Sekkotsu (or Seikotsu)

Hanamaru Seikotsuin

Massage and manipulative therapy have their own demands in MMA which aren't often discussed. Professional athletes use these treatments to take care of their bodies, but which styles are popular among fighters? I'm not sure.

In Japan, however, one skill is famous: Sekkotsu (or Seikotsu).

There are several Sekkotsu doctors around the MMA world who have gained reputations as specialists in relieving lumbago.

How do they treat it? Basically, if you had a backache, the doctor wouldn't even touch the affected area, and would instead massage your leg or shoulder muscle to relax the lumbar pain.

How can they do such a thing? Because the balance of the rest of the body affects the waist. Before writing this article, I went to a Sekkotsu hospital for myself and I was convinced that it was worth writing about. I can say from my experience that it was worth a try for someone like myself who needs treatment on the waist. Of course, the skill level and results can vary from doctor to doctor, depending on your ailment. When it comes to medicine, I'm not a professional and I can't be held responsible for your result.

Hanamaru Seikotsu In (In = Clinic in Japan)
Run by Ken Yamamoto
Hiroto Dojo
Run by Soihci Hiroto, a former MMA referee. He has experience treating players on the Atlanta Braves
All Elbows
MMA photo and video website All Elbows has a video with Ken Yamamoto as staff for Muhammed "King Mo" Lawal


Fight Journal: King Mo Sengoku 7: Fight Night from All Elbows on Vimeo.


Big thanks to Chris Nelson (from Bloody Elbow) for English and editing.

Foreign fighter who fight for Japanese local MMA twitter list

MMA is international sports.Fighter or trainer or supporter around the globe across border make this fight game richer.I introduce foreign fighter (include former) who fight in Japanese local MMA to commemorate them.People not knowing local MMA's international relationship compare to major MMA.But that's most certain power for help MMA to broad globe.

I introduce fighter who fight at Japanese local MMA more than 5 times who also have twitter account.

Erik Paulson
First American Shooto title holder.Defend belt for 5 years long.His gym "CSW" have Shooto style element and many fighter come to know what he learn and experience at Japan.

CSW Training Center

Joachim Hansen
He had Shooto's best divisions title "welter weight" with victory over Takanori Gomi.Beat Shinya Aoki make him first Dream light weight champ.His next bout for Dream feather weight title against Bibiano Fernandes.His appearance appear MMA exist in north Europe.

Team Joachim Hansen (support team in Japan)'s blog

Frank Shamrock
He had Pancrase title,Participate Vale Tudo Japan,Participate UFC Japan.clearly have long history with Japan.Won UFC championship.Still fight for Strikeforce.

Official Frank Shamrock web

Shonie Carter
Have a fight with Shooto and Pancrase.UFC veteran.Learn Shidokan Karate,Judo and Jiujitsu.

Official Shonie Carter web

Ryan Bow
Move to Japan for fighting joining PUREBRED Omiya.Long time Shooto ranker.Challenge DEEP light weight title.Back to the states.Currently run gym at Kentwood, Michigan and Kamata, Tokyo

Kaminari Dojo (His gym)

Antonio Carvalho
Move to Japan for fighting.Join AACC (Abe Ani Combat Club) Challenge Shooto lightweight title.Fought in Cage Force too.His interest not only MMA fought grappling (DEEP X) or Kick Boxing (Shooto Boxing) too.

Jake Shields
Former Shooto Middile weight title holder.Rumble On The Rock Welter Weight tournament winner.Elite XC Welter Weight title holder.Current Strikeforce Middle weight champ.

Jake Shields Official Web

Roxanne Modafferi
Choice Japanese language for University studies.Not only doing MMA but also doing English teacher.Debut at Japanese promotion Smack Girl.Winner of K-GRACE tournament winner.



Roxanne Modafferi Official Web

Guy Mezger
Former Pancrase title holder. UFC light weight tournament winner.HDnet commentator.

Guy Mezger's combat sports club

Ricardo Almeida
Former Pancrase title holder.UFC fighter.

Enson Inoue
Beat Randy Couture make first time people's eye to Shooto.Basically one of source people bring Brazilian Jiujitsu skill to Japan.Making PUREBRED branches gym at Japan,Saipan,Guam and contribute produce local fighter.

