Martial Arts

[KingKamor]

I took about three and a half years of Tae Kwon Do. I had to quit because my grades were going down, even though I had just entered the six-month training period before black belt. Since then, I've lost much of the flexibility that I had in my legs and simply use the self-defense tecniques that they taught me.

These days, I like to spar with a friend of mine who I trained with in the same studio. We use various weapons, but it's mainly just for fun, especially when he breaks out the padded nunchaku with the seven-foot-long rope between each end.

 

[Ushario]

I'm going to start Aikido sometime. It's hard finding a dojo for it that isn't full around here. Otherwise, I may just take up some other martial art, but the idea behind Aikido interests me.

I haven't really gotten into too many fights in my days, but the ones I have I "won." Mostly because they didn't expect me to fight back and when I did they quit. Otherwise, I'm sure I simply deterred the fights from happening with my appearance.

I practiced Aikido for about 1 year, a little more perhaps, and I recommend it highly. But now here's a little warning, the thing that made me stop: Get a mate. Aikido is a sport centered around defensive techniques with emphasis on DEFENSIVE. You won't learn to attack only defend so to learn anything you'll need a friend, you can NOT learn anything by yourself except the falls and rolls. Ofc you can train with another Aikidoka but if you don't "click" you'll soon realise that you're quite alone. And if the students aren't very nice or patiant with you and your learning progress, the will and love for Aikido will soon fade. If you don't have any friends, like I do, then Aikido can become a really lonely place for you. Get a friend to come with you and at least try. Training with a friend is haven and hopefully the situation for you Peace

I'll have to make a friend in the dojo, then. I don't have "friends" really, to my dismay, and certainly none that are going to want to learn this along with me.

Thanks for the advice, though. I'll keep it in mind.

I have heard criticisms of Aikido, though. As it's built on defense, people say that many of the meneuvers learned aren't realisticly applicable in a real fight. Comedians, even, have exaggerated it. However, I have heard a lot of good things about it too, and a fighting style where you're more likely going to humiliate your opponent than really hurt him is great for me.

Aikido is misrepresented very often. Its so effective that Australia's, and others, police force use it. Its strengths are disarming, disabling and defending. Due to this many people think it lacks the tools to finish fights when it does in fact have many ways of defeating an opponent.

It shares a lot with Judo in that you won't be punching but you will be grappling. One of the first principles of Aikido that I was taught was that you always try to use the simplest method to deal with a situation. A lot of the advanced techiniques are really for use against other advanced martial artists and so, as you said, are not very applicable in most situations.

 

[la-le-lu-li-lo]

There are people who do martial arts, then there are people who do things that look like really flash martial arts moves but aren't actually that good in a fight. See XMA and the like.
As an example, the trick way to spin a staff is how you'd expect: swapping hands and making it spin. The way we do is more practical, as you never actually take your hands off the staff. Think how easy it was to stop your mate spinning that staff in front of you when you were kids, that's because he only ever had one hand on it, and the spinning action is created by the weight off the staff and some initial momentum. Try and do that when a martial artist is doing it properly (with both hands on the staff, it's like a continuous series of strikes rather than a spin.) and you'll get your hand knocked away painfully.

That's not to say the people who do tricking don't know martial arts, however.

oohhh okay, i got it. basically the martial arts way and then the 'martial arts' way. like, performers and whatnot.

would still be fun to learn. the right way!

 

[Danny Ocean]

Aikido is misrepresented very often. Its so effective that Australia's, and others, police force use it. Its strengths are disarming, disabling and defending. Due to this many people think it lacks the tools to finish fights when it does in fact have many ways of defeating an opponent.

It shares a lot with Judo in that you won't be punching but you will be grappling. One of the first principles of Aikido that I was taught was that you always try to use the simplest method to deal with a situation. A lot of the advanced techiniques are really for use against other advanced martial artists and so, as you said, are not very applicable in most situations.

Is it in any way similar to Hapkido? I remember we had a seminar on that, and it sounds quite similar to what I read here.

 

[Julianking93]

Wing Chun and Kenpo for a year now. It's fun.

 

[GonzoGamer]

Personally, I love Martial Arts. When I was a kid I remember my dad, an avid Bruce Lee fan taught me how to punch and from there it continued. I've done Boxing, Southern Crane Kung Fu and Tai Chi. I hope to one day learn Baguazhang and maybe Savate'

NOTE: Martial Arts are not confined to Asian fighting styles. The word Martial of course come from Mars, the Roman God of War. Therefore a Martial Art alludes to a formalized fighting style: Western or Eastern.

Well noted, my uncles study medieval european martial arts: sword fighting, fencing, and even jousting.

I'm more partial to the eastern styles and I've studied a bunch from more passive styles like Iron Shirt QiGong to the eclectic (and my personal favorite) Jeet Kun Do (originated by Bruce Lee) to weapon centered styles like Sayoc Kali.

The good: I'm fit and wont be f***ed with.
The bad: I'm probably on some government list.

 

[ipop@you]

I frequently do jujitsu and i' going for my blck belt grading soon. Also through jujitsu i have done a few kobodu courses which have been good. Also i am lookig into doing some more martial arts when i get my jujitsu black belt probably some that are less heard of like Aikido.

