Mixed Martial Arts is just that - a mixture of several martial arts. A multi-multi-million dollar industry, televised fights from leagues such as the UFC, IFL, and WEC have popularized the sport and spurred tremendous public response. As a result, MMA is the fastest growing sport in the US today.

MMA schools can vary greatly from one to the other. Typically, MMA schools teach styles that fit into three categories - stand up, clinch, and ground. Some of the stand up arts taught are boxing, kickboxing, Muay Thai, and Karate. Freestyle and Greco-Roman wrestling are taught in addition to Sambo and Judo for clinching. To help with ground fighting, schools may teach Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, shoot wrestling, and catch wrestling.

One thing to think about when considering a MMA school would include how much time is spent on the competitive side of the sport. MMA organizations and competitions have strict rules on illegal techniques. Many of the illegal techniques (including groin strikes and eye gouges) make for effective self-defense applications. If you want to learn martial arts for self-defense, that may be a deterrent. Along those same lines is the amount of emphasis placed on Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. All too often in real-world defensive applications, victims find themselves defending against multiple attackers instead of just one assailant. BJJ's strength lies in defense against one attacker.