For the good of the forum, it's probably best to get this debate started early.
Now I'd like to make my stance clear, not just on TMA vs MMA, but on all MA.
I'm not pro one camp or another.
My interest in TMA, is in only the top 2% of it.
The rest is largely pointless garbage.
I say largely, because you need a context.
The context, being the motivations of the individual practitioner.
These are, more often than not; fun, socialising, fitness and defensive capability.
TMA has come to be seen as 'stagnant' and 'non-progressive'.
I don't hold with that view, because I know TMA people who constantly chip away and refine what they do.
I just ignore the rest of it.
MMA is largely dismissed by TMA people, or rather, 98% of TMA people.
MMA Sport
I personally do not like UFC etc.
I personally, would rather test in that manner privately, behind closed doors.
I don't like the whole 'baying for blood' WWE style events, however.......
I can and do appreciate the skills involved in the sporting context that is
MMA sport, in the same way, that when
I watch a Boxing match, I observe and analyse in exactly the same way I would if I were fighting myself.
That's a healthy form of interest.
MMA
MMA is not just a sport.
MMA can/should be an approach to a training methodology that covers training in different ranges and the transition from one range to the other.
Taking Tae Kwon Do as an example, this is primarily a kicking art, with no clinchwork, elbows or knees.
Muay Thai
does include these things.
Muay Thai does not however, cover grappling beyond some basic takedowns. It's takedowns finish, when one person hits the canvas.
So you get the common additions of things like Judo and BJJ, to compliment the 'standup' game.
A true MMA approach, to me, would cover everything from projectile weapons, through every intermediary range right down to rolling around on the floor and back out again.
MA
In general, people seem to lose sight of the influence, that each individual can have on their own practice.
This mentality, that simply having faith in what you are taught, will some day mean that you arise from a cocoon, magically transformed into some kind of 'Uber Warrior' is nonsense.
It's down to the individual to have the drive and determination, not just to train and practice what they are taught, but to seek out new questions and new challenges.
If they don't do that, they are treading water at best.
Some individuals learn very quickly and have greater degrees of inate ability, hence you see people with high levels of skill in short spaces of time.
I recently worked out what my
'actual' training time was over the years.
To say; "You must train for decades to get down basics etc" you need to think about what that training actually consists of.
If it was bowing to pictures of dead Karateka, followed by hours of Kata, then there are understandably those who would say that a lot of the time invested was completely wasted.
It's down to knowing what your objectives are and setting out to acheive them in an efficient manner.
For the record, you're just as likely to see me taking a stance on someone bashing TMA as MMA.
I enjoy the debate, when there is a balance of opinion.
Not just people putting their fingers in their ears, going
"Nya, Nya, Nya I'm not listening!" 
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