Your best bet for skill development is to go to a dojo of your choice, and stay with that until first BB. Then you can train in another complimentary method of training. You need a good foundation is some art form to understand what you are trying to accomplish here. Helter-skelter training is not the way to excellence in MA. Hard work is the only true formula for success, combined with the knowledge of where you wish to take your training. J

U should get a good stand up game B4 anything,U will never walk in2 a conflict & go straight 2 the ground unless it is a Bjj tournament.After U R comfortable,go 2 a competent Bjj school until U receive a blue belt.(No less than a year of solid training)After that U can begin your MMA training properly with the right fundamentals 2 get U going.U don’t want 2 waste your time & money learning sloppy technique from some generic MMA instructor then have 2 retrain yourself in the cage.

Most MMA Schools have specialists in each style… giving you the added advantage of a few styles in one school for one price.

Most MMA schools will have seperate instructors for the different focuses on their particular brand of MMA.

Many styles all that is truly needed is fundamentals and time spent sparring. But again most places have specialists in each style and spend some time putting it all together.

There are many fighters who trained fragmented.. i.e. trained stand up at one place, ground at another, etc…

However nearly all of them who did that, have moved to a place that works MMA where they get to put it all together in training instead of the ring.

All techniques have to be modified to fit in a MMA context. You can’t box like a boxer in MMA, you over commit yourself and your center is too high for sprawls.. you can’t roll like you would as a strict BJJ player when you aren’t used to defending punches from the guard..

So going to a MMA school is almost always better because not only do you work on each discipline seperately, you also tend to spend sometime putting them all together.

As far as “bad habits” you actually develop more bad habits from fragmented training… and you end up having to figure out what works in the cage, as every style has to be modified for it to work in a MMA fight. If you start off learning how things work for the cage and how to put together all styles and use transitions, then you are far better off.

Just my opinion.

honestly it all depends on your instructors if theyare good then yes you can get max potential from just training at 1 school, I only train at one school and I feel as though im getting max potential, also by going to different schools it may be harder to intertwine what your taught at one school with what your taught at another having intructors all at the same school helps because they can help develop a system together.

If the school you go to is good, then you can certainly do well. A local gym has BJJ black belts as well as former Muay Thai champs. That would be a good school. If your school is like that, then you’re good.

I have been training in mixed martial arts for 2 years now, and have been a fan since UFC 1 when they were only producing their shows on VHS. A few years ago there were no other options except to spend more money and train in separate gyms or dojos. However, with the growing popularity and participation in the sport, some gyms are actually becoming Mixed Martial Arts specific. Instead of teaching just BJJ or some form of stand-up or a mixture of both, now there are schools and trainers that teach a well blended version titled simply Mixed Martial Arts. The trick is to find the gyms and trainers with the proper knowledge and background. For instance, the sensei at our dojo has 30 years experience as not only a point fighter in karate, but also as a professional kickboxer, he’s an 8th degree black belt in Kenpo as well as a black belt in BJJ and has helped train professionals, including Chris Lytle. We also have a professional fighter that helps to train and teach us what does and does not work in an actual competition. Also, when first starting your training, I do recommend focusing more on stand-up, most amateur fights never make it to the ground and rarely go past the first round. So, develop your stand-up, BJJ, and take-down/take-down defense all at once if possible. In a full MMA gym, those skills can be combined in a more fluid blend of separate disciplines.