what's the difference between mma and vale tudo?

[Blue Wave Gym]

a guy my dad works with a guy who says he takes vale tudo, sambo, judo and ju-jitsu
mma was defined to me by my mma coaches as a combo off bjj, sub-wrestling,greco and free style w, leg locks from sambo,sub-grappeling,catch wrestling and strikes from mt all with no gi on.
I hear that vale tudo is basically just bjj without the gi, so are there no mt strikes or other grap moves in it in it?

[OmaPlata]

I trained (in a BJJ class I take) with a Vale Tudo guy who does both, since it was a open mat day, saturday, you can pretty much screw around and practice moves all the time, its not a regular class day, so anyway, the guy is telling me all about Vale Tudo and proceeds to take out his training gear out of his bag to show me the stuff they use...head gear, gloves, etc, he says its like BJJ with no GI and they practice punching, elboeing, kicking, etc while grappling. He says some guys go full force and punch the hell outta each other even without headgear. He showed, for example, that when I was in his guard, he would use his heels to contually kick into my kidneys, just as added technique to injure the opponent. He was blue belt in BJJ and I tapped him with the Ezekial choke, which he never heard of...wtf????

[ReactNeverCalml]

"Vale Tudo" is Portugese for "anything goes". Mixed Martial Arts is just that, Mixed Martial Arts. MMA=Vale Tudo=NHB=Whetever else anyone wants to call it. There is no actual MMA style or Vale Tudo style.

[covaliufan]

mma was defined to me by my mma coaches as a combo off bjj, sub-wrestling,greco and free style w, leg locks from sambo,sub-grappeling,catch wrestling and strikes from mt all with no gi on.

I would never dream of disagreeing with an mma coach as to what mma is...but there's a distinction people often don't make that really bothers me for some reason.

Blue Wave Gym's coaches are absolutely correct, as best as I know, as to the most common and effective techniques and styles used by people who compete in mma. So if you were to ask: "what is it that decent mma competitors tend to use or do" that description would be accurate and useful.

However, MMA IS NOT A COMBINATION OF THESE THINGS. If someone trains in Muay Thai on Tuesday, wrestling on Thursday, and sambo on Friday, he is not a mixed martial arts competitor.

That's because mma is not a style or combination of styles, but is in fact a particular sport. It's a ruleset for one on one fighting, that allows competitors to both strike with full force and grapple while standing, in the clinch, and on the ground.

So if someone were to only train in, say, Wing Chun, but competed in mixed martial arts events, he would be a mixed martial artist despite not training in a combination of anything. He would probably be a very, very bad one, and lose viciously, but that's irrelevant: if you compete in a sport, well, you're a competitor. At the very least I'd say one must take part in sparring and training sessions similar to such a contest; a person who practices free throws, dribbling, and passing is not a basketball player unless he takes part in at least some sort of actual basketball game, even if it's only a friendly driveway game as opposed to playing on an actual team. That's why the hypothetical person above who trains in common mma components but doesn't compete in the limited ruleset described is not a mixed martial artist.