sports such as BJJ because the rules, point system and skill set is too different and you might struggle to adapt your style to MMA when you fight.