Whether you want to learn mixed martial arts for the street or for competing, there are universal skills that cross over for each. It's hard to beat MMA training for becoming a better fighter in the cage or on the cement.
There are certain skills you need, to learn mixed martial arts properly. Just learning one aspect of the game is not good enough. Here are three main areas of MMA that you should focus on and train. These are highly effective for street fighting as well as cage fighting.
Skills needed to learn mixed martial arts and be effective on the street or as a competitor in the cage:
Most fights go to the ground.
Street fights usually end up on the ground quickly and whoever happens to be on top tends to win. Unless that is you know what to do on the ground. If you have your ground game down (wrestling techniques, ju-jitsu skills), you win fights period. You can go up against a big, bad brawler, but if you know how to take him down (which you can do in seconds) and be effective on the ground, then you completely dominate and destroy your opponent.
The same goes for the cage. Competitors who don't know how to roll around on the ground, end up losing big time. You can go up against boxers and kickboxers, but if you have your take down and ground game in check, you can easily dominate.
Submissions.
While on the ground, and even standing up, there are certain submission skills that are a must to learn. Both on the street and on the cage, submission techniques will disable your opponent no matter the size, and cause them to give up the fight. There are all kinds of submissions you can apply on legs, arms as well as various chokes.
Stand up.
You shouldn't neglect your stand up striking game by any means. Even if you want to take someone down, you should still employ a few strikes to set them up, soften them up and inflict some damage before the take down. Stand up techniques involve striking and kicking, as well as employing knees and elbows. You should definitely take advantage of knee and elbow strikes when you learn mixed martial arts. They are very effective and can do much more jarring and impacting damage that a traditional arm strike or leg kick.