Enson Inoue Official blog (English)
Enson Inoue Official blog (Japanese)
His gym Purebred Omiya

Nathan Marquardt
Former Pancrase title holder.(with youngest record).UFC title challenger.Make famous Pancrase's brand in UFC.

Nathan Marquardt Official Web

Bas Rutten
Former Pancrase title holder.Move to UFC and Take UFC title.Doing coach at IFL.Famous at PRIDE commentator.

Bas Rutten Official Web

SKILL MMA's twitter list "Foreign fighter who fight for Japanese local MMA"

This young sport will get old

I've already wrote about this sport's cross-cultural charm, audience viewpoints and the business outlook. If you're reading this site, you understand that MMA's own culture has been developed by different things: reality television, internet forums, pro-wrestling, and so on. When I talk about "sport", I don't deny all those things have their effect.

MMA often shows the same cultural values as pro-wrestling such as nationalism and the admiration of bigger physical powers, ignoring smaller men and women in favor of heavyweights. These ideas are simple, and easy to understand. It's easier to excite people with them.

However, pro-wrestling isn't a sport, and MMA is. In a real sport, aggressive, abrasive promoters, big-money mismatches show how young the sport is. Normally the "youth" of MMA is celebrated, but it also means the sport is fairly immature. After a certain time, MMA won't be "young" any more, but it still might be immature.

Still, this game is new. That is a fact. But even if MMA sells itself on athletic merit, but it can't be sold that way forever.

In the sport now, people talk continuously about matchmaking, and what fighters are underrated and overrated. It's all about fighting, so I would never say tell anyone not to talk about those thing, but there is a lack of diversity in discussion topics. For now, those topics will provide enthusiastic debate, but at some people, people will find its limitations.

Why did I make a venue list for MMA events? Because it's interesting. There is a difference in quality as a fan in the audience. A good seat at a good venue allows you to see a fighter's footwork, down to his knee and ankle movement or submission transitions. If you have a ringside seat, you can see how a corner advises their fighter, and how they change their attack after that. I never found reviews of venues, or audience experiences based on seat price.

Sometime's MMA fans attack other martial arts people, who are part of MMA's grassroots. MMA can still learn from traditional martial arts: cultivating manners and discipline is a big part of martial arts. That doesn't mean MMA needs to get conservative; chaos is one of the sport's charms. But, MMA isn't only growing because of American culture -- television, media, and money -- other nations' cultures impact MMA, too. For instance, the different martial arts skills from different countries add new skills to regional fighters. This makes fights themselves more diverse, and a joy to watch.

"This is fastest growing sport in the world."

We need to show maturity as this sports grows. We need to talk about all aspects of the sport to do that.

SKILL MMA's Japanese MMA Scene venue list

Big thanks to Jordan Breen for English and editing.

How to buy MMA ticket in Japan? (DEEP and Jewels)

How to buy MMA ticket in Japan? (DEEP and Jewels)
Note : I can't grantee this information's correctness.Ticket system or organization policy will change when they need.

How to buy MMA ticket in Japan? At first you need go Japanese MMA's organization web to find out ticket code.If you know those code,you can buy it at convenience store. I write about DEEP and Jewels at this article.I will write about other organization soon.I want respond if you use this article.I write this kind of thing and use diigo first time,so I don't know it works well.

At first you need install diigo to watch my web sticky note.

diigo

Did you install it? Then let's find out ticket code.

How to buy DEEP's ticket

DEEP official web

This is DEEP's official web.Click biggest jpg to watch event page.

event page

event page

You need watch sticky note and confirm card,date,venue,venue open time,event start time,ticket fee,when ticket start selling and most importantly p-code or l-code.

You need memo those code and bring them to convenience store.You need ask clerk how to buy ticket with code.You need show your p-code or l-code to clerk.

You need find out event's own p-code or l-code.every event have differ code.

How to buy Jewels's ticket

Jewels home page

This is Jewels's official web.You can find newest event details.I add sticky notes but it's just for next 19 March event.It will change when event is done but I do think they will appear next event with same style.

extra

Japanese MMA event venue list with Google maps
If event is near hold date.There is possibility to finish ticket selling at ticket service.Still you can go to event and buy ticket at venue.(You need pay extra fee 500yen though.)

Watch current Pancrase scene with my description

There is not many Japanese around MMA English forum for years.I can easily count those people and it never passed 10 peoples who continuously posting forum for years.I start posting at small forum,that make lot changes for my MMA audience life.