 

[Vriggchan]

I wrestled in high school full time. Was fun even when I broke my hand. The ref asked me if i wanted to forfeit the match. Looked at him in the face and said "fuck no" still won but with my broken hand I couldn't pin the guy.

 

[Harlemura]

I saw a bloke do Tai Quan Do once. As for learning it myself, I'm too lazy to even decide which to try.
I wish I had the attention span to learn it, it seems like a really good thing to have in your brain.

 

[cleverlymadeup]

Oh the Bo is easy, you could probably teach yourself using videos on the internet, just make sure to recognise the difference between the different ways of doing it. There's the martial way, and there's the tricking way.

@_@ what's the tricking way!?

this depends on what you want to learn it for, ie show or somewhat practical defense. i say someone practical because it's more of a sport than anything because it's not really practical but i digress.

if you want to do it for show, well just twirl it around and do some really cool moves and "strikes" with it, it's not really that hard.

if you want it to be more practical, then you and at least one other friend each get a bo staff (a long piece of dowling should do fine), a hockey helmet, hockey gloves (tho cricket gloves can be substituted) and any other pads you want, such as a cup and shin guards. now both of you fight and see what stuff actually works really well against each other, try it with one of you armed and the other unarmed if you want.

the second method was actually done with escrima sticks by a group known as the Dog Brothers and works pretty good, cept it really is nothing more than a sport because really you don't walk around with a big or short pieces of wood

 

[RavingPenguin]

Kung Fu Master used to be our resident martial arts expert. He hasnt been on in a long time though. Scratch that, apparently he was on yesterday.

I myself used to participate in the art of the street brawl. That was a while ago now, I still do a bit of shadow boxing, but I dont belong to any school.

 

[la-le-lu-li-lo]

*snip*

i'm going to start carrying around a large stick with me, just to prove you wrong!!

and i don't need a cup... i don't have family jewels to protect.

but nonetheless! i want to learn how to do it the right way, not for show or anything. what good could that ever do you??

 

[Assassin Xaero]

did karate when i was young.

Same... think it was 4th grade... I would rather learn how to sword fight or something... Hopefully I can buy a sword on vacation...

 

[cleverlymadeup]

*snip*

i'm going to start carrying around a large stick with me, just to prove you wrong!!

and i don't need a cup... i don't have family jewels to protect.

but nonetheless! i want to learn how to do it the right way, not for show or anything. what good could that ever do you??

you've obviously never been punched or kicked there, it doesn't hurt AS much as getting kicked in the jewels but it's no walk in the park either, i've seen it happen and it's rather funny cause it starts off with "go head and kick me there, i don't need a cup" then they get kicked and end up on the ground crying cause it hurt. they do make female cups for a reason

as for carrying it around all the time, it's not practical but i think you understand what i mean. do look up the Dog Brothers tho, they are pretty cool, if not overly crazy, guys and no they aren't really brothers

 

[la-le-lu-li-lo]

did karate when i was young.

Same... think it was 4th grade... I would rather learn how to sword fight or something... Hopefully I can buy a sword on vacation...

i has a sword, thing is deathly sharp too.

just don't know how to effectively use it. :[

 

[la-le-lu-li-lo]

you've obviously never been punched or kicked there, it doesn't hurt AS much as getting kicked in the jewels but it's no walk in the park either, i've seen it happen and it's rather funny cause it starts off with "go head and kick me there, i don't need a cup" then they get kicked and end up on the ground crying cause it hurt. they do make female cups for a reason

as for carrying it around all the time, it's not practical but i think you understand what i mean. do look up the Dog Brothers tho, they are pretty cool, if not overly crazy, guys and no they aren't really brothers

i have been kicked there before, and i don't remember it being that bad. being punched in the boob is worse. i also don't cry. /:

i will look them up, when i'm not watching other things. and yes, i understand, i'm just kind of a smartass. and i think it would be much fun to carry a stick around!

 

[Outamyhead]

My teacher back in the UK trained me in Wing Chun primarily, also learned some JKD, Chinese Boxing, a little bit of Tai-Chi, and Escrima.

I quit when I was unemployed and couldn't afford the rapidly rising costs, he started off with a fiver or 10 pound per month, then it escalated from that to what I last heard was 40 per lesson (1 hour), and the same for whatever part (6 or 7 different parts, including weapon training) of the training you wanted to do say JKD, and Tai-Chi that would be 80 quid straight off the bat, plus 70 quid for the monthly membership.

I still practice what I learned when I left as a Blue belt (his belt system seemed a bit short, would go from white, red, blue, brown, and then black), my nephew is pretty keen on learning what I know, I would like to continue learning with someone local around Silicon Valley, maybe even look into Khali, looked effective in the Bourne movies, but then that's the movies.

Still got my Escrima sticks (one set bamboo, the other some proper hardwood like mahogany or something), also have two training chinese broad swords and one spring steel that they sent to me by accident (should have been a training sword), I ain't complaining though.

 

[Assassin Xaero]

just don't know how to effectively use it. :[

I have a feeling a zombie apocalypse could change that... >_>
And you aren't the only smartass around here...

 

[la-le-lu-li-lo]

I have a feeling a zombie apocalypse could change that... >_>
And you aren't the only smartass around here...

oh it probably would! ^^

i'm glad of that, i'd hate to be all alone!