I have limited English knowledge.So I try to make a certain point when I start English conversation.Because I need people to admit my value of posting even when I'm not good at English.I bring relevance and logic from Japanese MMA culture and myself.I need severe view about fairness.I have bad memory about posting English forum with more worse language skill at non MMA forums before.

I'm start posting at English forum since 2006.I start it for my English studies.When I into MMA forums Japanese local MMA is about talking about Shooto.There is no surprise about it.Pride Bushido's main attraction is about who experienced Shooto's best division.

On the other hand other Japanese local promotion didn't catch many international fans.Pancrase is one of those orgs.DEEP and GCM always exist but DEEP isn't enough to build own talent at that era,GCM is about Wajyutsu Keisyukai's gym show,so there best talent often fight at outside.

English audience lose interest about Pancrase cause fighter struggle at Major.Yuki Kondo lose close dec at majors.Yoshiro Maeda get KOed by Bennet.I catch feeling Pancrase become local but certain product and I like it.

So I introduce that part of Pancrase with fighter's list.What foreign people evaluate local promotion is how they can produce major level talent.I like fundamental long time audience cheered Pancrase but sametime MMA organization need to be severe about match quality.I evaluate Pancrase's match making because they bring foreign talent when they struggle and secure quality.

I try to defend Yoshiro Maeda with word "randomness" that's best single word description for fighters I ever made.I'm amazed how my old fighter's list description is describe that era of Pancrase.Those are minimum description but it tell how this organization will go.

Simply I want Japanese local organization secure quality and keeps foreign media's enough attention.That's my hope.

Current Pancrase's most interesting division is flyweight.I hope this division get more attention with Shooto's crossover.

I recommend Tony Loiseleur and Jordan Breen's live Japanese MMA Play by Play series at Sherdog (it include Pancrase) for your hardcore joy.

Sherdog's article search by word "chat"

Latest Pancrase's event chat by Sherdog

2010/15/2 version Pancrase fighter's list

Light Heavy Weight

Champ Ryo Kawamura
Wasting time with being Light Heavy Weight.Sengoku Veteran.Have beat Daniel Acacio
Syunsuke Inoue Yoshida Dojo's Megaton fighter.

Middle Weight

Champ Ichiro Kanai
Like Boxing.People happy him being a champ but I want champ can fight at major with quality.
Yuki Kondo
Had a legend status at this local organization.Best perform is going distance with Hendo?



Izuru Takeuchi
I burst out laughed against Breen when he almost beat Dorksen.
Shiroobi : buwahahaha
Breen : Shiroobi, MMA conspiring against me is not funny.
Takenori Sato
Sakurabas top student never had teachers finish skill.
Yuji Hisamatsu
Somehow improved lately?The PINK TYPHOON.
Keiichiro Yamamiya
Long time veteran beat some major fighter at there local era.

Welter Weight

Champ Takuya Wada
Had beat Shooto ex-champ Shiko Yamashita recently,but there is no credibility for that division.
Kengo Ura
Debut at stateside.
Shingo Suzuki
Not much to say
Tomoyoshi Iwamiya
watch one above
Masahiro Toryu
watch two above

Light Weight

Champ Maximo "Maxi" Blanco
One of prospect get international attention.World class wrestle back ground with athletic sensation.Still rough specially on ground.
Koji Oishi
Drop division make decent ranker.
Katsuya Inoue
Satoru KItaoka's Kryptonite.
Satoru Kitaoka
Somehow managed major belt.Limited but have fatal finish submission.
Isao Kobayashi
One of those Sakaguchi Dojo's hard brawler.I prefer watch Kotetsu Boku vs Yukio Sakaguchi for that kind of fighter.
Daisuke "13" Hanazawa
Gate Keeper

Feather Weight

Champ Marlon Sandro
Hard hitter with quality submission.I doubt he will fight for local again.
Tomonari Kanomata
Have a decent fight history but pass the peak.
Kenji Arai
See one above.

Bantam Weight

Champ Manabu Inoue
I don't think he is bad fighter but don't think he will get a win at major.



Seiya Kawahara
He still have a lot expectations from organization.Explosive striker with still need improve ground skill.
Tashiro Akai
His gym is Nova Uniao Japan,but can't finish Kawahara.Decent ranker.

Flyweight

Champ Kiyotaka Shimizu
Recently fight former Shooto Champ Mamoru Yamaguchi and surprisingly fought well.



Isao Hirose
Top stundet of Naoyuki Taira who is inspiration of character of "Baki".
Mistuhisa Sunabe
Drop two weight class make him champ,but technically still room to improve.



Takuma Ishii
Grappler like take opponent's back.Tsuyoshi Kohsaka's pupil.
Takuya Eizumi
Have a KO power but struggle with division get quality with development.

2007/21/8 version Pancrase fighter's list

I heard Pancrase get broadcast in Canada.I know people get more interest with other scene.Pancrase is not Major,but not many but they produce major level talent.You can enjoy to watch this little planet with gain some info.

Heavy Weight

Champ
Assuerio Silva
UFC drop out

Arbocius Tiger
Latvian Karate champ
Mizuno Tatsuya
Japanese Gate Keeper

Light Heavy Weight

Champ
Yuki Kondo
Most pitiful fighter next to Sakuraba now.He have history though.

Fabio Silva
Beat Kawamura,his natural weight is LHW.
Ryo Kawamura
Get attention with beating Chute Box's Daniel Acacio.He can make MW.

Middle Weight

Champ
Yuichi Nakanishi
Goin fight in Bodog. Champs Biggest win "Izuru Takeuchi".

Izuru Takeuchi
Benchmark guy.He had some dance girl cheer him.
Brayane Rafiq
Riki Fukuda
I dunno he is ready for major.Soon we will find.


Gadzhiev Alavutdin
I think he or Fukuda is best fighter in this div.
Ichiro Kanai
Getting long way but seem decent fighter now.
Kozo Urita
Benchmark guy.Some good hands.Seem already pass peak.
Hikaru Sato Your cosplay guy.

Welter Weight

Champ
Daizo Ishige
Current champ get beat by Dan Hardy.So he need rest now.

Katsuya Inoue
Current interim champ.
Satoru Kitaoka
Best profile fighter in div without clown.notable win is Condit and Pellegrino.
Koji Oishi
Gate Keeper.

Light Weight

Artur Oumakhanov



Get beat by Dida.His strike skill need improve at defense and offense.
Takafumi Ito
Gate keeper.
Eriya Matsuda
KOing Kenji Arai.New comer.
Sa Jin Kwok

Jose Aldo
Explosive striker.

Yuji Hoshino
Decent WK guys.
Shoji
Have a fastest KO record in Japan.Always enjoyable.
Kenji Arai
That's speedo dude.

Feather Weight

champ
Yoshiro Maeda
King of randomness.Sametime win or lose,he can make fun.notable win is Paixao and Batten.

DJ.taiki
He have One of finest record if count him as BW.Notable win is Osawa and Imaizumi.
Miki Shida
One of FW top 3.notable win is Damacio Page.
Manabu Inoue
Benchmark guy.
Mitsuhisa Sunabe
Naoji Fujimoto

Daichi Fujiwara
Fun to watch.Good hands.Submission seem not bad also.Against Emmanuel Fernandez is real test for him.
Kentaro Imaizumi
Shooto drop out.
Danny Batten
I think he can put good fight against Taiki or Shida.
Jameel Massouh
Breen's best Reggie Cleveland All Stars fighter.
Jung Jin Suk
Koing AJ kick fighter.May he can show something.

TV to Web MMA's audience culture

When talking about MMA, some people want to show they're more knowledgeable as a fan. Does that have any value?

Sharing the knowledge you have is what's important. MMA discussion as a competition is meaningless. Acting elitist and ignoring forums for a place of discussion is wrong, because there are people who want to share and learn.


Sayama vs Costello

When did MMA start? There's many different ideas, but I would say 1984. Satoru Sayama, a former Japanese pro-wrestler. opened the first pro Shooto gym. Seven years earlier, he took on kickboxer Mark Costello in a stand-up fight, where he couldn't use submissions. Sayama always had a vision of "real fighting".

Some people blame MMA as not being sporting, or coming from the imagination of pro-wrestlers. That is a ridiculous idea: do you ever think about who invented your favorite ball sport, and if they were "unsporting"? Sports are sports based on skill and quality of competition, no matter their origin.

Shooto impacted a lot of organizations, taking a step toward making MMA a sport. They developed world and regional sanctioning bodies, the first modern MMA gloves that allowed fighters to both strike and grapple. They even used an octagonal ring, a precursor to the UFC's Octagon.

Gachinko (Gachinko meaning in English "No Work" Program start at 1999.)

There was a boxing reality show in Japan called "Gachinko" that predates "The Ultimate Fighter" in the United States.

The show brought thugs and toughs from the streets, and former world boxing champions trained them. Many of the contestants acted over-the-top intense and insane, a common point between it and TUF.

I had no idea this format would be MMA's breakout program. I wouldn't be surprised if some American TV producers saw Gachinko before making "The Ultimate Fighter", since producers often watch foreign programs and bring the format to their own country to profit.

Dana White doesn't act like other sports owner, assuming a kind of boss attitude on "The Ultimate Fighter". That's not surprising, by any means, because it fits the audience. Many people believe that the UFC wanted to convert the pro-wrestling audience to the MMA audience.

A lot of people were interested in Shinya Aoki giving Mizuto Hirota the middle finger after breaking his arm. Japanese network TBS broadcast that incident on New Year's Eve. On New Year's Eve in Japan, every family gets together at home and eats soba, so it is the biggest time for all of Japanese TV.

Does TBS not care about what people watch? I don't think so. I think they intentionally broadcasted it. The internet has changed people's personalities, where now even moderate or unclever people are outspoken and aggressive. There is now a greater interest in that sort of personality that Aoki showed on New Year's Eve.

Aoki's personality itself is not an ordinary character for MMA. He has said himself he's wouldn't make a good "street fighter", but thinks of himself as a nerdy strategist. He's an eloquent speaker, and has massive knowledge of MMA, including the American MMA scene, which is rare for Japanese fighters. His attitude symbolizes the current era, and that's why he's leading the Japanese MMA industry. There may be other elite Japanese fighters, but none get attention like Aoki.

I've always said I support MMA as a sport, but at the same time, some idealists ignore the fact MMA needs to make money. MMA is both a fighter's living and the audience's entertainment. Sport for sport's sake is just a fantasy. Of course, there is often no relationship between being popular and being talented in MMA, so we need to consider both sport and entertainment.

Other sports audiences want stats, analysis and mechanical subdivisions. With MMA, intense characters and promoters' quotes make people talk. Do baseball fans care that much about what Bud Selig says?

Because of that, MMA fans who want analysis need to discuss the sport with each other. The sport's media is not good enough to tell about all MMA's charms. The sport's history is short enough for fans to access and create a culture of analysis and influence. It is us, as a vocal audience, that influence the shape of the sport. So, dive in.

Big thanks to Jordan Breen for English and editing.

How to buy MMA ticket in Japan? (Shooto and Pancrase)

Note : I can't grantee this information's correctness.Ticket system or organization policy will change when they need.

How to buy MMA ticket in Japan? At first you need go Japanese MMA's organization web to find out ticket code.If you know those code,you can buy it at convenience store. I write about Shooto and Pancrase at this article.I will write about other organization soon.I want respond if you use this article.I write this kind of thing and use diigo first time,so I don't know it works well.

At first you need install diigo to watch my web sticky note.

diigo

Did you install it? Then let's find out ticket code.

How to buy Shooto's ticket

x-shooto

This is shooto's official web.Click to watch event schedule.

schedule

I think you come to this style schedule page.

Open sticky note and find out how those When, where what name of event to go.If you decide what you event to go,you need open event page's link.

But at now,I need explain you to how to watch event page so open below link to event page.

event page

You need watch sticky note and confirm card,date,venue,venue open time,event start time,ticket fee,when ticket start selling and most importantly p-code or l-code.

You need memo those code and bring them to convenience store.You need ask clerk how to buy ticket with code.You need show your p-code or l-code to clerk.

You need find out event's own p-code or l-code.every event have differ code.

How to buy Pancrase's ticket

Pancrase home page

This is Pancrase's official web.Click event link to watch event page.

event page

I think you come to this style event page.

You need watch sticky note and confirm card,date,venue,venue open time,event start time,ticket fee,when ticket start selling and most importantly p-code or l-code.

You need memo those code and bring them to convenience store.You need ask clerk how to buy ticket with code.You need show your p-code or l-code to clerk.

You need find out event's own p-code or l-code.every event have differ code.

extra

Japanese MMA event venue list with Google maps
If event is near hold date.There is possibility to finish ticket selling at ticket service.Still you can go to event and buy ticket at venue.(You need pay extra fee 500yen though.)